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Fully Virtualized Gaming Server? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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For years I’ve had a dream of building a rack mounted PC capable of splitting its resources to host multiple GPU intensive VMs:

  • a few gaming VMs
  • a VM for work that can run Davinci Resolve and Blender renders
  • an LLM server
  • a Stable Diffusion server
  • media server

Just to name a few possibilities…

Everytime I’ve looked into it, it seemed like the technology just wasn’t there yet. I remember a few years ago Linus TT took a shot at it, but in the end suggested the technology (for non-commercial entities) just wasn’t in a comfortable spot yet.

So how far off are we? Obviously AI focused companies seem to make it work, but what possibilities exist for us self-hosters who might also want to run multiple displays in addition to the web gui LLM servers? And without forking out crazy money for GPU virtualization software licenses?

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[–] 4 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

Can this solution deliver 3+ streams of high resolution (1440p or higher and 144fps) low latency video with no artifacting and near native performance and responsiveness?

Gaming has a high requirement for high fidelity and low latency I/O, no one wants to spend all this money on racks and thin clients, the then get laggy windows and scrolling, artifacts, video compression, and low resolution.

That's the problem at hand with a gaming server, if you want to replace a gaming desktop with a vm in a rack, you need to actually get the I/O to the user somehow, either through dedicated cables from the rack, fiber, or networking, the first is impractical, it involves potentially 100ft long runs of multiple display port, HDMI, USB, etc, and is very rigid in its application, the second is very expensive, shooting the price up to thousands of dollars per seat for display port/USB over fiber extenders, and the third option I have yet to see a vnc/remote solution that can deliver near native video performance.

I should reiterate, the op wants to do fidelity sensitive tasks, like video editing, they don't just need to work on a spreadsheet.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    Yes, for some definition of 'low latency'.

    Geforce now, shadow.tech, luna, all demonstrate this is done at scale every day.

    Do your own VM hosting in your own datacenter and you can knock off 10-30ms of latency.

    However you define low latency there is a way to iteratively approach it with different costs. As technology marches on, more and more use cases are going to be 'good enough' for virtualization.

    Quite frankly, if you have a all optical network being 1m away or 30km away doesn't matter.

    Just so we are clear, local isn't always the clear winner, there are limits on how much power, cooling, noise, storage, and size that people find acceptable for their work environment. So there is some tradeoff function every application takes into account of all local vs distributed.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    Right, but who has the resources to rent compute with multiple GPUs, this is a gaming setup, not office work, and the op was talking about racking it.

    All of those services offer an inferior experience to being at the hardware, it's just not the same experience. Seriously, try it with multiple 1440p 144hz displays, it just doesn't happen work out well, you are getting a compromised product for a higher cost. You need a good GPU (or at least a way to decode multiple hvec streams) in in the client, and so, you can run a standard thin client.

    'low latency' is a near native experience, I'm talking, you sit down at your desk and it feels like you are at your computer(as to say, multiple monitors, hdr, USB swapping, Bluetooth, audio, etc, all working seamlessly without noticeably diminished quality), anything less isn't worth it, since you can just, use your computer like normal.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Remember the original poster here, was talking about running their own self-hosted GPU VM. So they're not paying anybody else for the privilege of using their hardware

    I personally stream with moonlight on my own network. Have no issues it's just like being on the computer from my perspective.

    If it doesn't work for you Fair enough, but it can work for other people, and I think the original posters idea makes sense. They should absolutely run a GPU VM cluster, and have fun with it and it would be totally usable

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Yea I do, you brought up that local isn't always the option.

    I desperately want it to work for me, i just can't get it to work without spending thousands of dollars on hardware just to get back to the same experience as having a regular desktop at my desk.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Okay. Do you want to debug your situation?

    What's the operating system of the host? What's the hardware in the host?

    What's the operating system in the client? What's the hardware in the client?

    What does the network look like between the two? Including every piece of cable, and switch?

    Do you get sufficient experience if you're just streaming a single monitor instead of multiple monitors?

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