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吃饭,睡觉,做梦!
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My Galgame solution

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Introduction#

Playing Galgames is a profound art (bushi). It involves choosing the right device, managing galgames, maximizing the performance of the device, and reviving the 720p resolution on high-resolution screens. As a loyal galgame player, I naturally want to play in the happiest way possible. Recently, I took some time to experiment with a solution, which has taken shape and I want to share it with everyone (although it's called a galgame solution, it can actually be used for other games too).

Overview#

  • Gaming devices: Win laptop + iPad air5
  • Auxiliary device: Tablet stand
  • Game management: Playnite + vndb metadata plugin
  • Local network setup: Tailscale
  • Virtual display: ParsecVDisplay
  • Super resolution: Magpie
  • Streaming: Moonlight + Sunshine

Effect: You can easily lie in bed (without holding the tablet with both hands or sitting in front of the computer), control the game with a Bluetooth mouse, and play games with super resolution (maximizing the potential of your screen) even if the original resolution is only 720p. You can play anytime, anywhere, as long as your tablet and computer are connected to the internet. (Bring a tablet to a hotel and play galgames while traveling)

This setup provides a great experience, and if you already have a tablet and a computer, the only additional cost is the tablet stand, which is practically free!

Preparation#

Tablet Stand Styles#

Like this, there are many options available on Taobao and JD.com, with minor differences. Choose the one you prefer.

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Using Playnite to Manage Games#

Introduction to Playnite
Playnite is an open-source video game library manager that aims to provide a unified interface for all your games.

Effect:

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  1. First, install the vndb plugin for scraping games.

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  1. When adding a game, simply drag the exe file into Playnite, and then provide the game name (preferably in Japanese) for scraping using vndb.

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Now, you won't forget what games you played this year when writing your year-end summary.

Setting Up a Remote Local Network#

The combination of Moonlight and Sunshine streaming requires the devices to be on the same local network or for the streaming device to have a public IP address. Considering the difficulty of obtaining a public IP address in mainland China and the need for remote connections, this article uses Tailscale to set up a remote local network.

Introduction to Tailscale
Tailscale is a secure and easy-to-use virtual private network (VPN) solution based on WireGuard. It supports serverless connections across platforms and devices, allowing computers, servers, and devices in different locations to connect and form a secure private network for remote access and collaboration.

Tailscale is very easy to use. Simply register an account, download the corresponding client on your devices, log in to your account, click Connect, and your devices will be connected to a local network, like magic.

PS: Please use third-party login (Microsoft, Google, Github, Apple), as email login is a paid service. The free plan supports adding up to three devices.

Adding a Virtual Display#

If you want to turn off the screen during streaming, a virtual display is necessary. You can add a virtual display using a graphics card spoofing device or software. Initially, I used a graphics card spoofing device, but it only had a few preset resolutions, resulting in black borders when streaming to the tablet. Additionally, the graphics card spoofing device always overheated and was difficult to use. So I switched to software (ParsecVDisplay) to add a virtual display. This allows me to customize the resolution of the virtual display and saves an interface. It's much better!

Introduction to ParsecVDisplay
This is a complete driver application for controlling Parsec VDD, written in C# and WPF. It can display the number of added virtual displays, allow adding and removing specific virtual displays, and change resolutions, take screenshots, and more.

  1. First, go to the GitHub Release page and download the program. I recommend the exe installation method.

  2. After installation, open the program as an administrator and click the CUSTOM button to create your desired resolution and refresh rate (the resolution and refresh rate of the streaming device).

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  1. Return to the main interface and click the ADD DISPLAY button to add a virtual display.

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  1. Right-click on the newly added virtual display, select your custom resolution in Resolution, and select the refresh rate in Refresh.

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Now, when your computer's screen turns off, it will automatically switch to this virtual display, and the streaming screen will also use this virtual display.

Using Magpie for Super Resolution#

Introduction to Magpie
Magpie is a lightweight window scaling tool that includes various efficient scaling algorithms and filters. It is mainly used to improve game graphics and enable games that do not support fullscreen mode to be displayed in fullscreen.

  1. Download the program from the Github Release page.

  2. Create a scaling mode. I use the configuration of Anime4K_Restore_Soft_UL + Anime4K_Upscale_Denoise_UL + FSR_RCAS, which provides a good experience with significantly improved graphics and a latency of less than 10ms (on a 4060 Laptop). If you find the latency too high when referring to this configuration, you can replace UL with VL or L (the effect will be slightly reduced, but the performance will be improved).

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    You can also refer to the effect introduction provided by the Magpie author to customize your own scaling mode.

  3. In the default configuration file, change the scaling mode to the one you just created, set the capture method to GDI, and select your most powerful graphics card (choose the dedicated graphics card if you have both integrated and dedicated graphics cards).

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  4. Open a game and press win+shift+a to enable scaling.

Wow, is this what modern graphics look like? 😭

Installing and Configuring the Sunshine Client#

Introduction to Sunshine
Sunshine is a self-hosted game streaming host for Moonlight. It provides low-latency, cloud gaming server functionality and supports hardware encoding with AMD, Intel, and Nvidia GPUs. Software encoding is also available. You can connect to Sunshine from any Moonlight client on various devices and configure and pair clients from your favorite web browser using the web UI. Pairing can be done from a local server or any mobile device.

Download the latest version from the Github Release page, make sure not to download the Pre-release version. I recommend the exe installation method.

After installation, right-click the Sunshine tray icon and open the WebUI (or access it directly via https://localhost:47990). Set your username and password, and you will be taken to the main page.

If the interface looks like the one shown below, you're all set.

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Installing and Configuring the Moonlight Client#

Introduction to Moonlight
Moonlight (formerly known as Limelight) is an open-source implementation of NVIDIA's GameStream protocol. We have implemented the protocol used by NVIDIA Shield and written a set of third-party clients.
You can stream your PC game collection from a personal computer that supports GameStream to any supported device and play games remotely. Moonlight is great for gaming on the go without sacrificing the graphics and game selection available on your PC.

Moonlight can be downloaded directly from Google Play, App Store, or you can download the apk from Github for Android users. Moonlight supports many platforms, and this article demonstrates using the iPadOS version.

  1. Open Moonlight and click Add Host Manually, then enter the IP address of the PC in Tailscale.

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  1. After the pin code appears, open the Sunshine client on your computer (https://localhost:47990) and verify the pin code.

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  1. Once the connection is successful, click Settings, change the Resolution to Safe Area, and Touch Mode to Touch Screen. Adjust other settings according to your needs.

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  1. Click DESKTOP to establish the connection!

Completion#

Congratulations! Enjoy the blissful time of playing Galgames! 🤩

Conclusion#

Sometimes, electronic entertainment is not just about playing great games. A comfortable and enjoyable setup is also essential.

After setting up this configuration, I played two games within two weeks. 🤗

Finally, I wish you all the best in finding games that resonate with you.

By the way, I recommend the game "Shepherd of the Great Library" that I recently played (it features a comedy performance by Hua Ge).

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