Sanity Check - High Performance Gaming VM

[Franko]

My current gaming machine is getting long in the tooth and I am tempted by the portability of a laptop. However, I know that portability means that I have to compromise on performance.

Thus, I come to you all for your advice:

Is it possible for me to have a server (currently serving NAS and Virtualization duties) equipped with a high performance video card in my garage and remotely log into a gaming VM (while at home as well as on the road) so that I can have my portability cake and eat it too?

Would the performance be sufficient (I usually play MMORPGS but will play first person shooters or MOBAS as well)

Is it affordable (as compared to just buying a gaming workstation and a separate laptop)?

Is it reasonable doable, or is super complicated?

I would like to hear your advice and thoughts

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

[CJRoss]

You could easily do this with Steam In Home Streaming. I use it to play Windows games on my Linux desktop. I have seen some people run a Windows VM on their Linux box to do the same, just passing the video card through.

Have not tested it remotely, though.

 

[Chad_C]

I just recently dipped my toe into in-house game streaming. So far, things have been excellent. I have not been able to test remotely (outside of my house), but I'm using Steam exclusively for Dark Souls, Cities: Skylines, AoE2HD, and Starcraft 2.

My pertinent host config:

• Xeon E3-1230 v3 @3.3Ghz
• Supermicro X10SLL+-F
• EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
  
• Intel 750 400GB NVME PCIe Flash
• ESXi 6
• CompuLab 4K Display Emulator (this is absolutely critical -- the GPU driver must be convinced a monitor is attached in order to configure display settings)
  
• 2xGigE (no LACP or anything fancy) connected to Cisco 3750 switch

My VM config:

• Win 10
• 4x vCPU
• 12GB (I could probably trim this -- I have not observed more than 8GB in use)
• 1x100GB VMDK on Intel 750 (using VMWare paravirtual SCSI driver)
• PCIe passthrough for the 1050 Ti (hypervisor.cpuid.v0 = "FALSE" in the vm config)
• Virtual sound cable (VB-Audio Virtual Apps) for passing audio without a sound card
• Disable the default display attached to the VMWare display adapter (Settings -> Display -> Multiple Displays -> "Show only on"

Costs for gaming-specific purchases total USD $149.99:

• EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti: USD $140.49
  
• CompuLab 4K Display Emulator: USD $9.50

Without any network optimizations or anything, I've had no issues.

 

[Franko]

Thanks to both of you, especially Chad as these are the kinds of gotchas that cost time and money to figure out.

 

[Markus]

I am no expert - just read in another thread that Steam doesn't accept virtual machines and their anti cheat solution also ...

 

[Chad_C]

I will report back if I run into any issues, but so far, none whatsoever regarding Steam on a VM.

 

[Markus]

I think it was this thread: Gaming in vmware Horizon

 

[BobbyB]

How does one handled input (mouse, keyboard) and output (video,audio) when running such server headless?
Steamlink is one option for Steam, certainly, but is there another option that I would be missing? Surelly the video/audio transcoding affects both performance and quality quite substantially - assuming one uses a high resolution monitor and not playing games on a couch. Particularly remotely through internet/vpn the perfomance has be unusable? Enlighten me what I'm missing.
Tried the steam link some time ago, neat but definitelly has input lag and quality drawbacks. That said my test scenario was in-house remote but onto a true 1440p monitor and not distant TV set.

 

[Franko]

Input lag is what has me worries me the most, esp since I like to play WoW and Heroes of the Storm with friends. I am not so much worried by video quality as video cards can be passed through to the VM but latency could make it unplayable fast.

 

[RyC]

If you're passing through a video card and a USB controller for a mouse and keyboard, there is no distinguishable latency added

 

[Franko]

My understanding is that passing through hardware to a VM requires that the hardware be physically present on the VM host. How does one pass though input devices (mouse, kb, etc.) remotely?