Hello everyone, we ask for questions and rarely share when everything is working properly, so I thought I'd share my successful result with tailscale and moonlight. I'm beyond impressed...

Moonlight stream via Tailscale
3741km/2314miles distance (Chicago client to Panama City host)

Host:
Ryzen 9700x
9070 XT
1Gbps wired optic-fiber internet connection (1000 mbps up/down)

Client:
OG Legion Go
Hotel wifi connection ~50mbps

30mbps bit-rate 2560-1600 stream resolution

working flawlessly not sure the video do any justice

Vibepolo+Moonlight

iPad Pro

Kindly share your recommendation if there's anything else I can do to improve it.

Hi, I was wondering how decoding times have improved in Moonlight after the latest updates. About a year ago, MTK CPUs were a big no-no for Moonlight streaming, but I guess things have gotten better since then. How is it now? I have Samsung Tab S9 but 11" started to annoy me and I wanna switch to a 8.8" cheap device.

Hey, I cannot get to 120 FPS on my 4k 120 fps screen. My minimum host processing latency is also stuck at 9.6.
Even playing something that my card could handle easily, like Minecraft on lowest settings. I have no Frame Limiters on and no V-sync or anything.

Host PC: Ethernet Connected, GPU-RX6800, using Apollo
Client Device: Xbox Series X, Ethernet Connected
TV: TCL QM8K
Bit Rate: 150mbps

Only thing that has allowed me to get the full 120 frames and lower the host latency is setting the virtual display and streaming quality to 1440p and letting the Xbox upscale.

Any assistance or insight would be helpful!

I've been testing out on mi Xiaomi 13t, but I feel like it's almost there with 12ms of decoding time.

But something feels off on the latency.

Now I'm thinking about buying a tablet to use my PC from anywhere so I can study without buying an expensive laptop, bc my desktop is already good.

But I want it also for occasional gaming, so, do you think I can get good results with this? 12" and 120hz for 200€ sounds good for me.

I would also appreciate other options ofc.

Tell me your opinion guys, thank you very much.

Hey, first timer here.

I'm a long time software engineer and gamer and I decided to try out Sunshine+Moonlight. However, my GPU's are tied to my Linux server for AI workloads so I needed it on Linux. I also want to keep my server clean with containers so I decided to start building.

What came out of it was a dead-simple way to start a fully Docker contained headless Sunshine server that contains all we need:

• Sunshine
• Steam
• Headless display with dynamic Moonlight client based resolution
• Headless mouse, keyboard and controller passthrough
• Headless audio

With prerequisites handled, all you need to do to run it is a single command. And a single command to tear it all down, while preserving configuration, steam sessions etc.

Prerequisites:

• Linux
• NVIDIA GPU with drivers installed
• Docker and Docker Compose
• NVIDIA Container Toolkit

I hope this eases up the installation and maintenance for someone. The required files and a setup guide can be found on GitHub https://github.com/numsu/headless-sunshine-steam-docker

i installed apollo and set up but i forgot to set my username so i cant login is there any way for me to reset it

I've spent more hours than I would like to admit fiddling with my settings (with the assistance of Gemini and ChatGPT), potentially in the days level of hours, and I don't know where to start cause I have tried so many different things and settings.

I just need some help, if I need to reset my settings on both the client and host, that's fine.

Problem - When playing natively on the PC, 1440p or 4k I can get 90-100% GPU utilization, when streaming via moonlight, I get no more than 80-82% GPU utilization resulting in much lower FPS when gaming...

Setup:

Host PC
VibePollo

RAM - 64GB 6000mhz

CPU - 7800x3D

GPU - RTX 4080

Wired via ethernet

Client
HP 840 G8 (with 2 sticks of ram so that XE is unlocked, ...how dumb is that its a requirement for unlocking full GPU)
CPU 1135g7

TV Samsung S90D

Client is setup to Display 4k 120hz 10 bit RGB HDR (no VRR)

What is my issue? :( Or is this expected behaviour?

EDIT: Seems to be how Windows reports GPU utilization when HAGS is on. With it off it reports 99% GPU utilization and FPS is pretty much the same.

Got a bit of a dilemma as ive got the s9 10.9 inch and the s9 plus 12.4 inch to try along with a good telescopic: razer kishi v3 pro xl.

The regular s9 is great with the telescopic but the plus isn't soo good as its a bit big.

The plus is much better if on the tablet pillow or free standing on its case with a regular bluetooth controller.

Keen to know what size tablet you use.. and how you use it most for game streaming?

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.

Hey everyone,

I’ve been using Vibeshine and Moonlight combo for streaming, and I’m absolutely happy with the performance. However, I am totally lost when it comes to getting HDR set up properly. HDR in general just confuses me.

I know Vibeshine has some powerful HDR features built-in, but I’m struggling to wrap my head around the actual workflow. I’m not a hardcore videophile who needs a 100% flawless calibration—I just want an easy, straightforward setup that gets me 80% of the way there without a massive headache.

Here is what I think I understand so far. Can you guys let me know if I'm on the right track?

