Helios

Helios is a community-maintained fork of Apollo by ClassicOldSong — which is itself a fork of Sunshine by LizardByte. Full credit for the foundation goes to both upstream projects. Helios exists to keep the host actively maintained and extended, with a particular focus on native Linux/Wayland virtual-display support. Its sibling client is Selene.

Helios is a self-hosted desktop stream host for Selene, Artemis (Moonlight Noir), and other Moonlight-protocol clients. It offers low latency, native client resolution, and hardware encoding on AMD, Intel, and Nvidia GPUs (software encoding is also available), with a web UI for configuration and client pairing from any browser.

Major features:

• Per-client permission management
• Clipboard sync
• Commands on client connect/disconnect (e.g. auto pause/resume games)
• Input-only mode
• Built-in Virtual Display with HDR that auto-matches the client's resolution/framerate — Windows today; native Linux/Wayland support is this fork's flagship effort (see Focus)

Focus of this fork

Helios prioritizes the Linux/Wayland host experience that upstream never fully landed, plus first-party docs. In order:

1. Native virtual display on Linux — render at the client's exact resolution without disturbing your physical monitor. Today this needs external workarounds (e.g. a dedicated gamescope session captured via KMS); the goal is to make it native, the way SudoVDA already works on Windows. Tracking: virtual display on Linux (Apollo #1161, PR #1477), OpenGL-on-VD (#1414), headless (#1427).
2. First-party, Linux-first documentation (below) instead of only pointing at upstream.

Windows remains fully supported as inherited from Apollo/Sunshine — see Downloads.

Quick start (Linux)

1. Install Helios (build from source for now; packaged releases are on the way).
2. Start the service:

   systemctl --user enable --now apollo.service   # the binary is still named sunshine/apollo pending a binary rebrand

3. Open the web UI at https://localhost:47990 and set your username/password on first run.
4. Pair your client (Selene/Artemis/Moonlight): use the PIN flow in the UI, or enter the host address on the client.

Note

The first client paired gets full permissions; later clients only get View Streams + List Apps. If you hit Permission Denied launching an app, or can't use mouse/keyboard from a new client, grant that device the matching permission in the web UI. More: Permission System wiki.

Building from source (Linux)

First-party steps, verified on Arch / CachyOS. (For Debian/Fedora/Ubuntu the dependency names differ — see packaging/linux/ and the upstream build reference linked under Documentation.)

Dependencies (Arch / CachyOS)

# Build tooling — upstream pins gcc-14 (a newer gcc, e.g. 16, currently breaks the build)
sudo pacman -S --needed gcc14 cmake make nodejs npm git appstream appstream-glib \
  desktop-file-utils python-jinja shaderc

# Runtime / library deps
sudo pacman -S --needed avahi curl libcap libdrm libevdev \
  libmfx libnotify libpulse libva libx11 libxcb libxfixes libxrandr libxtst \
  miniupnpc numactl openssl opus pipewire qt6-base qt6-svg vulkan-icd-loader wayland

Note

A few of these are new since the Sunshine sync: qt6-base/qt6-svg (the tray icon moved to a Qt backend and no longer uses libayatana-appindicator), pipewire (required by the KWin ScreenCast and XDG Desktop Portal capture backends, both on by default), shaderc + vulkan-icd-loader (Vulkan video encoding, on by default — pass -DSUNSHINE_ENABLE_VULKAN=OFF to skip) and python-jinja (generates the glad GL/EGL loader).

Build

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/unjordi/Helios.git
cd Helios

cmake -S . -B build -Wno-dev \
  -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=gcc-14 -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=g++-14 \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DBUILD_DOCS=OFF -DBUILD_TESTS=OFF -DBUILD_WERROR=OFF \
  -DSUNSHINE_ENABLE_CUDA=OFF -DCUDA_FAIL_ON_MISSING=OFF

make -C build -j"$(nproc)"

The binary lands at build/sunshine. Run it directly to test, or install with make -C build install.

Tip

SUNSHINE_ENABLE_CUDA does not gate NVENC — NVENC goes through FFmpeg (h264_nvenc, hevc_nvenc, av1_nvenc) and works with the flag off, just without zero-copy (you'll see a benign Attempting to use NVENC without CUDA support warning). What the flag does gate is the CUDA/OpenGL interop path, and with it NvFBC capture and 4:4:4 chroma on NVENC. If you want either, install cuda and drop -DSUNSHINE_ENABLE_CUDA=OFF. On AMD, libva-mesa-driver enables VAAPI encoding (which has its own HEVC 4:4:4 profiles).

