About LuminalShine
LuminalShine is a Windows-first game streaming host developed by the NortheBridge Foundation. It is a hardened, modernized descendant of Sunshine by way of Vibeshine, focused exclusively on delivering a stable, low-latency streaming experience on current Windows 11 releases — including the Windows Insider Preview Canary and Dev channels — paired with any Moonlight client or the built-in WebRTC browser client.
LuminalShine began as a fork of Vibeshine specifically to address deficiencies on the Windows 11 Insider Preview platform that upstream maintainers were unwilling to investigate. Since then it has diverged substantially in architecture, driver support, and capture pipeline.
System Requirements
LuminalShine is Windows-only by design. Linux and macOS support from upstream Sunshine has been deprecated to allow the team to focus entirely on the Windows platform.
| Component | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 11 23H2 (x64) | Windows 11 24H2 or Insider Preview (Canary / Dev) |
| CPU | Quad-core x86-64 with AVX2 | 6+ cores, recent Intel / AMD / Snapdragon X |
| GPU | DirectX 12 capable, HEVC encode | NVIDIA RTX 40/50, AMD RDNA 3/4, or Intel Arc with AV1 encode |
| RAM | 8 GB | 16 GB+ |
| Display Stack | WDDM 3.0 | WDDM 3.2+ with HDR-capable physical or virtual display at 240 Hz |
| Network | 1 Gbps wired or Wi-Fi 6 | 2.5 Gbps wired or Wi-Fi 6E/7 |
| PowerShell | Windows PowerShell 5.1 | PowerShell 7 (auto-preferred by MSI when installed) |
| Privileges | Local administrator for install & service registration | TPM 2.0 (used for credential sealing) |
Key Features
A focused feature set tuned for low-latency streaming on the latest Windows builds.
Native Windows 11 + Insider Preview
Engineered against the latest Canary and Dev channel builds; works around dxgi.dll quirks introduced in recent flights.
HEVC and AV1, with HDR
Modern codec paths are the default. H.264 remains supported on older builds.
WGC in Service Mode
Windows Graphics Capture captures full frame-generated frame rates, survives VRAM exhaustion, and falls back so login & UAC prompts stay capturable.
SudoVDA Virtual Display
Default virtual display driver. Supports automatic or explicit GPU binding, including hybrid-GPU laptops — ideal for headless setups.
MTT VDD as Alternative
Available for niche hardware configurations. Read the notice in the installer before selecting MTT VDD.
LuminalVGDSoon
A first-party virtual display driver developed in-house to eventually supersede both SudoVDA and MTT VDD as the default.
Display Setting Automation
Restores display layout after crashes, shutdowns, or reboots; safeguards against unreleased dummy plugs and virtual displays.
Modern WebUI
Fully responsive; manage your library and configuration from a phone or tablet without restarting the service.
WebRTC Browser Streaming
Stream directly to the browser via the /webrtc endpoint — no separate client install needed. Moonlight path is still available.
TPM-bound Credential Sealing
Admin credentials are sealed to the TPM by default, with platform-native fallbacks (Credential Manager, libsecret, Keychain) elsewhere.
RTSS & NVIDIA Control Panel
Applies the correct frame limit and disables V-Sync before streaming for noticeably smoother frame pacing.
Frame-Generation Capture Fixes
DLSS, FSR, and XeSS frame-gen titles capture at full rate without micro-stutter (requires a 240 Hz display).
Lossless Scaling & Smooth Motion
Optional per-app frame generation; NVIDIA Smooth Motion supported on RTX 40 / 50 series.
Playnite Integration
Auto-sync recently played games with per-category rules. Artwork, launching, and clean termination handled for you.
Steam Integration
Auto-detect and sync your Steam library; launch titles in Big Picture with proper Steam Input handling and clean session termination when streaming ends.
Scoped API Tokens
Method-level scoping so automation scripts never need full admin rights.
Session-Based Auth
Password-manager friendly, with an opt-in “remember me” flow.
Pre-Release & GA Channels
Side-by-side update channels so you can pull in-development fixes the moment they land.
Moonlight Client Compatibility
Pair with any Moonlight client
LuminalShine speaks the standard Moonlight streaming protocol — pair from anything Moonlight supports, including phones, tablets, TVs, handhelds, and the desktop Moonlight-QT app. Or skip the client entirely and stream straight to your browser via WebRTC.
Relationship to Sunshine & Vibeshine
A complementary fork
LuminalShine is a complementary fork, not a replacement. Sunshine remains the right choice for cross-platform deployments, and Vibeshine remains its own project. Each project covers a distinct surface.
LuminalShine remains free and open source under the GNU GPL-v3 license and will not be sold or offered commercially.
No backports planned
LuminalShine features will not be backported to Sunshine or Vibeshine. Driver changes, the WGC service architecture, Insider Preview workarounds, and the pace of development make maintaining backports impractical.
The codebase has diverged far enough that upstreaming would no longer be a clean merge — it would be a rewrite.
Origin of the Name
Luminal — from lumen, the SI unit of luminous flux
“LuminalShine” is the adjective form of lumen — the SI unit for luminous flux — riffing on the first half of Sunshine. It signals what the project is: a continuation of the Sunshine lineage, refined and focused, named for the physics of the light it pushes down the wire.
Get LuminalShine
Releases
Latest stable installers and pre-release builds on GitHub. Side-by-side GA and pre-release channels.
Documentation
Installation, configuration, driver selection, WebRTC, and troubleshooting. Documentation is currently in progress — use GitHub Discussions in the meantime.
License
Distributed under the GNU GPL-v3. Contributions are welcomed under the same terms.
Contributing
How to file good bug reports, build LuminalShine from source, and submit a clean pull request.
Security Policy
Responsible disclosure, supported versions, and how to privately report a vulnerability.
Source code
Browse the repository, watch the project, or fork it on GitHub.
Community & Support
Two channels, two purposes: open-ended conversation in Discussions, actionable bug reports in Issues.
GitHub Discussions
The place for open-ended conversation: configuration questions, hardware recommendations, ideas for new features, and show-and-tell. Start here if you’re not sure whether something is a bug.
GitHub Issues
Use Issues for reproducible bugs, crashes, and concrete feature requests. Please include your Windows build (winver), GPU, driver version, and the relevant section of sunshine.log. Issue templates will walk you through what we need.