Today Valve has switched on the ability to stream games directly from the steam client to other PCs within the same household, allowing those with perhaps poor performance systems to play high-end games requiring little effort at all. Bandi Games have already praised the feature, as follows:
“It all happens in milliseconds. With good hardware and a fast home network, you’ll forget the game is running remotely.”
To do this, the user must create a steam account on at least two computers to gain access to the in-home streaming features, as described by the guys at Valve themselves:
“When you log into Steam on two computers on the same network, they automatically connect, allowing you to remotely install, launch, and play games as though you were sitting at the remote PC.”
Effectively this means if you perhaps have someone living with you who has a computer that has generally low specifications, they are still able to play power-consuming games through the streaming service. This also allows users to transfer a video game to another computer, even if it’s in the middle of a session. Currently, this feature can only be taken advantage of with Windows computers, however Valve plan to add support to SteamOS, Mac OS X, and Linux.