​🚀 Nova Alpha v0.2.0 — The Seamless Polish Update

[Zero19-85]

Welcome to the Alpha v0.2.0 release of Nova!

Nova is an ultra-low footprint, high-performance game-streaming host for the GameStream/Moonlight ecosystem. Written entirely in native Rust and powered by a custom bare-metal C++ NVENC hardware shim, Nova replaces bloated background services with a hyper-optimized, zero-copy architecture.

This major update heavily polishes the engine, introducing true lock-screen boot support, dynamic audio routing, and flawless HEVC/AV1 frame pacing for a buttery-smooth, console-like experience.

🔥 Core Features in this Release

• ⚡ System-Wide Pre-Login Boot (Session 0 Bypass): Nova now runs as a true SYSTEM service. It natively captures the Windows Winlogon lock screen the second your PC boots. You can connect to your offline PC, type your Windows PIN remotely, and experience a flawless, tear-free handoff to your desktop.
• 👻 "Ghost" Audio Manager (Dynamic Endpoint Swapping): No more game audio blasting out of your physical PC speakers. Nova dynamically swaps your Windows Default Audio device the exact millisecond a stream starts, capturing the WASAPI loopback silently. The moment you disconnect, your physical desk speakers are instantly restored.
• 🌈 Buttery Smooth 4K 120Hz HDR10 & AV1: Full support for AV1 and 10-bit HEVC (H.265). We completely overhauled our UDP token-bucket micro-pacer and P010 surface copy fencing to completely eradicate micro-stutters during heavy camera pans.
• 🖥️ Headless Virtual Display Orchestration: Features programmatic, in-process SetupAPI integration to automatically mount and cleanly configure a Virtual Display Driver (VDD)—meaning no physical HDMI dummy plugs are required to stream at custom resolutions.
• 🏎️ Zero-Copy NVENC Pipeline: Direct DXGI Desktop Duplication to NVENC hardware encoding via a custom C++ FFI shim. Zero CPU overhead, zero software format conversions.
• 🌙 Native Moonlight Compatibility: Full cryptographic pairing, mDNS network discovery, and AES-128-GCM control stream encryption. Works out-of-the-box with standard Moonlight clients.
• 🎮 Automated App Launching: Embedded high-res UI assets with automated backend hooks for launching Steam Big Picture and the native Windows Xbox App seamlessly.

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🛠️ Installation & Getting Started

1. Download Nova_Alpha_Setup.exe from the Assets section below.
2. Run the installer as Administrator! (Note: Admin privileges are strictly required to set up the SYSTEM-level background service and virtual display drivers).
3. Open Moonlight on your client device (PC, Steam Deck, Android, etc.).
4. Click on your Nova host and enter the 4-digit PIN when prompted by the native Windows system tray notification.
5. Launch your stream!

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⚠️ Important Note for Xbox Users (Manual IP Required)

For most client devices (PC, Mac, Android, iOS), Nova is completely plug-and-play and will be automatically discovered via mDNS.

However, if you are using the Moonlight client on an Xbox, you currently must manually connect to the host PC.

• How to connect: Click "Add PC Manually" in the Xbox Moonlight app and type in your host PC's local IPv4 address (e.g., 192.168.1.50 or 10.0.0.25).

Depending on how stable this Alpha proves to be, we will eventually release a patch to fix auto-discovery natively for Xbox. However, our long-term development focus is shifting toward building Echo (our own next-gen native client) instead of wrestling with legacy Moonlight UWP quirks.

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🧪 The Alpha Testing Phase

The streamer is fully functioning, and the current goal is to stress-test the engine! Over the next few weeks, the focus will be on trying to break the system, finding edge cases, and compiling a master list of bugs. If you run into any crashes, black screens, or weird behavior, please report them so we can log them!

Enjoy the stream!

Problems? Suggestions? Email me at: Zero@origin1985.com

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This discussion was created from the release ​🚀 Nova Alpha v0.2.0 — The Seamless Polish Update.