Desktop

The Pod Arcade desktop is a containerized application that runs on a virtual "desktop" and connects to the server. It is responsible for running the games and streaming the video and audio to the client over WebRTC. It also receives input from the server and sends it to the game.

Configuration

Desktop configuration

Environment Variable	Description	Default
DESKTOP_ID	This is the human-readable name of the desktop. It should be unique and match the regex [a-z0-9-]+. It must not start or end with a -	pa-desktop
VIDEO_QUALITY	This is a numeric value between 0–51, where 0 is lossless and 51 is the worst quality possible. This will significantly affect video bitrate	30
VIDEO_PROFILE	This is the h264 profile to use. It's typically constrained_baseline, baseline, main, or high. We don't recommend changing this, as you'll need to understand which h264 encoder is being used.	constrained_baseline
ICE_SERVERS	A JSON string containing a list of ICE servers to use for the web clients. See ICE Servers below for more details	[]

Desktop authentication

play.pod-arcade.com

Environment Variable	Description	Default
CLOUD_AUTH_KEY	If you are using https://play.pod-arcade.com, you will need to set this to the value provided in the installation instructions. If you are running your own server, you can leave this blank.	disabled

Self-hosted

Environment Variable	Description	Default
MQTT_HOST	A way of connecting to the MQTT Broker. Typically ws://localhost:8080/mqtt or wss://your.domain.here:443/mqtt for https deployments	tcp://localhost:1883
DESKTOP_PSK	Preshared key with all desktops used for secure registration and communication. If not provided, desktop authentication is disabled.	disabled

Port Forwarding

While the best experience is typically leaving these two environment variables disabled, there are some cases where you may find it necessary to enable them. In the case where your router has a symmetric NAT, it may be impossible to connect to your desktop without port forwarding. In this case, you can enable port forwarding by setting WEBRTC_PORT to the port you want to forward and WEBRTC_IPS to the external IP address of your router. To learn more about forwarding ports with Pod Arcade, see the Port Forwarding section of the design documentation.

The forwarded port on your router must be the same as the port that the desktop is listening on.

Environment Variable	Description	Default
WEBRTC_PORT	Port to be used when port-forwarding.	0
WEBRTC_IPS	External IP address of your router	disabled

ICE Servers

The ICE servers configuration is a JSON string containing an array of objects, each describing one server which may be used by the ICE agent; these are typically STUN and/or TURN servers. If this isn't specified, the connection attempt will be made with no STUN or TURN server available, which limits the connection to local peers. Each object may have the following properties:

• credential Optional: The credential to use when logging into the server. This is only used if the object represents a TURN server.

• credentialType Optional: If the object represents a TURN server, this attribute specifies what kind of credential is to be used when connecting. The default is "password".

• urls: This required property is an array of strings, each specifying a URL which can be used to connect to the server. Should be in the format "stun:stun.example.org" or "turn:turn.example.org", with an optional transport parameter ("turns" or "stuns", respectively) and an optional port number. If no transport parameter is specified, the server is assumed to be a STUN server. If no port is specified, the default port for the specified transport protocol is used. If multiple URLs are given, they are tried in the order listed until one succeeds.

• username Optional: If the object represents a TURN server, then this is the username to use during the authentication.

See the ICE Servers section of the connection guide for more details and examples on running your own ICE servers.