Valve introduces Pyrowave codec for Steam Remote Play

Valve has introduced an experimental video codec named Pyrowave to its Steam beta client to enhance the visual quality of Steam Remote Play. Developed by Hans-Kristian Arntzen, the codec is designed to provide extremely low latency and high visual fidelity, including support for HDR and YUV 4:4:4 color precision.

Because Pyrowave processes each frame independently rather than using motion prediction, it requires significantly more bandwidth—approximately 5 to 10 times that of existing streaming codecs. Valve notes that users will likely need a Gigabit Ethernet connection to utilize it effectively, as it is unlikely to perform well over standard Wi-Fi. The codec utilizes the GPU to handle video encryption and rendering simultaneously to maintain responsiveness.

Pyrowave is currently available in the Steam beta on macOS and Windows. Linux users can access it by enabling the experimental SteamRT3 Steam Client in System Settings. The feature is expected to arrive on the Steam Link mobile app in the near future. Users can manually enable the codec within the Steam Remote Play advanced client settings.