NVIDIA Shield

Moonlight PC to Shield Streaming

Overview

• You can stream your PC to your NVIDIA Shield including games allowing you to play on your tv
• Using a Shield controller, or any other Shield-compatible Bluetooth controller, makes it feel very much like a console experience
• This is a legitimate replacement for a console for everything except for games that aren't available on PC
• All you need is your PC, NVIDIA GeForce Experience PC app, NVIDIA Shield, and the Moonlight Streaming Shield app

Requirements

• NVIDIA Graphics Card
  • NVIDIA GeForce Experience
• NVIDIA Shield
  • Moonlight streaming app installed
• Network
  • Wired
  • 100Mbit/sec
    • Recommended: 1000Mbit/sec, not because game streaming needs it (it looks great at 80Mbit/sec) but just in case something else starts heavily using your network bandwidth while streaming.

Steps

1. PC
   1. NVIDIA GeForce Experience
      1. Add Desktop Streaming Launcher
         1. Settings > Shield > Add:
            1. C:\Windows\System32\mstsc.exe
               • This is the command that will allow you to stream your plain desktop to your Shield
            2. I recommend finding a Microsoft Windows logo to set as an image
      2. Configure Steam to always use full desktop resolution
         1. Start > Steam > Right Click > Open File Location> Properties > Right Click > Properties > Target: Add a space and -fulldesktopres after the "...\Steam.exe" part
            • This causes Big Picture Mode to always start in your current resolution when you start Steam from the Start menu
   2. Start Steam Big Picture Mode
2. Shield
   1. Install Moonlight Streaming app
   2. Open the Moonlight app
      • There's probably some setup here to tell it how to see your PC, I can't remember if it's automatic
   3. Run the Desktop Streaming Launcher
      • You should see Steam Big Picture Mode

Improving The Experience

Add a Wireless or Bluetooth Keyboard for Typing and Touchpad

• Adding a Wireless or Bluetooth keyboard can open up games or other windows functions that require typing
• Some keyboards coming with a touchpad which opens up games that are better with a mouse, such as an adventure game or a real-time strategy game
• People seem to like the Logitech K400 Plus Wireless Touch TV Keyboard that comes with a touchpad. It connects by a usb dongle for a wireless connection and the NVIDIA Shield has USB ports.
  • I tried this and it works very well. So well you could play old keyboard and point-and-click adventure games like King's Quest, Quest for Glory, etc.
  • The touchpad makes it much easier to move the mouse cursor through the Start menu, over icons, through file menus, etc.

Tips and Tricks

Long Press Start Button for Mouse Emulation

• On a Steam controller, hold down the Start button for 1sec+, release, and you should be able to move the mouse cursor around with your joystick
• A is left-click, B is right-click

Gotchas

Moonlight Shield App Launches Steam Low Resolution

• When starting Steam from Moonlight, Steam will start Big Picture Mode and, for some reason, start in a low resolution.
• It looks bad, changes your whole desktop's resolution (possibly messing up your desktop icons and open window sizes), and games start in low resolution
• Solution:
  • Start > Steam > Right Click > Open File Location> Properties > Right Click > Properties > Target: Add a space and -fulldesktopres after the "Steam.exe" part
    • This causes Big Picture Mode to always start in your current resolution
    • You must start Steam Big Picture Mode on your PC because Moonlight doesn't know to start Steam with -fulldesktopres
    • You must start Moonlight streaming with the Desktop Streaming

Workarounds

Issues With Higher Than 60hz/60fps Video

• Prefer Fullscreen 60hz monitor refresh rate or at least 60fps limited in-game
  • Shield/GameStream/Moonlight only use 30/60hz anyway by default. 90/120hz can be unlocked in Moonlight settings (under Experimental settings) but anything over that and you're wasting processing power and bandwidth
  • If your native refresh rate is higher than 60hz, something in the pipeline from your PC to Shield doesn't like it and your visual fluidity will suffer
    • Could be on-PC encoding overloading your video card or on-Shield decoding of a high refresh rate signal down to a 60hz signal overloading the Shield
    • Example: I have a 165hz diplay. I was running V-Rally 4 at 165hz but when streamed to the Shield it did not feel very fluid. Once I changed to Fullscreen mode and 60hz, in-game, it felt buttery smooth at the Shield.

Do NOT use the Moonlight Shield App Steam launcher

• This launches Steam in Big Picture Mode but without the -fulldesktopres fix mentioned above
• This results in a low resolution Steam interface, low resolution desktop, and games will start in low resolution
• Just be sure to use the Desktop Streaming launcher from Moonlight mentioned above that you create in NVIDIA GeForce Experience

Tips and Tricks

Close All Other Apps While Streaming To Improve Streaming =

• Improve fluid streaming reliability by closing other apps which may be taking resources in the background
• Double-tap the O button on the Shield controller and close every window except Moonlight

Known Issues

Audio Muted On PC After Closing Moonlight Streaming

• tl;dr Reboot your PC
• Moonlight will correctly stream video and audio but when you stop streaming your PC doesn't seem to properly "recapture" audio
• I haven't found a solution except for rebooting
  • You might need to manually Quit Session from Moonlight
  • You must not only exit the current Moonlight session, you must go back to Moonlight, click the Launcher again, and select Quit Session

You can't turn off your PC monitor / Beware OLED users

• For some reason, your PC monitor will have to stay on even while you stream to your TV
• LED/LCD users don't need to worry (OLED users do need to worry)
  • LEDs don't suffer from burn-in
  • LEDs do suffer from backlight dimming or failure but this is very rare and leaving your LCD on is generally okay
  • I don't worry about leaving my LEDs it on for hours
• OLED users should worry about burn-in
  • OLEDs can suffer burn-in from users forgetting their PC monitor is on
  • So, you'll want to remember to turn off your OLED after your TV streaming session