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Ultimate Game Streaming Server

How to build the Ultimate Game Streaming Server
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Table of Contents
  1. About The Project
  2. Getting Started
  3. Deploy Server
  4. Additional Software
  5. Additional Resources
  6. Other Considerations
  7. Roadmap
  8. Contributing
  9. License
  10. Contact
  11. Acknowledgments

About The Project

This is a comprehensive guide on how to build the ultimate game streaming server. With a dedicated game streaming server all the processing and rendering is centralized and then streamed to any type of device.

Once complete you should be able to stream games to just about any device:

  • Linux
  • macOS
  • Windows
  • Raspberry Pi
  • Steam Deck
  • Steam Link
  • Android
  • iOS
  • Amazon Fire tablets and TVs
  • Apple TV
  • ChromeOS
  • PS Vita
  • Xbox
  • LG webOS TVs

But why?...

I got the idea for this when I tried using Bazzite but ran into issues with Wayland on Nvidia and Fedora Atomic Desktops. Once I figured out the major components of what all was needed I decided I'd try to roll my own configuration on Ubuntu.

Screenshots

Product Screen Shot 1 Product Screen Shot 2 Product Screen Shot 3

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Getting Started

Hardware

  • A physical server or VM
  • Dedicated GPU (AMD, Intel, or Nvidia)
  • Monitor and/or DisplayPort/HDMI Emulator
    • This will need to be plugged into your GPU and what you select here will determine the maximum resolution and refresh rate you can stream games at
    • For example, if you only care about 1080p at 60hz just about every monitor will do that or you can buy a generic DisplayPort Emulator or HDMI Emulator
    • If you want a high refresh rate for gaming, for example 1440p at 144hz or 1080p at 240hz, you will need a high refresh rate DisplayPort Emulator or high refresh rate monitor. Be sure to verify the emulator supports the resolution and refresh rate you want.
  • Any device listed in the About section above that you can stream to
  • Optional: Keyboard, Mouse, Xbox Controller

Software

All other additional software listed below is optional but I imagine most people would be using Steam at a minimum.

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Deploy Server

VM Configuration

If you won't be building your server as a VM skip this section

  1. Proxmox VM Configuration (adjust accordingly)
    • CPU: 16 Cores
      • Type: Host
    • Memory: 32 GB Memory
      • Ballooning Device: Disabled
    • Storage
      • Controller: VirtIO SCSI single
      • Disks:
        • OS - 100GB
        • Games - 1TB (Optional)
        • Enable SSD Emulation, IO thread, & Discard
    • Graphics Card: Standard VGA
      • Set this to None after you attach your GPU, but we need a basic display out for the OS install
    • BIOS: OVMF (UEFI)
      • Make sure you add an EFI disk
      • Uncheck Pre-enroll Keys as this will enable Secure Boot by default which we don't need
  2. Add your Ubuntu ISO as media for the CDROM drive

Install OS

  1. Boot to the ISO
  2. Select the Default Installation
  3. Skip the third party drivers and additional media formats unless you know you need it. We will be installing GPU drivers manually later.
  4. Make sure the OS is installed to the 100GB drive
  5. Uncheck Require my password to log in
  6. Remove CD/ISO once installation is complete and reboot

Configure OS

  • Install Additional Packages

    sudo apt install -y build-essential curl dkms git openssh-server vim

  • Use X11 for Nvidia

    • If you are using an Nvidia GPU you should use X11 rather than Wayland display server, if you are unsure of what you are currently running echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE. To switch, logoff and click the gear in the bottom right and select Ubuntu on Xorg. nvfbc, NVIDIA Frame Buffer Capture allows you to capture direct to GPU memory, significantly improving performance. At the time of this writing nvfbc does not work on Wayland.

  • Configure auto-login

    • Your server must also auto-login without a password. This should have been configured in the OS installation but if not, Settings => System => Users and enable Automatic Login

  • Disable Screen Blanking

    • Disable any type of screen saver, suspend, or screen blanking. Settings => Power => Screen Blanking to Never

  • Do Not Disturb Mode

    • Enable Do Not Disturb in the notifications bar to disable any popups.

