Nova 1.5.0-beta.2

A Library built around the game you are about to play, stream choices that fit your device, and a Linux client that feels more like Nova. 1.5.0 also lets you launch a game from the host’s console on Android and play it on the device in your hands, drive desktop Steam from the couch, and keep a local record of a stream without sending anything anywhere. Existing pairings, saved setups and artwork stay yours.

This is 1.5.0-beta.2, the second beta. The first went out as 1.4.14-beta.1, before the number changed. Coming from beta.1? The beta.2 sections come first. Sections marked beta.1 have been in since then, and all of it is new if you’re on 1.4.13. Polaris’s side of these changes is in its own release notes.

Highlights

A Library built around the game (beta.1). Stage puts the selected game up front, control size and text size are set separately, Play Setup offers stream tiers that fit the device, and Nova Linux gets the same care.
Launch from Host Console (beta.2, Android). With a Polaris 1.5.0 beta.2 host, Launch on the console’s Mission Control streams the game to the device in your hands.
Steam from the couch (beta.2). Open Steam, Open Big Picture or Quit Steam on the paired PC, on Android and Linux.
PyroWave advice for the screen in your hands (beta.1). A handheld target instead of television-sized bandwidth. PyroWave stays experimental, and Auto doesn’t pick it.
Evidence that stays with you (beta.2). Report This Moment and Working baseline on Android and Linux; on Android, a Last Stream card and a reading of how Nova’s control connection reaches the host over Tailscale. Nothing is sent on its own.
More places to play (beta.2). Nova Linux, Steam Deck and Steam Frame are in Beta. Frame installs separately, by hand. Android also adds opt-in SGSR 1 upscaling for PyroWave SDR.

New in beta.2

Host Console that launches to the device in your hands, Steam from the couch, three ways to keep evidence of a stream without sending anything anywhere, an optional SGSR 1 upscaler and a separate Steam Frame Beta. The Tailscale readout, per-host profile rules and the Last Stream card are Android only for now. Nova Linux has the Steam controls, Report This Moment and Working baseline.

On Android, Host Console opens the host’s console in Nova’s theme and tells it that it is in Nova. With a Polaris 1.5.0 beta.2 host, Launch on the console’s Mission Control streams the game to this device instead of only starting it on the host. A link to a page outside the console opens in your browser when you tap it, instead of doing nothing; the console itself never leaves Nova.
On Android, Host Console can take the whole window: Expand at the end of its header, or Y, and Collapse puts it back in its panel. In portrait it takes the full height. Nova opens it the way you last left it on that device.
The selected PC menu and Command Center have Steam: Open Steam, Open Big Picture and Quit Steam on the paired PC, on Android and Linux. Quit asks again while a game is running. Play Setup shows the chosen mode’s Steam policy. Needs a Polaris 1.5.0 beta.2 host; an older host says so.
Nova Linux gives a host up to two minutes to finish a SteamOS session switch before launch, and Cancel really cancels. Library focus survives a refresh that lands after you moved.
< Congratulations, Director > trades beta.1’s crimson for charcoal, with warm white text and red for focus and selection, the same look as the Polaris console’s new Director theme. Polaris Aurora stays the default.
On Android, Play Setup can say how Nova’s control connection reaches the host over Tailscale: direct, through a relay or unknown. The answer comes from the host’s own Tailscale daemon, never from an address, a hostname or an installed app, and it doesn’t cover where video and audio travel. Play Setup also offers Tailscale setup. Per-host rules pick a saved Settings Profile for a launch, name the rule that matched, and take a one-launch override. Your active profile and the host’s saved settings stay as they are.
Command Center has Report This Moment. It freezes the current client readings into a local report. On Android the report adds a short redacted log tail, and only Share Report opens the share sheet, which says sharing may pause playback. On Linux, Save writes the readings and a short sampled history to Documents, Nova reports, with no logs. Nothing is sent on its own.
Mark a stream you know is good as a Working baseline, then Compare a later stream against it for the same PC and game. It is a side-by-side of what the client measured, not a verdict, and changes no setting. Clear removes it. Streaming moments record the bitrate the launch really asked for, after metered-network limits, host ceilings and AutoSafe.
On Android, after a stream ends, that host’s Library can show a Last Stream card: connection duration, how many samples were measured, per-metric averages, missing-frame evidence and why it ended. Save Report keeps it, Dismiss drops it. A reconnect is not proof the picture came back, and a connection ending is not proof the game quit.
Nova Beta for Android adds SGSR 1 upscaling (experimental, PyroWave SDR) under Settings, Client Stream Defaults. It is off by default. When an 8-bit PyroWave SDR stream is smaller than your screen and shown in Fit or Stretch, a spatial filter sharpens edges as the picture is scaled up. HDR or 10-bit, Fill and full-size streams keep the usual scaling, and a change applies from the next stream. If it can’t run for a stream, the picture is still scaled smoothly and the log says why. In one hands-on check on a Retroid Pocket 6, the player noticed no difference from the usual scaling, and native 1080p looked nicer; the known limits below have the details. SGSR 1 is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Game Super Resolution 1 under the BSD 3-Clause licence, adapted after RubyLight’s Vulkan port; the app carries the full notice.
A new guide, PyroWave on Android, explains stream size against screen size, the bitrate you ask for against what the encoder and the network carry, and how to compare two choices on the same scene.

