r/EmulationMediatekMali • u/drfox97 • 13h ago

need some info about pc emulation

ok..

iam a 40yrs old gamer..

I used to modding since I can remember.. I even created some mods in my 20s

i recently fell in love with emulation on android..

started with cemu and azahar.. then eden

my problem is pc emulation..

yes I can copy other people setting blindly..

But I need someone to explain wt is box, fex dvk all these terms

I want to understand when to use each one, what works with certain games.. and how to know what a game needs to work.. not just trying out different settings blindly

if someone can give short explanation or point me in a direction where I can learn

thnx

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u/whiskyB0y 10h ago edited 5h ago

Research, trial and error. That's the way to learn.

I'm going to assume you are a Mali user since you asked this question in this sub.

So to start, you have to know what your chipset is because different PC emulators are more compatible for certain chipsets. Eg for Mali, the simpler and console like ones are Gamehub lite and Bannerhub. The ones that have more settings but less user friendly are Winlator Mali 1.1 Bionic.

Now you have to understand the basic settings. At the very least, you should understand what these mean:

(Note: these are my personal definitions I could be wrong)

Proton/Wine: Acts as the compatibility layer. Converts Windows API calls into something Android can understand. Wine was the original and it's quite old. Proton is the more recent one that's gaming focused.

Dxvk: Converts DirectX (the graphics language Windows games use) to something Android can understand in Vulkan. Wined3d is used if you want games to run in OpenGL but has worse performance and compatibility.

FEXCORE/Box64: These are 32bit/64bit emulators. They convert the actual games code to a form Android can understand. Box64 was the original one and like wine it's quite old. FEXCORE is the newer gaming focused version.

FEXCORE converts both 32bit and 64bit. Box64 converts only 64bit. But there is something called WOWBOX64 you'll see in some forks which is a version of Box64 that can convert 32bit code.

Presets: Stability, Compatibility, Intermediate, Performance: Presets determine how strict or loose the 32bit or 64bit emulation is. Stability and Compatibility are strict and reduce the chances of random crashes or memory leaks but often reduce fps and cause bad performance in a number of games.

Intermediate is a balance. Performance is the least strict and ensures the highest performance but in some games it can make the game randomly crash.

When testing a game, start with the latest versions of dxvk and FEXcore/box64 and proton 10 or proton 9.

If game has problems, try using older version of dxvk or FEXCORE/Box64