# Moonlight: what changed from 5 to 6

- Product: Moonlight (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/moonlight)
- Vendor: Moonlight
- Range: changelog entries numbered after v5.0.1 up to and including v6.1.0, stable releases only
- Entries below: 3 releases (newest first)
- Resolved: 5 is v5.0.1 and 6 is v6.1.0, the newest stable release of each major we track
- Carrying security changes: 0 · CVEs mentioned: 0 · Mentioning breaking changes: 0 · Removing or deprecating something: 2
- Page: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/moonlight/compare/5...6

What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog.

Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'.

## What changed (54 changes, grouped by kind)

### Added

#### v6.1.0 (2024-09-17)

- macOS Sequoia is now supported
- Experimental YUV 4:4:4 support for improved text clarity during remote desktop usage
- HDR streaming is now supported with software decoding (requires GPU with Vulkan or Metal support)

#### v6.0.1 (2024-06-30)

- HDR->SDR tonemapping is now supported by the Vulkan renderer on Linux

#### v6.0.0 (2024-06-06)

- HDR is now supported on Steam Deck and other HDR-capable Linux systems using a new Vulkan-based renderer
- Vulkan Video decoding of H.264, HEVC, and AV1 is now supported using the new Vulkan renderer on Linux
- A new Metal-based renderer is now used on most macOS systems for increased streaming performance and reduced latency
- Both notched and notch-free native resolution options are now provided on Apple Silicon Macs
- Full E2E stream encryption is now supported when streaming from Sunshine v0.22 or later
- Initiating a stream via the command-line will now automatically wake the target machine if it is sleeping
- Error codes are now displayed in the connection termination dialog
- Detailed PC state information is now available via the new View Details context menu option
- The performance overlay can now be configured to appear by default when starting a stream

### Changed

#### v6.1.0 (2024-09-17)

- Windows 10 (1809), Windows Server 2019, or later is now required
- macOS Big Sur or later is now required
- Bitrate limit can now be increased to 500 Mbps
- Audio decoding now uses 32-bit floating point format
- Updated Qt in Windows and macOS builds to 6.7.2

#### v6.0.1 (2024-06-30)

- Improved streaming performance and latency on Intel GPUs
- Old DX9/DX10 GPUs will use the DirectX 9 renderer instead of DirectX 11 to avoid compatibility issues with old GPU drivers
- Full-screen mode on macOS will now draw under the display notch again like in versions of Moonlight prior to v6.0.0
- More time is now provided for PCs to wake up before displaying an error when starting a stream from the CLI
- Moonlight will no longer try to guess VA driver names when running libva 2.20 or later
- CUDA decoding is disabled on AppImage builds to address crashes
- Updated community-contributed translations from Weblate

#### v6.0.0 (2024-06-06)

- The selected bitrate is no longer silently adjusted by Moonlight based upon the video codec or HDR mode
- The selected mouse mode when starting a stream no longer influences the acceleration curve when the mouse mode is toggled using the Ctrl+Alt+Shift+M key combo while streaming
- The compatibility block on Nvidia Optimus has been lifted, so Moonlight will now run on the discrete GPU if configured to in Nvidia Control Panel
- The D3D11 renderer is now preferred over D3D9 for all streaming scenarios on Windows 10 or later
- Per-session keys (rikey and rikeyid values) are now automatically stripped from logs
- Log messages on Linux will now be logged to stderr rather than stdout
- Log messages on Windows will print to stderr instead of a separate log file if stderr has been redirected
- EGL is now always used instead of GLX for loading OpenGL in X11 environments on non-x86 platforms for improved compatibility with some embedded devices

### Fixed

#### v6.1.0 (2024-09-17)

- Fixed inability to connect to hosts on macOS Sequoia
- Fixed incorrect color range when streaming with AV1 from a host with an AMD GPU
- Fixed unexpected Left Control key input when pressing the AltGr key on Windows clients
- Fixed unexpected tearing artifacts when streaming with Intel Ivy Bridge GPUs
- Fixed Windows installer failures due to failed firewall exception registration
- Fixed GUI breakage on Raspberry Pi OS Buster or Ubuntu Bionic
- Fixed Vulkan video decoding crash with recent Nvidia drivers using the AppImage build
- Fixed inability to see video output on SpacemiT K1 due to incorrect overlay plane selection
- Fixed suboptimal pixel format selection with non-hwaccel FFmpeg hardware decoders
- Fixed incorrect hardware decoding warning on embedded systems that use custom OpenMAX hardware decoding patches

