Godot Game Stream captures the running game's root viewport and streams it to mirctl, a lightweight desktop viewer from the same open-source project. Control the game from the viewer with keyboard and mouse input, or connect in view-only mode. It is useful for remote playtesting and inspecting a game on another desktop over a trusted connection.

Features

• Inspector-configured GameStreamHost node and a small runnable example.
• H.264 over TCP by default, with HEVC and AV1 options on compatible hardware.
• In-process GPU capture and encoding through a Rust GDExtension and LGPL FFmpeg.
• Windows and Linux hardware encoding through NVENC, AMF or QSV; macOS through VideoToolbox.
• One installation ZIP with Windows x86_64, Linux x86_64 and macOS arm64 libraries.
• Separate mirctl downloads for all three platforms, with corresponding sources and rebuilding materials.
• No custom Godot engine or .NET requirement.

Quick start

1. Install the addon into your project and enable Godot Game Stream in Project Settings > Plugins.
2. Add a GameStreamHost node, enable Auto Start, and run a scene with the Forward+ renderer.
3. Download and extract mirctl for your operating system from the GitHub release.
4. Run mirctl 127.0.0.1:20831. Both sides default to H.264.

To try the included example, open addons/game_stream/example/demo.tscn and run that scene. Move with the arrow keys and click in the viewer to change color. For another codec, select it on the host and pass the matching --codec=hevc or --codec=av1 option to mirctl. Automatic codec selection does not negotiate with the client.

Download mirctl and matching source materials

Requirements and scope

Godot 4.6.2 standard precision and Forward+ are the tested baseline. A rendered viewport and a working hardware encoder are required; there is no software x264 fallback. Headless rendering, the Compatibility renderer, mobile and Web are outside this release's supported scope.

• Windows: Windows 10 or later, x86_64. A supported GPU and its encoding drivers are required. The addon may require the Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 x64 Redistributable. The bundled NVIDIA wrapper targets SDK 13 and needs R570 or newer drivers. RTX 3080 supports HEVC encoding but not AV1 encoding.
• Linux: x86_64, glibc 2.35 or later; system libva, libva-drm, libdrm and GPU drivers. The mirctl viewer uses X11 or Xwayland. Intel QSV additionally needs a compatible system media driver.
• macOS: macOS 26.0 or later on Apple Silicon, using Forward+ with Metal and VideoToolbox. H.264 is the validated configuration. Binaries are ad-hoc signed.

Windows and Linux streaming have been validated by the maintainer in GachaGameProducer. Fresh installation and relocated release-export native loading pass on all three platforms. A macOS export also passes actual H.264 streaming and remote mouse input. Hosted CI does not test hardware encoding. See the validation records for the exact standalone package and export checks.

Connection behavior

Streaming is opt-in: Auto Start defaults to off and the listener defaults to 127.0.0.1. Allow Input controls whether the client can inject keyboard and mouse events. For remote access, use a trusted network or authenticated tunnel. The stream protocol itself has no authentication or encryption.

One stream is supported. There is no audio or codec negotiation. mirctl uses TCP; the native UDP sender is experimental and requires a different receiver.

License and sources

First-party code and assets use LGPL-2.1-or-later. Dependencies retain their own licenses. Each download includes notices, and the release provides matching first-party sources, FFmpeg sources, other dependency materials and client relinking inputs. The addon's SOURCES.md and distribution.json identify each platform's exact native build.

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