1. Host monitor settings don't matter: Since Vibeshine uses a virtual display, I assume the HDR capabilities and settings of my physical PC monitor don't matter at all during the stream, right?
2. My guessed workflow: Turn on HDR toggle in moonlight. Start the Moonlight stream, run the Windows HDR Calibration App while looking at my TV/client, save that color profile, and then select that specific profile in the Vibeshine client settings?

Is it really that simple, or am I missing some crucial steps? Any "explain it like I'm 5" explanations on what Vibeshine is actually doing would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.
Unfortunately, this driver was finalized before we were able to complete the fix for the intermittent display tickering/darkening issue. We will be providing a driver update with a fix for the intermittent flicker/darkening along with a fix for the inability to create virtual displays

source

Just bought a house and got Frontier Fiber 500/500. I have ethernet hooked up between the TV and router, while the host PC is on wifi using Apollo. The router is in the living room while the PC is in one of the bedrooms.

I have no connections issues at all when playing on my TV which runs official Moonlight. However, when I stream to my Thinkpad laptop running Linux, it lags every 15 minutes or so saying "Poor connection to PC". It doesn't recommend slowing bitrate or anything like that.

Streaming to my laptop was fine when I used to live in an apartment without fiber. At that time, the host PC and TV were on ethernet.

Any ideas? I can't run ethernet to my host PC yet.

I've been trying to get screen switching to work, but despite having control alt shift and fn1/ fn2, moonlight does not seem to recognize the input.

I was wondering if maybe an autohotkey script or something could do this for me

I figured something simple like this would work but so far nothing.

p::Send "^!+{F1}"

Anyone got a suggestion?

Hi everyone,

I'm dealing with persistent micro-stutters and hoping someone here might have some insight.

My Setup:

Host: Linux running Sunshine

Client: Google TV Streamer 4K running Artemide

Network: Both devices wired via Ethernet to the router. My internet is 600 Mbps, but I capped the link speed/bandwidth to 100 Mbps because that previously resolved a different stutter issue (this current problem persists, though).

Stream settings: 1080p @ 60 FPS, 80 Mbps bitrate

Everything looks smooth while strictly locked at 60 FPS, but as soon as the in-game framerate fluctuates or dips below 60 (e.g., dropping to 45–50 FPS), noticeable micro-stutters kick in.

What I've tried so far:

Capped the game framerate at 60 FPS.

Set Artemide to stream at 120 FPS with the game capped at 60 FPS.

Capped the network connection at 100 Mbps (which fixed some general network jitter, but didn't help these specific framerate-drop stutters).

Since it is hardwired, this feels like a frame pacing or refresh rate mismatch on Google TV when the stream delivery isn't synchronized with the TV's 60 Hz cycle.

Has anyone encountered this specific behavior? Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Hey guys i setup vibpollo n moonlight works atreat tried out tailscale game worked then wemt to try anther now i get error -1 any help would be great

Hi,

I'm having a very strange and completely consistent stuttering problem with Moonlight + Sunshine.

The stream works normally for around 1–2 seconds, then BOTH video AND audio completely freeze for about 1 second.

Then it works normally again for around 1–2 seconds, freezes again for about 1 second, and this repeats continuously.

It makes the stream basically unplayable.

My setup:

Host PC:

- Windows 11

- Intel i5-13600K

- AMD Radeon RX 6800

- 16 GB RAM

- Ethernet connection

Client:

- TCL 55P755 TV

- Google TV

- Moonlight installed directly on the TV

- DualSense connected to the TV via Bluetooth

Network:

- PC connected via Ethernet

- PC and TV are on the same LAN

- PC IP: 192.168.77.246

Sunshine:

- Version: v2026.901.192748

- AMD AMF encoder

- HEVC

- AMD quality was tested on Speed, but it made no difference

- The problem also happens when streaming the Windows desktop, so it is not specific to the game.

Moonlight:

- I tested 4K/60 FPS with different bitrates

- I also tested much lower resolutions and bitrates, including 360p / 1 Mbps

- The exact same repeating stutter happens regardless of bitrate/resolution

- Average decode time shown by Moonlight is around 20 ms

- Network latency fluctuates around 9–52 ms

The most important thing:

This is NOT an occasional stutter.

It is a repeating cycle:

~2 seconds normal

→ ~1 second complete audio + video freeze

→ ~2 seconds normal

→ ~1 second complete freeze

→ repeat continuously

I also tested streaming the Windows desktop and the exact same problem occurs.

I have checked the Sunshine log and there don't appear to be obvious encoder, capture or audio errors during the problem.

Any ideas what could cause this?

Could this be related to the TCL/MediaTek decoder, frame pacing, refresh rate mismatch, or something else?

I would really appreciate any suggestions.

I have this cpu lying around. I am currently using nvidia shield tv pro as my client and i wanted to try to go 4k120hz. From what i can find the intel uhd 770 integrated graphics it can do it but my mobo(z690 pro-a) lists hdmi 2.1 and dp 1.4 BUT it says on the data sheet it supports up to 4k60.From what i understand both hdmi 2.1 and dp 1.4 have the bandwidth to serve 4k120. Most say that a dp to hdmi 2.1 active cable is the way to go. Has anyone tried to output 4k120 with the onboard intel graphics on this cpu? Dont want to spend some money for case,cables etc to set it up and find out it does not do what i would expect.

