Dolphin and streaming via Steam

Dolphin and streaming via Steam - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: Dolphin and streaming via Steam (/Thread-dolphin-and-streaming-via-steam)

Dolphin and streaming via Steam - ForkWNY - 08-24-2020

How many of you are using the Steam streaming client to use Remote Play to stream to another PC (such as a laptop)? What are your experiences?

My thought was to use my beefy AMD 3700x PC to run Dolphin through Steam Remote Play (various GameCube titles) so that I can stream these games to my laptop or wherever is convenient. I've been experiencing issues with the streaming client exiting unexpectedly (2) (quite frequently), doesn't happen with other games just mainly Dolphin. When this happens I simply hit the "Stream" button which reconnects and the game runs fine for awhile before exiting unexpectedly again. Annoying to say the least. There's no crash at all on the Host, just the Client. The game literally continues to run on the Host when the Steam stream client bails and chokes for whatever reason.

I'm seeing this behavior primarily while running Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Using a Vulkan backend with some enhancements enabled (1080p, SSAA...included screenshots of my config).

[Image: backend.jpg]

Unfortunately nothing particularly useful shows up in the steam_client.exe.log to point out as to why this unexpected streaming crash is occurring. The AMD 3700x PC running Dolphin barely breaks a sweat with the settings/config above, GPU maybe 5-10% utilization with the CPU practically idle. Just wondering if anyone else encountered this particular issue on the Client-side (not the host where Dolphin is running - no crashing there), and if there's a workaround or fix based on configuration. Otherwise I understand this may just be a Steam streaming client issue.

RE: Dolphin and streaming via Steam - KHg8m3r - 08-25-2020

Are you running Steam Beta or Stable?
If you run Dolphin through Steam on the local computer does it run fine?
Are you passing the game through the command line as well, or just Dolphin?
Are you using ethernet on both computers, or is wifi involved at all?

RE: Dolphin and streaming via Steam - ForkWNY - 08-25-2020

(08-25-2020, 03:28 AM)KHg8m3r Wrote: Are you running Steam Beta or Stable?
If you run Dolphin through Steam on the local computer does it run fine?
Are you passing the game through the command line as well, or just Dolphin?
Are you using ethernet on both computers, or is wifi involved at all?

I am using the Beta currently.
No issues with Dolphin running on either of the local systems...no errors or crashing on the host or client when Dolphin is run directly on either of those two systems.
Not running through command line, just directly launching Dolphin via Steam and running it via Remote Play to another Windows 10 system (as the client).
Both PC's are connected via 1Gbps ethernet.

EDIT: I reverted to the STABLE version. Although the "steam streaming client exited unexpectedly" issues still occur, they are less frequent and overall visuals/performance seem better on the stable client. I reverted to the Stable on both the host and client. Avg streaming mbps using the above config averages around 16-18mbps (specifically, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes running in 1080p with SSAA anti-aliasing enabled). Similar to other games I regularly stream over Remote Play (i.e. Doom Eternal, DCS, etc.).

RE: Dolphin and streaming via Steam - ForkWNY - 08-26-2020

A simple configuration change within the Steam Remote Play client seems to have resolved the "exited unexpectedly(2)" issue with Steam Remote Play and Dolphin. Simply setting the client option under the Remote Play/Streaming to "Beautiful" on the CLIENT laptop receiving the video stream fixed my issues. The "Beautiful" option delivers the stream at the highest bandwidth (~35mbps on avg at 1080p) fixed it. My thought is that the streaming client is not tampering with the video stream as much with this configuration. Used to get Steam streaming client crashes all the time on my laptop while streaming F-Zero GX but haven't had any at the highest setting (screenshot provided). For others encountering this issue, set your Steam Remote Play client on the client system (where you're actually playing the game from) as shown below. Hopefully this helps resolve the streaming client exiting unexpectedly, but ymmv.

On another note, the Vulkan backend seems to do the best overall job of performance on my AMD Ryzen 7 3700x system, using a mediocre RX590 GPU. At 1080p resolution and SSAA 4x anti-aliasing, the GPU barely busts the 35-40% utilization mark. CPU sits idle most the time. The GPU and CPU on my laptop (where the games are streaming to) seems to have higher utilization overall and all it's really doing is decoding a video stream. Go figure.

[Image: steam-client-options.jpg]