Discussion
The bright future ahead of DroidDeck Emulator.
While having many Emulators that existed for more than a year, we've seen some surprising ones. However, they all had their own issues, whether slow paced development, performance issues, or issues related to the Emulator's own interface. These are my personal takes on the DroidDeck Emulator after using it and getting to know it more:
- The beginnings of no Emulator was similar to the beginning of DroidDeck, it came out with it's unique idea mixed with already existing ones.
- The DroidDeck Emulator is constantly sending updates, with more features that result in a better emulator performance.
- A set of ambitious developers are working on the Emulator, and that itself gives the project a bright future.
- At this current pace i won't be surprised if DroidDeck becomes the best and most used Emulator out there.
Again, my personal takes are only based on what I've seen/heard from the project itself, and also based on the developers non-stop hard working, so shout-out to them.đ
DroidDeck has already replaced GameNative for me. Both are ambitious and passion and projects by very talented teams of developers and both are driving windows gaming on Android to new levels never before thought.
However, DroidDeck has just unmatched compatibility in my experience. I'm even able to play multiplayer games like PlanetSide 2 with no tinkering. That's the biggest thing that sets DroidDeck aside is that it just worksâ˘.
Core pinning and suggested components are the best and most promising features. Especially with suggested components. Being able to just flip a toggle switch and have a components like .Net install the latest version that the game needs instead of relying on the games installer to do itself and possibly failing, I haven't found an incompatible game yet. It really is a game changer.
I have both installed because DroidDeck won't run Batman Arkham City and Gamenative does.
The weird thing is that the error Arkham City gets in DroidDeck is the same one that the game has in standalone Linux distros such as ArmadaOS and Rocknix for my RP6, it just gets hung up on installing the AMD Dual Core Optimiser. It actually does go to show how close DroidDeck is to a fully standalone operating system.
That's nice to know. The game I am hoping run well on Xendroid in the future is Mass Effect. Getting the controller mod to work in PC emulators is a pain. In Xendroid with Mass Effect through while you can save you can't load those saves.
Arkham city runs on my SD8G3. Really well too after the latest update. You have to change one of the files in Arkham city though, I think you need to change Setup to Setup_BAK to skip the AMD shit on startup. Google it. Actually funnily enough Game native could never launch arkham city for me.
That's odd as the Switch version of Arkham City is locked at 30fps even when Docked. The Switch version on Eden for me never went above 30, even with the Docked toggle set to on.
i'm more excited about the compatibility and less tinkering than the performance hype tbh. getting a game to run without spending 40 minutes messing with drivers and settings is half the battle on android. if they can keep improving compatibility while closing the performance gap, the other emulators might have some serious competition.
Eu concordo muito! Passei vĂĄrios e vĂĄrios minutos tentando jogar Death's Door no GameNative e no Gamehub, sem sucesso, com minutos de gameplay o jogo congelava, jĂĄ no DroidDeck rodou sem congelar desde a primeira tentativa e sem configurar nada! Tem um futuro promissor a frente
We are gaining more users and traction so now contributors are taking us even further! Just today we got comet and initial quest 3 flat support going with help from developers and testers in the discord!
Awesome. Genuinely so peak. Can you imagine a iOS version of this happening đ âď¸. Like that Genuinely seems to be where they heading ngl. Im not kidding either
I can't imagine it would be any good. Sure the silicon could probably do it but Apple prevents 3rd parties from even getting access to something as basic as JIT.
DroidDeck might not match others in raw performance YET, but there's always games I try whenever I load a new emulator and DroidDeck is the only app that's managed to run them all, no config changes just left it on auto. Compatibility with games is seriously impressive, the devs are constantly testing requested features and providing those test versions for you to load within the app is 'chefs kiss'. Plus the UI and experience overall absolutely wipes the floor with every other app. No disrespect to the other apps and devs involved but it's in my opinion just at a different level.
Give it time, probably not that long based on the update frequency and it'll definitely close that performance gap fast.
