How to set up remote 3D gaming?

[Benfica]

I'll not be home in September, yet I'd like to use the remote machine for what it is capable of, from my laptop. I'll be using a 4 mbit connection.

I tested the most well known software for remote desktop like VNC and Windows RDP, but neither offer a decent combination of speed and image quality. I didn't even bother to load a 3d game yet

I'm almost sure that I'll get better performance if I just install the 3D games on the laptop, but I'd like to try this one just because it's cool.

 

[ambershee]

Your issue is that 4Mbit is simpy not enough bandwidth to do what you want. To do 3d at a meagre 640x480, you need a minimum of 1Gbit.

 

[DarkED]

Your issue is that 4Mbit is simpy not enough bandwidth to do what you want. To do 3d at a meagre 640x480, you need a minimum of 1Gbit.

What he said. You need to be on a LAN to even do real-time remote X sessions using something like NX, which is far more advanced (and much faster) than Windows RDP. Unfortunately, NX technology is only available for OSes that can run an X server natively (OS X and Linux) and it's not even suitable for games. VNC is ancient and has a hard time even doing remote over a LAN, so forget about that entirely.

The only other reasonable option is using a slingbox-like service to stream your games using compressed video. Kind of like how OnLive does it. The only app I know of that can do it is this one:

http://www.streammygame.com/smg/index.php

I haven't tested it and from what I've read it's not all that great.

If you have lots of money to throw at the project, you could always buy a stream box like this one and run a stream server using something like Flash Media Live Encoder to compress and output the stream on-the-fly. FMLE needs a LOT of horsepower to keep up at 1080p and at a decent bitrate, so you'll likely need a separate rig (with at least a decent dual core) to use as your streambox. You'll also need a lot more upstream bandwidth, at least 7MBit for decent-quality 1080p. As for how you access the stream, I have no idea ... you'd probably need to use (or write) some web-based app to do that. There is also software to relay key and mouse commands but I haven't tested any of those.

 

[Benfica]

Very nice tips, thanks.

Actually I came across the original source code of Streammygame and I'll look into it.

Or perhaps I'll go the lazy route and buy an Onlive subscription for the month

 

[Gir]

Ah, that takes me back. Using a terminal service to stream UT99 from one NT machine to the other. Pete knows why we did that. The feedback wasn't bad, but the colours were all 8-bit.

Yeah, outside of a LAN you're pretty much done for. I wonder what's possible on Linux these days..