Home electronic tinkerers and do-it-yourselfers have cause to rejoice as Valve has announced that their popular Steam Link software will be free to download for the Raspberry Pi 3B and 3B+ running Raspbian Stretch.
Just like the little Steam Link console, you could snag for $5 during almost any Steam sale the app, which released as a beta last week, will allow gamers to stream their Steam games from their computer to other tvs or monitors using their Raspberry devices. This should allow for all sort of discrete setups for playing PC games with high fidelity graphics from the comfort of your couch.
The Raspberry Pi app is available side by side with the Steam Link Android app, which allows you to play your PC games from your phone with a paired controller. You can find more information on the Steam Link About page.
- What technology is the Steam Link app using to stream games to phones? It’s using the same Steam In-Home Streaming technology used in the Steam Link hardware. Under the hood we’re doing real-time encoding of H.264 video and sending it over a custom low-latency network protocol, then displaying it on the client.
- Which devices can use it? On Android, we are releasing in beta so we can do more exhaustive testing. At the start of the beta, we are supporting Android 5.0 or newer.
- Can I adjust my settings for better performance quality? Yes. There is an advanced settings menu option that allows you to tune streaming resolution and bitrate for the best experience on your setup. Over a 5 GHz network, our target is 1080p at 60 FPS with good quality for most scenes. If you have a powerful gaming rig, wired network, and a very good client device, it’s possible to stream at 4K 60 FPS.
- What about aspect ratio differences and screen sizes? Black bars on the edges are automatically added to deal with aspect ratio differences, and the video is scaled to handle different screen sizes. On mobile devices you can use two-finger pinch and pan gestures to zoom in as needed.
- How much does it cost? The Steam Link app is available free of charge. No additional charges or service fees apply.
- Is my existing Steam Link hardware still useful? The dedicated Steam Link hardware units support a wide variety of input devices and are specifically designed for low latency streaming to your TV. We are continuing to support the product and believe it is a valuable part of the Steam Link ecosystem.