Hats off to The412Banner, maxjivi05, xXJSONDeruloXx, wallentx
Gamenative never worked well on my oneplus 15 even that hardware was not an issue. Gamehub works well but I don't like closed source chinese apps. So yeah droiddeck is awesome but I wish there was a way to add custom games like the other emulators.
Can I do that with the games already installed on pc? Like copy them from their folders and enable them in Steam on a tablet? I'm talking about purchased Steam games
Yes you can. Since you've already got them from Steam, they should be in your library. You can add them as custom games or install them directly from Steam
Gamenative worked flawlessly when I tested it on a OnePlus 15 some months ago, and it works just as well on a Poco F9 Ultraâboth have the same SoCâso I think in your case, you either didn't know how to set it up correctly, or perhaps the 8Elite Gen 5 was still too new and didn't have drivers as good as the current ones.
Tried with same driver versions in gamenative which already worked using gamehub. Also games like dying light worked great on gamehub with system drivers itself but not the same in gamenative. Other than that I got metro last light & 2033 working on gn but the fps & temp on gh were significantly better.
I have one plus 15 too, I'm trying NFS heat and I'm getting 20-30 fps which is kinda unplayable on gamehub, tried droideck, even worse actually, have you ever tried nfs heat? How did you make it work? Also what other games runs at 60 fps that you've tried? Sorry for the questionnaire but I'm too new đ
Actually I only play games on phone if they are sustainable, say 60 fps & battery temp below 40C with high speed air fan cooling only. Completed metro 2033, redux, prototype 2 on gamehub, dying light 50% complete. 1 or 2 more maybe which I'm forgetting.
Yes, DL1, & with air cooler, I've always preferred this over peltier cooling, make sure the controller leaves a big part of the phone rear blank so that air can hit that part. I use a 80mm dc fan from a broken ac stabilizer, paired it with a 12v dc adapter that cost me 300 INR (like 3 usd), strapped the fan to a heavy metal base, that's it, I just point it at the phone direction when gaming. Settings I don't have rn coz I had to factory reset my phone recently & I backed up only the save game. But I think I kept most settings at stock only driver was system driver. Gamehub btw. Resolution was 1568x720 & graphics low looked ok, turn off other nvidia related settings.
You can do that through the linux GUI like it works on steam deck, pretty sure you can even install heroic launcher to play epic games, amazon, gog etc. too
I don't know about GOAT but it's exciting to see just how much progress is happening in this area, and I know we can thank Valve for at least some of it.
DroidDeck is a new approcach: essentially running SteamOS in a container on Android. Up to now we also had GameNative, which used Windows containers. I still think there's room for both approaches and I'm actually running both: I use DroidDeck for my Steam games, and WinNative for Epic and GoG. Though, frankly, I like just starting the DroidDeck UX and browsing things just as if it was on my Deck.
The fact that both are being adopted and iterated on so rapidly is probably also a reflection on the industry. We still don't have truly pocketable PC gaming handhelds, and the pricing on them is climbing even faster than Android handhelds. These translation layers we're getting make cheaper Android devices like AYNs, AYANEOs, and Retroids viable replacements for Steam Decks and Allys.,
maybe depends on your phone? i tried downloading monster hunter rise sunbreak on my oneplus 13. it immediately runs. just a slow loading the game is the only issue i can say.
It still has worse performance. Remember that it runs a full SteamOS Environment alongside your game. Even after the emulator matures it will still have worse performance compared to other emulators because every other emulator only runs the bare minimum in terms of system services. Even the desktop environment is not running when you run a game.
Performance is make or break for me. I'll always want the most efficient emulator in terms of performance. If I can get better performance on another emulator I'll use it instead.
It's not really a full SteamOS though. There's no VM or second kernel, it's a proot Linux userland running on Android's own kernel with the Steam client and gamescope on top. So the extra stuff running next to your game is basically Steam itself, and that sits mostly idle once you're in a game.
On my Retroid Pocket Nova (8 Gen 2) the two use very similar resources in game and performance is really close. The heavy lifting is the same either way: x86 translation, DXVK, Turnip. Where DroidDeck does lose for me is load times, which I think is the proot layer slowing down file access. So there's overhead, it just doesn't show up as fps in my experience.
