Viewing Retropie Gameplay through SSH/Putty?
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Hello. Advance warning - this is a rather long post, but I thought it would be best to fully explain everything in hopes of finding a solution.
I've been posting my progress/lack thereof on streaming my games on RetroPie through a Raspberry Pi 4 B+ to Twitch (See: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/26050/twitch-streaming-issues-on-pi-4-retropie-4-6?=1592410243846 and https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/26446/how-to-mirror-retropie-from-my-pi-to-my-laptop?=1592410360842). The streaming itself works great (http://www.twitch/tv/briangallagherwriter if you want to see for yourself) but I have wanted to add a video feed of me playing on Twitch... which has been a problem.
So, I think it will help to explain how this works fully to understand my problem. There are streaming software programs like OBS and StreamLabs where you put all the elements together and stream directly through that program. These programs only fully work if the video feed from your webcam, audio feed from your mic, and the game itself are all played on the same computer. This is where I run into problems.
Neither my rather old (going on six years...) laptop nor my rather new (six months) smart TV are capable of casting the signal from my Pi/TV to the laptop, so it can be seen on the laptop (though the opposite is possible, naturally). My laptop is old but it does have an HDMI port, so I tried running a HDMI micro cable from the HDMI 1 port on the Pi 4 to my laptop, and it didn't seem to work (I'm honestly not sure how that didn't work, but it's been very annoying). I even got an Insignia HDMI to USB adapter/capture card to send the signal to my computer that way but that didn't work either after installing the proper drivers. I'm ordering an HDMI splitter that will send the signal from my TV to both the Pi and my laptop. Hopefully that works but who knows.
The most simple solution is to just install RetroArch/RetroPie on my laptop and find a way to cast to my TV, though I see this as a last resort. This laptop is six years old and it has trouble keeping up on most Steam games... let alone playing a game on Retropie and streaming, so I think it would bog it down too much (though I could be wrong). What I really want to do is keep the games streaming through the Pi and my TV, and find a way to bring that gameplay signal to my laptop.... so I wondered is there a way to access that signal through SSH/Putty? I'm rather familiar with SSH/Putty but I'm not currently aware of any way to do so, though I have to imagine it's possible. So I ask you... is it possible?
Or is it possible to install a build of OBS or Streamlabs onto the Pi itself, run a webcam from one of the USB ports and SSH/Putty into the Pi and monitor my feed from SSH/Putty? I'd even be fine with finding a way to enable a wired 3.5 mic from the Pi for at least audio of me to add something more to the stream, which is a bare minimum for most.
Thank you all for your time, since it likely took awhile to get through this monstrous post! I appreciate any feedback/help you may have!
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@BGallagherLA said in Viewing Retropie Gameplay through SSH/Putty?:
My laptop is old but it does have an HDMI port, so I tried running a HDMI micro cable from the HDMI 1 port on the Pi 4 to my laptop, and it didn't seem to work (I'm honestly not sure how that didn't work, but it's been very annoying).
I honestly don't see how that would work, since both HDMI ports only support outputting the signal, not processing it as an input.
What I really want to do is keep the games streaming through the Pi and my TV, and find a way to bring that gameplay signal to my laptop.... so I wondered is there a way to access that signal through SSH/Putty?
No, it's not possible like this. If RetroArch would be able to stream locally, so you could connect a client like VLC to see the stream on your laptop, that would be something.
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@mitu In one of my earlier threads (https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/26446/how-to-mirror-retropie-from-my-pi-to-my-laptop/2?_=1592410360842) I mentioned using this article (https://maker.pro/raspberry-pi/projects/how-to-connect-a-raspberry-pi-to-a-laptop-display) to connect the Pi to VNC and you said VNC needs a 'desktop environment to mirror' and that 'Retropie runs outside of a desktop environment." Do you think I could follow the same steps in the Maker.pro article and apply it to a VLC player instead of VNC? Would that maybe work?
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@BGallagherLA said in Viewing Retropie Gameplay through SSH/Putty?:
Do you think I could follow the same steps in the Maker.pro article and apply it to a VLC player instead of VNC? Would that maybe work?
No, VNC and VLC are different things. VNC uses its own protocol to transfer the image (don't know if it also transfers the sound), while VLC is a video player which understands various video streaming protocols.
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@mitu So how would I get it to play on VLC? Through my Twitch stream key? I'm kind of amazed that there is no fairly simple way to accomplish what seems fairly simple...
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@BGallagherLA said in Viewing Retropie Gameplay through SSH/Putty?:
So how would I get it to play on VLC?
I don't know.
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I don't want to derail this confusing thread, but is this what you'd want?
A user says that you can open twitch URLs straight on VLC 3, it seems, though I'm still a bit confused as to what you are trying to accomplish.
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@pjft OK. I can currently stream games to Twitch solely through my Pi 4. This works great. But I also want to add a video feed to my stream. The video stream would be through my laptop. However, on streaming programs like OBS and Streamlabs, the video feed (webcam) and the gameplay have to be on the same computer. I am playing RetroPie through my Pi 4 that is hooked up to my nice smart tv. I want a way to send that gameplay stream from my pi/TV to my laptop, so it can be seen by OBS and I can add my camera feed and perhaps other stream elements and such.
I'm realizing that sending the Twitch URL to VLC wouldn't work, because with a video feed I would be launching to Twitch through OBS or Streamlabs and that would conflict with me launching Twitch through my Pi. So I need a way to send my video feed from my TV/Pi to my laptop so it can be seen on OBS/Streamlabs and then stream to Twitch.
Or an alternative would be to set up OBS/Streamlabs within the Pi itself and set up a camera feed there, but I don't know if that's possible either.
I hope this clears up confusion.
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@BGallagherLA got it. Sorry I couldn't help further, I'm not extremely familiar with Twitch.
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@pjft All good. Thanks!
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surely the best approach would be to get a videocapture device for your latop and do the video compositing there via OBS.
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@BGallagherLA So many things to answer.
First. HDMI only outputs video. No video input. Unless you have a grabber. HDMI-USB are video outputs.
There is an option, which is forwarding the graphic part in an ssh client. Something like "How do I forward x11 using PuTTY?" -
@BGallagherLA https://aruljohn.com/info/x11forwarding/ Testing this.
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@froccoar retropie (on pi) does not use x.
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@dankcushions
yeah i just realized when the wall hit my head! BUT ... I managed to open a window and the emulastation throws me an error. What do use then ??? -
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@froccoar So in theory would installing this on the pi allow me to access the Pi's game feed on the VCN program on my laptop?
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@BGallagherLA I have not had time to try it. I'm not sure if it will walk. But try it and tell us how it went!
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@froccoar Sure! Anything is worth a try at this point haha.
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This is something I have been looking into as well. My plan was to get something like this video capture device. Pi hdmi plugs into this and then hdmi out to the tv. USB from this into your laptop. You can then have the webcam, mic and video of the Pi all on the laptop.
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