# Remote Desktop Gaming



## void

I can't really help (I'm not even sure if it can be done) but I'm interested to see if someone here has a viable solution.


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## flyin15sec

First thing you need to determine is your cpu. It has to have vt-d or amd equivalent. This is essential to all hypervisor software.

If it doesn't have vt-d your better off grabbing a cheap AMD apu build for your slow machine.


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## tycoonbob

Alright, so playing games is possible over a remote connection (whether that be RDP or Citrix HDX -- which would be the two that I would recommend), however I don't think it's going to be possible with your current setup. To play games over a Microsoft native RDP connection, it would require having a server running Hyper-V with a GPU in it (so install Server 2012 on your host PC), and configuring the Remote Desktop Services role to allow for the use of RemoteFX. You could then spin up a Windows 7 VM on Hyper-V and share the GPU with that VM (limited by the allocated GPU RAM) and install whatever games on. The next problem is that a RDP connection from Windows XP will not support RemoteFX, so you would have to install Windows 7 (or 8/8.1) on your CLIENT computer, to support RemoteFX.

While you can technically do this for free (with trial software), actually implementing this would costs a bit of money (Server 2012 license cost, Server 2012 CALs, RD CALs, Windows 7 guest VM license), etc. Your 100Mbit connection would be just fine for this, but like flyin15sec said, the first step would be to make sure your CPU in HOST can support VT-x (VT-d is actually not a requirement for virtualization or RemoteFX, but can be beneficial) and your CPU must support SLAT (Second-Level Address Translation) in order to support RemoteFX. Your GPU would also have to support DirectX 9.0 and 10.0, and supported cards are generally in the nVidia Quadro or AMD FirePro realm (while Radeon and GeForce can work, it may or may not work right and is not supported if it doesn't work).

So long story short, yes it's possible but it's not feasible in consumer-land just yet. In my opinion, RemoteFX is the best option right now, with Citrix HDX in XenDesktop 7 being a close second. The Citrix solution requires multiple servers to be configured along with XenDesktop 7 licensing. Honestly, you would probably need to buy new hardware to set this up, and would likely see an increase in your electricity bill, overall making it cheaper to just upgrade/replace your CLIENT computer with something more modern (come on, Windows XP is EOL/EOS already and EOES in like 6 months).


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## flyin15sec

I believe for RemoteFX you won't need VT-d, but for Xenserver or ESXi you would need Intel VT-d (AMD IOMMU) for video passthrough.

Either way, OP, you're better getting an upgrade for the slow machine.


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## parrot1553

hey guys,I actually made it







Me and my bro play simultaneously on the host pc(he plays from his pc and connects to the VM in the host)
What I did:
1.Created a win7 VM using VMware on the host
2.Installed Splashtop in the VM and my bro's pc
3.Connected from my bro's pc to the VM via splashtop








When he connects to the VM it does not grab the input from the host,so thats awesome.We can both play in the host pc at the same time!
Windows is really smooth,can even watch 1080p videos,but gaming is not really :s maybe around ~20fps so its not really playable.
So my mission now is to improve performance...Any ideas? All this costed me 0$









yes my host supports all this stuff I have checked,and i have enabled it in bios aswell,Will Hyper-V with remoteFX be much faster than VMware player or how does it stack up against XenDesktop or Parallels?
As for the remote connection,I think Splashtop is just the best,but i'd like to try others too


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## Thiefofspades

Wouldn't this have lots of lag?


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## tycoonbob

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *parrot1553*
> 
> hey guys,I actually made it
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Me and my bro play simultaneously on the host pc(he plays from his pc and connects to the VM in the host)
> What I did:
> 1.Created a win7 VM using VMware on the host
> 2.Installed Splashtop in the VM and my bro's pc
> 3.Connected from my bro's pc to the VM via splashtop
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> When he connects to the VM it does not grab the input from the host,so thats awesome.We can both play in the host pc at the same time!
> Windows is really smooth,can even watch 1080p videos,but gaming is not really :s maybe around ~20fps so its not really playable.
> So my mission now is to improve performance...Any ideas? All this costed me 0$
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> yes my host supports all this stuff I have checked,and i have enabled it in bios aswell,Will Hyper-V with remoteFX be much faster than VMware player or how does it stack up against XenDesktop or Parallels?
> As for the remote connection,I think Splashtop is just the best,but i'd like to try others too


I forget about Splashtop. I used to use that to RDP from my Nexus 10 to my Win7 PC, and it was pretty decent for the GPU side of things. Didn't realize they had an application for what you wanted, though.