Capture backends on Linux

Beyond KMS/DRM, wlroots Wayland and X11, the host now also supports KWin ScreenCast (a direct Wayland protocol that bypasses the portal — the KDE/Plasma path) and the XDG Desktop Portal. Both are built by default and both need PipeWire; turn them off with -DSUNSHINE_ENABLE_KWIN=OFF / -DSUNSHINE_ENABLE_PORTAL=OFF. Encoding can go through VAAPI, NVENC or Vulkan Video.

Documentation

First-party documentation lives in this repo (the Quick start and build sections above; more is being migrated). For deeper, not-yet-re-documented topics from the Sunshine era, the upstream Sunshine docs remain a useful reference — but they are no longer the primary doc for Helios.

About the Virtual Display

Note

TL;DR Treat your Selene/Artemis/Moonlight client like a dedicated PnP monitor.

On Windows, Helios uses SudoVDA for the virtual display: auto resolution/framerate matching, created when the stream starts and removed when it ends. It assigns a fixed identity per client, so Windows remembers each device's display configuration natively. If no virtual display appears/disappears with the stream, suspect a driver misconfiguration or a leftover persistent virtual display.

Warning

Remove any other virtual-display solutions from your system and config to avoid conflicts.

On Linux/Wayland, a native virtual display is this fork's flagship work in progress (see Focus). Until it lands, render-at-client-resolution is achieved with external workarounds (e.g. a dedicated gamescope session captured via KMS).

About HDR

HDR quality depends almost entirely on the client. Color correction (ICC) is essentially a client-side job while streaming HDR, not the host's.

On Windows, HDR requires Windows 11 23H2+ (24H2 recommended). On Linux/KDE, HDR capture is sensitive to the compositor version (e.g. dark-HDR regressions after some Plasma updates).

HDR caveats (worth reading)

If HDR looks dark/washed-out, that's usually the client tone-mapping SDR content to its panel's peak brightness — not a Helios bug. HDR remains a messy space across standards and devices; SDR often gives more stable, predictable color. Enable HDR only if you understand the trade-offs. Background: Apollo issue #164.

Advanced

• Dual-GPU laptops: set Adapter Name to your dGPU and enable Headless mode in the Audio/Video tab, then restart — no dummy plug needed.
• Multiple instances / multiple virtual displays: wiki guide.
• Stuttering: common causes and fixes in the Stuttering Clinic.
• FAQ: wiki.

System requirements

Note: work in progress — don't buy hardware based on this table.

Component	Minimum
GPU	AMD: VCE 1.0+ · Intel: VAAPI-compatible (Linux) / Skylake+ with QuickSync (Windows) · Nvidia: NVENC-capable
CPU	AMD Ryzen 3 / Intel Core i3 or higher
RAM	4 GB+
OS	Linux: Debian 13+ (trixie), Fedora 43+, Ubuntu 22.04+ · Windows 11+ · macOS 14.2+ · FreeBSD 14.4+
Network	5 GHz 802.11ac (host & client)

For 4K, prefer wired CAT5e+ and a newer GPU (AMD VCE 3.1+, Intel HD 510+, Nvidia RTX 2000-series+ on Linux / GTX 1080+ on Windows). For HDR: AMD VCE 3.4+, Intel UHD 730+, Nvidia Pascal/GTX 10-series+.

Integrations

• Selene — Helios' sibling desktop client (Windows/macOS/Linux/Steam Deck).
• SudoVDA — the Virtual Display Adapter driver used on Windows.
• Artemis (Android) — Android client with integrated virtual-display controls.

Downloads

• Build from source (Linux): see above (recommended for now).
• Releases: github.com/unjordi/Helios/releases (packaged builds are on the way).

Windows (inherited from Apollo)

The upstream Apollo packages still work on Windows. In an elevated PowerShell:

winget install ClassicOldSong.Apollo
# or
choco upgrade apollo -y

Both are community-maintained. Native Helios Windows packages will follow.

Support

Support is via GitHub Issues and Discussions on this repo. No real-time chat channels are provided.

Acknowledgments

• ClassicOldSong — creator of Apollo (this fork's direct upstream) and Artemis.
• LizardByte — for Sunshine, the foundation Apollo and Helios build on.

License

GPLv3 — inherited from Sunshine. See LICENSE.