Top 18 Moonlight Open-Source Projects

• Sunshine

  430 12,589 9.7 C++

  Self-hosted game stream host for Moonlight.

  

Project mention: Show HN: A Vulkan-Video-based game streaming tool for Linux | news.ycombinator.com | 2024-04-27

> Would the Swift UI also work on an iPad?

Yes, but probably not for the first version.

> Do you have any comparisons with other tools (eg steam streaming, moonlight)

Steam streaming just doesn't really work on linux. Moonlight is somewhat similar in terms of direction, and has an established client base. I know of at least two projects to build servers for the Moonlight protocol[1][2].

The Moonlight protocol is a bit weird, because it's an open-source reverse engineering of a dead NVIDIA project, GeForce now. There are fundamental limitations to the protocol, for example that the cursor must be rendered in-stream or simulated. Using my tool, the cursor is rendered locally, and custom cursor images can actually be pushed to the client, for a seamless experience. This sounds like a minor detail but it matters a lot for subjective latency. I'm also working on employing tricks like hierarchical coding using FEC in the protocol, because I hate VBR encoding for games (it makes text blurry and breaks immersion). Those tricks aren't really possible in Moonlight.

All of the Linux solutions I know about have significantly higher latency compared to Magic Mirror, although I don't have numbers for exactly how much higher. (I have a benchmark to test the latency of my tool, but the others don't.) I'd encourage you to try them out and get a feel for the difference.

Finally, I think Magic Mirror is the easiest to install and get going on the server. It has almost zero runtime library or service dependencies (there's a pesky dynamic link against libxkbcommon which I haven't managed to remove), so you don't need to mess with pipewire or docker or anything - it's completely self-contained.

All that said, the existing tools have the advantage of a larger user and contributor base, whereas Magic Mirror is just me on a mission so far :) So they're likely to be much more stable and usable.

[1]: https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine

• moonlight-qt

  101 8,393 9.4 C++

  GameStream client for PCs (Windows, Mac, Linux, and Steam Link)

  

Project mention: Sunshine: HEVC not supported (even though it should) | /r/cloudygamer | 2023-12-07

I found this https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/issues/967

• InfluxDB

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• moonlight-android

  28 3,104 8.9 C

  GameStream client for Android

  

Project mention: Has anyone been able to stream this game using Moonlight or Steam Link? | /r/vtmb | 2023-10-05

I could however play it through Moonlight Deskstop Stream using the mstmc.exe. This way I could just open Steam in Big Picture Mode then launch the game as always. However, once ing game, it has some weird visual glitch when walking in the streets of the city causing some stroboscopic effect in the textures which switch to a whitish washed-off color, and then back to normal darker colors, and then half a second later back to whitish colors, etc.

• moonlight-embedded

  13 1,467 8.1 C

  Gamestream client for embedded systems

  

• moonlight-ios

  8 978 8.3 C

  GameStream client for iOS/tvOS

  

• Internet-Hosting-Tool

  17 808 5.0 C++

  Enable Moonlight streaming from your PC over the Internet with no configuration required

  

Project mention: Can someone please help me set up WireGuard for Moonlight streaming purposes? | /r/cloudygamer | 2023-11-21

I might be misunderstanding something, but isn’t this what you’re looking for?

• moonlight-chrome

  2 710 7.0 C

  GameStream client for ChromeOS

  

• SaaSHub

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• Moonlight-Switch

  20 702 8.7 C++

  Moonlight port for Nintendo Switch

Project mention: What if I played here on android | /r/SwitchPirates | 2023-06-02

• docker-steam-headless

  15 661 8.3 Shell

  A Headless Steam Docker image supporting NVIDIA GPU and accessible via Web UI

  

Project mention: I forked SteamOS for my living room PC | news.ycombinator.com | 2023-12-31

I actually just ordered a GPU for my unRaid NAS server just to be able to do Steam Headless via a nice docker image(1) and then use Moonlight (for example) as a client on my Windows laptop. If it works, it's much better than buying yet another piece of desktop hardware just to play games when my NAS is just sitting there idle most of the time. Just need to make sure I keep the power level setting on the Nvidia card to idle when not in use (hopefully a nvidia-persistenced call will do it).

1: https://github.com/Steam-Headless/docker-steam-headless

• moonlight-common-c

  1 399 8.9 C

  Core implementation of Nvidia's GameStream protocol (by moonlight-stream)

  

• gow

  7 330 7.2 Shell

  Games on Whales - stream games (and GUI) running in Docker (by games-on-whales)

  

Project mention: I forked SteamOS for my living room PC | news.ycombinator.com | 2023-12-31

I spent some (too much) time trying to get pretty much the same thing running using GOW [1]. Was quite a bit harder than I thought, requiring a hdmi dummy plug to get the xserver config right etc.

1: https://github.com/games-on-whales/gow

• wolf

  7 247 8.9 C++

  Stream virtual desktops and games running in Docker

  

Project mention: Show HN: A Vulkan-Video-based game streaming tool for Linux | news.ycombinator.com | 2024-04-27

• Moonlight

  1 214 8.8 SCSS

  The next generation hosting panel (by Moonlight-Panel)

  

Project mention: Game Server Managers 2024 | /r/selfhosted | 2023-11-13

GitHub: Moonlight GitHub (included because they bury the link on their site)

• RetroArcher

  1 149 8.3 Python

  WIP: Game streaming server / front-end.

  

• moonlight_hdr_launcher

  17 71 0.0 C++

  Launch anything in HDR mode using Moonlight

• MoonKit

  3 56 4.3 Swift

  MoonKit is a Swift library which uses math and trigonometry to compute several information about the Moon.

  

• GSMS

  6 49 7.5 Python

  Gamestream migration service for Sunshine

  

• moonlight-toggler

  1 13 10.0 Python

  Script that switches monitor profiles automatically while Nvidia is streaming through GameStream.

• SaaSHub

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Moonlight related posts

• Show HN: A Vulkan-Video-based game streaming tool for Linux

  3 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 27 Apr 2024

• I forked SteamOS for my living room PC

  7 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 31 Dec 2023

• How do I stream games from PC to Nvidia shield with an AMD card?

  1 project | /r/nvidiashield | 10 Dec 2023

• Sunshine: HEVC not supported (even though it should)

  1 project | /r/cloudygamer | 7 Dec 2023

• Playing your PS5 games with almost native quality in HDR on your Deck? Here is how: (For PC too)

  1 project | /r/SteamDeck | 6 Dec 2023

• Kubernetes-Native Retro Game Streaming Written in Go

  3 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 21 Nov 2023

• Can someone please help me set up WireGuard for Moonlight streaming purposes?

  1 project | /r/cloudygamer | 21 Nov 2023
• A note from our sponsor - InfluxDB
  www.influxdata.com | 10 May 2024

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