Steam Frame: a separate Beta

The Frame download is new in beta.2. The decoder route under it came with beta.1. Nova Linux, Steam Deck and Steam Frame are now labeled Beta; the older filenames and installation branches stay the same for compatibility.

Nova-Linux-aarch64-frame-alpha.flatpak is a separate Beta for Steam Frame, published with this release beside its checksum, Nova-Linux-aarch64-frame-alpha.flatpak.sha256. It installs into its own Flatpak installation with its own pairing and settings. The Steam Frame guide covers install, launch and removal.
On a Frame, H.264, HEVC and PyroWave each streamed 1920×1080 at a requested 60 fps with picture, sound and working controllers. H.264 and HEVC decode through Frame’s V4L2 decoder and copy each frame through the CPU; PyroWave decodes with Vulkan and hands frames over as DMA-BUF. That was a short functional check, not a performance result: rates above 60 fps, long sessions, color and clarity are untested. Immersive XR and HDR are separate work, and this is not Steam Frame Verified support.
The Frame Beta has no update channel, so a later version is a new manual download. The signed Linux update feed carries the x86_64 build only.
The ARM64 development route adds a pinned FFmpeg provider and hardware H.264/HEVC decoding through Frame’s Qualcomm V4L2 interface, with bounded frame ownership and Vulkan presentation. It refuses compressed capture layouts it cannot safely read.
Startup and Play Setup use the same backend discovery, so a qualified decoder does not appear unavailable merely because the device lacks VA-API. PyroWave keeps its separate Vulkan and DMA-BUF checks.

Fixed in beta.2

Homescreen shortcuts to Steam games launch with the same display mode as Play, so a host set to Windowed Stream no longer refuses the shortcut while in-app Play works. (#371)
An empty or malformed RTSP Session reply no longer crashes the client, and oversized responses are bounded, on Android and Linux. Carried over from moonlight-common-c, with thanks to its authors.
On Android, Host Console no longer shows an empty page once you sign in.
On Android, scrolling Host Console, or swiping across it, no longer moves the panel it is in. The panel still closes from its header, with Back, or with a tap beside it.
On Linux, Space and Select can hold Sleep Host through keyboard repeat. Releasing early still cancels immediately.
On Linux, NovaHUD follows smaller text settings and reflows Performance readings when space is tight, keeping text within the panel.
PyroWave on Android no longer reports the time its CPU call took as decode and end-to-end latency, which it never measured: that reading is unavailable now, and the HUD and counters say frames were submitted, not rendered. Recaps, copied diagnostics and saved baselines keep that meaning. Other decoders keep their measured latency.

From beta.1: the game comes first

Stage gives the selected game the room it deserves. The other layouts get quieter, and the controls stop competing with the artwork.

Stage puts the game up front with its backdrop, title, play time, last played and a wrapping poster row. A opens its game page. A running game keeps its Resume and End actions.
Regular and Compact show each recent game once in the grid. The old Continue row is gone from both.
Portrait uses Regular while remembering your Stage choice for landscape. Options and System stay directly available; there is no extra Hide Menu button in the portrait Library.
A missing or slow poster keeps the game’s name visible. Search and the focused game survive a screen rotation, and the footer names the Library consistently across layouts.
Hosts, Library and update buttons fit narrow screens. Empty Hosts actions scroll on short screens, so the next step stays reachable by touch and controller.
Phone menus fill the screen edges, with nearby text and controls kept clear of camera cutouts. Hosts puts its identity and Menu in one bar; portrait Settings puts Menu on the left.

