The world of cloud gaming has just experienced a small earthquake. An independent developer, known under the pseudonym Zortos, has released OpenNOW, a completely reverse-engineered and open source alternative client for GeForce NOW. His promise? Offer a more efficient experience, totally private and above all free of the most annoying constraints of the official application. For how long?
Unlike usual solutions which simply encapsulate the web version, OpenNOW is a real work of engineering which directly implements NVIDIA’s streaming protocols. Available under license WITHthe project is already making a lot of noise in the Linux community and among players tired of the constant monitoring of the tech giants.
Le mode « Anti-AFK » : la fonctionnalité qui fâche NVIDIA
This is undoubtedly the most controversial and most sought-after addition: OpenNOW integrates a mode Anti-AFK. As a reminder, the official NVIDIA client automatically disconnects users after eight minutes of inactivity to free up space on its servers. OpenNOW allows you to bypass this delay, a boon for those who wish to keep their session active in the background, but a real provocation for NVIDIA’s economic model.
In addition to this “unblocking”, OpenNOW hits hard on performance and features:
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Zéro télémétrie : no data collection, no background tracking. Your privacy is respected.
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Streaming de pointe : support of the 4K up to 240 frames per second.
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Codecs avancés : native management of H.264, H.265 andAV1 via WebRTC.
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Playing comfort: precise adjustment of mouse sensitivity and ability to copy and paste your clipboard directly into the cloud session.
A paradise for Linux and ARM users
Developer Zortos designed OpenNOW with one obsession: lightness. “The goal is to make OpenNOW run on low-power devices, like the Raspberry Pito make cloud gaming accessible even on minimal hardware“, he explains on Reddit. The client is available for Windows and macOS, but it is on Linux (x64 et ARM64) that it really shines, filling in the historical gaps of the official client on this system. The application offers a much more complete display of real-time statistics (latency, packet loss, rendering) than the original.
A project under threat of an NVIDIA Strike?
If OpenNOW is a technical feat, its future is uncertain. The project is absolutely not affiliated with NVIDIA. By allowing inactivity limits to be circumvented and by removing telemetry, it directly attacks the chameleon firm’s resource management policies.
NVIDIA, which recently toughened its conditions with a cap of 100 hours of monthly gaming, might not look favorably on this client which allows servers to be “monopolized” during periods of inactivity. For the moment, the project is in full swing, but the question is no longer whether it is great, but how long will NVIDIA let it exist.