#### v6.0.1 (2024-06-30)

- Fixed crash when the Vulkan renderer executed on a system with no Vulkan devices
- Fixed video rendering failure after the window is resized when using software decoding on Windows
- Fixed video flicker on some embedded devices
- Fixed delayed display of the first frame of video on some embedded devices
- Fixed plane selection logic to avoid picking a plane with a zpos below the primary plane
- Fixed colorspace selection to take into account available values for the COLOR_ENCODING plane property
- Fixed excessive log output while streaming on Raspberry Pi

### Removed

#### v6.1.0 (2024-09-17)

- 32-bit versions of Windows are no longer supported

### Deprecated

#### v6.0.0 (2024-06-06)

- v6.0.x will be the final release series supporting Windows OSes older than Windows 10 1809 and Windows Server 2019
- v6.0.x will be the final release series supporting 32-bit versions of Windows
- v6.0.x will be the final release series supporting macOS versions older than Big Sur

## Release notes

### v6.1.0 — Moonlight PC v6.1.0

- Date: 2024-09-17
- Version: v6.1.0
- Original notes: https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/tag/v6.1.0
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/moonlight/releases/v6.1.0
- Labels: Platforms: Desktop

- **changed** — Windows 10 (1809), Windows Server 2019, or later is now required
- **removed** — 32-bit versions of Windows are no longer supported
- **changed** — macOS Big Sur or later is now required
- **added** — macOS Sequoia is now supported
- **added** — Experimental YUV 4:4:4 support for improved text clarity during remote desktop usage
- **added** — HDR streaming is now supported with software decoding (requires GPU with Vulkan or Metal support)
- **changed** — Bitrate limit can now be increased to 500 Mbps
- **changed** — Audio decoding now uses 32-bit floating point format
- **fixed** — Fixed inability to connect to hosts on macOS Sequoia
- **fixed** — Fixed incorrect color range when streaming with AV1 from a host with an AMD GPU
- **fixed** — Fixed unexpected Left Control key input when pressing the AltGr key on Windows clients
- **fixed** — Fixed unexpected tearing artifacts when streaming with Intel Ivy Bridge GPUs
- **fixed** — Fixed Windows installer failures due to failed firewall exception registration
- **fixed** — Fixed GUI breakage on Raspberry Pi OS Buster or Ubuntu Bionic
- **fixed** — Fixed Vulkan video decoding crash with recent Nvidia drivers using the AppImage build
- **fixed** — Fixed inability to see video output on SpacemiT K1 due to incorrect overlay plane selection
- **fixed** — Fixed suboptimal pixel format selection with non-hwaccel FFmpeg hardware decoders
- **fixed** — Fixed incorrect hardware decoding warning on embedded systems that use custom OpenMAX hardware decoding patches
- **changed** — Updated Qt in Windows and macOS builds to 6.7.2

Download links:
- [Windows Installer (Universal)](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.1.0/MoonlightSetup-6.1.0.exe)
- Windows Portable [x64](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.1.0/MoonlightPortable-x64-6.1.0.zip) or [ARM64](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.1.0/MoonlightPortable-arm64-6.1.0.zip) (for work/public PCs without the ability to install new programs)
- [macOS (Universal)](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.1.0/Moonlight-6.1.0.dmg)
- [Snap (for Ubuntu-based Linux distros)](https://snapcraft.io/moonlight)
- [Flatpak (for other Linux distros)](https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.moonlight_stream.Moonlight)
- [AppImage (Linux, no installation required)](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.1.0/Moonlight-6.1.0-x86_64.AppImage)
- [Raspberry Pi 4 and 5](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-docs/wiki/Installing-Moonlight-Qt-on-Raspberry-Pi-4)
- [Generic ARM 32-bit and 64-bit Debian packages](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-docs/wiki/Installing-Moonlight-Qt-on-ARM%E2%80%90based-Single-Board-Computers) (not for Raspberry Pi)
- [Experimental RISC-V Debian packages](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-docs/wiki/Installing-Moonlight-Qt-on-RISC%E2%80%90V-Single-Board-Computers)
- [NVIDIA Jetson and Nintendo Switch (Ubuntu L4T)](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-docs/wiki/Installing-Moonlight-Qt-on-Linux4Tegra-(L4T)-Ubuntu)
- [Steam Link device](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.1.0/Moonlight-SteamLink-6.1.0.zip)

The Windows installer package may require an Internet connection to download the latest Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime if your PC does not already have it installed. If you do not have Internet access during installation, you can pre-install the runtime from [Microsoft's website](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads-2647da03-1eea-4433-9aff-95f26a218cc0) or use the portable version.

