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.
Major features:
- Built-in Virtual Display with HDR support
- Permission management for clients
- Clipboard sync
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.
Checkout WiKi
Note
The FIRST client paired with Apollo will be granted with FULL permissions, then other newly paired clients will only be granted with View Streams and List Apps permission. If you encounter Permission Denied error when trying to launch any app, go check the permission for that device and grant Launch Apps permission. The same applies to the situation when you find that you can't move mouse or type with keyboard on newly paired clients, grant the corresponding client Mouse Input and Keyboard Input permissions.
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, there's completely no need for a super complicated solution to "fix" resolution configurations for your devices. 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/Moonlight client, so your display configuration will be automatically remembered and managed by Windows natively.
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.
Note
This section is written for professional media workers. It doesn't stop you from enabling HDR if you know what you're doing and have deep understanding about how HDR works.
Apollo and SudoVDA can handle HDR just fine like any other streaming solutions.
If you have had good experience with HDR privously, you can safly ignore this section.
Enabling HDR is generally not recommended with ANY streaming solutions at this moment, probably in the long term. The issue with HDR itself is huge, with loads of semi-incompatibe standards, and massive variance between device configurations and capabilities. Game supports for HDR are still choppy.
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.
Follow the instructions in the Wiki.
- 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\ConfigurationHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\ConnectivityHKEY_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. Including 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.
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