Apollo is a self-hosted desktop stream host for Artemis(Moonlight Noir). Offering low latency, cloud gaming server capabilities with support for AMD, Intel, and Nvidia GPUs for hardware encoding. Software encoding is also available. A web UI is provided to allow configuration and client pairing from your favorite web browser. Pair from the local server or any mobile device.
Refer to LizardByte's documentation hosted on Read the Docs for now.
Currently Virtual Display support is Windows only, Linux support is planned and will implement in the future.
Warning
It is highly recommend to remove any other virtual display solutions from your system and Apollo/Sunshine config, to reduce confusions and compatibility issues.
Note
TL;DR Just treat your Artemis/Moonlight client like a dedicated PnP monitor with Apollo.
Apollo uses SudoVDA for virtual display. It featurs auto resolution and framerate matching for your Artemis/Moonlight clients. The virtual display is created upon the stream starts and removed once the app quits. If you couldn't notice a new virtual display being added or removed when the stream starts/quits, then there might be a misconfiguration of the driver or you're still have other presisting virtual display connected.
The virtual display works just like any physically attached monitors with SudoVDA, Windows will remember the monitor position config natively, there's completely no need for a super complicated solution to "fix" resolutions for your monitors. Unlike all other solutions that reuses one identity or generate a random one each time for any virtual display sessions, Apollo assigns a fixed identity for each Artemis client, or use a dedicated identity each app if using other Moonlight clients.
Apollo supports dual GPUs seamlessly.
If you want to use your dGPU, just set the Adapter Name
to your dGPU and enable Headless mode
in Audio/Video
tab, save and restart your computer. No dummy plug is needed any more, the image will be rendered and encoded directly from your dGPU.
Enabling HDR is not recommended at this moment, probably in the long term. The issue with HDR is huge, with loads of semi-incompatibe standards, and massive variance between device configurations and capabilities. Game supports for HDR are still choppy. Things are a little better if you're using Artemis as clients, since each client are remembered as a dedicated display with a fixed identity, Windows can auto select the calibration based on the device, but other Moonclients sharing one single identity are not that lucky.
SDR actually provides much more stable color accuracy, and are wiedly supported throught most devices you can imagine. For games, art style can easily overcome the shortcoming with no HDR, and SDR has pretty standard workflows to ensure their visual performance. So HDR isn't that important in most of the cases.
- No virtual display added
- Ensure the SudoVDA driver is installed
- Shows the same screen as main screen
- If you're using an external display for the first time, Windows might configure it as "Mirror mode" by default. Press Meta + P (or known as Win + P) and select "Extended", then exit the app (not only the stream) and start the app again. You only need to do this once.
- Primary display changed to the virtual display after connection. I don't want that.
- Go to Apps and add one entry without any commands. Tick
Always use Virtual Display
, then untickSet Virtual Display as Default
.
- Go to Apps and add one entry without any commands. Tick
- I want to turn off the physical monitor when streaming
- The first time you stream with virtual display, go to Windows settings and disable the physical monitor. The next time you start streaming it will turn off automatically.
- HDR isn't enabled when using battery
- Check out To play HDR content when running on battery
- Archive to the above link in case M$ remove it unexpectedly someday
- Resolution can't match client side anymore
-
NEVER set screen rotation on virtual displays! Apollo can handle vertical display normally, there's no need to manually set screen rotatition if you're using Artemis with Apollo.
-
If you happen messed up with your monitor config:
- Disconnect ALL Artemis/Moonlight sessions
- Quit Apollo
- Meta(Win) + R, then type
regedit
, hit enter - Delete ALL entries under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Configuration
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Connectivity
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\ScaleFactors
This will clear your monitor configuration cache.
Then you're good to go!
-
Warning: This table is a work in progress. Do not purchase hardware based on this.
Minimum Requirements
Component | Description |
---|---|
GPU | AMD: VCE 1.0 or higher, see: obs-amd hardware support |
Intel: VAAPI-compatible, see: VAAPI hardware support | |
Nvidia: NVENC enabled cards, see: nvenc support matrix | |
CPU | AMD: Ryzen 3 or higher |
Intel: Core i3 or higher | |
RAM | 4GB or more |
OS | Windows: 10+ (Windows Server does not support virtual gamepads) |
macOS: 12+ | |
Linux/Debian: 11 (bullseye) | |
Linux/Fedora: 39+ | |
Linux/Ubuntu: 22.04+ (jammy) | |
Network | Host: 5GHz, 802.11ac |
Client: 5GHz, 802.11ac |
4k Suggestions
Component | Description |
---|---|
GPU | AMD: Video Coding Engine 3.1 or higher |
Intel: HD Graphics 510 or higher | |
Nvidia: GeForce GTX 1080 or higher | |
CPU | AMD: Ryzen 5 or higher |
Intel: Core i5 or higher | |
Network | Host: CAT5e ethernet or better |
Client: CAT5e ethernet or better |
HDR Suggestions
Component | Description |
---|---|
GPU | AMD: Video Coding Engine 3.4 or higher |
Intel: UHD Graphics 730 or higher | |
Nvidia: Pascal-based GPU (GTX 10-series) or higher | |
CPU | AMD: todo |
Intel: todo | |
Network | Host: CAT5e ethernet or better |
Client: CAT5e ethernet or better |
SudoVDA: Virtual Display Adapter Driver used in Apollo
Artemis: Integrated Virtual Display options control from client side
NOTE: Artemis currently supports Android only. Other platforms will come later.
Currently support is only provided via GitHub Issues/Discussions.
No real time chat support will ever be provided for Apollo and Artemis. Includig but not limited to:
- Discord
- Telegram
When there's a chat, there're dramas. ---- Confucius
I got kicked from Moonlight and Sunshine's Discord server and banned from Sunshine's GitHub repo literally for helping people out.
This is what I got for finding a bug, opened an issue, getting no response, troubleshoot myself, fixed the issue myself, shared it by PR to the main repo hoping my efforts can help someone else during the maintenance gap.
Yes, I'm going away. Apollo and Artemis(Moonlight Noir) will no longer be compatible with OG Sunshine and OG Moonlight eventually, but they'll work even better with much more carefully designed features.
The Moonlight repo had stayed silent for 5 months, with nobody actually responding to issues, and people are getting totally no help besides the limited FAQ in their Discord server. I tried to answer issues and questions, solve problems within my ablilty but I got kicked out just for helping others. The funniest thing is, the repo starts updating after they got me banned!
PRs for feature improvements are welcomed here unlike the main repo, your ideas are more likely to be appreciated and your efforts are actually being respected. We welcome people who can and willing to share their efforts, helping yourselves and other people in need.
Update: They have contacted me and apologized for this incident, but the fact it happened still motivated me to start my own fork.
GPLv3