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Part 8 – Sunshine and Moonlight

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Sunshine is an open-source game streaming server that uses NVENC on the RTX 4080 Super to stream games to any device running Moonlight. The result is a personal GeForce NOW — low latency, high quality, running on your own hardware.

Moonlight clients are available for:

  • iOS and iPad
  • Android
  • macOS
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • Some smart TVs

Prerequisites

  • ✅ Ubuntu bare metal with NVIDIA drivers installed
  • ✅ Games installed (Steam, Epic, GOG — see Part 9)
  • ✅ Tailscale connected for remote access
Sunshine works best on bare metal — not in a Docker container or VM. GPU passthrough adds latency. This is one of the reasons WCP runs bare metal Ubuntu instead of Proxmox.

Step 1 – Install Sunshine

Download the latest .deb package from the Sunshine GitHub releases page:

# Download (replace with latest version)
wget https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine/releases/latest/download/sunshine-ubuntu-24.04-amd64.deb

# Install
sudo apt install -y ./sunshine-ubuntu-24.04-amd64.deb

Step 2 – Configure Sunshine to start on login

Sunshine needs a display server running. Since this is a headless server, set up a virtual display:

# Install a virtual display (dummy HDMI)
sudo apt install -y xserver-xorg-video-dummy x11-utils

# Create the Xorg config for a virtual display
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-dummy.conf

Add:

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Configured Video Device"
    Driver "dummy"
    VideoRam 256000
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "Configured Monitor"
    HorizSync 5.0 - 1000.0
    VertRefresh 5.0 - 200.0
    Modeline "1920x1080_60" 172.80 1920 2040 2248 2576 1080 1081 1084 1118 -HSync +Vsync
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Default Screen"
    Monitor "Configured Monitor"
    Device "Configured Video Device"
    DefaultDepth 24
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Modes "1920x1080_60"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Step 3 – Enable and start Sunshine 

# Enable Sunshine as a user service
systemctl --user enable sunshine
systemctl --user start sunshine

Step 4 – Access the Sunshine web UI

Sunshine has a web interface for configuration:

https://localhost:47990

Or via Tailscale:

https://100.x.x.x:47990

Accept the self-signed certificate warning. Log in with the default credentials and change them immediately:

  • Default username: admin
  • Default password: admin

Step 5 – Add applications to Sunshine

In the Sunshine web UI, go to Configuration → Applications and add your games and launchers:

Steam:

  • Name: Steam
  • Command: steam

Steam Big Picture (recommended for controller use):

  • Name: Steam Big Picture
  • Command: steam steam://open/bigpicture

Desktop:

  • Name: Desktop
  • Command: (leave empty — streams the full desktop)

Step 6 – Install Moonlight on your devices

iOS / iPad: Search for Moonlight in the App Store — free.

Android: Available on Google Play and F-Droid.

macOS:

brew install --cask moonlight

Step 7 – Connect Moonlight to Sunshine

  1. Open Moonlight on your device
  2. Moonlight will scan for Sunshine servers on your network — or add manually via Tailscale IP
  3. Enter the PIN shown in Moonlight into the Sunshine web UI under PIN
  4. Select an application and start streaming

Streaming quality settings

In Sunshine web UI under Configuration → Streaming:

Setting Recommendation
Resolution 1920x1080 or 2560x1440
Frame rate 60 FPS (or 120 FPS for supported displays)
Bitrate 20-50 Mbps on local network, 10-20 Mbps over Tailscale
Encoder NVENC H.265 (best quality/performance ratio)
AV1 Enable if your client supports it — even better quality

The RTX 4080 Super’s NVENC encoder handles H.265 and AV1 with essentially zero performance impact on the game.

Playing over Tailscale

Tailscale makes it possible to stream games from anywhere with acceptable latency on a good connection:

  1. Connect your client device to Tailscale
  2. In Moonlight, add the WCP machine by its Tailscale IP (100.x.x.x)
  3. Connect and stream

Latency depends on your internet connection speed. On a home fibre connection (100+ Mbps upload), gaming over Tailscale from a nearby location works well.

Useful commands 

# Check Sunshine status
systemctl --user status sunshine

# Restart Sunshine
systemctl --user restart sunshine

# View Sunshine logs
journalctl --user -u sunshine -f

What’s next

Part 9 covers setting up the gaming library — Steam, Epic Games, GOG, and Ubisoft on Ubuntu with Proton for Windows game compatibility.

Up next: Part 9 – Gaming Library on Ubuntu (coming soon)

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