From beta.1: make it your size

Smaller text does not have to mean smaller buttons. Nova now lets you choose them separately.

Control Size offers distinct Compact, Standard and Large layouts. Nova Text Size starts at 80 percent, can be changed independently, and still respects Android’s text scaling. Compact keeps full touch targets.
Text size and bitrate have small-step buttons alongside touch adjustment and exact entry. The opened editor keeps changes as a draft until Save; Back leaves the saved value alone.
Touch opens the Settings search keyboard and filters as you type. Back closes the keyboard before clearing the search or leaving the screen. Settings can hide its supporting menu when the rows need more room.
Settings, pickers, sheets and Command Center use consistent focus and Back behavior. The Mouse Mode picker takes D-pad focus, and End Session confirmation opens with a focused action.
Android and Linux add < Congratulations, Director > as a separate theme, so your current choice stays intact. Polaris Aurora stays the default.
Changing themes from Home no longer leaves Nova unresponsive on affected Android handhelds.

From beta.1: Play Setup knows the device

A phone, a handheld and a television should not all start from the same guessed stream settings.

Stream tiers use the device’s display and decoder support to offer Recommended, Max and Custom choices. Custom keeps its own bitrate and automatic setting when you switch to another tier.
Resume follows the running stream’s display mode instead of quietly substituting the device’s current preference.
Saved setups keep their numeric overrides and automatic bitrate choice. Changing resolution or frame rate and then entering a manual bitrate keeps that manual choice.
A host-specific Launch As restriction keeps the host’s reason. Spaces use their worker’s allowed mode without borrowing the desktop’s choices, and an unavailable Space remains unavailable.

From beta.1: PyroWave gets a more useful starting point

It still wants a fast local network. The advice now distinguishes a screen held nearby from one across the room, instead of asking a handheld to spend television-sized bandwidth.

Handheld advice uses the calibrated 31 dB target; the room target stays 35 dB. For Android 1080p at 120 fps in 4:4:4, the handheld model suggests about 215 Mbps as a request, rather than the old figure of about 359 Mbps. The scene and network still determine the received rate and quality.
Automatic raises and Use recommended stay at or below 300 Mbps. Android manual requests can reach 500 Mbps when the host advertises that limit; older hosts retain their 300 Mbps limit. The model’s own estimate can be higher without authorizing an automatic raise past the ceiling.
Android Command Center uses ten-percent bitrate steps for PyroWave and 5 Mbps steps for H.264 and HEVC. A compatible host supplies the units needed to distinguish the client’s request from the encoder’s video budget. Unknown units stay read-only.
A manual live change turns Live Tuning off for that stream only. It leaves the host’s saved settings alone.
With a compatible host, Doctor can offer a reversible PyroWave quality increase on a clean network, or a lower bitrate after sustained measured media loss. Verify checks the result; Undo restores the previous bitrate and Live Tuning state.
PyroWave remains experimental in Nova Beta on Android. Devices missing its Vulkan features get a reason instead of an unusable choice. Auto does not select it.

NovaHUD keeps its corner position, compact readout and sparkline colors. Its numbers distinguish unavailable or stale measurements from healthy ones, and media loss from control-channel retries.
Command Center background opacity works again, independently of the HUD. Its pickers, focus and confirmation actions follow the rest of Nova.
The capture explanation shows GPU encoding alongside CPU capture copies when both are true. A system-memory capture path no longer reads as software encoding, and Doctor’s own health verdict remains visible.
Shield controller motion during stream startup and malformed decoder packets are handled safely. Older Android versions can open the new panels without loading newer platform Back APIs.

From beta.1: Nova Linux, closer to Nova

The Linux interface gets the same attention as the Android one: a quieter Library, controls that fit an 800p handheld, and preferences you can adjust without committing each step.