RemoteFX is for GPU related tasks in a virtual environment, and does not compare with VMware Player (which does no GPU acceration). XenDesktop also doesn't natively support this, and requires an additional component. VMware can (and is) picky about hardware, so running anything VMware (other than Workstation or Player) on your host computer will be iffy. XenDesktop will require at least two servers to set up everything needed, plus your virtual desktop(s). XenDesktop with HDX 3D is what you want to look into from a Citrix side, which is the direct competitor of Hyper-V with RemoteFX.


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## parrot1553

well,the Windows Hyper-V server is actually free,but i just don't feel like reinstalling the host OS,wayy too many apps in there..
btw I just found something called VMware Horizon View and its free,but i have no idea how it works,installed it and it says Connection Server: and asks me to enter a hostname and idk what to enter,cant find a step by step guide either -.-


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## tycoonbob

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *parrot1553*
> 
> well,the Windows Hyper-V server is actually free,but i just don't feel like reinstalling the host OS,wayy too many apps in there..
> btw I just found something called VMware Horizon View and its free,but i have no idea how it works,installed it and it says Connection Server: and asks me to enter a hostname and idk what to enter,cant find a step by step guide either -.-


Hyper-V server is free, but does not support RemoteFX. Server 2012 with Hyper-V role installed is what you would need for RemoteFX.


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## parrot1553

hey ppl,I managed to run RemoteFX!! I installed win7 on the client pc and connected it to the VM.
It works!! I guess its not true what you said about only server 2012 being able to run it...
What I did:
Installed Windows 7 SP1 and downloaded RDP 8.0 update on both the VM and the client PC.
Enabled Intel VT-x in VMware on the host
Enabled RemoteFX via group policy settings
and voila! very smooth operation ,even games work fine! BUT i have i very nasty problem...mouse seems super accelerated when i open a game,it works fine in windows,but in the game "Aion" its super sensitive,i read online about other ppl having same problem,but found no solution,any ideas? :/


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## flyin15sec

I'm a little lost here.

If you are using RemoteFX, the host Windows OS will only allow you to pass the video card to the guest OS if it's Windows 2008R2 or Server 2012 , 2012 (R2). As a matter of fact, I believe the the GPU passthrough option isn't even available if it's any other Windows OS.

Sounds like you are not using Hyper-V but some version of VMWare to create a virtual machine and then RDP to it.

It's great that you got a working solution, but if you can elaborate with a bit more details. I'm certainly interested.


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## Calibos

I'm really interested in this too. I've also got a recent thread on the subject.

My dream scenario is ultimately to run an 8 core Haswell-E i7 5930k overclocked with multiple GPU's.

Have 2 cores, some ram and my drive pool permanently allocated to a VM with WHS2011 ,Flexraid and CCTV NVR.

Have a another VM that utilises remaining 6 cores, ram and all GPUs in SLI that is used locally on the machine to play games on the projector in that room or oculus rift. Also be able to use this VM as a rendering machine as I want to get into 3D visualisation/modelling in my spare time.

Then 2 more Win7 VMs that could use 3 cores each, ram and a GPU each and be accessed from lower powered client pc's around the house. (Atom D525/AMD 5340M XBMC clients)

Obviously not all concurrently.

I wonder will the SteamOS game streaming functionality bring anything to the table. Does it replace the need for RemoteFX or its equivalents, require them or even be prevented from working by them.

Exciting times!

That said, I do have a backup plan if all this isn't possible yet. Should cost around the same. ie. co-locate a second mobo and CPU in the case. With an i5 Low TDP CPU, 8gigs ram for the Server part of the plan. And i7 Haswell k series CPU and z87 mobo , 16 gigs ram and the GPUs. RDP in for the rendering, game locally and game stream to 1 client elsewhere in the house at a time with SteamOS. That. At least is definitely possible as it's an official part of the SteamOS feature set.


