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XQEMU is an Xbox emulator, still in early stages, plays commercial game

Plumpbiscuit

Plumpbiscuit

Member
Shamelessly copied the thread from RPCS3. Thought I'd make this thread since I can't find another one dedicated to this, plus, this emulator is making good progress much like RPCS3.

About
XQEMU is a open source, cross-platform emulator for the original Xbox (and Sega Chihiro). It is currently in very early stages of development. XQEMU is built on-top of QEMU.
Click to expand...

Status
  • Most things don't work
  • Everything is slow
  • No audio
Click to expand...

The website hasn't been updated for quite a while now, however.

http://xqemu.com/

Yeah, it doesn't run all games at even 10, 20 or 30 fps but if you watch videos you can see how much of the games are already emulated. Most of the graphics are there, and there are games that can run at a more steady framerate such as.

Sample videos
Crash Tag Team Racing Ingame - realtime! (WIP)
Genma Onimusha Ingame - realtime! (WIP)
Pirates The Legend of Black Kat Ingame - realtime! (WIP)
Scarface The World Is Yours Ingame - realtime! (WIP)
Panzer Elite Action Fields of Glory Ingame - realtime! (WIP)
 
E

Eradicate

Member
Looking pretty good so far! I never heard about this. Thanks for sharing!

I really would think Xbox emulation would have been a little farther along by now. I know there are some systems where certain hardware quirks make them more difficult; is anything like that going on with the Xbox? I don't know much about its innards!
 
V

Vazra

irresponsible vagina leak
Hopefully this project doesnt get dropped like previous ones. I need my Otogi and Phantom Crash in1080p
 
C

calc84maniac

Member
Eradicate said:
Looking pretty good so far! I never heard about this. Thanks for sharing!

I really would think Xbox emulation would have been a little farther along by now. I know there are some systems where certain hardware quirks make them more difficult; is anything like that going on with the Xbox? I don't know much about its innards!
Click to expand...
Neither does anyone else, that's the problem.
 
F

Foffy

Banned
Eradicate said:
Looking pretty good so far! I never heard about this. Thanks for sharing!

I really would think Xbox emulation would have been a little farther along by now. I know there are some systems where certain hardware quirks make them more difficult; is anything like that going on with the Xbox? I don't know much about its innards!
Click to expand...

I think enthusiasm plays a role, too.

Nintendo systems get emulated fast because there is crazy interest in Nintendo games with the perks of emulation. The Xbox is a unique platform in that its console exclusives are not games people and screaming for on PC. I mean, outside of myself, who would want to replay the Xbox-exclusive Ghost Recon games at 1080p? Too few.

Then there's the issue of hardware documentation and understanding its innards, which is a mixture of the above point of apathy and really a lacking arena of information, IIRC.
 
T

Terbinator

Member
Foffy said:
I think enthusiasm plays a role, too.

Nintendo systems get emulated fast because there is crazy interest in Nintendo games with the perks of emulation. The Xbox is a unique platform in that its console exclusives are not games people and screaming for on PC. I mean, outside of myself, who would want to replay the Xbox-exclusive Ghost Recon games at 1080p? Too few.

Then there's the issue of hardware documentation and understanding its innards, which is a mixture of the above point of apathy and really a lacking arena of information, IIRC.
Click to expand...
Worth it for NGB 4K60 alone.
 
T

TheAdmiester

Member
For some reason I feel like XQEmu is the last hope for Xbox emulation. I really hope it isn't but I just get a dreaded feeling that it is. That said, I do have some hope in this project because it's been going on for a good while now despite slow progress.

The fact that some games run in real time (albeit awful FPS) is a big leap.
 
E

Emperor_Uriel

Member
otogi-myth-of-demons-image648195.jpg


Soon...
 
E

Eradicate

Member
calc84maniac said:
Neither does anyone else, that's the problem.
Click to expand...

Haha, that will certainly do it! Is it all proprietary hardware or something? I just think it's fascinating how people go about doing these projects in the first place, and Xbox emulation has seemed to be a big challenge.

Foffy said:
I think enthusiasm plays a role, too.

Nintendo systems get emulated fast because there is crazy interest in Nintendo games with the perks of emulation. The Xbox is a unique platform in that its console exclusives are not games people and screaming for on PC. I mean, outside of myself, who would want to replay the Xbox-exclusive Ghost Recon games at 1080p? Too few.

Then there's the issue of hardware documentation and understanding its innards, which is a mixture of the above point of apathy and really a lacking arena of information, IIRC.
Click to expand...

That's definitely true about enthusiasm. The Xbox had some really neat (and quite great!) exclusive games, but you really don't hear a lot about them anymore with any degree of "fondness," for lack of a better word, like you do for the Gamecube or PS2 around the same time, which is definitely a shame! Hopefully these guys keep up the great work! You see what something like Dolphin is overall capable of and it just makes you want the same for Xbox too.
 
