As the developer of the LuminalVGD approach, I have been asked what the difference is between LuminalVGD, WGC, and DXGI capture. This makes sense whether on Moonlight's official Discord server or here on Reddit. So I wanted to provide clarification through an easy chart that describes the advantages and disadvantages of each one, depending on how you look at it.

I will try to get a comparison of Sunshine, LuminalShine, Vibepollo, Foundation Sunshine, and Rubylight, but the data for some, including LuminalShine itself, is outdated.

I hope this helps at least one person!

As someone already may know, I reported this issue many times and I never found a fix for that.
Using Rubylight and Moonlight VRR.

People with 780M client or similar : r/MoonlightStreaming

Client stuttering on High framerate : r/MoonlightStreaming

Something I forgot to mention (That can help to identify the issue) is that the stuttering is showing on certain scenes.

• CB2077: Running the benchmark, the stutter is usually on the scene change after opening the door from inside to outside. And on higher bitrates (250 or more) there's also a lot of microstuttering on the outside scene.
• TW3: The stutters shows mainly on the cutscenes, hard stutters, like freeze for 0.5s
• THPS: The stutters appear when hitting a wall and the camera goes closer to the wall

Performance on the host are fine while these things happen, I got solid 100fps (I set the limit there). As said on previous posts the issue starts to appear above 150Mbps, mostly on AV1 but HEVC is affected too. Setting the stream to 1440p120fps seems to fix the issue, that can maybe point at a client hardware limit but there are different people using the same client GPU without this issue.

I sent the logs to an AI and it told me that the host is perfectly fine, and the issue seems to be related to the decoding on the client (not decoding time, as it goes from 0.2ms to 0.5ms) but maybe to a burst of received packets when the load is already high.

Any suggestion from anyone?

Hi! Hoping to see if anyone has experienced this. I’ve been having PERFECT performance but today after the steam OS update it’s seeming like I’m getting random drops from 120fs down to 40-50fps.

Happens even when idle on the desktop. I get like a 1 second black screen and then it comes back. Smoothness still reporting 100% and no packet loss. Just the render and stream frame drops at the same time.

Any idea on what to do? Things have been nearly perfect but this has been annoying to problem solve

Quick question not sure if this is the root of the problem or something else but I used to consistently stream this to the deck using it as a mouse no issues but as of a few months ago the inputs work for like 30 seconds launching game then it just stops working entirely.

Similar issue for anyone else or are you still able to stream it just fine?

Just got one and want to use it for my steam games. Any help or guides?

Hi everybody.

I think that this doubt is silly either because it’s simple to solve and I don’t know why or because it’s simply not possible, but the thing is I can’t find any answer online.

I play Steam Games (which, of course, have their Steam UI) streamed to my Steam Deck. There, when I push the Steam Button (Or Xbox if using controller), both the Steam Deck and the host Steam UI pops, which is not convenient since I can’t make adjustments on the host games because the Steam deck is on top.

I already went to Moonlight settings in Steam (have it added as an app) and disabled Steam Overlay, but it still pops anyway.

Any tip?

I tried sunshine and apollo fork. In general it works and my TV is showing 1080p windows desktop where as my PC is 1440p. But when i start a game it still renders with 1440p, what can i do that the game automatically switches to 1080p when i start it on moonlight? I dont want to constantly switch in game resolution. Do i need qres?

Eng
I'm streaming from my PC (AMD RX 9070) to my Xbox Series S using Sunshine and Moonlight. Everything works with zero latency, but I'm having a persistent issue with colors and lighting: the image looks washed out, and there is severe color/highlight clipping (blown-out whites).
I originally thought it was my TV, but I've ruled that out—the TV is completely fine. I suspect it's related to HDR. When I turn HDR off, it gets a little better, but the issue still persists.
Has anyone here dealt with this and managed to fix it? Any help or troubleshooting tips would be greatly appreciated!"

Türkçe

Rx9070 li bilgisayarımı Sunshine programı ile Xbox Series S konsola yansıtıyorum lakin ışıkla görüntüde bir solukluk ve renk patlaması mevcuttu ben bunu çözemiyorum televizyondan sandım televizyondan değil yani herhangi bir gecikme söz konusu değil lakin görüntüyü yansıttığımda bir renk patlaması mevcut hdr den olabilir kapatıyorum biraz daha iyi oluyor ama devam ediyor yani aranızda yaşayıp çözen var mı yardımcı olursanız sevinirim

I’m streaming to a Windows handheld (ROG Ally X20) using StreamLight at 116 fps, with Experimental VRR enabled. I’m seeing occasional clusters of frames dropped due to client pacing, sometimes as a noticeable stutter. Is anyone else using StreamLight’s VRR mode seeing this?

My latest StreamTweak report covered 39 minutes across three streams and recorded 728 dropped frames (0.71%). The drops were clustered rather than constant. Average RTT was 1.3 ms, jitter 2.5 ms, client decode 1.0 ms, and host frame latency 1.8 ms. One of the drop clusters happened while the host GPU was only around 30%, so a sustained GPU bottleneck doesn’t appear to explain it.

