r/Steam_Link • u/ParanSkies • Jul 22 '26
Support Using Remote Play on the Plane?
I’m going on a 10 hour flight this weekend from Asia to NA. I was going to buy some games for my iPad but I hate the thought that I can’t combine my Steam library with the App Store. I usually play turn based games and board games so high latency isn’t a big deal (although at a certain point it would be annoying). Would remote play be viable using the plane’s WiFi? I’d keep my PC on at home.
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u/bladus Jul 22 '26
As long as you're playing something turn based, I'd say your biggest potential issues are going to be disconnects requiring you to fire up the Remote Play session again and image quality as bandwidth fluctuates.
The less motion involved in whatever game you're playing, the less encoding stress you'll put on the stream and the less you'll have to deal with visual artifacts. :)
If there's a local business that offers free Wifi, you can connect to their network and then walk away from the building to simulate how bad things could get as your connection becomes inconsistent in flight.
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u/ParanSkies Jul 22 '26
That’s a great idea. I’ll try it out with the awful wifi I have at work. Thanks!
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u/reimused Jul 22 '26
It will likely be too slow but apart from that, some airlines would have that type of usage against their terms of service.
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u/SenorAudi Jul 22 '26
I would absolutely not count on remote play. The plane WiFi needs to be a) working that day b) not congested with a bunch of people c) specifically using Starlink d) won’t prohibit or throttle things like streaming and e) not drop out ever.
The chances of all those happening are very slim. Id try it but i would have a robust backup plan.
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u/StrateJ Jul 22 '26
Depends on airline but some Airlines like Qatar with Starlink are potentially possible. Not sure what the latency will be like but the bandwidth should be there for remote play
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u/PacoAvelar Jul 22 '26
You won't get good results and dealing with connection drops may be a pain, on top of limited bw.
Tbh, I would advise for relying on the iPad alone or get an android device with gamenative/gamehub support (or a Mac)
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u/dhudd32 Jul 22 '26
If your super rich sure wifi on planes is not cheap and it will eat your bandwith
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u/ParanSkies Jul 22 '26
There’s an unlimited option that’s about 50 dollars for the entire flight. I’m going to be buying it anyway to stay in touch with friends and watch YouTube so might as well use it to play games too (if I can)!
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u/Copernican Jul 22 '26
Isn't it going to be cheaper to just re-buy the board game native app for the ipad?
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u/ParanSkies Jul 22 '26
I’m buying the Internet pass anyway, so the cost doesn’t matter.
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u/Copernican Jul 22 '26
Well if it doesn't matter, buy the app for better performance and not getting compressed video from streaming to make board game text easier to read. Depending on the game, you can sync your account across mobile app and steam. I believe games like Dune: Imperium and Terraforming Mars support that.
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u/dhudd32 Jul 22 '26
That's actually not to bad airlines here offer timed plans at like $15 for 30m or xx downloads so on an multi hour flight you can see how that would get expensive lol
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u/megabass713 Jul 22 '26
Hell I just got off the plane from alaska airlines and it was only $8 for the flight. I even tethered my other devices and my brother's phone.
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u/versacecowboy Jul 22 '26
You don’t know what you’re talking about
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u/dhudd32 Jul 22 '26
I stream games via the internet all the time if his PC is not on the same LAN everything will be downloaded and uploaded so yeah I do know mate
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u/raygan Jul 27 '26
I was recently on a United Airlines plane that had Starlink and it was absolutely fast enough to stream on. Latency was not as good as I’m used to on home WiFi but was acceptable for less demanding games.
If your plane has anything other than Starlink then it’s basically impossible to do game streaming and I wouldn’t even attempt it.
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u/cicloon Jul 22 '26
In a plane you cannot even play anything remotely resembling multiplayer, the latency is absolutely terrible. Heck I even remember having problems to log in Rockstar servers to be able to play offline RDR2...