In this monthly tech blog post I am going to be telling you about an excellent open source suite that allows you to create your very own GeForce Now service in your home.
The Problem
Although I use Mac’s or iPad’s for almost all my computing tasks, there’s one thing they’re useless at: gaming.
The hardware can handle gaming; you can easily get 30fps in Cyberpunk 2077 on a base model M4 Mac mini (mine does that easily with decent settings). However, unfortunately, many games aren’t available for the Mac. Additionally, storage is very expensive for Mac’s, and games aren’t getting smaller, in fact they seem to be getting bigger.
However, that doesn’t mean you can’t game on a Mac. There are services like GeForce Now that can run on a Mac for a subscription fee, or remote play on Steam, which will obviously only work with games you have on Steam and you have a separate gaming computer.
There is a solution, though. It’s called Sunrise and its partner app, Moonlight. Imagine GeForce Now, but with your own gaming computer and no subscription.
In this post, I’ll break down the duo that is Sunrise and Moonlight, one at a time.
Sunrise
Sunrise is the server component of the duo. You install this open-source software on your gaming PC. It runs as a service, so you don’t need to log into the machine to start the server. However, you do need a monitor connected for it to work, although it doesn’t need to be turned on. The server is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Sunrise uses your GPU, whether it’s Intel, AMD, or Nvidia, to transcode the content on your screen to your remote device. This is achieved through the hardware encoders built into all modern graphics cards. This process has very little overhead, similar to streaming to Twitch without any of the Twitch overhead running in the background.
Moonlight
Moonlight is the client part of the duo. You install it on the machine you want to play the games on. This client is available for Mac, Windows, iOS/iPadOS, Android, and Linux.
To set it up with Sunrise, it generates a PIN number that you input into the Sunrise Web Interface. Then, it’s ready to use. You may also need to enter the IP address of the server machine, depending on your network configuration.
Once connected, you have two options: Connect to Steam so it starts and interface similar to the Steam Deck, or desktop. With desktop mode, you can run any game as if it were an RDP session.
Why run this instead of RDP or some other remote desktop software?
There are four reasons why I think this is a good idea:
- It works on any version of Windows and a lot of other operating systems, not just Windows Professional.
- It’s designed to play games over the network, which means it has low latency compared to other solutions like RDP, VNC, or Rust-Desk.
- You can play any game from any service, not just Steam games.
- It’s free.
I can’t think of any disadvantages to running this if you want remote access to all your games. It’s possible to run it over a VPN, but this will obviously mean more latency and, depending on your internet connection, a lower quality of stream.
An excellent option for streaming games you own to your Mac
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