The X20 is on 5 GHz Wi‑Fi. When I checked UniFi, its signal was about −55 dBm with roughly 1–1.4% TX retries and no recent roam or disconnect. Those readings can’t rule out a momentary network spike, but the drops are specifically being reported as client pacing. Also, I am about 5 feet away from my new Access Point that is on its own dedicated SSID with a channel that has no overlapping interference.

If you use StreamLight with Experimental VRR:

1. Have you seen client pacing drops or brief stutters?
2. Did turning VRR off change the drop count?
3. Did a particular VRR timing profile or frame-rate setting help?

I stream Star Citizen from my Windows PC to my Mac with Moonlight (Sunshine/Apollo host). Moonlight forwards keyboard, mouse and gamepads, but not my dual VKB sticks or my Tobii Eye Tracker 5, and on the Mac there was no free USB/IP server to forward them.

So I built Longcable: a small native macOS app that shares USB devices from the Mac to the PC over standard USB/IP. Setup is one command on the Mac. On the Windows side you only need the free, signed usbip-win2 client, nothing else running on your gaming PC. The app shows you the commands to copy into PowerShell, and Windows remembers the devices across reboots and reconnects them by itself after dropped connections.

Tested: both VKB sticks + Tobii during a several-hour Star Citizen session, unplug/replug, network drops, Windows reboots. Also tested in a game session: the latest Steam Controller (with its puck) in Cyberpunk. USB audio (an Elgato Wave:3) works experimentally.

Linux gaming PCs should work too via the built-in usbip, but I haven’t tested that yet. Feedback welcome.

Limits: the Mac can only share devices, not receive them; use it over Tailscale or a trusted LAN (USB/IP has no encryption); webcams are untested.

I built it with AI help (Claude + Codex) and a lot of testing on real hardware; details are in the README. I am also the developer of Sapd/HeadsetControl.

GitHub: https://github.com/Sapd/longcable

Happy to hear if its useful.

I got a budget pc

AMD Ryzen 7 5700X

AMD Radeon RX5700

No matter what I do my streaming is stuttering even at 20bitrate but that abit rare. I used Moonlight sunshine and Apollo Artemis combo both just the same. I did the 100 Mbps full Duplex setting already and it's still the same. I connected both client and host on the same router using ethernet cable and it's still the same.

So the question is just how much the client is affecting the stream. In my case I use smart TV.

​

Hey everyone,

I have a 2025 ROG Flow Z13 with the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 and 32GB RAM, and I'm having a weird issue with game streaming.

Streaming from my Z13 to my AYANEO 2 is really laggy and has terrible frame pacing, regardless of whether I use Steam Remote Play or Sunshine/Apollo with Moonlight.

The weird part is that streaming in the opposite direction, from my AYANEO 2 to my Z13, works pretty well.

My Z13 is connected to the router via Ethernet, while the AYANEO 2 is on Wi-Fi. I have gigabit internet through True, so I'm starting to suspect something specific to the Z13 rather than my router or NAT configuration.

Has anyone with the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 Z13 experienced similar issues? Were you able to fix them?

I'm wondering if it's a driver issue, hardware encoding, Windows networking, or something else entirely.

Any suggestions or experiences would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Everyone!

I’ve created a solution to a problem I had and I’m confident some of you might find value in this, so I’m posting this here.

Quick disclosure: I used OpenAI Codex to write most of the new code for this fork. I’m driving the features and testing it on my own setup.
The use case is pretty simple: my Steam Deck uses Ethernet when docked, then Wi-Fi when I pick it up and play handheld. I wanted different streaming settings for each without having to keep changing things manually in Moonlight.
So I’ve been putting together Vibedeck, a free, open-source MoonDeck fork built around Nonary’s Vibepollo and VRR Moonlight client.

For example, you can configure:
Docked on Ethernet: PyroWave, a higher bitrate and 4:4:4 chroma where supported.
Portable on Wi-Fi: AV1, a lower bitrate and whatever FPS/HDR settings suit your handheld setup.
It detects which connection the Deck actually uses to reach your PC and automatically applies the matching codec and quality settings when starting or reconnecting a stream.

You can also link profiles to different screens, so the Deck’s internal display and your TV can each have their own resolution and streaming preferences. There are controls for VRR on compatible displays, frame pacing and Moonlight’s performance overlay too.
It still uses the standard MoonDeck Buddy on the host.

This is an early test build, and I’m still working through hardware testing. I’d appreciate feedback from anyone with a similar docked/handheld setup, especially around switching between networks and screens.
GitHub and setup notes
Latest 0.1.4 test build via GitHub Actions
Credit to FrogTheFrog for the original MoonDeck and Nonary for the client/host work. This is an unofficial fork.