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## parrot1553

Sure,what motivated me is this http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2012/11/26/remotefx-features-for-windows-8-and-windows-server-2012.aspx
then I found this http://blog.tedd.no/2011/04/28/optimizing-rdp-for-casual-use-windows-7-sp1-remotefx/
and when I got my hands on VMware Workstation 10,did everything in an hour or two,its easy

btw,Windows editions ultimate and enterprise are identical so I used Windows 7SP1 Ultimate in both my host and client and it worked









I hope this info helps you guys to do it! I will keep this updated,as im testing some tweaks now


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## tycoonbob

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *parrot1553*
> 
> hey ppl,I managed to run RemoteFX!! I installed win7 on the client pc and connected it to the VM.
> It works!! I guess its not true what you said about only server 2012 being able to run it...
> What I did:
> Installed Windows 7 SP1 and downloaded RDP 8.0 update on both the VM and the client PC.
> Enabled Intel VT-x in VMware on the host
> Enabled RemoteFX via group policy settings
> and voila! very smooth operation ,even games work fine! BUT i have i very nasty problem...mouse seems super accelerated when i open a game,it works fine in windows,but in the game "Aion" its super sensitive,i read online about other ppl having same problem,but found no solution,any ideas? :/


Umm, sorry but you are not using RemoteFX. If the Client PC is running Windows 7 and it's connecting to a VM running under VMware, there is no way you are running RemoteFX. The remove VM would have to be running under Hyper-V on server 2008R2/2012/2012R2.

You said you enabled VT-x in VMware, which VT-x is allowing a hypervisor to use the underlying hardware, so you must have set it to passthrough your GPU to vmware or something. I don't work that deeply with VMware, so I don't know the specifics, but I do know that if your VM is running on VMware, there is no possible way you are running RemoteFX.


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## Calibos

Just discovered something called multi-seat.

Have a read of this: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/faq/id-1672694/multi-seat-gaming-howto.html

This gentlemen, is I think what I have been looking for in hindsight.

TBH it was probably never a good idea to try to run a Media server, IP CCTV NVR, Win7 Browsing/YT and multiple gaming VMs all on the one PC. Putting aside GPU passthrough issues. Its a lot for even a future Haswell-E 8 Core system and there are security issues and config and maintenence issues.

I think this multi-seat thing combined with the backup plan from my last post in this thread might be the holy grail for me.

ie. I want to co-locate 2 mobo/CPU combos in the same case. Both watercooled. One quad-core Haswell i5 with 8gigs of Ram and the 2 LSI 8x Sata controllers and the 24 HDD's running WHS2011/Flexraid/NVR Software/Future XBMC Server Edition.

Then next year add an 8 Core Haswell-E and X99 board and GPU's. This machine can be the browsing/YT machine with cheap GPU feeding the local monitor and the 2 other GPU's assigned to 2 Sandboxied Steam accounts allowing 2 people to play on SteamOS client PC's. (Not same game but a game.)

The chances of all three functions occuring at the same time is slim (People working different shifts etc). So a Browsing/YT session at the same time as a gaming session is no problem. 2 gaming sessions at the same time is no problem with 8 cores to play with etc.

Its too late to do much research on it tonight but I'll get stuck in tomorrow. Hopefully my assumptions about it are correct and there isn't a 'Gotcha' waiting for me


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## Themisseble

Hey
which is better CPU for remote desktop gaming (i will OC CPU 4.4Ghz+)
FX 8320 or i5 4670K


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## cslayer211

Will RemoteFX be antiquated by Steam In-Home Streaming?


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## tycoonbob

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *cslayer211*
> 
> Will RemoteFX be antiquated by Steam In-Home Streaming?


Antiquated? Hell no.

You got to realize that RemoteFX is NOT designed for gaming, but for business uses that are GPU intensive, such as CADD. Will Steam's In-Home Streaming perform better than RemoteFX for games? Likely, yes only because it is DESIGNED for games.


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## Nicat93

Hello parrot, could you please write your pc hardware and the game you was able to play smooth? Thanks. I am trying to do something similar without any success. My hardware specs are: intel i7-2600k, nvidia gtx580, 8gb ram and windows 8.1 enterprice installed.What I am doing is this way:

With a little hack i was able to login with two users at the same time. And created a VM windows 8.1 enterprice. Using VM I connect to the second user on pc through rdp. Everything works fine unless I try to play Arma 3







coop. Game starts but mouse gets stuck at the down position. I mean i always look down, even if I try to look up player just turns around looking down. And game is running at 30 fps. But because of rdp lag(I think) it looks like running at 15 fps.


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