Skip to content

Starwire 0.2.0

Choose a tag to compare

View all tags
@github-actions github-actions released this 23 Oct 00:59
· 3671 commits to main since this release
v0.2.0
9184d1f

Your microphone on the PC, with any host. Talk in Discord or in-game voice chat through your Android device while you stream, with Vibepollo, Sunshine or Apollo as they are. No different host needed.

Microphone

  • Starwire sends your voice to a small receiver on the PC, which plays it into VB-Cable, a free virtual microphone. Discord or the game picks it up as a normal mic, and your host doesn't change.
  • Starwire turns on the device's echo cancelling and noise reduction where it has them. If teammates still hear the game, wear headphones.
  • The audio isn't encrypted or authenticated. Anyone else on the same network could listen to it, or send their own sound into the PC's virtual mic. Use it only on a network you trust, or over Tailscale. If the PC is on a shared network, like at work, school or a hotel, quit the receiver from its icon by the clock. It starts again the next time you sign in. I'm working on a fix.
  • Running logabell's Apollo build? Set Send my microphone to to The PC's streaming app and the microphone goes over the stream itself. Thanks to logabell for that code.

Set up the microphone (once)

  1. On the PC (Windows 10 or 11), download Starwire-Microphone-for-Windows.zip below and unzip it.
  2. Double-click setup-microphone.cmd. If Windows warns about a downloaded file, choose More info → Run anyway (or Run), then allow it to make changes.
  3. The setup builds the receiver with the C# compiler that comes with Windows. Then, if VB-Cable isn't installed yet, it downloads it from VB-Audio, checks VB-Audio signed it and opens its installer: click Install Driver, then close it. Restart Windows only if the setup says VB-Cable isn't showing up.
  4. It then lets the receiver through Windows Firewall for local-network and private VPN addresses only, starts it (no window, just an icon by the clock, also at every sign-in) and plays a test tone through VB-Cable to check it works.
  5. In Discord or the game, choose CABLE Output (VB-Audio Virtual Cable) as the microphone.
  6. In Starwire, turn on Settings → Sound & vibration → Send my microphone. From then on the mic starts with every stream.

Right-click the receiver's icon to check the virtual mic, play a test tone (for Discord's mic test) or quit. The full guide covers the details, troubleshooting and removal.

What's in the Windows zip

  • setup-microphone.cmd: the file to double-click. It runs the PowerShell setup below for that one run and asks for administrator rights.
  • setup-microphone.ps1: the setup itself, about 300 lines. Safe to run again. Add -Uninstall (for example setup-microphone.cmd -Uninstall) to remove the receiver, its firewall rule and its startup entry, -NoStartup to stop it starting at sign-in, or -Port / -StreamName to change what it listens for.
  • StarwireMicReceiver.cs: the receiver's source. The setup builds it on your PC with the C# compiler that comes with Windows, so there's no prebuilt .exe to trust.
  • starwire-mic.ico: the receiver's icon.
  • README.md: the full guide.

VB-Cable stays installed if you remove the receiver; take it off with its own setup (Remove Driver).

Android devices

  • Settings now show on narrow screens. On a small device held upright or a Galaxy Z Fold's cover screen they were blank.
  • The game screen fits small screens: a smaller cover and title, and the Play and settings buttons stack.
  • The top of the game screen scrolls away with your games. On a small screen held sideways it used to fill most of the screen. Once it's gone, a slim bar keeps the selected game and its Play button at the top; tap the bar to scroll back up.
  • On a small screen held sideways, the stream menu puts Close, Quit and Disconnect on one row, so more tools fit.
  • On a foldable's inner screen, the stream follows how you hold it instead of forcing landscape, which could leave it small with black borders.

Game screen

  • A Quit button sits beside Resume while a game is running, so you don't have to long-press the tile.
  • Games without cover art each get their own take on the Starwire tile (colour, ring, moon, glow) instead of all looking the same.
  • Softer corners, covers that arrive one after another and give a little when you press them, and a gently floating cover. The screen's animations pause while you stream.

Settings and the stream menu

  • Settings that change latency, smoothness, picture quality or battery have a short Impact: line under them, so you can see what turning one on or up gains or costs.
  • The floating menu button is smaller, see-through until you touch it, and closes the menu as well as opening it.
  • Menu items that switch something on or off (Stats, Mouse mode, Keyboard, Pan and zoom, Touch sensitivity, On-screen controller, Menu button) show a small switch, and tapping them keeps the menu open.
  • The menu header shows the game's cover art. Desktop and games without cover art get a Starwire tile.
  • The Lite stats line uses plain words: data rate, ping, decode time, dropped frames and FPS.

Fixes

  • Tapping a running Desktop tile to reconnect no longer crashes the app (the Resume button already worked), and neither does long-pressing Desktop or another icon tile. Create shortcut now works for them too.

Install

  • Starwire-0.2.0.apk: the Android app. Download it on your Android device and open it. It installs over 0.1.x and keeps your pairing and settings.
  • Starwire-Microphone-for-Windows.zip: the PC side of the microphone (see above). Only needed if you want to use your mic.

Check your download

  • APK SHA-256: 7b55258354018d458b82e08529f3cec687f723952323287781ca3892e0366707
  • Windows zip SHA-256: 317a473f651d9b7ba4bdfadb5529bd0712d849e1ac770f9d6c400de40c3abad3
  • Signing certificate SHA-256: B6:04:1D:43:9F:28:4F:17:16:64:6F:C0:F9:80:F1:9A:76:17:8F:A7:04:D5:6F:50:34:D4:06:2A:D3:C1:3F:97 (the same certificate as every Starwire release)

GPL-3.0.

Assets 4
Loading