After a few months of closed testing, Valve has released a public beta version of Steam with In-Home Streaming enabled. In-Home Streaming allows you to stream any game from a host PC to a client (a Mac laptop or wimpy Windows netbook, for example). This will eventually be a key feature that allows for cheap, low-power Steam Machines that can stream games from a more powerful gaming PC. We've been playing around with In-Home Streaming for the last few days, and for a beta it's surprisingly stable and easy to use. Read on for our hands-on impressions, and a video demo of me streaming Dark Souls 2 to my laptop while sitting on the toilet.
Setting up In-Home Streaming
Thankfully, setting up Steam's In-Home Streaming is easy. Just install Steam on the host and client computers, log into the same Steam account... and that's it. As long as your two computers are on the same network (the same subnet, off the same router) they will automatically detect each other. A pop-up will appear to say that your devices are connected. (If you have a more complex network setup it won't work, and Steam doesn't currently reveal any network config options to make it work.)
[NB: At the time of publishing, In-Home Streaming requires you to opt into the Steam Beta Update, which can be found in the Account tab, under "Beta participation."]
Steam In-Home Streaming, server/host setup (Windows)
Steam In-Home Streaming, client setup (OS X)
I had no problem at all with the default settings, but the client does have the option of limiting the stream's resolution or bandwidth if you run into problems. Presumably if you're using a wimpy netbook as the client, you won't be able to enjoy full 1080p streaming. Obviously my setup -- a Core i7-4770K host, streaming to a new MacBook Pro with Retina display -- is going to be absolutely fine with the highest settings.
Playing games with In-Home Streaming
To play a game over Steam's In-Home Streaming, just load up the game library on the client, click the game you want to stream, and then select "Stream" from the little drop down menu (see right). If your client is a Mac, you may have to select "All Games" to see the game you want to stream rather than the default selector of "Mac" (which hides all the Windows games, of course, even if you can stream them -- probably a bug that will be fixed).
Once you click Stream, it's basically like you're playing the actual game. The host computer will display the game, and the mouse and keyboard will remain active, but sound will be disabled.
I had absolutely no issues streaming a range of games to my MacBook Pro. Valve recommends a wired network, for latency and bandwidth reasons, but my 802.11ac network was more than up to the task. I had no problems moving around the house -- playing games from bed, the bathroom, or even outside. Out of curiosity, I did try out a slower 802.11g network, and it wasn't really workable at all.
Other bits and bobs
Steam In-Home Streaming, ultimately, just streams whatever is currently on your primary display. This is usually whatever game you load up from Steam -- but then, if you alt-tab on the host PC, it continues to stream whatever's on your display. I used this "feature" to stream a non-Steam game and to use Photoshop. Being able to play non-Mac games on my Mac is pretty cool.
While Valve is only targeting in-home streaming, it should also be theoretically possible to stream over the internet to a remote device, like PS4's Remote Play feature. I haven't tried it yet, but it should be fairly simple to trick Steam into thinking that the remote device is on the local network (using something like Hamachi). Latency would be too high over 3G, but LTE and coffee shop WiFi should be fine for non-twitch games.
Ultimately, the main use for In-Home Streaming is if you have a low-power laptop or netbook with integrated graphics and want to play games from the couch/bathroom/bedroom. I can't imagine there are a lot of people out there who are looking for such functionality, but once Valve's Steam Machines hit the market later in the year, that could change.
