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Steam Brick: No screen, no controller, just a power button and a USB port

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191–200 of 270 posts

Re: Steam Brick: No screen, no controller, just a power button and a USB port

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could get a dummy HDMI plug for $3 on Amazon and free up that monitor if you need it. [1] [1] https://www.amazon.com/BKFK-HDMI-Dummy-Plug-3840x2160/dp/B0C...

I do use it occasionally - mostly when Windows has thrown up some issue stopping Steam from working properly. eg. I need to dismiss a dialog that is invisible over remote play, or it won't finish logging in until I close a "finish setting up your windows install" screen.

Go to the gaming machine and upgrade it to > home or edu version if needed. Enable remote desktop with auth on your network for that machine. As long as Windows is booted and able to be logged in to on the gaming machine you can go on your other machine:

Win+R mstsc.exe and put in the gaming machine's name or IP and follow the instructions, checking all "remember this" boxes (there's 2, three if you count the certificate).

RDP won't let you play games but it is functionally identical to sitting at the machine itself.

Re: Steam Brick: No screen, no controller, just a power button and a USB port

#192
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still don't understand why operating systems can't properly work without a screen. I have a Linux "home server" and I haven't found a way to boot up a graphical session with everything working (there were bugs in some applications, like menus not showing up, you couldn't change resolution, etc.). A dummy HDMI plug fixed it, but still. It's 2025, come on.

Headless X11 machines were a thing then it was all abandoned.

You can run Windows server headless too, and run individual applications over the RDP protocol, exactly like using an X server on a machine with a screen to run Xeyes on a headless machine.

Re: Steam Brick: No screen, no controller, just a power button and a USB port

#194
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried sunshine + moonlight? I've heard it has lower latency and better streaming quality.

A then you can use lossless scaling on moonlight for a real amazing distrubed gaming experience.

Okay this all sounds great, what specs do I need on the machine connected to the TV? Will a Raspberry Pi 3 work? Pine64? Atomic Pi? (That's x86_64, intel Celeron)

Anything more than that and the value proposition goes way down. For every 50 grams lighter I am willing to lose 1fps. For every fan removed I will drop an entire resolution (4k -> 2k -> FHD...) Change "lighter" to heavier if it makes sense. My comfort and aesthetic matters more than competition quality, pixel perfect yadda

I keep starring these remote display projects but none have convinced me to provision a client machine for the purpose yet.

Re: Steam Brick: No screen, no controller, just a power button and a USB port

#195
post #52

This isn't all that different to how I use my gaming PC - it's off in another room, with a monitor that is plugged in but almost always off (I don't think Windows will boot without at least something plugged in?), Steam set to start on boot, and then I entirely use it via Steam Remote Play from my main PC.

This is one of many reasons why I just don't let Windows touch bare metal. My old gaming rig was a Linux machine that would boot a Windows VM with GPU passthrough, and the control I had over the virtual hardware that Windows thought it was attached to was really helpful for working around a lot of Windows bullshit. Won't boot without a screen? Virtually attach a fake one. Recognizes a device and tries to auto-install…

Same. I only stopped because managing storage became a problem - three huge games came out that I wanted to play.

Were I to do this again I wouldn't do ryzen I'd do at minimum a threadripper, so that the guest can get a USB pcie card and a GPU, so literally every device windows sees and talks to is virtualized. Usb keyboard, mouse, soundcard, etc.

I think LTT did an epyc build where 1 epyc ran 3 full "Desktops" with GPUs, nvme, for each virtual machine dedicated. I just need the one!

Re: Steam Brick: No screen, no controller, just a power button and a USB port

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is cool. But now I want a power bank with hot swappable batteries/modules. Or better yet a connector that you can attach multiple power banks to and it gives power if at least one non-empty powerbank is connected.

Can you already do this just by daisy chaining them?

You'd lose a lot in efficiency. A power bank designed for this would have 2 cables and 1 or 2 wires, power transfer cables and sense/control wires. My engineering brain says "don't do this it's stupid and I think OP was making a joke I don't get"

Re: Steam Brick: No screen, no controller, just a power button and a USB port

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could get a dummy HDMI plug for $3 on Amazon and free up that monitor if you need it. [1] [1] https://www.amazon.com/BKFK-HDMI-Dummy-Plug-3840x2160/dp/B0C...

I do use it occasionally - mostly when Windows has thrown up some issue stopping Steam from working properly. eg. I need to dismiss a dialog that is invisible over remote play, or it won't finish logging in until I close a "finish setting up your windows install" screen.

consider a different remote access option i.e. sunshine + moonlight instead of using steam remote play

Re: Steam Brick: No screen, no controller, just a power button and a USB port

#198
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could get a dummy HDMI plug for $3 on Amazon and free up that monitor if you need it. [1] [1] https://www.amazon.com/BKFK-HDMI-Dummy-Plug-3840x2160/dp/B0C...

There is also this: https://github.com/VirtualDisplay/Virtual-Display-Driver Never used it, but I heard great things!

Ran into problems, but that's probably because of the proxmox pcie passthrough nvidia gpu torture chamber I went through, and not the driver.

Re: Steam Brick: No screen, no controller, just a power button and a USB port

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly enough, the French do it the other way around, and start counting from the final year (they also start at 0 so it's offset by one). That's arguably a better system since you can keep adding earlier and earlier years (mandatory school starting age has drifted from 11 to 6 to 3 over the years) while keeping everything consistent. Unfortunately they messed it up in 1959 by renaming 12th to 7th and giving m…

Actually, it's more complex than this in France. There is 5 systems: - depending of the Ministry of Eduction : - for toddlers : maternelle (3-6 yo) - Primary : CP (6 yo, primary), CE1 (elementary 1), CE2, CM1 (middle 1), CM2 - Secondary : - College (not the US one!) : 6th (~11 yo), 5th, 4th, 3th (with exam at the end) - Lycée : 2nd (~15 yo), 1st, Terminal (with 'Baccalauréat' exam at the end) then depending of Minist…

That's for classic education (General, when you want to make longer studies), there are also professional or technical Lycée)

Re: Steam Brick: No screen, no controller, just a power button and a USB port

#200
post #72
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the non-Brits, "sixth-form" means years 12 and 13 of school - equivalent to junior and senior years of high school in the US. The first and second yearsof sixth form are referred to as "lower sixth" and "upper sixth" respectively. It's a hold-over term from when secondary education (ages 11 and up) started in "first form" and worked up.

Thanks for the explanation but it shattered the narrative by mind was building about an alien intelligence that slipped up and posted about its memories of its sixth physical form, the result of its fifth metamorphosis.

Op is a Pak Protector
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