Whether I’m using Chiaki or Xbox Cloud Gaming to play triple-A titles on my ROG Ally, streaming is becoming a bigger part of my gaming library. I’ll always prefer playing locally, of course, but playing something like Death Stranding 2 on a handheld PC through Chiaki genuinely changed the game for me. Now, Steam Deck users could get an even better Remote Play experience, as Valve tests a new video codec designed to cut streaming latency, albeit at the cost of one rather important resource: bandwidth.
PyroWave’s creator, graphics programmer Hans-Kristian Arntzen, designed the codec specifically around this problem. Rather than trying to squeeze gameplay into the smallest possible stream, PyroWave throws out several techniques that traditional codecs use to save bandwidth. It also skips some of the more complicated tricks used by traditional video codecs. Instead, it breaks each frame into smaller sections that it can process independently.
In a recent blog post, Valve describes it as a high-bandwidth, low-latency option that uses the GPU to encode and decode frames, with the goal of making the journey from your gaming PC to another device as quick as possible. Still, Remote Play already has to perform quite a juggling act. Your controller input travels to the host PC, the game renders a frame, Steam encodes it, sends it across the network, and your other device decodes and displays it. Every stage adds a little more latency, which can quickly become noticeable in fast-paced games.
Yet, it could be a massive boon for Steam Deck owners. The handheld can already use Steam Remote Play to stream games from a more powerful gaming PC, letting you play demanding titles without running them directly on the Deck. A lower-latency codec could make that experience feel closer to playing locally, especially in games where every little input delay matters.
The catch is that your home network needs to keep up with PyroWave’s much higher bandwidth demands. Valve says it uses five to ten times more than other streaming codecs, with Steam allowing users to set the bitrate anywhere between 100Mbps and 500Mbps.
If you’re curious, though, you can enable PyroWave through Steam’s Remote Play advanced client settings. Valve has added it to the latest Steam beta and also plans to bring the codec to the Steam Link mobile app.
