Arcade

Parsec Arcade is our latest gaming feature that helps you play local, offline multiplayer and couch co-op games with your friends or strangers, online. It's also the go-to way to play with people from all around the world.

In contrast to streaming the whole desktop in the Computers tab, Arcade streams just the game to your friends and online peers. There's no voice chat echo, and no need to keep a separate chat window open to talk to friends - the host can talk to the people connected via an on-screen Parsec overlay!

Please be aware that Arcade is in beta and it's possible you'll encounter issues hosting games, in addition to being unable to give full keyboard and mouse to guests for games that need it. Because of that, if you're playing with friends we recommend that you use the Computers tab for now. 

 

Recommended settings

Host

We recommend that you use a sensible resolution and bandwidth limit, to provide good enough quality for people all around the world while not leaving out anyone with lower quality hardware or internet. Please confirm that your own internet's upload speed is able to keep up with the bandwidth limit you're using.

Note that the host settings inside of the Parsec app do not apply to Arcade, and you can only change settings that are in the in-game Parsec overlay. The Parsec overlay may not always be available depending on the game.

Setting	Value
Bandwidth Limit	25mbps+ (in-game Parsec overlay setting)
Resolution	1920x1080 (this is not changed via the Parsec settings, learn more)

Client

For playing games, we recommend ensuring you have fast hardware decoding active, and disabling special settings that are meant for productivity work.

Setting	Value
Decoder	NVIDIA, Intel, AMD or Hardware (macOS)
H.265 (HEVC)	On
VSync	On
Constant FPS (in-stream setting)	Off
Prefer 4:4:4 Color (in-stream setting)	Off