AMD Releases Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition: Streaming for Videos, Games, & VR

Playing on Streams: Streaming PC Games to Mobile and VR

For all the emphasis on streaming, the marquee feature of Adrenalin 2019 is not about streaming gameplay for an audience but streaming games rendered on the PC to play remotely on another device. The GCN-accelerated ReLive technology underpins this, but by-and-large this is really a different use case from streamers.

The ReLive-powered wireless game streaming service comes in two flavors, one for streaming games/desktop to a mobile device, and another for streaming SteamVR titles to standalone VR headsets. The former is integrated into AMD Link, while the latter is part of a separate Radeon ReLive for VR app.

Being part of AMD Link, then, makes streaming games or desktop straightforward to access. Navigating to AMD Link’s new Game Explorer menu displays the game list of the connected Radeon Settings. Accessing the triple-dot settings brings up performance/quality options and stream-testing, as well as configuring options to turn off PC sound and display when streaming to the mobile device. Pressing the play button in the top right corner immediately starts to stream the desktop, where any video playback receives AMD Perfect Picture enhancements. If a game is currently running and active, then the mobile device will continue that game.

For launching games from AMD Link, simply tapping the icon will launch the game, utilizing any Bluetooth controller connected to the mobile device. Otherwise, it will start in a trackpad mode, and selecting the appropriate in-game menu icon is needed to toggle on-screen controls. Both on-screen controllers and Bluetooth controller bindings may be customized in the separate Controllers tab. The in-game menu also permits keyboard input as well as streaming secondary monitors or only the contents of the active window.

As for wirelessly streaming VR titles to headsets, the picture becomes a little more complicated. AMD utilizes SteamVR, AMD ReLive, and a ReLive for VR app on the VR device. At launch, the ReLive for VR app is available on HTC VivePort and Google Play Store, with Oculus Store availability expected shortly.

Similarly, Radeon VR streaming is only currently supported on the HTC Vive Focus, or any Google Daydream compatible phone/headset. The wireless VR streaming feature is only supported on the RX 470/480, RX 570/580/590, and RX Vega cards, as it is enabled by unspecified low-level hardware acceleration to record and stream the game, supporting up to 1440x1440p per eye.

Both PC and headset/phone connected to the same router/AP, but any wired HMD needs to be disconnected from the host PC.

Both PC and headset/phone need to be connected to the same router/AP running on an 801.11ac network. Within the Radeon ReLive ‘Game & VR Streaming’ tab, Remote Play and SteamVR Integration toggles need to be enabled. Then, after running SteamVR on the PC, running the ReLive VR app on the VR device will detect and automatically connect to the PC running SteamVR.