To update an existing installation, simply run the latest installer (for Windows) or replace the old app in your Applications folder (for Mac). For the portable Windows version, extract the latest version on top of your old folder.

To install on Steam Link hardware, extract the ZIP file to the root of a FAT32 flash drive, insert it into your Steam Link, then restart the Steam Link. Moonlight can run alongside official Steam Link streaming and other Steam Link apps.

**OS Support Changes:**
- Windows 10 (1809), Windows Server 2019, or later is now required
- 32-bit versions of Windows are no longer supported
- macOS Big Sur or later is now required
- macOS Sequoia is now supported

**New Features:**
- Experimental YUV 4:4:4 support for improved text clarity during remote desktop usage
  - Host must be running [latest Sunshine pre-release build](https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine/releases) or v0.24.0 (when released)
  - Sunshine only currently supports YUV 4:4:4 encoding on Windows hosts
- HDR streaming is now supported with software decoding (requires GPU with Vulkan or Metal support)
- Bitrate limit can now be increased to 500 Mbps
  - These bitrates are not officially supported but can improve image quality if client and host can handle it (Ethernet strongly recommended).
- Audio decoding now uses 32-bit floating point format

**Bugfixes:**
- Fixed inability to connect to hosts on macOS Sequoia
- Fixed incorrect color range when streaming with AV1 from a host with an AMD GPU
- Fixed unexpected Left Control key input when pressing the AltGr key on Windows clients
- Fixed unexpected tearing artifacts when streaming with Intel Ivy Bridge GPUs
- Fixed Windows installer failures due to failed firewall exception registration
- Fixed GUI breakage on Raspberry Pi OS Buster or Ubuntu Bionic
- Fixed Vulkan video de

_[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/tag/v6.1.0]_

### v6.0.1 — Moonlight PC v6.0.1

- Date: 2024-06-30
- Version: v6.0.1
- Original notes: https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/tag/v6.0.1
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/moonlight/releases/v6.0.1
- Labels: Platforms: Desktop

- **changed** — Improved streaming performance and latency on Intel GPUs
- **added** — HDR->SDR tonemapping is now supported by the Vulkan renderer on Linux
- **changed** — Old DX9/DX10 GPUs will use the DirectX 9 renderer instead of DirectX 11 to avoid compatibility issues with old GPU drivers
- **changed** — Full-screen mode on macOS will now draw under the display notch again like in versions of Moonlight prior to v6.0.0
- **changed** — More time is now provided for PCs to wake up before displaying an error when starting a stream from the CLI
- **changed** — Moonlight will no longer try to guess VA driver names when running libva 2.20 or later
- **changed** — CUDA decoding is disabled on AppImage builds to address crashes
- **fixed** — Fixed crash when the Vulkan renderer executed on a system with no Vulkan devices
- **fixed** — Fixed video rendering failure after the window is resized when using software decoding on Windows
- **fixed** — Fixed video flicker on some embedded devices
- **fixed** — Fixed delayed display of the first frame of video on some embedded devices
- **fixed** — Fixed plane selection logic to avoid picking a plane with a zpos below the primary plane
- **fixed** — Fixed colorspace selection to take into account available values for the COLOR_ENCODING plane property
- **fixed** — Fixed excessive log output while streaming on Raspberry Pi
- **changed** — Updated community-contributed translations from Weblate

