I’ll be quite honest, I was happy with how Moonlight was working. It was bare-bones but it did what it had to splendidly. Well developer ShadowPrince apparently disagrees with that and gave Moonlight its biggest overhaul yet. It now features a GUI (Graphical User Interface) which means no more white text on a black screen! You now get green text on a black screen! I know, I was mindblown too. All jokes aside, being able to navigate menus and configure everything without having to fiddle with text files is a huge upgrade. I’ll just let you test it out and see for yourself.

What is Vita Moonlight?

Moonlight is an open-source implementation of the nVidia GameStream client that allows you to stream your Steam games (and some non-steam ones) to a mobile device of your choice. It allows for high-quality streaming with minimal to no input lag of your PC games. Originally the GameStream system only allowed to stream to nVidia Shield devices, but Moonlight allowed people to stream to their favorite devices and now it has graced its presence on our Vitas too.

Changelog for Vita Moonlight Alpha 4:

• GUI
• Control scheme remapping
• Configurable front touchscreen buttons
• Configurable back touchscreen deadzone
• Option to disable power save
• Default config (now in ux0:data/moonlight/moonlight.conf)

Instructions for Vita Moonlight Alpha 4:

With all these changes comes also a new way of doing things and ShadowPrince has done us the favor of listing all of them:

server.txt and config.txt aren’t needed anymore – everything is done from within the app.

Obviously stream configuration only applied after stream restart, input applied instantly.

If you want to use Vita native resolution (960×544) you need to go to NVIDIA control panel => change resolution and add the resolution manually. (Customize=>Create custom resolution) Also, some games might need additional settings to stream 960×544 (for example, for Portal 2 I had to add -width 960 -height 544 command line options).

Default mapping

• LT/LR/LT/RT – back touchscreen
• Pause stream – front-left corner of front touchscreen
• Special key (XBox key, Guide key) – bottom-left corner of front touchscreen

Remapping

Create folder ux0:data/moonlight/mappings and put mappings/vita.conf there, enable Enable mapping file in the settings.
Example: config file with swapped triggers and bumpers: vita.conf

Special buttons on front touchscreen

Check settings. You can also enter key code manually, check this page to find out the right one. Keep in mind that Alt-Tab or Windows key will not work.

Back touchscreen deadzone

Check settings. For easier configuring menu also visualise touches.

Disabling power save

Enabled by default. Vita will not go to sleep when stream is running.

With all of this, what was good just became infinitely better! While I can’t give it a spin right now because the desktop is off, I sure will tomorrow as soon as possible. I am always excited for new releases of Moonlight on Vita and this is no exception!

Downloading Vita Moonlight Alpha 4:

To get your hands on the freshly baked and steaming hot new version of Vita Moonlight, all you have to do is go to the release section of xyz’ GitHub or simply click here. Remember to report any issues you may have on the issue tracker, people there may even help you figure out what exactly is wrong with whatever is happening to your version of Vita Moonlight.

Enjoy the release folks!