  • Enable SSH

    sudo systemctl enable ssh

  • Install QEMU Agent (Optional) - Only if your streaming server is a Proxmox VM

    sudo apt install -y qemu-guest-agent

Configure Additional Drive

If you configured a secondary drive to store games

  1. Run lsblk to find your secondary drive, /dev/sdb for example
  2. Format drive 
    (echo d; echo g; echo w) | sudo fdisk /dev/sdb
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb
  3. Mount drive 
    # Get the UUID of the drive
lsblk -f

# Create games mount point
sudo mkdir /mnt/games

# Append to /etc/fstab
/dev/disk/by-uuid/<drive_uuid_here> /mnt/games ext4 noatime,nodiratime,nosuid,nodev,nofail,x-gvfs-show 0 0

# Appears that systemd is tied into fstab now
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

# Set perms on drive to local user (change your_userid)
sudo chown -R your_userid:your_userid /mnt/games

# Mount drive
sudo mount -a

# Verify drive is working
df -hT

Configure GPU

  1. Shutdown VM or host and install GPU if you haven't already
    • Proxmox GPU Config
      • Remove the Standard VGA virtual adapter
      • Add PCI Device
      • Raw Device, select your GPU device
      • Enable All Functions
      • Enable Primary GPU
      • Enable ROM-Bar
      • Enable PCI-Express
  2. Plug in monitor or DisplayPort/HDMI emulator to the GPU
  3. Boot host back up

AMD

Coming soon...

Intel

Coming soon...

Nvidia

  1. Grab the latest drivers for your GPU Nvidia 3060 - 565.77 latest at the time of writing this
  • wget https://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/565.77/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-565.77.run
  1. chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-565.77.run
  2. sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-565.77.run
  3. Multiple kernel module types are available for this system. Which would you like to use? MIT/GPL
  4. An alternate method of installing the NVIDIA driver was detected. Continue installation
  5. The Nouveau kernel driver is currently in use by your system. This driver is incompatible with the NVIDIA driver, and must be disabled before proceeding. -> Nouveau can usually be disabled by adding files to the modprobe configuration directories and rebuilding the initramfs. OK
  6. Would you like nvidia-installer to attempt to create these modprobe configuration files for you? Yes
  7. One or more modprobe configuration files to disable Nouveau have been written. You will need to reboot your system and possibly rebuild the initramfs before these changes can take effect. Note if you later wish to reenable Nouveau, you will need to delete these files: /usr/lib/modprobe.d/nvidia-installer-disable-nouveau.conf, /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-installer-disable-nouveau.conf -> nvidia-installer is not able to perform some of the sanity checks which detect potential installation problems while Nouveau is loaded. Would you like to continue installation without these sanity checks, or abort installation, confirm that Nouveau has been properly disabled, and attempt installation again later? Continue installation
  8. Install NVIDIA's 32-bit compatibility libraries? Yes
  9. Would you like to rebuild the initramfs? Yes
  10. Would you like to run the nvidia-xconfig utility to automatically update your X configuration file so that the NVIDIA X driver will be used when you restart X? Any pre-existing X configuration file will be backed up. Yes
  11. Verify drivers are installed correctly: nvidia-smi
  12. Reboot

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Additional Software

Steam

  1. Download the Steam Debian package 
    wget https://cdn.fastly.steamstatic.com/client/installer/steam.deb
  2. Install Steam 
    sudo apt install -y -f ./steam.deb
  3. Launch Steam 
    steam
  4. Configure Steam to auto start on login
  5. Under Storage add /mnt/games mount point and set it as the default
  6. Under Compatibility enable Enable Steam Play for all other titles

Lutris

Lutris is an open gaming platform for Linux. Lutris helps you install and play video games from all eras and from most gaming systems.

Wine must be installed before you install Lutris

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo mkdir -pm755 /etc/apt/keyrings
wget -O - https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/winehq-archive.key -
sudo wget -NP /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/dists/noble/winehq-noble.sources
sudo apt update
sudo apt install --install-recommends wine-stable
  1. Download the Lutris Debian package 
    wget https://github.com/lutris/lutris/releases/download/v0.5.18/lutris_0.5.18_all.deb
  2. Install Lutris 
    sudo apt install -y -f ./lutris_0.5.18_all.deb

EmuDeck

EmuDeck is a collection of scripts that allows you to autoconfigure your Steam Deck (works on Linux too), it creates your roms directory structure and downloads all of the needed Emulators for you along with the best configurations for each of them. EmuDeck works great with Steam Rom Manager or with EmulationStation DE.

  1. Download prereqs 
    sudo apt install -y bash flatpak git jq libfuse2 rsync unzip zenity
  2. Install EmuDeck 
    curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dragoonDorise/EmuDeck/main/install.sh | bash
  3. Walk through initial setup
  4. Copy BIOS
  5. Copy ROMs
  6. Add Emulation Station to Steam
    1. In Steam, go to Games menu
    2. Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library...
    3. Select ES-DE AppImage
    4. Rename the application in Steam to EmulationStation DE

Sunshine

Sunshine Self-hosted game stream host for Moonlight.