Download links:
- [Windows Installer (Universal)](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.0.1/MoonlightSetup-6.0.1.exe)
- Windows Portable [x64](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.0.1/MoonlightPortable-x64-6.0.1.zip), [x86](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.0.1/MoonlightPortable-x86-6.0.1.zip), or [ARM64](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.0.1/MoonlightPortable-arm64-6.0.1.zip) (for work/public PCs without the ability to install new programs)
- [macOS (Universal)](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.0.1/Moonlight-6.0.1.dmg)
- [Snap (for Ubuntu-based Linux distros)](https://snapcraft.io/moonlight)
- [Flatpak (for other Linux distros)](https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.moonlight_stream.Moonlight)
- [AppImage (Linux, no installation required)](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.0.1/Moonlight-6.0.1-x86_64.AppImage)
- [Raspberry Pi 4 and 5](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-docs/wiki/Installing-Moonlight-Qt-on-Raspberry-Pi-4)
- [Generic ARM 32-bit and 64-bit Debian packages](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-docs/wiki/Installing-Moonlight-Qt-on-ARM%E2%80%90based-Single-Board-Computers) (not for Raspberry Pi)
- [Experimental RISC-V Debian packages](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-docs/wiki/Installing-Moonlight-Qt-on-RISC%E2%80%90V-Single-Board-Computers)
- [NVIDIA Jetson and Nintendo Switch (Ubuntu L4T)](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-docs/wiki/Installing-Moonlight-Qt-on-Linux4Tegra-(L4T)-Ubuntu)
- [Steam Link device](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.0.1/Moonlight-SteamLink-6.0.1.zip)

The Windows installer package may require an Internet connection to download the latest Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime if your PC does not already have it installed. If you do not have Internet access during installation, you can pre-install the runtime from [Microsoft's website](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads-2647da03-1eea-4433-9aff-95f26a218cc0) or use the portable version.

To update an existing installation, simply run the latest installer (for Windows) or replace the old app in your Applications folder (for Mac). For the portable Windows version, extract the latest version on top of your old folder.

To install on Steam Link hardware, extract the ZIP file to the root of a FAT32 flash drive, insert it into your Steam Link, then restart the Steam Link. Moonlight can run alongside official Steam Link streaming and other Steam Link apps.

**End of Support Notices:**
- Windows: v6.0.x will be the final release series supporting OSes older than Windows 10 1809 and Windows Server 2019
- Windows: v6.0.x will be the final release series supporting 32-bit versions of Windows
- macOS: v6.0.x will be the final release series supporting macOS verisons older than Big Sur

**New Features:**
- Improved streaming performance and latency on Intel GPUs
- HDR->SDR tonemapping is now supported by the Vulkan renderer on Linux

**Behavior Changes:**
- Old DX9/DX10 GPUs will use the DirectX 9 renderer instead of DirectX 11 to avoid compatibility issues with old GPU drivers
- Full-screen mode on macOS will now draw under the display notch again like in versions of Moonlight prior to v6.0.0
- More time is now provided for PCs to wake up before displaying an error when starting a stream from the CLI
- Moonlight will no longer try to guess VA driver names when running libva 2.20 or later
- CUDA decoding is disabled on AppImage builds to address crashes

**Bugfixes:**
- Fixed crash when the Vulkan renderer executed on a system with no Vulkan devices
- Fixed video rendering failure after the window is resized when using software decoding on Windows
- Fixed video flicker on some embedded devices
-

_[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/tag/v6.0.1]_

### v6.0.0 — Moonlight PC v6.0.0

- Date: 2024-06-06
- Version: v6.0.0
- Original notes: https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/tag/v6.0.0
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/moonlight/releases/v6.0.0
- Labels: Platforms: Desktop

- **added** — HDR is now supported on Steam Deck and other HDR-capable Linux systems using a new Vulkan-based renderer
- **added** — Vulkan Video decoding of H.264, HEVC, and AV1 is now supported using the new Vulkan renderer on Linux
- **added** — A new Metal-based renderer is now used on most macOS systems for increased streaming performance and reduced latency
- **added** — Both notched and notch-free native resolution options are now provided on Apple Silicon Macs
- **added** — Full E2E stream encryption is now supported when streaming from Sunshine v0.22 or later
- **added** — Initiating a stream via the command-line will now automatically wake the target machine if it is sleeping
- **added** — Error codes are now displayed in the connection termination dialog
- **added** — Detailed PC state information is now available via the new View Details context menu option
- **added** — The performance overlay can now be configured to appear by default when starting a stream
- **changed** — The selected bitrate is no longer silently adjusted by Moonlight based upon the video codec or HDR mode
- **changed** — The selected mouse mode when starting a stream no longer influences the acceleration curve when the mouse mode is toggled using the Ctrl+Alt+Shift+M key combo while streaming
- **changed** — The compatibility block on Nvidia Optimus has been lifted, so Moonlight will now run on the discrete GPU if configured to in Nvidia Control Panel
- **changed** — The D3D11 renderer is now preferred over D3D9 for all streaming scenarios on Windows 10 or later
- **changed** — Per-session keys (rikey and rikeyid values) are now automatically stripped from logs
- **changed** — Log messages on Linux will now be logged to stderr rather than stdout
- **changed** — Log messages on Windows will print to stderr instead of a separate log file if stderr has been redirected
- **changed** — EGL is now always used instead of GLX for loading OpenGL in X11 environments on non-x86 platforms for improved compatibility with some embedded devices
- **deprecated** — v6.0.x will be the final release series supporting Windows OSes older than Windows 10 1809 and Windows Server 2019
- **deprecated** — v6.0.x will be the final release series supporting 32-bit versions of Windows
- **deprecated** — v6.0.x will be the final release series supporting macOS versions older than Big Sur

