Moonlight PC
Moonlight PC is an open source PC client for NVIDIA GameStream and Sunshine.
Moonlight also has mobile versions for Android and iOS.
You can follow development on our Discord server and help translate Moonlight into your language on Weblate.
Features
- Hardware accelerated video decoding on Windows, Mac, and Linux
- H.264, HEVC, and AV1 codec support (AV1 requires Sunshine and a supported host GPU)
- YUV 4:4:4 support (Sunshine only)
- HDR streaming support
- 7.1 surround sound audio support
- 10-point multitouch support (Sunshine only)
- Gamepad support with force feedback and motion controls for up to 16 players
- Support for both pointer capture (for games) and direct mouse control (for remote desktop)
- Support for passing system-wide keyboard shortcuts like Alt+Tab to the host
Downloads
- Windows, macOS, and Steam Link
- Snap (for Ubuntu-based Linux distros)
- Flatpak (for other Linux distros)
- AppImage
- Raspberry Pi 4 and 5
- Generic ARM 32-bit and 64-bit Debian packages (not for Raspberry Pi)
- Experimental RISC-V Debian packages
- NVIDIA Jetson and Nintendo Switch (Ubuntu L4T)
Nightly Builds
Special Thanks
Hosting for Moonlight's Debian and L4T package repositories is graciously provided for free by Cloudsmith.
Building
Windows Build Requirements
- Qt 6.11 SDK or later (earlier versions may work but are not officially supported)
- Visual Studio 2026 (Community edition is fine)
- Select MSVC option during Qt installation. MinGW is not supported.
- 7-Zip (only if building installers for non-development PCs)
- Graphics Tools (only if running debug builds)
- Install "Graphics Tools" in the Optional Features page of the Windows Settings app.
- Alternatively, run
dism /online /add-capability /capabilityname:Tools.Graphics.DirectX~~~~0.0.1.0 and reboot.
macOS Build Requirements
- Qt 6.11 SDK or later (earlier versions may work but are not officially supported)
- Xcode 15 or later (earlier versions may work but are not officially supported)
- create-dmg (only if building DMGs for use on non-development Macs)
Linux/Unix Build Requirements
- Qt 6 is recommended, but Qt 5.12 or later is also supported (replace
qmake6 with qmake when using Qt 5).
- GCC or Clang
- FFmpeg 4.0 or later
- Install the required packages:
- Debian/Ubuntu:
- Base Requirements:
libegl1-mesa-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libopus-dev libsdl2-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libssl-dev libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libswscale-dev libva-dev libvdpau-dev libxkbcommon-dev wayland-protocols libdrm-dev
- Qt 6 (Recommended):
qt6-base-dev qt6-declarative-dev libqt6svg6-dev qt6-wayland qml6-module-qtquick-controls qml6-module-qtquick-templates qml6-module-qtquick-layouts qml6-module-qtqml-workerscript qml6-module-qtquick-window qml6-module-qtquick
- Qt 5:
qtbase5-dev qt5-qmake qtdeclarative5-dev qtquickcontrols2-5-dev qml-module-qtquick-controls2 qml-module-qtquick-layouts qml-module-qtquick-window2 qml-module-qtquick2 qtwayland5
- RedHat/Fedora (RPM Fusion repo required):
- Base Requirements:
openssl-devel SDL2-devel SDL2_ttf-devel ffmpeg-devel libva-devel libvdpau-devel opus-devel pulseaudio-libs-devel alsa-lib-devel libdrm-devel
- Qt 6 (Recommended):
qt6-qtsvg-devel qt6-qtdeclarative-devel
- Qt 5:
qt5-qtsvg-devel qt5-qtquickcontrols2-devel
- Building the Vulkan renderer requires a
libplacebo-dev/libplacebo-devel version of at least v7.349.0 and FFmpeg 6.1 or later.
Steam Link Build Requirements
- Steam Link SDK cloned on your build system
- STEAMLINK_SDK_PATH environment variable set to the Steam Link SDK path
Steam Link Hardware Limitations
Moonlight builds for Steam Link are subject to hardware limitations of the Steam Link device:
- Maximum resolution: 1080p (1920x1080)
- Maximum framerate: 60 FPS
- Maximum video bitrate: 40 Mbps
- HDR streaming is not supported on the original hardware
Docker containers
If you want to use Docker for building, look at this repo containing canonical containers
for different architectures, which handle building deps and extra linking for you.
Build Setup Steps
- Install the latest Qt SDK (and optionally, the Qt Creator IDE) from https://www.qt.io/download
- You can install Qt via Homebrew on macOS, but you will need to use
brew install qt --with-debug to be able to create debug builds of Moonlight.
- You may also use your Linux distro's package manager for the Qt SDK as long as the packages are Qt 5.12 or later.
- This step is not required for building on Steam Link, because the Steam Link SDK includes Qt 5.14.
- Download submodules and dependencies
- Run
git submodule update --init --recursive from within moonlight-qt/.
- On Windows and macOS, you must also run
setup-deps.ps1 (Windows) or setup-deps.py (macOS).
- Perform these steps each time you pull new changes from the Git repository.
- Open the project in Qt Creator or build from qmake on the command line.
- To build a binary for use on non-development machines, use the scripts in the
scripts folder.
- For Windows builds, use
scripts\build-arch.bat and scripts\generate-bundle.bat. Execute these scripts from the root of the repository within a Qt command prompt. Ensure 7-Zip binary directory is on your %PATH%.
- For macOS builds, use
scripts/generate-dmg.sh. Execute this script from the root of the repository and ensure Qt's bin folder is in your $PATH.
- For Steam Link builds, run
scripts/build-steamlink-app.sh from the root of the repository.
- To build from the command line for development use on macOS or Linux, run
qmake6 moonlight-qt.pro then make debug or make release.
- The final binary will be placed in
app/moonlight.
- To create an embedded build for a single-purpose device, use
qmake6 "CONFIG+=embedded" moonlight-qt.pro and build normally.
- This build will lack windowed mode, Discord/Help links, and other features that don't make sense on an embedded device.
- For platforms with poor GPU performance, add
"CONFIG+=gpuslow" to prefer direct KMSDRM rendering over GL/Vulkan renderers. Direct KMSDRM rendering can use dedicated YUV/RGB conversion and scaling hardware rather than slower GPU shaders for these operations.
Contribute
- Fork us
- Write code
- Send Pull Requests
Check out our website for project links and information.
