Steam Link: Play Anywhere in Your Home | Here's How It Works
Video gaming - a pastime once limited to computer rooms, bedrooms, and houses. Now, people play video games whenever and wherever they want, thanks to various technological advancements.
These advancements have made it possible for people to play high-quality video games on phones, tablets, and even devices that aren't good enough to play the latest games through cloud gaming.
However, there is one thing that these advancements have done for us: the ability to play your favorite video game at home even when you're AFK.
But how can it be done?
Steam Link - A Brief Introduction
Valve Corporation
Valve's Steam game launcher is more than just a way to buy your favorite games digitally and launch them from a single app. It also allows you to stream and play video games through your chosen device. This device could be your smartphone, tablet, and even another PC.
Streaming your favorite games on Steam is possible through Steam's companion app, Steam Link.
Steam Link, according to its page on Steam, allows you to play your video games remotely on any device. This nifty app allows you to play video games through touch control schemes and even video game console controllers for those devices that support them.
Steam and Steam Link can give you this ability due to them being powered by Remote Play technologies, which deliver real-time video encoding over a custom low-latency network protocol.
Additionally, Steam Link is designed to mimic your computer's performance and mirror it on the device you wish to stream your game on. As such, you don't have to worry about your device's capabilities to run a game, just like cloud gaming.
How To Stream Your Game At Home
Unfortunately, there will be times when you have to be away from your computer while video gaming due to various reasons, such as a toilet break or eating your meals.
Thankfully, Steam Link has you covered. Assuming you have a computer that can run Steam, you'll also need to download the Steam Link app on your chosen device, per The Verge. In this case, let's use a smartphone or tablet.
Once you have the Steam Link app installed, have your device be connected to your computer by following these instructions:
Open the Steam Link app on your device and select "Other Computer." You may be required to turn on your Bluetooth for your device to find your computer if it isn't possible to locate it via your local area network.
Once your device has found your computer, select it, and a four-digit code will appear. Type this code into your computer, and the pairing process is complete.
Do take note that streaming games from your computer require excellent upload speeds to give you the best experience. Remote Play is possible at upload speeds of 3Mbps, but you can increase the bandwidth until you start getting hitches, according to Steam's Support page.
Thankfully, the pairing process will automatically start testing your network's upload speed for you once the pairing is complete.
Once you're given the go-ahead, follow these instructions to play your video games on your smartphone or tablet:
Assuming you have the Steam Link app open, select your computer and then select "start playing." If you can see your computer's monitor, Steam will then transition into its Big Picture Mode while delivering a stream to your device.
Next, set up the control scheme of your choice on your mobile device by tapping on settings from the app's start screen and then tapping "controller." From here, you can choose to use the app's touch input or pair a controller to your phone that your PC has support for.
Once that's done, go ahead and navigate your way through Steam's Big Picture mode. It may take some time to get used to, but once you do, go ahead and select the game you want to play from the "Installed" category. Do keep in mind that not all games on Steam support remote Play from a mobile device.
That's it! Enjoy playing your video games while being AFK!
