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By Phil Hornshaw
Valve announced today that Steam users can stream games from one computer to another over their home Wi-Fi networks.
The news came out of a Steam forum post that noted the in-home streaming service, previously in beta starting in November 2013, is now available to everyone.
In it, Valve explains that users can sign into their Steam accounts with a Windows PC — ideally their primary, most powerful machine — and then stream games over their networks to other Steam-enabled devices, including Mac computers and systems running Linux.
According to Steam’s web page explaining the service, the streaming capability means you’ll be able to play your games on many lower-end machines you might have at home as well.
So long as your primary rig is good and your home network is reasonably fast, the page claims, you might not even realize you’re streaming at all (although I’m a bit skeptical about that claim).
The page also suggests the process for getting set up is pretty simple: Sign in to Steam on your primary computer and the on the one you want to stream to, open up your library on the second computer, and pick a game installed on your main computer. That’s it. The streaming service should also make it potentially pretty easy to play PC games on your TV, provided you have a computer that you can hook up to the TV to use as a monitor.
Valve says in-home streaming support for SteamOS, Mac OS X and Linux are coming soon, so you’ll still need a Windows PC to act as the main computer for streaming.
You can find more troubleshooting info on the Steam streaming support page.
Valve announced today that Steam users can stream games from one computer to another over their home Wi-Fi networks.
The news came out of a Steam forum post that noted the in-home streaming service, previously in beta starting in November 2013, is now available to everyone.
In it, Valve explains that users can sign into their Steam accounts with a Windows PC — ideally their primary, most powerful machine — and then stream games over their networks to other Steam-enabled devices, including Mac computers and systems running Linux.
According to Steam’s web page explaining the service, the streaming capability means you’ll be able to play your games on many lower-end machines you might have at home as well.
So long as your primary rig is good and your home network is reasonably fast, the page claims, you might not even realize you’re streaming at all (although I’m a bit skeptical about that claim).
The page also suggests the process for getting set up is pretty simple: Sign in to Steam on your primary computer and the on the one you want to stream to, open up your library on the second computer, and pick a game installed on your main computer. That’s it. The streaming service should also make it potentially pretty easy to play PC games on your TV, provided you have a computer that you can hook up to the TV to use as a monitor.
Valve says in-home streaming support for SteamOS, Mac OS X and Linux are coming soon, so you’ll still need a Windows PC to act as the main computer for streaming.
You can find more troubleshooting info on the Steam streaming support page.