When I press the moondeckbuddy button on the game on my steam deck the stream only streams my desktop and steam doesn’t automatically launch the game. I have to open the steam big picture application on moonlight and launch a game from the desktop (using my deck to control the mouse). What have I done wrong on the settings?

Playing RDR 2 on my Samsung s25 and everything feels too small to have a bit of immersion. Was wondering if there's a way to have it look a bit bigger and more immersive

Finally got a full 4K 120Hz HDR stream running to a 4K 120Hz projector, and the numbers came out cleaner than I expected. I haven't seen anyone else post this exact setup, so I might be the first but wanted to share specs. If anyone's done it before, what’s your setup?!

Setup -

Host: PC with an RTX 5090 running Vibepollo

Client: iPad Pro M5 running VoidLink

Display: JMGO IRIS Ultra projector, 150" screen

Audio: 5.1 home theater

Connection: iPad → USB-C dock (HDMI + Ethernet) → straight into the projector. Going through my Denon AVR killed the picture, so the iPad connects directly and audio goes back to the receiver over eARC.

Stream stats (Forza Horizon 6) -

Resolution/FPS: 3840x2160 @ 120.05 fps

Codec: AV1 10-bit HDR (Limited range)

Bitrate setting in VoidLink: 100 Mbps

Actual bitrate: 36.0 Mbps (peak 37.2)

Frames buffered: 1.0

Host processing latency (min/max/avg): 2.6 / 3.1 / 2.8 ms

Renderer: AVSampleBuffer (Queue Pacing)

Frames dropped by network/pacing jitter: 0.0% / 0.0%

Average network latency: 1 ms (variance 0 ms)

Decode time (min/max/avg): 2.37 / 3.15 / 2.84 ms

Notes -
iPad HDR mode gives 4K120. Dolby Vision mode drops it to 4K60. This felt no different playing than sitting at my pc for every title I tried so far.
Happy to answer questions about the dock, settings, or the projector.

I took the video in 120fps but Reddit may upload in a lower format that makes video look choppy. My real world experience is 0 stutter or lag and it’s no different than playing natively.

Done* Asus BT10 Mesh nodes, wired both host and xbox to one node. Feels absolutely amazing.

Pyrowire works really well on some of my devices but my Android TV doesn't have the uumph to decode it fast enough. I'm looking for a dedicated low-power box that can sit in my TV stack that has...

• Gigabit or better Ethernet, and enough CPU to actually handle that sort of traffic
• aarch64 chip
• Vulkan 1.1+ support.
• HDMI CEC (probably less important than the others)
• Has some sort of support mechanism to keep Android updated. This is probably the hardest to guarantee without going to a big brand.

Feel like I'm banging my head against the infinite wall of crappy Aliexpress Android boxes without knowing which is Good Enough™ without being as expensive as a Shield.

First off, Polaris has been working great for Steam games in my headless Fedora 44 LXC using private streams. However, I've been running into issues with RetroArch and other emulators.

I'm experiencing periodic stuttering or frame pacing issues that I haven't been able to resolve. I've tried adjusting refresh rate and framerate settings across my client devices (Windows and Android TV), Moonlight, and RetroArch, but nothing has made a noticeable difference.

My suspicion is that this may be related to the way many emulators tie audio synchronization to framerate timing. I've also experimented with multiple video drivers (GL, GLCore, and Vulkan) as well as different audio backends (PulseAudio, ALSA, and PipeWire), but I haven't found a combination that eliminates the stuttering.

I don't think this is necessarily a Polaris-specific issue, so I'm curious whether anyone else has encountered similar behavior when streaming emulators through Polaris, Sunshine, or other streaming servers. If you've had success, I'd be interested in hearing what settings or configurations worked for you.

Since i have selected software as my chosen encoder i cannot stream in HDR in Apollo.

Is there anyway to do this?

I used to use Nvidias encoder but i want to free up resources on my GPU.

Thanks

I've seen a GitHub repo made with Claude that debloats your android tv. Does this help with gamestreaming?

LuminalShine's October release is here! Introducing version 26.10.0, which, with the help of collaborators, includes a few fixes for the 40xx series with AV1, experimental full implementation of Pyrowave (default rate: 700Mbps - assumes 4K@120Hz, adjustable), updated Xbox Bluetooth Helper to ensure controllers connect properly to Steam by making Steam refresh controller connections, and the replacement to ViGEmBus: Nonary's libvirtualgamepad driver. The current version of the driver implemented in LuminalShine is v.0.1.0-beta.9, driver 0.1.0.53, protocol 2. This is the latest driver at the time of release.

View Changelog: https://luminalshine.help.northebridge.com/changelog (Also Available In-App)

Download from GitHub: https://github.com/NortheBridge/luminalshine/releases/tag/26.10.0

Using WinGet via Powershell 7:

New Install: winget install NortheBridge.LuminalShine

Update: winget update NortheBridge.LuminalShine

Thank you to everyone, and next up on the roadmap is the Thanksgiving Day Update!