Our Android devices are powerful machines, and they’re bound to get even better as chipset manufacturers begin producing power hungry hardware like MediaTek’s monster 10-core processor. Soon enough, most smartphones are going to have more RAM than our laptops, the ZenFone 2 being a perfect example.
How can we take full advantage of this power? After all, in day-to-day use, we barely even scratch the surface of what our smartphone are fully capable of. Well, one way is playing PC games on your Android device. Yes, full-fledged PC games, such as the Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Battlefield, and the like.
NVIDIA GRID
NVIDIA GRID lets you stream games from a remote server over your own computer. Only, it’s not available for any mobile devices besides NVIDIA’s own SHIELD devices. Another downfall is that the service is only available to you if you have a ping of 60ms or less to one of six NVIDIA data centers in the world, which could require a connection of up to 50MB/s.
That said, this service is very limited, and won’t be useful to most people. If you’re one of the lucky people to have a Shield device and live off of the west coast with a celestial Internet connection, NVIDIA’s GRID service is an excellent option for you. And if you’re lucky enough to meet all two parameters, it might just be wise to go get yourself a lotto ticket.
Moonlight Game Streaming
Due to incompatibility issues between the operating systems games are designed for, you can’t play PC games directly on your Android device. But, you can certainly stream them to your Android device and that does require you to have a PC with some very specific graphics card requirements.
There’s always the option of using NVIDIA’s GameStream service, but similar to GRID, that’s only available to Shield devices, making it severely limited. There are indeed some awesome unofficial apps out there that make it possible to stream PC games on your Android device, such as Moonlight Game Streaming.
Moonlight Game Streaming is a simple and effective way to stream games straight off your PC with NVIDIA’s GeForce Experience software, whether it be as graphic intensive as Skyrim or more processor heavy, like Civilization V. However, to use Moonlight Game Streaming your PC back at home is going to need a compatible graphics card. If you have a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 600/700/800/900 series GPU, you can stream games straight to your Android device without any cost. You’ll also need to make sure you have the NVIDIA GeForce Experience (GFE) 2.2.2 or higher on your computer.
Next, you’re going to need to download the Moonlight Game Streaming app. You can get it here. Once that’s downloaded, and if you plan on streaming games from behind a router, you’re going to need to forward your ports to get it to work. The exact ports you will need to forward are as follows:
- TCP 35043, 47984, 47989, 47995, 47996, 48010
- UDP 47998, 47999, 48000
Do keep in mind that you only need to forward these ports if you plan on streaming outside your own network. For a comprehensive guide on forwarding ports, click here.
After you complete those steps, you’re almost ready to go. You just need to pair your PC and Android device. Make sure the latest version of the GeForce Experience is on your computer, and that you’ve already scanned for games. If everything is all set there, you can begin the pairing. Your PC should show up automatically — to start pairing, simply click the entry in the list of PCs.
Once your PC is ready, type in the PIN that popped up on your Android device and press ‘accept’ on the pairing dialog that comes up. After that, the pair should be complete. Choose your PC from the PC list, and from there you should be able to select a list of games to stream.
Finally, all you need is a controller. Most controllers work with Moonlight Game Streaming. PlayStation 3 controllers, though, will require you to install the SixAxis Enabler app on your smartphone or tablet.
If you’re not into streaming games from your PC, you can also do so through your PlayStation through a nifty feature called PlayStation Now.
PlayStation Now
While there are a myriad of ways to play PC games on your Android device, Sony is now offering some of their own solutions for PlayStation 4 streaming. Remember the cloud game streaming service Gaikai that Sony bought a long time ago? They’re using the technology from Gaikai to create PlayStation Now, which lets users stream select games from the PlayStation 4, 3, Vita, and various televisions.
If you have a compatible television, just downloaded PlayStation Now from the Sony Store, and they’ll take you through a detailed guide on getting everything setup!
Wrap Up
A lot of the excellent and seamless ways to play PC games on your Android device have been taken off the Play Store, for the most part. OnLive and Gaikai were strong players in the industry, but didn’t last long before they either died out or got swallowed up by larger companies like Sony. That said, there’s still a few bastions of hope out there to make the idea possible.
These are our favorite ways to stream PC games to our Android devices? Do you have any trade secrets? Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
Come comment on this article: How to play PC and PlayStation 4 games on Android
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