tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
The other day I read AMD released AMD Link (their version of Steam In-home steaming) for Android TV devices and as I've been playing around with Steam In-home streaming lately to see if it is a viable way to play games in the living room (PC is upstairs, man cave room will not be finished for some time) I thought I'd give AMD Link a go.
Steam has this nailed down pretty well. You just install the app, enable the streaming setting on your PC and off you go. The whole thing is painless and just works. The only big downside is rumble doesn't work when connecting a controller wireless. At least not on the Shield TV.
Well, some of you will be happy to know that you too can be AMD's lead software engineer because writing software that actually works does not seem to be a job requirement.
TL;DR AMD Link does not work.
It already starts after you install the app on a Android TV device. It will not be able to find a PC running AMD Link. Okay, weird. Maybe its something with the app so lets install the Android phone app. Okay, that will connect if you scan the QR code. Lets try to play a game. No go. Need to install ReLive first. Except there is no mention anywhere, not on the driver dashboard or the Android TV app that ReLive is required. It will only tell you on the phone app. This is just shitty design.
Alright so you install ReLive, at least that is a plainless procedure. Lets launch a game. Enable remote play.... so you thought AMD Live was there to stream your games? You guessed wrong. You need to enable remote play AND AMD Live. So basically you have to enable the same thing twice in two different menus because I don't see how they are different. Stupid.
Let's try again. Okay, game launched on PC, smartphone shows a controller overlay. You know how some games have this menu where you can change some settings before the game launched or how Steam sometimes gives you update news or requires you to agree to the EULA? AMD couldn't be arsed to built in some checks to get around this so basically any game that has that type of menu will not launch from the app. At least I got a good workout running up and down the stairs.
After finding a game that doesn't have any of that, the game launched by the app doesn't do anything other than showing a black screen and a controller overlay and after a couple of seconds it will just conk out without any error or warning.
Back to the Android TV app. No matter what you do, it won't find your PC. Turned off Windows firewall and everything. Apparently there is some "auto discover" setting somewhere but if it actually exists, AMD certainly didn't but it in any place you expect it to be like maybe the AMD link or ReLive game streaming menu...
Mind you, this is the same PC, same Shield TV, same network etc. where Steam In-home streaming just works.
Steam has this nailed down pretty well. You just install the app, enable the streaming setting on your PC and off you go. The whole thing is painless and just works. The only big downside is rumble doesn't work when connecting a controller wireless. At least not on the Shield TV.
Well, some of you will be happy to know that you too can be AMD's lead software engineer because writing software that actually works does not seem to be a job requirement.
TL;DR AMD Link does not work.
It already starts after you install the app on a Android TV device. It will not be able to find a PC running AMD Link. Okay, weird. Maybe its something with the app so lets install the Android phone app. Okay, that will connect if you scan the QR code. Lets try to play a game. No go. Need to install ReLive first. Except there is no mention anywhere, not on the driver dashboard or the Android TV app that ReLive is required. It will only tell you on the phone app. This is just shitty design.
Alright so you install ReLive, at least that is a plainless procedure. Lets launch a game. Enable remote play.... so you thought AMD Live was there to stream your games? You guessed wrong. You need to enable remote play AND AMD Live. So basically you have to enable the same thing twice in two different menus because I don't see how they are different. Stupid.
Let's try again. Okay, game launched on PC, smartphone shows a controller overlay. You know how some games have this menu where you can change some settings before the game launched or how Steam sometimes gives you update news or requires you to agree to the EULA? AMD couldn't be arsed to built in some checks to get around this so basically any game that has that type of menu will not launch from the app. At least I got a good workout running up and down the stairs.
After finding a game that doesn't have any of that, the game launched by the app doesn't do anything other than showing a black screen and a controller overlay and after a couple of seconds it will just conk out without any error or warning.
Back to the Android TV app. No matter what you do, it won't find your PC. Turned off Windows firewall and everything. Apparently there is some "auto discover" setting somewhere but if it actually exists, AMD certainly didn't but it in any place you expect it to be like maybe the AMD link or ReLive game streaming menu...
Mind you, this is the same PC, same Shield TV, same network etc. where Steam In-home streaming just works.
