I got mine last Thursday, and had a bit of trouble setting it up (it wasn’t connecting to the network over the Ethernet over powerline adapter even enough to update itself–only connecting it to wifi fixed that, after which it did connect to my PC running Steam over the wired connection). Played some Borderlands 2 on it this weekend, great at 1080p with a 30 fps cap, an unplayable slideshow trying to do 60 fps. FYI, the computer is an i5 2500k paired with a GTX 970.
Now I’m wondering whether to go for the Steam Controller (for now I’m using a wired 360 controller) or stick with the 360 controller and just have a Bluetooth keyboard with trackpad like the Logitech K400 (mostly for getting past keyboard/mouse-only launchers). Anyone got impressions of the Controller or the use of such a Bluetooth keyboard?
I’ve played 40+ hours of Fallout 4 using the Steam Link and a 360 wireless controller. What a great way to game. It’s like console gaming only you get all the PC mods, cheaper games, better graphics, shorter load times (SSD vs console laptop drive), 60fps (if your PC/network can handle it), not having to pay for multiplayer access… so many benefits.
Only thing missing for me is true 5.1 surround, which Valve says they are working on.
I’m using powerline Ethernet, which works fine for me, but I’ve noticed bandwidth can vary greatly between outlets. So if you’re not getting great speeds, try another outlet.
I ordered the Steam Controller off Amazon and will have it Saturday, can’t wait to try it out!
Father rei, I have sinned today. I shamefully bought a Steam controller in ebgames. They have them physically in stock, and I am able to return it for a full refund within 7 days even when opened…even at a different ebgames store in another city! (I’m currently in Toronto, but will be driving home this afternoon.)
I can’t wait to try some mouse-keyboard-y game tonight. I wonder if Kodi support exists?
Some weirdness last night: trying to use the Ethernet over power line wired connection that worked fine less than a week ago was just not working last night at all even with the same game. “Slow Network” reported on the overlay, CRAZY high ping, input lag, extra high display lag, all just inexplicable, especially since the network hadn’t changed in the least, and the connection speed in the overlay is reported at 100 Mbps. Had to switch to a 5 GHz wireless N connection which did work OK.
My gaming computer has two monitors and the main monitor is 1440p, which is probably complicating things, because so far the the Steam Link almost useless. Almost everything I tried required me walking to my desktop to task-manager kill something, switch windows, etc.
Trying to change the resolution of a game from the options menu almost never worked. It’s constantly starting things ‘windowed’ on screen requiring me to use a real mouse and keyboard to like select the right window. I can’t figure out how to like, hit the F4 key using the virtual keyboard to fullscreen Undertale, without the Link forgetting which window it was capturing or something. Not that it matters because Undertale doesn’t receive any joystick inputs, so whatever Valve is doing to pass along the USB input it’s not seamless.
The only game that actually worked was Rocket League.
Interesting, I also run a 1440p monitor but I’m not having those issues. I do set the resolution of the SteamLink to 1080p (which matches my TV), did you try that?
I s-tarted having a problem where my steam link seems to lose connection with my PC. If i restart the link it still will not connect even though the computer is still on.
If I restart Steam on put it on Big Picture mode than the link will once again show my PC.
I went in and set my Steam settings to only perform updates in the middle of the night (thinking that maybe an update was causing steam to lose the connection or crashing or restarting. I also made certain that my PC power settings are off so no sleeping etc.
The update and PC power issues wouldn’t affect it, otherwise I’d have bad problems too as I’m using aggressive power reduction/sleep timers. Is the run short enough you can run an ethernet cable to test? That could rule out a physical problem with your PC or the Steamlink. My only suggestions outside of that would be to reinstall Steam with defaults on PC, and/or if there’s a way to do a fresh install on the Steamlink (or revert to a previous Steamlink version). You could have had something happen to one of the recent updates to Steamlink. Something in Windows 10 is always a potential culprit as well.
I bought a Steam Link a few weeks back and just could not figure out how to get it to connect to my desktop so I could, you know, actually play games. Did all kinds of checking and configuring on my router and my pc and tinkering with settings in the link itself, logged a ticket to Steam to figure out what was happening. Finally found that my registry key for the network profile has a Wi-Fi connection name that is not current, and not used by the connection to the Steam Link - I manually changed that with my fingers crossed and that did it, connection established. Just posting because I am so freaking relieved to have that figured out. As a bonus, it also resolved my problems with being able to stream the Xbox One to my PC, though I haven’t really felt a strong need to do that. Options are always good though!