Download links:
- [Windows Installer (Universal)](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.0.0/MoonlightSetup-6.0.0.exe)
- Windows Portable [x64](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.0.0/MoonlightPortable-x64-6.0.0.zip), [x86](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.0.0/MoonlightPortable-x86-6.0.0.zip), or [ARM64](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.0.0/MoonlightPortable-arm64-6.0.0.zip) (for work/public PCs without the ability to install new programs)
- [macOS (Universal)](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.0.0/Moonlight-6.0.0.dmg)
- [Snap (for Ubuntu-based Linux distros)](https://snapcraft.io/moonlight)
- [Flatpak (for other Linux distros)](https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.moonlight_stream.Moonlight)
- [AppImage (Linux, no installation required)](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.0.0/Moonlight-6.0.0-x86_64.AppImage)
- [Raspberry Pi 4 and 5](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-docs/wiki/Installing-Moonlight-Qt-on-Raspberry-Pi-4)
- [Generic ARM 32-bit and 64-bit Debian packages](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-docs/wiki/Installing-Moonlight-Qt-on-ARM%E2%80%90based-Single-Board-Computers) (not for Raspberry Pi)
- [Experimental RISC-V Debian packages](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-docs/wiki/Installing-Moonlight-Qt-on-RISC%E2%80%90V-Single-Board-Computers)
- [NVIDIA Jetson and Nintendo Switch (Ubuntu L4T)](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-docs/wiki/Installing-Moonlight-Qt-on-Linux4Tegra-(L4T)-Ubuntu)
- [Steam Link device](https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/download/v6.0.0/Moonlight-SteamLink-6.0.0.zip)

The Windows installer package may require an Internet connection to download the latest Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime if your PC does not already have it installed. If you do not have Internet access during installation, you can pre-install the runtime from [Microsoft's website](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads-2647da03-1eea-4433-9aff-95f26a218cc0) or use the portable version.

To update an existing installation, simply run the latest installer (for Windows) or replace the old app in your Applications folder (for Mac). For the portable Windows version, extract the latest version on top of your old folder.

To install on Steam Link hardware, extract the ZIP file to the root of a FAT32 flash drive, insert it into your Steam Link, then restart the Steam Link. Moonlight can run alongside official Steam Link streaming and other Steam Link apps.

**End of Support Notices:**
- Windows: v6.0.x will be the final release series supporting OSes older than Windows 10 1809 and Windows Server 2019
- Windows: v6.0.x will be the final release series supporting 32-bit versions of Windows
- macOS: v6.0.x will be the final release series supporting macOS verisons older than Big Sur

**New Features:**
- HDR is now supported on Steam Deck and other HDR-capable Linux systems using a new Vulkan-based renderer
  - By default, the new Vulkan renderer is only used for HDR streaming, but it can be used all the time by setting the `PREFER_VULKAN=1` environment variable
- Vulkan Video decoding of H.264, HEVC, and AV1 is now supported using the new Vulkan renderer on Linux
- A new Metal-based renderer is now used on most macOS systems for increased streaming performance and reduced latency
- Both notched and notch-free native resolution options are now provided on Apple Silicon Macs
- Full E2E stream encryption is now supported when streaming from Sunshine v0.22 or later
- Initiating a stream via the command-line will now automatically wake the target machine if it is sleeping
- Error codes are now displayed in the connection termination dialog
- Detailed PC state information is now available via the new "Vie

_[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt/releases/tag/v6.0.0]_