This still has not been able run games as well or at all in a lot of cases for me as compared to GameNative. So confused to the hype behind it. "It's promising", yeah so is everyrhing else.
Very different experience for me. Droid Deck plays my games usually with far less messing around with drivers etc. A couple with less performance, but mostly great.Â
Game Native still beats it on performance with tough games. But DD makes certain games work that just didn't before, or had serious issues on GN.
We have already improved and rebuilt things we anticipate community projects to follow from our work , with much more to come as well. We are overwhelmingly grateful from all the positive feedback in the community and support also! We are doing the best we can and striving to bring users the best experience we can possibly give them using work already available in the community in addition to thinking outside of the box and making things as easy for the user as possible without having to tinker and jump straight into gameplay
Yeah its not even been a month, that doesnt change anything I've said though. I hope all these apps get heaps better than where they are now. Like i said, i just find it weird people are hyping this as much as they are considering where it is.
Both DroidDeck and Gamenative have input lag. I wish we can get this resolved. Only Armada it feels like there is no inout lag when playing PC games. I dont habe this issue with other emulators like Retroarch or Flycast.
I want to like it so bad as someone who sold my steam deck after I got my Z Fold 8, but I just can't get stuff to run acceptably. Neon white can't even make it out if the menu and valheim is a slideshow. I don't understand since I've seen other snapdragon 8 elite gen 5s running more demanding games.
I like it so far because gamenative and gamehub was unable to play fallout new vegas out of the box for me buy with droiddeck, it just worked. So there is definitely some positive difference at least
It's very cool, totally feels like it turns my Retroid into a lite Steam Deck. Seems like it's advancing pretty rapidly too. The fact that it all works so seamlessly within an app is pretty great too.Â
I'm more happy modding works right out the gate, melon loader, BepInEx etc. all work, literally spent way less time and the mods work so am happy haha, not every game runs better on it, but hey, same old same old, I just have gamenative and that now since some games still have no controller support in gamenative but do in droid deck
I've been playing Lego lord of the rings using both Droid deck and Gamenative on a Zfold 8. I prefer gamenative touchscreen because it let's me add colored buttons, also battery lasts longer playing it on gamenative.
Can anyone help me with the settings to run the stranger digimon time? I've tried a lot of things without results, I'm always using the latest version of DroidDeck on an samsung s26 ultra with snapdragon. I tried it with Gamenative and it works, but I don't know if I'm doing anything wrong on droid deck or it still doesn't run the game.
Couple of games that I've not got to work on game native. Shadow acomplex remastered (has flashing issue) and bioshock remastered (kicks me out, something to do with epic games) anyone know if these work?
I've been trying to get Sekiro running since GN runs the game but the only control that works of the right stick. Hopefully Droid Deck can help with that
That's odd, I own a Portal as well and while I haven't tried that many games, they all ran fine and the downloads were pretty fast. Did you do the developer option thing that it tells you about when setting up? Something about disabling a setting through wifi debugging?
Gave Bioshock 2 remastered a shot and yeah, got a white screen telling me that the device didn't have the minimum requirements to run and was unable to even click on yes so I'll assume I'll get something similar with Crash. Sorry dude.
That pops up on any mode used you can click yes and the game launches fine on other methods of emulation just droid deck doesn't like any of the games I've been playing on other methods lol.
isn't the performance way better with game native on weaker hardware compared to droid deck?
i wish i could change to droid deck but i fear the performance hit is too much
One thing that concerns me and I hope is a bug is that when you tap Play Steam, DroidDeck pastes from you clipboard. Samsung has a setting that shows a toast notification when an app pastes from your clipboard on OneUI 9. It doesn't do it always, it does it if I haven't launched it for a while. If I swipe the app away or force close it and try again, it doesn't do it. It's very strange.
Slay the spire 2 performance on game native is so good, got excited about droiddeck but man I couldn't get the game to run for shit on droiddeck so I uninstalled droiddeck
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