  1. Grab the latest version of Sunshine v2024.1227.43619 
    wget https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine/releases/download/v2024.1227.43619/sunshine-ubuntu-24.04-amd64.deb
  2. Install Sunshine 
    sudo apt install -y -f ./sunshine-ubuntu-24.04-amd64.deb
  3. Create and reload udev rules for uinput to create mouse and gamepad events: 
    echo 'KERNEL=="uinput", SUBSYSTEM=="misc", OPTIONS+="static_node=uinput", TAG="uaccess"' | \
sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/60-sunshine.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger
sudo modprobe uinput
  4. Configure autostart service 
    # ~/.config/systemd/user/sunshine.service
[Unit]
Description=Sunshine self-hosted game stream host for Moonlight.
StartLimitIntervalSec=500
StartLimitBurst=5

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/sunshine
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5s

[Install]
WantedBy=graphical-session.target
  5. Enable autostart 
    systemctl --user enable sunshine
  6. reboot

Configure Sunshine

The default configs will work for most people but adjust as necessary

Configure Sunshine Applications

Sunshine Applications are configurations that get applied based on how you want to connect to the Sunshine server. For example you can create an application that configures 720p at 60hz and then launches Steam in Big Picture mode, this would be the ideal setup for a Steam Deck. Another example might be an application that configures 1440p at 144hz and launches Steam in normal mode for a more traditional gaming setup.

Here are my applications I have setup.

  • Desktop - This is a "dynamic" in that it will apply the same resolution and refresh rate that the client connecting is using.
    • Do Command 
      sh -c "xrandr --output DP-2 --mode \"${SUNSHINE_CLIENT_WIDTH}x${SUNSHINE_CLIENT_HEIGHT}\" --rate ${SUNSHINE_CLIENT_FPS} --output DP-1 --off"
    • Undo Command 
      xrandr --output DP-1 --mode 1920x1080 --rate 60 --output DP-2 --off
  • MoonDeckStream - This is configured to match the Steam Deck resolution and refresh rate.
    • Do Command 
      xrandr --output DP-2 --mode 1280x800 --rate 60 --output DP-1 --off
    • Undo Command 
      xrandr --output DP-1 --mode 1920x1080 --rate 60 --output DP-2 --off
    • Command 
      /home/sam/MoonDeck/MoonDeckBuddy.AppImage --exec MoonDeckStream
  • Steam Big Picture - Similar to Desktop but launches Steam in Big Picture Mode
    • Do Command 
      sh -c "xrandr --output DP-2 --mode \"${SUNSHINE_CLIENT_WIDTH}x${SUNSHINE_CLIENT_HEIGHT}\" --rate ${SUNSHINE_CLIENT_FPS} --output DP-1 --off"
    • Undo Command 
      xrandr --output DP-1 --mode 1920x1080 --rate 60 --output DP-2 --off
    • Detached Commands 
      setsid steam steam://open/bigpicture

My setup will differ from yours but run xrandr (Assuming you are using X11 as xrandr does not work with Wayland) to get an idea of what displays you have and what resolutions they support. In my case, DP-1 is DisplayPort 1 which is a 1080p 60hz physical monitor, and DP-2 is DisplayPort 2 which is a high refresh rate DisplayPort Emulator.

Moonlight

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

Moonlight Setup Guide

MoonDeck

MoonDeck is a plugin that makes it easier to manage your gamestream sessions from the Steam Deck and integrates with Sunshine. If you are wanting to stream games to your Steam Deck I highly recommend using this plugin.

There are two components:

xone

xone is a Linux kernel driver for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S accessories. Useful if you have an Xbox controller you want to hook up locally to your streaming server.

mkdir ~/git
cd git
git clone https://github.com/medusalix/xone
sudo ./install.sh
sudo xone-get-firmware.sh --skip-disclaimer

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Additional Resources

Awesome Sunshine

A collection of awesome Sunshine scripts, tools, guides and companion software.

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Other Considerations

Steam Remote Play

My experience with Steam Remote Play is it has lower quality with lag issues, assuming you can launch the game.

Parsec

More of a commercial application that has a free and paid tier, in my limited testing it works connecting from a Linux client to a Windows PC with good performance.

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Roadmap

  • Ansible Script
  • Salt State

See the open issues for a full list of proposed features (and known issues).

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Contributing

Contributions are what make the open source community such an amazing place to learn, inspire, and create. Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

If you have a suggestion that would make this better, please fork the repo and create a pull request. You can also simply open an issue with the tag "enhancement". Don't forget to give the project a star! Thanks again!

  1. Fork the Project
  2. Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
  3. Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
  4. Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
  5. Open a Pull Request

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License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.txt for more information.

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Contact

Project Link: https://github.com/tuxthepenguin84/ugss

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Acknowledgments

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Build the Ultimate Game Streaming Server

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