Can You Play Pc Game On Mac Through Steam

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Steam is the place for the best PC games, but some publishers don’t quite understand that.Between the Epic Games Store, DRM-free games, Uplay, Origin, and countless others, you need at least.

After a few months of closed testing, Valve has released a public beta version of Steam with In-Home Streaming enabled. In-Home Streaming allows you to stream any game from a host PC to a client (a Mac laptop or wimpy Windows netbook, for example). This will eventually be a key feature that allows for cheap, low-power Steam Machines that can stream games from a more powerful gaming PC. We’ve been playing around with In-Home Streaming for the last few days, and for a beta it’s surprisingly stable and easy to use. Read on for our hands-on impressions, and a video demo of me streaming Dark Souls 2 to my laptop while sitting on the toilet.

Setting up In-Home Streaming

Thankfully, setting up Steam’s In-Home Streaming is easy. Just install Steam on the host and client computers, log into the same Steam account… and that’s it. As long as your two computers are on the same network (the same subnet, off the same router) they will automatically detect each other. A pop-up will appear to say that your devices are connected. (If you have a more complex network setup it won’t work, and Steam doesn’t currently reveal any network config options to make it work.)

[NB: At the time of publishing, In-Home Streaming requires you to opt into the Steam Beta Update, which can be found in the Account tab, under “Beta participation.”]

Steam In-Home Streaming, server/host setup (Windows)

I had no problem at all with the default settings, but the client does have the option of limiting the stream’s resolution or bandwidth if you run into problems. Presumably if you’re using a wimpy netbook as the client, you won’t be able to enjoy full 1080p streaming. Obviously my setup — a Core i7-4770K host, streaming to a new MacBook Pro with Retina display — is going to be absolutely fine with the highest settings.

Playing games with In-Home Streaming

To play a game over Steam’s In-Home Streaming, just load up the game library on the client, click the game you want to stream, and then select “Stream” from the little drop down menu (see right). If your client is a Mac, you may have to select “All Games” to see the game you want to stream rather than the default selector of “Mac” (which hides all the Windows games, of course, even if you can stream them — probably a bug that will be fixed).

Can You Play Pc Games On Mac Through Steam

Once you click Stream, it’s basically like you’re playing the actual game. The host computer will display the game, and the mouse and keyboard will remain active, but sound will be disabled.

I had absolutely no issues streaming a range of games to my MacBook Pro. Valve recommends a wired network, for latency and bandwidth reasons, but my 802.11ac network was more than up to the task. I had no problems moving around the house — playing games from bed, the bathroom, or even outside. Out of curiosity, I did try out a slower 802.11g network, and it wasn’t really workable at all.

Other bits and bobs

Steam In-Home Streaming, ultimately, just streams whatever is currently on your primary display. This is usually whatever game you load up from Steam — but then, if you alt-tab on the host PC, it continues to stream whatever’s on your display. I used this “feature” to stream a non-Steam game and to use Photoshop. Being able to play non-Mac games on my Mac is pretty cool.

While Valve is only targeting in-home streaming, it should also be theoretically possible to stream over the internet to a remote device, like PS4’s Remote Play feature. I haven’t tried it yet, but it should be fairly simple to trick Steam into thinking that the remote device is on the local network (using something like Hamachi). Latency would be too high over 3G, but LTE and coffee shop WiFi should be fine for non-twitch games.

Ultimately, the main use for In-Home Streaming is if you have a low-power laptop or netbook with integrated graphics and want to play games from the couch/bathroom/bedroom. I can’t imagine there are a lot of people out there who are looking for such functionality, but once Valve’s Steam Machines hit the market later in the year, that could change.

Xbox One is one of the most sold consoles from Microsoft and it being a next gen controller allows the gamers to have much better experience while playing games on it. Microsoft also launched the updated version of Xbox One i.e. Xbox One S with better specifications and also support for 4K and HDR.

The best part about these consoles are the controllers and how they easily allow you to play video games. Did you know that you can actually use a Xbox One controller to play games on your Windows PC?

The whole process of Xbox One setup and to sync Xbox one controller on PC to play games on Steam is very easy. In fact, you can use it for any game that supports a gamepad. Recently, Steam updated the client to officially support controllers. You can now officially use Xbox One or even a Sony PlayStation controller on Steam games. Of course, the support was available already but it wasn’t supported by Steam on the core. These controllers interacted directly with the game and it totally depended on the game whether they support a controller or not. This means, syncing Xbox one controller is now very easy. With this new update, the controller has now become compatible with all games you have on Steam.

Play Windows Steam Games On Mac

Things You Need

  • Xbox One controller
  • USB cable for wired controller gaming
  • Xbox One Controller Wireless Adapter for wireless gaming
  • The latest version of Steam
  • Xbox One Driver – 32-bit
  • Xbox One Driver – 64-bit

How to Setup Xbox One Controller on PC (Windows)

Play
  • Make sure you have the latest version of Steam installed on your PC. Keep the Steam client updated and move on to the next steps.
  • Connect your Xbox One controller to your PC and you will notice that the PC will start looking for drivers.
  • If you have problems with installing the drivers automatically or if the Xbox controller won’t connect to PC, then just use the download links provided above and you will be able to install them manually.
  • Install the 32-bit drivers if you have a 32-bit system and 64-bit if you have a 64-bit system.
  • Start up Steam and you will have a proper working controller that will work with all the games now.

Steps to use Xbox One Controller on Steam on Linux

Believe it or not but Linux has been growing up to be a very feasible platform for gaming. Valve, the parent company of Steam has been testing things out with SteamOS which is a Linux based OS specially for Steam games.

Linux also has a native support for Xbox Controller which makes it quite unique because this is something that is only found in Windows OS. Just plug in your Xbox One controller on a Linux system and you’re all set to game.

Steps to use Xbox One Controller on Steam on Mac

Mac is where things get a little bit tricky as there is no plug and play support for the Xbox One controller. You need to download a driver compiled by FranticRain. You can find the latest drivers at this link.

After the install, the Xbox One controller will be detected by Steam inside the games. If you’re facing some sort of issue, just Enjoyable which is a freeware and it lets you map keys of your controller easily.

You can use these gamepads in games that require much better control that a keyboard and a mouse can provide. Racing games are one such genre where you can use a controller to properly control things like acceleration, brakes and more.

Mac

Can You Play Pc Game On Mac Through Steam Windows 10

Xbox One controllers are known for being easy to use and the fact that they’re manufactured by the same company that develops Windows is the reason why the Xbox Controller is readily supported on Windows and hence Steam.