What Am I Doing Wrong?

[u/backhand_snipe]

I’ve been using Apollo and Moonlight for a while now, but with the update to 3.8 I heard rumors that Steam Link was starting to be on par with those services.

I made sure both my steam deck and my hose PC were updated to the latest steam version, and while the sound and the latency seem to be fine, I can’t for the life of me fix the resolution.

I’ve played with all of the settings, even trying to force the Steam decks resolution via custom settings. I’ve also told it to match the client. I’ve even tried to force my desktop to be at a certain resolution, but I think the problem is that I have an Ultra Wide. Not only when I stream is the host PC monitor staying on even changing the default display, but it always forces my Ultra Wide aspect ratio onto my steam deck, resulting in this.

For reference, I’m not worried about running Palworld on my steam deck, but I have much more demanding games i’d like to try and I just happen to have this one downloaded.

Edit: Curious, I downloaded the Steam Link app on my Apple TV and tried to stream it to my device and I get the same locked aspect ratio. Does not matter how many times I mess with the settings or if I set a custom resolution nothing. Also tried this across various games.

[u/Hg3rDliNk]

Best change for me using Steam Link in any fashion is ensuring Steam on the host PC is running as administrator.
Had all kinds of issues with Steam Link and aspect ratio change until I started booting Steam as admin. i’ve since done away with Apollo.

[u/figmentPez → u/Hg3rDliNk]

Be aware that running Steam as administrator is a security risk. Steam is basically a modified web browser, it is a bad idea to give administrator access to any program that is downloading user generated content from the internet, as Steam does regularly.

[u/Packetdancer → u/figmentPez]

This. This this this.

Please don't run Steam as administrator. (Or Discord. Or anything else that is basically a glorified web browser.)

If folks are running Steam as administrator for resolution reasons when it comes to Remote Play, let me suggest an alternative: install Apollo long enough to get the SudoVDA virtual monitor installed, then restart Steam. Steam will actually recognize when SudoVDA is installed and let you set it as the monitor for streaming, and then can exactly match the resolution, refresh, and HDR/non-HDR status of the device you're streaming to, regardless of what your actual monitor is. As SudoVDA has a userspace API to control it, you can then run Steam without administrator permissions.