[softfalcon]

The default for Parsec is h.265, it's only on older machines that can't hardware encode/decode that fall back to h.264.

The reason they're likely seeing latency issues is that Parsec doesn't have the localized servers that GeForce Now has. Servers closer to your location will always have lower latency.

This is a simple case of nVidia simply having more money, more servers, and better infrastructure than Parsec. Which isn't surprising given the scale and cashflow difference of the two companies.

[mynameisvlad]

Parsec doesn’t use their servers though. It’s peer to peer once discovery is done. So the “server” is likely elsewhere in your house. That’s basically as close as you can get.

[softfalcon]

Oh, wild, I didn't know that. I definitely see some high latency on Parsec within my home.

It might be bouncing around through the net somehow instead of transferring directly within my local network? I wonder if something about local peer-to-peer discovery isn't working properly?

Maybe that's also happening to the other person comparing GeForce Now to Parsec?

[WildGreenLeave]

I've been using Parsec on my local network for several months now and I see absolutely no latency whatsoever. GFN and any streaming provider gives me a very small but noticeable lag in shooters, but Parsec on my home network is genuinely perfect. I game from my Macbook and I play whatever I want from my homeserver (3090 and 4060) in another room. Both my Macbook and computer are wired of course. Important to note is that I needed a dummy HDMI on my computer for a 'true' screen, any kind of virtual screened caused it to lag hard, probably because the game or stream ran without any kind of hardware acceleration.

I have to say, I love the way Parsec works and allows you to use your whole library (since it doesn't stream the game, but it streams your whole desktop). But if there is ever a service that allows you to get the same thing including remote servers (since I travel), I would probably switch.

[softfalcon]

Appreciate the details you’ve provided!

I’m going to do some more Parsec experiments this weekend thanks to your info.

Something is clearly wrong with my setup, I’m going to figure it out.

[WildGreenLeave]

I'm not a professional myself either, but the things I would check are:

- Make sure you run hardware acceleration, you can see if this is applied after opening a connection and checking the details. Without acceleration it will be terrible. This can either be as simple as enabling it or possibly you need the monitor below.

- Make sure a monitor is plugged in (there might be a way around this, but I just bought a $4 HDMI dummy instead of trying to figure out how to do this the software way)

Edit: formatting

[WithinReason]

In my experience if both sides are wireless the connection quality is terrible, no matter how good the signal is.

[softfalcon]

Yeah, everything here is 2.5G ethernet end-to-end. I don't think that's the issue. :)

[killingtime74]

I also enjoy Parsec at home (and for non gaming remote desktop). For some reason outside of home (I'm travelling to a city 10ms away) it's not as good

[LoganDark]

Peer-to-peer across networks is impossible unless you can punch a hole, i.e. UPnP. It's possible this isn't enabled and that could cause Parsec to have to fallback to a central server.

[2Gkashmiri]

Why don't you use zerotier / tailscale

[LoganDark]

Because those aren't peer-to-peer in reality. They're peer-to-peer in terms of a virtual network that's often (not necessarily, but certainly in this case) implemented using a central server anyway.

[aborsy]

Those are peer to peer. The coordination server manages the public keys, and exchanges the ip addresses initially. After that peers connect directly.

Relays are involved only briefly initially.

[mynameisvlad]

How is Tailscale not P2P? Just because there's a central server for discovery and key exchange does not somehow make it not peer-to-peer.

If the actual communications between two clients is P2P then, by definition, the VPN is P2P. Because that's the actual part people are talking about when they talk about VPNs.

[mynameisvlad]

I mean, sure, but that doesn't mean that Parsec uses central servers by default, which was the entire point of the GP comment; that their servers are worse than Nvidia's.

[LoganDark]

Parsec uses whatever server you tell it to.

Parsec will discover servers on LAN and/or with a port open and display them as distinct entries in the connection list, usually positioned in front of the central server options.

So there's no default as you're always the one choosing.

[mynameisvlad]

What? No. That's not how Parsec works at all. Are you talking about the same app?

Parsec displays computers to connect to. If a hole can be punched, it will use a P2P connection. If not, it automatically falls back to their STUN servers or the Parsec Relay server if you're on the Teams plan. There is no "server" to choose from. There aren't multiple entries for a single computer with different connection options. I don't know where you hallucinated all of these things but that's just not how Parsec works.

This article makes it quite clear that P2P is the default with a fallback to STUN: https://support.parsec.app/hc/en-us/articles/4440911373325-P...

[LoganDark]

> I don't know where you hallucinated all of these things but that's just not how Parsec works.

I opened the app and looked at it. I distinctly remember there being multiple entries if a computer is on the local network. I don't have another computer on the network right now so I can't check.