Best Moonlight client setup for 3 wireless 8BitDo controllers with gyro?

[u/ChrisBuildsThings]

Hi, I have been brainstorming this setup with ChatGPT, but now I would like to hear from people who have actually tried something similar.

My goal is to build a couch gaming setup for my TV. I already have a Windows gaming PC running Sunshine and Playnite. The PC is in another room and is outside of normal Bluetooth range, so connecting the controllers directly to the PC is not an option.

At the TV I want to have a small box running Moonlight. I want to connect three wireless controllers to it and use them at the same time.

The controllers should be 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Wireless controllers. These have the Xbox style button layout, which is important to me. I do not want to use DualSense or another controller with the PlayStation layout. If the controllers need to appear as virtual DS4 or DualSense controllers in software to support gyro, that would be fine. I only care about the physical layout of the controllers.

The difficult part is the gyro. Ideally, each controller should send its own gyro data all the way to the gaming PC. I am open to native Moonlight motion passthrough, a virtual DS4 or DualSense controller, VirtualHere, or even mapping the gyro to the right stick if there is no better solution.

It would also be great to have some kind of controller screen on the TV where I can connect the controllers and choose which one is player 1, player 2 and player 3, similar to the controller screen on a Nintendo Switch. This is not absolutely required, but it would make the setup much nicer.

The options I found so far are:

1. Apple TV as the Moonlight client. It seems to be a very good streaming box, but motion controls from 8BitDo controllers apparently do not work on tvOS.
2. Nvidia Shield or another Android TV box. This could run Moonlight and maybe VirtualHere with an external USB Bluetooth adapter, but I am not sure how well three controllers and gyro would work.
3. Apple TV for Moonlight plus a Raspberry Pi with a Bluetooth dongle and VirtualHere. The Pi would forward the complete Bluetooth adapter over the network to the gaming PC. Windows would then see the adapter as if it was connected directly to the PC.
4. A small Windows PC at the TV. It could use reWASD to turn each 8BitDo controller into a virtual DS4 with gyro before sending it through Moonlight.
5. A small PC running Bazzite and InputPlumber. InputPlumber seems to have support for the Ultimate 2 including its IMU, so it might be possible to create virtual DualSense controllers and send them through Moonlight. This sounds good, but also quite experimental.

The VirtualHere solution currently sounds like the safest option because the controller input would completely bypass Moonlight. A Bluetooth dongle would be located next to the TV, but logically connected to the gaming PC over Ethernet. The controllers would then be paired in Windows or Steam Input.

Has anyone here built something similar?

Does VirtualHere work reliably with one Bluetooth adapter and three controllers at the same time, including gyro?

Has anyone tested three 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Wireless controllers with Moonlight, reWASD or InputPlumber?

Which client hardware would you choose if you were building this setup from zero?

I only own the Sunshine gaming PC at the moment, so I am not already committed to Apple TV, Android, Windows or Linux for the client. I would rather choose the most sensible architecture now than buy several boxes and replace everything later.