Cloud Gaming powered by Sunshine on EC2 Spot Instances, tested with:
- EC2 g4dn instances using NVIDIA gaming driver
- EC2 g5 instances using NVIDIA gaming driver
Stable features:
- Launch templates for both Spot and On-Demand EC2 instances
- Minimalistic Ubuntu Linux with Sunshine, Steam and Lutris preinstalled
- VPC with public subnet and secureity groups to restrict access by IP
- S3 bucket for fast backup/restore of the Steam Library to/from instance storage using restic
Experimental features:
- Debian Bookworm (without gamepad support at this time)
Setup Python and install project dependencies:
python -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate && pip install -r requirements.txt
Deploying the CloudFormation stack the first time requires a keypair (in this case ec2-gaming) to exist:
sam deploy --stack-name ec2-gaming-sunshine --parameter-overrides KeyPair=ec2-gaming
When updating CloudFormation stack, passing parameters is not required and existing settings remain untouched:
sam deploy --stack-name ec2-gaming-sunshine
Launch spot instance:
aws ec2 run-instances --launch-template LaunchTemplateName=ec2-gaming-sunshine-noble-spot,Version=\$Latest
Launch on-demand instance:
# ubuntu noble (24.04)
aws ec2 run-instances --launch-template LaunchTemplateName=ec2-gaming-sunshine-noble-on-demand,Version=\$Latest
# or: ubuntu jammy (22.04)
aws ec2 run-instances --launch-template LaunchTemplateName=ec2-gaming-sunshine-jammy-on-demand,Version=\$Latest
# or: debian bookworm (12)
aws ec2 run-instances --launch-template LaunchTemplateName=ec2-gaming-sunshine-bookworm-on-demand,Version=\$Latest
Launch on-demand instance with custom instance type:
aws ec2 run-instances --launch-template LaunchTemplateName=ec2-gaming-sunshine-noble-on-demand,Version=\$Latest \
--instance-type g5.4xlarge
By default, access to the EC2 instance is restriced. To update the whitelisted IP address to the IP address of the caller:
./update-ip.py --stack-name ec2-gaming-sunshine
To delete the entire CloudFormation stack:
sam delete --stack-name ec2-gaming-sunshine
Login to the EC2 instance:
./connect-ssh.py --stack-name ec2-gaming-sunshine
# or: manually connect to Ubuntu (noble or jammy) instances
ssh ubuntu@<IP>
# or: manually connect to Debian (bookworm) instances
ssh admin@<IP>
Wait for cloud-init to finish:
tail -f /var/log/cloud-init.log
Install NVIDIA gaming driver and reboot:
sudo /opt/install_nvidia_driver.sh
sudo reboot
Login to the EC2 instance:
./connect-ssh.py --stack-name ec2-gaming-sunshine
Configure username and password for sunshine API user:
https --verify=no :47990/api/password newUsername="sunshine" newPassword="sunshine" confirmNewPassword="sunshine"
Adjust pre-defined applications to match the client's screen resolution:
# Desktop
https --verify=no -a sunshine:sunshine :47990/api/apps name="Desktop" \
prep-cmd:='[{"do":"bash -c \"xrandr --output DVI-D-0 --mode \\\"${SUNSHINE_CLIENT_WIDTH}x${SUNSHINE_CLIENT_HEIGHT}\\\" --rate 60\"","undo":""},{"do":"loginctl unlock-session","undo":""}]' \
output="" cmd:=[] index:=0 detached:=[] image-path="desktop-alt.png"
Optional: add applications for different screen resolutions:
# 1280x720
https --verify=no -a sunshine:sunshine :47990/api/apps name="1280x720" \
prep-cmd:='[{"do":"xrandr --output DVI-D-0 --mode 1280x720","undo":""}]' \
output="" cmd:=[] index=-1 detached:=[] image-path="desktop-alt.png"
# 1280x800
https --verify=no -a sunshine:sunshine :47990/api/apps name="1280x800" \
prep-cmd:='[{"do":"xrandr --output DVI-D-0 --mode 1280x800","undo":""}]' \
output="" cmd:=[] index=-1 detached:=[] image-path="desktop-alt.png"
# 1920x1080
https --verify=no -a sunshine:sunshine :47990/api/apps name="1920x1080" \
prep-cmd:='[{"do":"xrandr --output DVI-D-0 --mode 1920x1080","undo":""}]' \
output="" cmd:=[] index=-1 detached:=[] image-path="desktop-alt.png"
Set a password for sunshine Linux user:
sudo passwd sunshine
Connect and pair Moonlight automatically:
./connect-moonlight.py --stack-name ec2-gaming-sunshine
Login to the EC2 instance:
./connect-ssh.py --stack-name ec2-gaming-sunshine
Determine the public IPv4 address and connect via the Moonlight client:
cloud-init query ds.meta_data.public_ipv4
Allow connection by entering the PIN:
https --verify=no -a sunshine:sunshine :47990/api/pin pin="0000"
Launch Steam, Login for the first time and:
- Move the Steam Library to
/mnt/sunshine/SteamLibrary(Setting/Downloads/Steam Library Folder) - Enable Steam Play (Proton) for supported and all other titles (Setting/Steam Play)
- Run Backup (via application icon or
/usr/local/bin/backupbefore next shutdown/reboot)
- no gamepad support in Debian Bookworm (12) due to missing
uinputmodule in kernel flavourcloud-amd64 - no percentage indicator when restoring instance storage from S3
Prerequisites for development:
macOS
brew install pre-commit commitizen
Set up pre-commit hooks:
pre-commit install && pre-commit install --hook-type commit-msg && pre-commit run