Hosts, Settings, Library and Play Setup fit landscape handhelds and desktop windows. Smaller resized windows keep actions reachable; Stage uses Regular when the window is taller than it is wide, while retaining the landscape choice. Back clears a Settings search before leaving.
Appearance offers Compact, Standard and Large controls, the Director theme, and 80 to 130 percent text in one-percent steps. New installations start at 80 percent; existing saved sizes stay intact. Text and menu-opacity previews apply after Save.
Command Center has its own background-opacity control and stacks its session actions in narrow windows. HUD text remains readable over video, with debug groups that wrap.
The standard Nova-Linux-x86_64-alpha.flatpak includes PyroWave and checks the device when you choose that codec. H.264, HEVC and Auto do not run the PyroWave check. The separate PyroWave bundle is retired; install the standard bundle over it, keeping app data, pairing and preferences.
Linux PyroWave supports SDR 8-bit 4:2:0. HDR, 4:4:4 and Spaces remain outside this route, and Auto does not select it. Play Setup names an incompatible build, GPU, host or size before launch.
Play Setup can use the host’s recommended PyroWave rate, with calibrated local advice when the host has none. A low-rate warning explains the shortfall. Live controls offer 10 Mbps steps, Use recommended and the measured received video rate.
Controller navigation supports held-button repeat, the left stick, shoulder paging and Back. First launch opens pairing, and decoder, launch, traffic and capture failures name a cause and a next step.
Save a PC’s MAC address and use Wake PC from its System menu. Nova confirms that it sent the packet; the PC’s connection state tells you whether it woke.
System offers a reviewed Add Nova to Steam action. The first Moonlight handoff explains its limits before launching, and Back cancels it.
Compatible Polaris hosts receive fresh measured video-loss evidence. Decoder refusals and control retries stay separate; missing measurements stay unavailable.
PipeWire audio recovery no longer occasionally hangs during disconnect when the audio service disappears. Stereo, 5.1 and 7.1 keep the same recovery and shutdown deadlines.
End Session distinguishes the PC accepting the request from verified game shutdown. A failed update check keeps Retry available and uses the production feed address; a bundle without a configured signed channel still gives installation guidance.

Experimental and known limits

Nova Linux, Steam Deck and Steam Frame are in Beta, with feature and device coverage still growing. Successful probes, builds and automated checks do not establish every device’s performance, physical audio/controller response or HDR support.
Steam controls, the Tailscale readout, Report This Moment, Working baseline, the Last Stream card and Host Console’s new modes are in beta.2 with CI and source checks. Their controller, TalkBack and real-stream checks on devices are not complete.
The Tailscale readout describes Nova’s control connection to the host, as the host’s Tailscale daemon reports it. It doesn’t show where video and audio travel, and its direct, relay and split-tunnel cases have not been tried on real networks.
SGSR 1 is experimental and off by default. In one hands-on check on a Retroid Pocket 6, one scene of Control was streamed three ways with PyroWave SDR at 60 fps and a 100 Mbps request: 1280x720 with the usual scaling, 1280x720 upscaled to 1920x1080 by SGSR 1, and native 1920x1080. To the player, both 720p views looked good with no noticeable difference between them, and native 1080p looked nicer. That is one look at one scene on one device, not a measurement. It doesn’t show SGSR 1 improving the picture, matching native resolution, or lowering latency or bandwidth, and other devices, games and stream sizes are unchecked.
A limited offscreen GPU check of small synthetic test frames on a Retroid Pocket 6 found differences from its reference model on a noise pattern that are still unexplained. It does not measure picture quality, speed or what reaches the screen. Sharpening adds no detail the stream did not carry.
A Heroic game in Host Virtual Display may keep running after End Session. Prefer Private Stream for Heroic games; full per-game shutdown is a separate follow-up.

Before you update

Keep in Step starts on for new pairings.
Android beta APKs are named Nova-Beta-Android-<abi>.apk, install beside stable Nova, and follow the beta update channel. Numbered builds identify themselves as 1.5.0-beta.2. New pairings use Beta instead of Pre; an existing host-stored pairing name changes only after pairing again.
Linux uses the same app ID when replacing an older bundle. Keep its app data and do not uninstall with --delete-data.
The Steam controls and the Tailscale readout need a Polaris 1.5.0 beta.2 host. An older host shows a reason instead. On an older host, Host Console opens as before, and Launch starts the game on the host.
1.5.0-beta.2 installs over Nova Beta 1.4.14-beta.1, and the beta update channel offers it.