Towering gaming PCs armed with cutting-edge components may be able to run even the most demanding titles at maximum graphical fidelity, but there are times when you may not be able to sit in front of your computer desk. That’s where remote streaming comes in handy by letting you experience your favorite titles on portable devices while offloading the processing and rendering to your war machine of a PC.

Better yet, you’ve got a handful of options to choose from when creating a remote game streaming setup. The Artemis and Apollo combo is the latest entry in the remote gaming ecosystem, and here’s everything you need to know to integrate it into your setup.

What are Apollo and Artemis?

And why should you use them?

Not to be confused with the twin Greek Gods, Apollo and Artemis are a set of server and client applications that let you stream visuals from your gaming system to a smartphone and accept input from the latter – all while maintaining minimal latency and artifacts in your gaming sessions. Apollo acts on the server side, meaning you’ll need to set it up on your gaming PC, while an Artemis instance can be deployed on your smartphone.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because they’re forks of Sunshine and Moonlight, two of our favorite remote game streaming applications. However, the biggest difference between the two setups (or rather, between Sunshine and Apollo) is that the latter includes the virtual display facility right out-of-the-box instead of relying on third-party plugins.

As such, an Apollo + Artemis will automatically adjust the resolution, refresh rate, and aspect ratio. This makes it far better for devices with non-conventional displays, and you even have the option to turn off your PC’s primary display when you’re off gaming on your portable devices.

Setting up the Apollo server

First things first, you’ll need to deploy an Apollo server on your gaming system. As of writing, it’s only available on Windows machines, so you’re out of luck if you prefer gaming on Linux. Nevertheless, here’s how you can get an Apollo server up and running:

1. Download the latest version of the Apollo.exe file from ClassicOldSong’s GitHub repository and use it to install the app on your PC.

   For some reason, the Sunshine.exe file inside the root Apollo directory crashes on my system. If you encounter similar issues, make sure the Create a Start menu shortcut option is enabled inside the Apollo installer wizard.

2. Enter Apollo into the Search Bar before selecting the Apollo.exe file.
3. In case your browser displays an error, click on Proceed to localhost (unsafe) to access the Apollo web UI
4. Enter a Password for your Apollo server. If you want better security, you can also modify the Username.
5. Once the Apollo web UI restarts, type the Username and Password you set in the previous step.

Setting up the Artemis client

With the Apollo server ready for use, it’s time to deploy Artemis on your Android device. To do so,

1. Download the APK file for Artemis from the official repository before using it to install the app on your smartphone.
2. Connect your smartphone to the same WLAN as your Apollo server and launch the Artemis app.
3. Tap on your Apollo server and note the pin that appears on the screen.
4. Navigate to the Pin tab of the Apollo web UI, enter the 4-digit pin displayed on your phone, and tap Send.

Building a reliable game streaming hub with Apollo and Artemis

If you’ve followed all the steps correctly, your smartphone should be able to connect to the Apollo server. I recommend enabling the Use Virtual Display option inside Artemis to leverage this neat facility in your streaming setup. A quick heads-up though: if your smartphone has a weird aspect ratio, certain games may switch to a more traditional resolution.

However, the Apollo + Artemis setup has an Achilles' Heel. Unlike Sunshine and Moonlight, these apps only work with a Windows PC + Android smartphone setup. Well, you can technically replace Artemis with Moonlight since Apollo is compatible with both utilities, but the developer has confirmed they’ll move away from Sunshine and Moonlight in the future. Nevertheless, it’s still a fantastic remote streaming combo for Windows users who want a similar performance to Sunshine without jumping through multiple hoops to add virtual displays to their gaming setup.