This open-source program saved me from buying an Xbox or PlayStation
Gaming is not a cheap hobby, and it only gets more expensive if you want to branch out and use multiple consoles. A gaming PC and console together can easily cost over $1,200.
But what if you don’t need to buy a console at all to have a console gaming experience? Here’s a free way to turn your gaming PC into a console without moving it to another room.
What do the Xbox and Playstation offer?
Classic PC games are great, but consoles offer a very different experience. Normally you don’t play games with a keyboard and mouse. Usually you’re on a couch or somewhere more comfortable than an office chair. If you work at a computer all day, you can also play anywhere other than parked in front of a computer, which is a welcome change of scenery.
Console games also often emphasize co-op, in which you play with the person sitting next to you.
You may play the same games on your Playstation and PC, but the whole experience is different. So how do you recreate the console experience without shelling out a few hundred dollars?
Use your PC instead of a console
If you already have a gaming PC and a TV, you don’t need to buy a separate console: you already have what you need.
This entire configuration is based on two software: Moonlight and Sunshine. Sunshine is a streaming service that you install on your gaming PC. It sends everything that happens on your PC to a client.
The client, in this case your TV, has the client software, Moonlight. The software pair works almost like a mini GeForce Experience setup, except instead of cloud gaming, you stream games from your own PC to your TV.
Ideally, you should connect your PC and TV to your home network using Ethernet cables. Wi-Fi may be fast, but latency fluctuations when streaming a game wirelessly can be jarring, immersion-breaking, or otherwise unpleasant. Ethernet takes a lot of that stuff out of the equation.
How to Fix Slow Ethernet on Windows PC
Speed up slow connection.
If you need to use Wi-Fi, try to make sure nothing really dense (like a brick fireplace) is between your PC and your router or your TV and your router, you’ll probably get a better connection. Also, if the devices are close enough to all use the 6GHz band, you should try that first: you might get better performance.
Once Sunshine is running on your PC and Moonlight is running on your TV, all you have to do is sit back, fire up Steam (or Galaxy of Gamers, or Epic), choose a game, and start playing.
Moonlight and Sun Configuration
Luckily for everyone, getting Moonlight and Sunshine to work is extremely simple.
First of all, download and install Sunshine on your PC.
Launch the program once, configure your connection and be sure to save your password. You won’t be able to get it back later if you forget it.
Once done, go to your TV and search the App Store Moonlight.
Moonlight is available on most major TV operating systems except for Roku and Samsung TVs. If you have either, you will need an additional component. A popular option is a Fire TV Stick, since Moonlight has an official client for FireOS. In the past I’ve also used a Raspberry Pi 4 connected to my TV with an HDMI cable, which I found also worked great.
- Integrations
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Alexa
- Storage
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16 GB
- Operating system
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Fire OS
The Fire TV Stick 4K Max brings you all the quality improvements of 4K, but with the addition of upgraded hardware and faster, more reliable Wi-Fi 6 connectivity.
Launch the Moonlight app on your TV, then wait for it to detect your PC on the network. Once done, select your desktop.
It will display a four-digit code that you need to enter on your PC. On your PC, right-click the Sunshine icon in your taskbar and press “Open”, then go to the “Pin” tab and enter the code provided on your TV.
It really is that simple. Simply open your game library and select the game you want to play.
My TV allows me to directly pair my controllers with it via Bluetooth and I’ve had no issues with that. However, not all TVs have a great Bluetooth controller, which can aggressively hamper the responsiveness of your game. If you are experiencing latency, I suggest you try a wired connection instead.
Since I set this up a few weeks ago, I’ve played a good chunk of Cyberpunk 2077 and more Baldur’s Gate 3 than I care to admit. During this time I only had one problem which was resolved by restarting Steam. Given the cost savings, I can definitely live with an occasional reboot to debug something.
