cli-screenview

A remote screen viewer written in Python for your text-only console. Control any GUI application and play games like e.g. Minecraft in your console.

Video Demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1d04is-wQQ

Parameters

The following parameters are currently available:

python cli-screenview-server.py IP PORT CONTROLS AUTH_TOKEN
python cli-screenview-client.py IP PORT AUTH_TOKEN CNSL_WIDTH FPS UNICODE CONTROLS

Parameter	Explanation	Default Value	Optional
IP	Server IP	127.0.0.1	No
Port	Server Port	1860	No
AUTH_TOKEN	Authentication token which the client has to provide in order to authenticate itself. If used on the server script, this will set an own token instead of generating a new random token	RANDOM	No (client) / Yes (server)
CNSL_WIDTH	Max characters width of the console	100	Yes
FPS	Framerate	10	Yes
UNICODE	Console Unicode Support (For Windows CMD set False or use Powershell workaround)	True	Yes
CONTROLS	Enable sending / receiving keyboard input	True	Yes

To exit the scripts, use ESC on the server script and CTRL-C on the client script.

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How to use

Example

$ pip3 install -r requirements.txt
$ python3 server.py 127.0.0.1 1860

$ python3 client.py 127.0.0.1 1860 AUTH_TOKEN 120 10 false

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To Do

Features

• Better parameter system
• Mouse control
• Auto buffer size
• Sound

Known Bugs

• After exiting the client script, further commands are not displayed anymore in that specific console session. A fix is already in progress.
• Transmission delays when using the UNICODE parameter (Workaround: Set a target FPS value of 10 or lower)
• Buffer Overflow (Workaround: Increase the buffer size in the client script or decrease the CNSL_WIDTH value)

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Windows CMD Color Workaround

Use the following command in an administrator Powershell in order to activate the Unicode support which is used for the advanced color processing in the Windows command line.

Set-ItemProperty HKCU:\Console VirtualTerminalLevel -Type DWORD 1

Otherwise set the UNICODE parameter to False. This might affect the render quality.

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This project would not be possible without

• https://github.com/pnappa/CLImage
• https://github.com/ollipal/sshkeyboard