Remote controlled gaming

[Sharky]

I know it's a long shot, but is there a way to install a game on my desktop computer and play it remotely on my laptop connected to the home network? Not over the internet as that would be nasty!

I was thinking something along the lines of a VNC set up but I don't think they work with games do they?

The only other way I could think of as an alternative would be 3 really long cables for S-VIDEO, keyboard, and mouse, and run them to a TV set in another room, but this is hardly practical, and might need cables too long for use without some kind of booster.

Any ideas?

 

[tonecas]

With the remote assistence of windows you can control your messenger contacto trough internet.
If you need help just ask

 

[Lancer]

No, there isn't a way to play games like this. Remote desktop is to slow to keep up with games, you would have a visible lag in the time it takes for you to make a command, until it shows up on your screen.

 

[Livewire]

No, there isn't a way to play games like this. Remote desktop is to slow to keep up with games, you would have a visible lag in the time it takes for you to make a command, until it shows up on your screen.

As a minor FYI that wouldn't even matter; DirectX does NOT initialize over a remote desktop connection. Any directx enabled games will crash on loading because it won't find a compatible directx device.

My evidence is me, my copy of Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, and a college pc.



Lag's the big one though. Even if that wasn't an issue (room-to-room doesn't seem to have much lag at all), you'd still have the problem that most games simply won't run because directx can't initialize the screen.


Edit: I should clarify a bit; some games will work obviously, but most of them won't because, even in the olden days of Creatures (mid 1990's, back when DX 3 was what games required, none of this 9.0c crap from today), DX was being used. If it runs like a windows form does, you'd be fine (some stats-war games available for free do this). Most use DX it seems however, and those simply don't work.

 

[Sharky]

Shame really... That'd be a pretty cool set up. I mean, laptops playing games isn't a good idea because of the lack of effective cooling.

Maybe there would be a way using the SVIDEO OUT and a TV tuner card, but then there would be the CPU usage required for encoding, and yet more lag...

 

[warlordste]

the remote desktop could work depends on the game

 

[coolv1994]

if you have windows there is a 'remote desktop connection' whick allows you to connect to other computers on your network

 

[Sharky]

Just tried Remote Desktop with UT2004 and it shows the loading screen then quits without any notice. It wasn't too bad and I can imagine it to be pretty lag-free at 16-bit colour for the windows desktop, but it was even struggling to do the windows media player visualisation smoothly! Then again, it was at 1600x1200, so maybe a game at lower res and lower colour (if it worked at all, that is) wouldn't be too bad.

 

[Livewire]

the remote desktop could work depends on the game

Again, if the game uses DirectX, it won't work. I've had console (yes, console, the whole c:\> prompt style) games working, but those aren't much fun. Games based in .net would work too since they'd use windows forms (same as firefox, avg, etc. all do, and they work just fine).

Trust me though; direct x won't work I've tried it on more than one occasion.

@Sharky: UT2004 starts loading cause it doesn't use DirectX right away; it's crashing presumably because it can't find an appropriate output device

Really wish there was a way to do it. All I can think is somehow having a wireless keyboard/mouse with incredible range, but that won't cover being able to see what's going on...


Suppose a crappy ripoff would be having a webcam record the screen and transfer it over a LAN to your pc, but I'm not even sure where to begin on that.

 

[warlordste]

yer and if you webcam it how is he still going to control the game?

 

[Sharky]

Wireless keyboard and mouse with incredible range

But still, webcam is one of those "No way" solutions... I'm not that desperate!!

 

[warlordste]

lol just keep an eye out there be new technolgy and everything that will soon able to do this lol