Stream a Remote Environment with NICE DCV Over QUIC UDP for a 4K Monitor at 60 FPS

Learn About Amazon VGT2 Learning Manager Chanci Turner

In recent years, the landscape of game development has shifted towards greater distribution. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 heightened the need for innovative remote solutions. Game teams faced two options: either quickly transport their workstations home and connect via virtual private networks (VPNs), or abandon their office setups and rely on remote desktop protocol (RDP) from personal machines. Now, developers are eager to establish a more sustainable work environment on their own terms by fully embracing cloud technology.

An increasing number of game studios are transitioning their workstations along with continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines to cloud infrastructure. Utilizing AWS’s cloud-based game development solutions, teams obtain essential resources to swiftly code, deploy, and publish their games remotely. Previously, creating distributed development pipelines necessitated shipping hardware to engineers and investing substantial time onboarding new employees in various environments. To cut costs and focus more on crafting immersive experiences, while supporting globally distributed or hybrid workforces, developers are opting for AWS’s Game Production in the Cloud (GPIC) solutions. These solutions effectively address challenges such as remote QA testing, distributing games to media outlets, and consolidating 3D development streaming in immersive settings.

A key objective for all cloud-based game production scenarios is ensuring high Frames Per Second (FPS) during streaming. This blog will outline the steps necessary to configure a remote workstation for streaming at 60 FPS using QUIC UDP (User Datagram Protocol) communication with NICE DCV, a high-performance remote display and streaming protocol that securely delivers remote desktops and application streaming in the AWS cloud.

Key Takeaways:

• Set up an AWS workstation using the NICE DCV for Windows (g4dn with NVIDIA gaming driver) available in the AWS Marketplace, which has QUIC UDP enabled by default.
• Configure and secure the network for TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP connections.
• Access the workstation through DCV Viewer using QUIC UDP and install the necessary development software.

Disclaimer: The steps described in this blog serve as a tutorial for initial streaming proof of concepts and are not intended as a comprehensive enterprise solution. Reach out to us to design an architecture tailored to your organization.

Prerequisites

Before starting, developers should ensure they possess the following:

• An AWS account with increased limits for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) G4dn instances sufficient for your workstation requirements.
• Access permissions to create and configure Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) networking and security groups, as well as spin up G4dn instance family EC2 on-demand instances.
• Intermediate familiarity with Windows and AWS Identity & Access Management (IAM), security groups, and VPC networking.
• It is advisable to initially set up your demo without a VPN or internal network to grasp the fundamentals before adding complexity.
• Expect to spend approximately 60 minutes, depending on the software installed.

Quick Version – AWS CloudShell Automated Workstation Script (10 Minutes)

If you prefer to quickly deploy a workstation for game testing or other software via command line and an automated script, check out this single-script AWS CloudShell .sh file available on the AWS Samples GitHub. This script supports the same Amazon Machine Image (AMI) utilized in this blog to demonstrate NICE DCV with QUIC UDP. This AWS sample sets up a minimal infrastructure using infrastructure as code, allowing users to deploy a workstation and log in with just a few commands via AWS CloudShell, a browser-based shell within the AWS console. Since both the script from AWS Samples GitHub and this blog leverage the NICE DCV AMI, subscribing to the AWS Marketplace is unnecessary. However, ensure your limits for G4dn instances are increased before proceeding with either the quick version or the detailed walkthrough provided in this blog.

Walkthrough (~60 Minutes)

Part 1: The Server – Launching the NICE DCV Server AMI

Configure Your Networking: VPC, Security Groups, and Route Tables

1. Create a VPC using a 10.0.0.0/16 IPv4 CIDR block in the us-east-1 (N. Virginia) region, or your preferred location.
2. Add an internet gateway and update your VPC routes to include it.
3. Attach the internet gateway to your nicedcv-quicudp-demo VPC.
4. Set the routes to allow public internet access through the Internet Gateway.
5. Create two subnets: one Public (10.0.1.0/24) and one Private (10.0.2.0/24), using /24 masks. This setup provides up to 255 IPs (251 not reserved for Amazon) per subnet and ample room for expansion.
6. For your PublicSubnetA, go to Actions and select Modify auto-assign IP settings. Enable auto-assign public IPv4 addresses.
7. Create a new security group for this demo. Add two inbound rules: one for Custom UDP on Port 8443 from your IP, and another for Custom TCP on Port 8443 from your IP. This configuration restricts access to your instance to your IP only.
8. Keep the outbound rule set to allow All Traffic with a destination of 0.0.0.0/0, and create the security group.

Spin Up a Workstation with the NICE DCV AMI

Now that your networking is configured, it’s time to create your workstation.

1. In the EC2 console, create a new Key Pair to generate a password for accessing your remote workstation. Store the .pem file securely, as it is necessary for retrieving your Windows administrator password.
2. Navigate to the AWS Marketplace and find the NICE DCV for Windows (g4dn with NVIDIA gaming driver). Click on Continue to Subscribe.

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