Our game streaming technology
As high performance, low cost video processing chips were introduced, it became clear that delivering video over the internet at extremely low latencies was possible. Since then, it has been our obsession to perfect peer-to-peer, low latency game streaming over a wide area network.
We don’t take shortcuts
Parsec's core technology suite, the Parsec SDK, is built in cross platform C. We take a strong stand against unnecessary bloat, complexity, and dependencies of dubious value. Even our host side WebRTC implementation (for our web client) was custom built without requiring Google's massive dependency tree.
We use our own peer-to-peer networking protocol called BUD; Better User Datagrams (naming is hard). BUD has been optimized for low-latency video delivery based on the data gathered over a three year period. With a 97% NAT traversal success rate and lightning fast adjustment to packet loss and congestion, BUD is the cornerstone of the Parsec SDK.
How it works
Native code — why low-level code is the only way to get performance
We didn't build on top of any wrappers — we wanted full hardware control and the ability to manipulate every element of the stream to reduce latency as much as possible. On our test setup on a LAN ethernet connection, Parsec adds only 7 milliseconds of latency to your game. Remember, your ping is important, so if you're far from the computer, there will be more lag.
“Parsec does what it promises. Almost zero latency games on the go. If you have a beefy rig at home you can even play pc games from a tablet…Parsec is basically ages ahead of any remote desktop software.”
Allesandro El KhouryBUD — The networking protocol for game streaming
It’s not a clever name, but the protocol works. Providing reliable UDP video at the lowest latency possible while handling all sorts of messy networking situations. Built with an ultra-responsive dynamic bitrate adjustment that is constantly adjusting based on network conditions. It also supports the best in-class security available with DTLS 1.2 with AES128 or AES256 cipher enabled on every single packet sent over the network.
“I just love having the ability to play games without a rig. You guys are amazing. I think this is the future.”
Cole MercerPeer-to-peer NAT traversal for co-playing with friends
Nothing makes you rage quit when you’re just trying to play some games with friends faster than a bunch of networking errors. Making sure two computers can connect in a peer-to-peer connection with as little latency as possible is really difficult. We’ve spent years optimizing our NAT traversal techniques to give you the highest likelihood of connecting on the first try. 95% of our users successfully co-play together due to this effort.
“Just tried Parsec for the first time on BO3 and it was an amazing experience for me and my buddy! Totally recommend this for anyone wanting to play games together!”
phen0menalHardware encoding and decoding plus frame timing optimizations
We support the h.264 codec and low latency desktop capture, with a zero-copy GPU pipeline to the encoder. You can use whatever GPU you want — AMD gets the same love as Nvidia here. We use hardware decoding whenever possible on every platform we support, and we have low level frame timing and synchronization optimizations for a smooth 60 FPS stream.
“Are you serious? Parsec is one of the most amazing apps I have used on the pc! Can't wait for more updates”
KatukazWe didn't build on top of any wrappers — we wanted full hardware control and the ability to manipulate every element of the stream to reduce latency as much as possible. On our test setup on a LAN ethernet connection, Parsec adds only 7 milliseconds of latency to your game. Remember, your ping is important, so if you're far from the computer, there will be more lag.
“Parsec does what it promises. Almost zero latency games on the go. If you have a beefy rig at home you can even play pc games from a tablet…Parsec is basically ages ahead of any remote desktop software.”
Allesandro El Khoury