Game Pass PC streaming

[the1andonly654]

How does it work in practice? Let's say I have an Xbox account, I buy Game Pass Ultimate or whatever tier I need to stream. I just run their app/launch the website (they supposedly allow for streaming in browser) and poof, I'm playing Halo Infinite? 

How's the latency compared to streaming via Plus Premium? Does Dual Sense work? Or only MS controllers and mouse/keyboard? 

After building kind of a retro PC for retro gaming, Game Pass streaming seems like a good way to scratch that "I want a PC now!" itch without spending tons of money on actual gaming PC parts. 

Edited October 6, 2022 by the1andonly654

[KingGuy420]

I use it on my phone, with a ps4 controller. The latency isn't bad at all and I'm on wifi. I can only imagine a pc with a wired connection would be better.

 

I can't vouch for the ps5 controller, who knows there. Other than that, just launch it and play.

[Sicho]

A lot of it depends on your connection, you should consider a wired connection over a wireless one. If your connection is good, the streaming should be fine as well. IIRC, there is a way to get a GamePass trial month or a month for 1$ or something... you could use that to test how well it works on your machine and connection.

 

About the controller:

 

Since you have a "retro" PC, you probably don't have a USB-C port on it. To use the DualSense wired on the PC, you're going to need a USB Type-C to USB-A cable for your PC.

To use the DualSense via Bluetooth, you'll need a USB Bluetooth adapter (or a motherboard with Bluetooth built-in).

 

You will also need to use a modern OS on your "retro" PC. Don't go older than Win 7.

 

The DualSense will now be accessible in Windows with its DirectInput driver, which some native PC games will recognize and let you rebind controls. But there aren't official PC drivers like with the XBOX controllers. Many PC games today are built around Microsoft's newer XInput driver for the Xbox controllers, so the DualSense will be pretty limited without some help, while the XBOX controller will not only be automatically mapped, but the Input prompts in the games will correspond to the buttons on the controller. So a XBOX controller if preferable. You don't necessarily need to buy one for your PC, if you own a XBOX 360 or XBONE, those controllers will work right away by simply connecting them via USB. (Wireless needs a dongle) Also, if you happen to stream console versions of a game, the game expects a XBOX gamepad. Other controllers will work but the prompts in the game will be XBOX and you cannot rebind anything. I mention this because with GamePass Ultimate tier, you get the PC GamePass and the XBOX console GamePass catalogues together.

 

If you have your DualSense connected, you should then be able to customize your keybinds, change the LED and monitor the controller's battery level with a piece of software called DS4Windows (despite the name, it also supports the DualSense and not only PS4 controllers). Be warned though, I don't know if this works with streaming! But it definitely works with locally installed games. I think the browser should be "seen" as a game by the program though, so it might work. I never tested it.

 

So, tl,dr: Streaming works fine, if your connection is good. DualSense works on PC and locally installed games, but I'm not sure how well it works with streaming. XBOX controllers are the easier/better choice here. Try to get a free/cheap GamePass month and try it out, it's the only way you can find out for sure how well it works on your setup.

At some point though, I would go for a modern gaming PC. With PC GamePass, a PS5 and a Nintendo Switch, you will have all games covered and will never miss an Exclusive  No need to have any XBOX console if you own a Gaming PC as all the XBOX games are on PC as well. Prices on GPUs are coming down a bit right now so if you shop smartly and don't go for overkill you can buy a super capable gaming PC for just a little bit more than what a console costs (especially true if you stay at Full HD resolutions and don't go down the 1440p or 4K route)

 

[the1andonly654]

38 minutes ago, Sicho said:

A lot of it depends on your connection, you should consider a wired connection over a wireless one. If your connection is good, the streaming should be fine as well. IIRC, there is a way to get a GamePass trial month or a month for 1$ or something... you could use that to test how well it works on your machine and connection.

 

About the controller:

 

Since you have a "retro" PC, you probably don't have a USB-C port on it. To use the DualSense wired on the PC, you're going to need a USB Type-C to USB-A cable for your PC.

To use the DualSense via Bluetooth, you'll need a USB Bluetooth adapter (or a motherboard with Bluetooth built-in).

 

You will also need to use a modern OS on your "retro" PC. Don't go older than Win 7.

