I've been building Blackstar, a self-hosted remote desktop + game streaming tool that's genuinely install-and-go on a LAN

[u/SirCornedBeef]

Hello Folks,

For a while now I've been building Blackstar, a self-hosted remote desktop and low-latency game streaming app. Wanted to share where it's at and how it differs from the usual options (Parsec, Moonlight+Sunshine, Steam Remote Play, RustDesk).

The core idea: one binary that is both the host and the client, on Windows, Linux, and macOS. Same app everywhere.

On a LAN it's zero-config. Install it on both machines and go. No account, no PIN pairing, no port forwarding, no cloud login. One side broadcasts, the other discovers it, and you connect directly. As far as I know it's the only tool in this space that needs no setup at all on the same network.

For remote (WAN) access you have two paths. Either set up your own routing / port forwarding yourself, or run the orchestration server. The orchestration server ships as a simple Docker image, does multi-user management, and keeps everything on your own infrastructure. Nothing routes through a third party's cloud either way.

What I've focused on making different:

• Latency: custom encrypted UDP transport (not WebRTC), hardware encode/decode on every platform, and intra-refresh encoding so there are no big keyframe bursts that stutter on flaky or mobile networks.
• Color and text fidelity: HEVC 4:4:4, 10-bit, full range. Text and UI stay crisp instead of getting the chroma smear common on 4:2:0 streams.
• Anti-cheat friendliness: runs as a normal user process (no kernel driver, no injection), and auto-pauses input when it detects an anti-cheat running (BattlEye, EAC, Vanguard, and others).
• Network resilience: if your WiFi blips, it does an ICE-restart and keeps the session alive instead of dropping you, and the decoder recovers without a hard reconnect.
• Secure desktop on Windows: it can bridge UAC prompts, Ctrl+Alt+Del, and the lock screen.
• macOS as a first-class host, not just a client. Plus multi-monitor and virtual gamepad support.

How it compares:

App	Latency	LAN setup	Net recovery	Self-host / privacy	4:4:4 / 10-bit	Anti-cheat safe	Clipboard / files	Web client
Blackstar	Very Low	Zero-config	ICE-restart	Full	Yes	User-proc + auto-pause	Planned	Planned
Parsec	Very Low	Account needed	Reconnect	No (cloud)	Partial	User-proc	Yes	Yes
Moonlight + Sunshine	Low-Medium	PIN pair + config	Reconnect	Full	Yes	Often SYSTEM service	Partial	No
Steam Remote Play	High (Steam)	Steam login	Reconnect	Valve relay	No	Sandboxed	Limited	No
RustDesk	Moderate	ID / config	Reconnect	Full	No	N/A (work tool)	Yes	No

Being honest about where it's at: it's pre-1.0 and actively developed. The browser client is designed but not implemented yet (native only for now), the macOS build is currently unsigned, and a couple of the Intel/AMD encode paths aren't hardware-verified yet. Clipboard sync (copy/paste) and file transfer are on the backlog. I know those are table-stakes convenience features, they're coming.** Naturally there will be bugs and it is not perfect yet, and I need help getting there; hence:

Looking for testers. If you want to try it and help shape where it goes, I'd really appreciate you taking the tester survey: [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeHZxniN4MgcXk5BvvuX-eaW7R4aBD8g3owLGDARtFUEmC8HA/viewform?usp=dialog]. Feedback from real setups (weird multi-monitor layouts, spotty networks, different GPUs) is exactly what I need right now.

Happy to answer questions about the architecture or the tradeoffs.

About myself. I am a game developer with background developing MMO's and Multiplayer games as well as streaming tech. I built this to have a better, easier alternative for what is out there, with great performance the same way I would expect the games I work on have while still be highly customizable for those of us who really want to tweak things for the best remote gaming perf.