Moonlight usage: screen size, latency, keyboard shortcuts, etc.

How to exit Moonlight session

Press:

  • PC / Windows keyboard :CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+Q
  • MacOS keyboard: SHIFT+CONTROL+OPTION+Q

Display / screen resolution

Moonlight screen resolution may be different than your actual screen. By default Moonlight is configured to use a 720p resolution (1280x720) which may be lower than your actual screen.

If you experience blurry image and/or improperly scaled image, Moonlight resolution may be improperly set.

To set Moonlight display resolution:

  • Open Moonlight client.
    • If already connected to your instance in Moonlight, exit your session and click Stop button to fully disconnect.
  • Open Settings ⚙️ (top-right gear button).
  • Under "Resolution and FPS" choose your desired resolution. Use the following values:
    • Native to match your current screen resolution
    • 1080p for 1920x1080 screen resolution
    • 4k for 3840x2160 screen resolution

Known limitations:

  • NVIDIA Datacenter GPUs maximum resolution is 2560x1600. Resolution will automatically be adjusted to fit your screen but may be smaller as it will be capped at 2560x1600. See #144.

Latency, stutter and image quality: FPS and bitrate

Moonlight has a "FPS" and "Bitrate" limit. Setting these values may improve your connection quality / latency:

If you experience lag, stutter or warnings while streaming:

  • Open Moonlight client.
  • Open settings ⚙️ (top-right gear button).
  • Decrease bitrate by ~10% to 30%.
    • Slightly lower quality but better latency for slower internet connections.
  • Decrease FPS (eg. 60 FPS => 40 FPS)
    • FPS is "Frame per second". Lower FPS means less data to sent but slightly lower quality.
  • Decrease resolution (eg. 1080p => 720p)
    • Lower resolution means less data to sent but slightly lower quality.

Moonlight keyboard shortcuts

PC / Windows keyboard:

  • Exit session: CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+Q
  • Show statistics (FPS, latency, etc.): CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+S
  • Windowed mode: CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+X

MacOS keyboard:

  • Exit session: SHIFT+CONTROL+OPTION+Q
  • Show statistics (FPS, latency, etc.): SHIFT+CONTROL+S
  • Windowed mode: SHIFT+CONTROL+OPTION+X

See also