 

The DualSense will now be accessible in Windows with its DirectInput driver, which some native PC games will recognize and let you rebind controls. But there aren't official PC drivers like with the XBOX controllers. Many PC games today are built around Microsoft's newer XInput driver for the Xbox controllers, so the DualSense will be pretty limited without some help, while the XBOX controller will not only be automatically mapped, but the Input prompts in the games will correspond to the buttons on the controller. So a XBOX controller if preferable. You don't necessarily need to buy one for your PC, if you own a XBOX 360 or XBONE, those controllers will work right away by simply connecting them via USB. (Wireless needs a dongle) Also, if you happen to stream console versions of a game, the game expects a XBOX gamepad. Other controllers will work but the prompts in the game will be XBOX and you cannot rebind anything. I mention this because with GamePass Ultimate tier, you get the PC GamePass and the XBOX console GamePass catalogues together.

 

If you have your DualSense connected, you should then be able to customize your keybinds, change the LED and monitor the controller's battery level with a piece of software called DS4Windows (despite the name, it also supports the DualSense and not only PS4 controllers). Be warned though, I don't know if this works with streaming! But it definitely works with locally installed games. I think the browser should be "seen" as a game by the program though, so it might work. I never tested it.

 

So, tl,dr: Streaming works fine, if your connection is good. DualSense works on PC and locally installed games, but I'm not sure how well it works with streaming. XBOX controllers are the easier/better choice here. Try to get a free/cheap GamePass month and try it out, it's the only way you can find out for sure how well it works on your setup.

At some point though, I would go for a modern gaming PC. With PC GamePass, a PS5 and a Nintendo Switch, you will have all games covered and will never miss an Exclusive  No need to have any XBOX console if you own a Gaming PC as all the XBOX games are on PC as well. Prices on GPUs are coming down a bit right now so if you shop smartly and don't go for overkill you can buy a super capable gaming PC for just a little bit more than what a console costs (especially true if you stay at Full HD resolutions and don't go down the 1440p or 4K route)

 

Yeah, I've tried the 1 month thing in browser on that PC and unfortunately the latency is noticeable and makes anything but turn based games almost unplayable for me. That's most likely due to a very old CPU in that machine as when I tried it on a much more modern Windows 10 work PC and my phone, it works a lot better. Still a bit too laggy for fast paced games though. Weirdly, the dedicated Windows and Android apps were terrible - the screen kept refreshing in a weird way all the time, literally freezing and slowly drawing a full frame over the previous one. No such issues in browser though.

 

Dualsense connected with the cable that came with the PS5 works perfectly even on Windows 7 - Game Pass doesn't detect it (gives out an error that there's no connected controllers) but it works ingame without issues. Still, the latency in my case makes it not worth it unfortunately.

 

Thanks for the insightful post! I was actually thinking about getting a PC instead of an XSX after this GPU experiment but in the end, I'll probably stick with the Xbox as it's more convenient for me. 

[Sicho]

10 minutes ago, the1andonly654 said:

Thanks for the insightful post! I was actually thinking about getting a PC instead of an XSX after this GPU experiment but in the end, I'll probably stick with the Xbox as it's more convenient for me. 

 

you do you, but I just want to add that on XSX, you can play XBOX games, on PC you can play all the XBOX games AND everything that's PC exclusive with B/C down to pretty much the very first PC games ever   Value wise, PC has always been a great option, games are also cheaper and very often on sale (digitally). Not even mentioning (potentially) better graphics and performance, modding capabilities and customization (f.ex. on Nioh Remastered in PS5, the console restricts you from playing Spotify in the background while playing the game, no such restrictions on PC) and much more possibilities for stuff like streaming your gameplay etc.

 

And you can use it for many other things than gaming.

 

There are disadvantages as well but IMO the advantages trump over the disadvantages.

 

If you crave the console experience: on a PC with Steam you can activate "Big Picture Mode", which pretty much gives Steam a console-like UI, pair this with a XBOX controller, connect the PC to a TV and it's pretty much like most consoles. Cave-eat is that GamePass is not  integrated with Steam so this is more interesting for games on Steam than games on Game Pass... but even then, you can add non-Steam games to Steam to use it with the UI and Overlay. https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/3725-76D3-3F31-FB63 for more details on Big Picture Mode.

 

I'm mostly a console gamer myself but I do think that XBOX consoles specifically are pretty much unnecessary nowadays, unless one really, really, REALLY doesn't want to have a PC.

If one day all PS games also come Day 1 on PC, then a PlayStation won't make sense anymore as well. PCs advantages are just too many IMO, consoles only "make sense" if they have games that are not on PC. If that's not the case anymore, why bother with them?

Gaming on PC is easier than it has ever been. One could simply buy a pre-built, plug it in, install some games, connect a controller and go! Consoles on the other hand now have many "disadvantages" that they share with PC that they did not use to have (games needing installs for example) The differences between PC and consoles are getting slimmer, which, IMO, balances the favor towards PC gaming.