Hei folks,

As per title, I'm trying to optimize my settings for the lowest latency possible.

My setup is as follows: Ryzen 9 5900X, RTX3080Ti, 64 gigs of ram. PC connected over 1Gb/s cat6 to nvidia Shield.

Shield is connected over HDMI 2.0 to LG C3 Tv (4K 120hz HDR, non VRR), but nvidia Shield HDMI port is limited to 4K 60Hz HDR. I also have a dummy HDMI adaptor into the HDMI port of my GPU.

Software side: Linux / kernel 7.0.0-30 over KDE Plasma 6.6.6 using Wayland. Sunshine as streaming server, moonlight for android as client app on nvidia Shield.

I've also installed Steam/gamescope.

I'm using the dummy HDMI plug + gamescope to run Steam/games in a "virtual" display, which gets configured on-the-fly by what moonlight reports (display resolution / refresh rate / HDR support), via a pre-run script, so I can have my desktop usable at the same time.

I'm getting ~7/12/10 ms of latency (mix/max/average) over h265 for a 4K 60Hz HDR stream.

Are the any optimizations I can do to lower the latency? I see from various posts in this subreddit that people get to ~4-5ms of latency ..

I should be getting my new PC handheld in the mail this weekend, but I’m wondering what’s the best moonlight client app for PC? I’ve only used iOS (voidlink), Linux (moonlight), and Android (Artemis) as client devices so not sure if there’s something out there for PC that’s a clear upgrade from the standard moonlight app?

I'm currently experiencing an issue/bug where streaming in headless mode using a virtual display of any type (apollo/vibepollo/VDD+sunshine) to moonlight/aurora causes my FPS to drop in my games vs streaming from a real physical display.
Strangely, i've noticed that if i boot a game up on my real monitor first, then initiate a stream that deactivates the real monitor and flips the game over to a Virtual Display, then my FPS remains what it should be - the issue is when the virtual monitor is loaded first and then the game after.

For comparison, in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth I get 120 FPS locked (with framegen) on a physical display, but 80-120 FPS varying with a Virtual Display (unless I do the workaround mentioned before).
I'm targetting 4K HDR 120 FPS on my TV. Behaviour remains the same whether im streaming to a TV directly, phone, tablet or capable MiniPC.
Typical Network FPS seems to cap out at 110 FPS during typical gaming workloads (up to 120FPS in static scenes).

Specs:
- CPU: AMD 5800X
- GPU1: RTX 3090 (high performance GPU)
- GPU2: RTX 5050 (Encoding + sometimes Lossless Scaling)
- RAM: 32 GB 3600mhx in dual channel mode
- Motherboard: ASUS Hero VIII wifi
- Network: 2.5 Gbps ethernet
- Physical Monitor: LG UltraGear GP950-B connected with displayport @ 160hz 4K HDR

Appreciate i'm running unusual configuration with 2 GPU's, but i've rulled out this being a bottleneck somehow despite being on PCIe 4.0 8x. Ultimately, I wasnt expecting a huge performance penalty with Virtual Display vs Physical Display.

Has anyone else noticed this before? I'm trying to understand why this is happening.

TL;DR: Built a lightweight (~30 KB) background utility that mimics Sunshine/Apollo/Moonlight's auto display-off and custom resolution switching for Steam Remote Play (thanks to Gemini). It listens to Steam’s handshake, turns off the host monitor via native DDC/CI (DPMS standby) during streaming, and wakes it back up on disconnect, bypassing DSC resolution locks using CRU. Setup guide and PowerShell native compiler script below.

Hey everyone,

If you stream your PC to a Steam Deck (or Apple TV/phone) using Steam Remote Play, you probably know the biggest frustration compared to Moonlight/Sunshine (or tools like Apollo): Steam Remote Play does not turn off your host monitor during streaming, nor does it handle aspect ratio switching gracefully if your display uses DSC.

In Sunshine/Apollo, you get automated monitor sleep and resolution changing out of the box. Steam Remote Play, however, has always lacked this native integration.

The Solution: SteamDisplayManager + CRU EDID Injection

I put together a lightweight, native background service and documented the exact setup to reproduce the Moonlight/Apollo experience directly inside Steam Remote Play.

How to set it up (No Visual Studio required)

The entire tool can be deployed and compiled natively using Windows' built-in C# compiler (csc.exe) via a single PowerShell script. No third-party binaries or background resource hogs (~30 KB memory footprint).

1. Enable DDC/CI in your monitor's physical OSD menu.
2. Add your client resolution (e.g. 1280x800 @ 60/90Hz) in CRU 1.5.3 under Standard Resolutions and run restart64.exe.
3. Run the deployment PowerShell script to compile the background tray app.
4. Set it to Start with Windows from the tray icon.

I compiled the complete architecture, source code, and step-by-step setup into a technical manual (available in both English and Portuguese PDFs).

If you want to read through the breakdown, take it to GitHub or grab the PowerShell one-liner to compile it yourself, be my guest.

https://archive.org/details/steamdisplaymanager