Blam

Blam

Member
Eradicate said:
Looking pretty good so far! I never heard about this. Thanks for sharing!

I really would think Xbox emulation would have been a little farther along by now. I know there are some systems where certain hardware quirks make them more difficult; is anything like that going on with the Xbox? I don't know much about its innards!
Click to expand...

Yeah thats actually how it is since theres absolutely no documentation on the nvidia gpu which was custom made for the xbox
 
T

Tain

Member
Wonder which will be the first Good Full Speed Xbox Emulator to play some major games well, between this and cxbx-reloaded.
 
S

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
I really hope this pans out eventually. I really need Ninja Gaiden Black to be preserved forever, the game is a masterpiece.
 
L

Luigiv

Member
Eradicate said:
Haha, that will certainly do it! Is it all proprietary hardware or something? I just think it's fascinating how people go about doing these projects in the first place, and Xbox emulation has seemed to be a big challenge.
Click to expand...
Not really. From a hardware perspective the system is little more than a lightly modified pentium III pc. That said, without proper documentation that pretty much meaningless.

Also the software layer, which is all proprietary, is a big issue.
 
G

GamerJM

Banned
Don't care too much about this for my own personal use but I pray this takes off for game preservation-related reasons. The fact that something like this never got further along is a crime.
 
BigEmil

BigEmil

Junior Member
Now this is a emulator I'm more interested in very old console phased out slowly becoming more harder to find and games could start rotting with no digital games service the discs also not blu-ray means easier scratches etc some of my original Xbox discs scratched to not working anymore

I wonder if people can get out the Xbox and Xbox 360 emulator from the Xbox One also
 
B

BlazeHedgehog

Member
Everybody's hyped for Ninja Gaiden Black and Otogi but I'm pumped to play Jet Set Radio Future again. It "works" on 360 BC but has serious slowdown problems in some areas.
 
M

M3d10n

Member
Eradicate said:
Haha, that will certainly do it! Is it all proprietary hardware or something? I just think it's fascinating how people go about doing these projects in the first place, and Xbox emulation has seemed to be a big challenge.
Click to expand...
It's more like proprietary software.

There is simply no low level documentation on the NVidia GPU it uses. All games used the pre-compiled DirectX driver supplied by NVidia and there was no "to the metal" path to the GPU, so its significantly harder to reverse engineer it compared to other consoles and handhelds. Just look at the struggle the Linux community had creating reverse engineered open source GPU drivers in the past.

It's unspoken, but many emulators are actually developed using information sourced directly or indirectly from leaked SDKs and documentation. In the Xbox case, part of the system was of limits for devs and only NVidia and Microsoft know how they work in detail.
 
D

dex3108

Member
Man Microsoft is sitting on both Xbox and Xbox 360 emulators and they would have so much success if they would release them both on PC. Tie them to Win Store and you have successfull store just like that.
 
KainXVIII

KainXVIII

Member
dex3108 said:
Man Microsoft is sitting on both Xbox and Xbox 360 emulators and they would have so much success if they would release them both on PC. Tie them to Win Store and you have successful store just like that.
Click to expand...

You deceive yourself if you really think so.
But it still be cool to see BC on PC.
 
A

Atolm

Member
M3d10n said:
It's more like proprietary software.

There is simply no low level documentation on the NVidia GPU it uses. All games used the pre-compiled DirectX driver supplied by NVidia and there was no "to the metal" path to the GPU, so its significantly harder to reverse engineer it compared to other consoles and handhelds. Just look at the struggle the Linux community had creating reverse engineered open source GPU drivers in the past.

It's unspoken, but many emulators are actually developed using information sourced directly or indirectly from leaked SDKs and documentation. In the Xbox case, part of the system was of limits for devs and only NVidia and Microsoft know how they work in detail.
Click to expand...

Well, in that case the Xbox had every version of its SDK leaked. I know it because that's how you compiled the emulators & homebrew back in the day. I guess they weren't too specific, though.
 
D

dex3108

Member
KainXVIII said:
You deceive yourself if you really think so.
But it still be cool to see BC on PC.
Click to expand...

You really think that PC gamers wouldn't go and buy RDR GOTY for 10$ on Win Store for example? There are many exclusives that PC gamers would like to play and MS has nothing to lose.
 
E

Ewo

Member
Alexander DeLarge said:
Why is this getting all this publicity? Cxbx-reloaded already plays Jet Set Radio Future. Competition is great but a lot of media outlets are acting like "Finally we have an Xbox emulation project"
https://youtu.be/K_5dIUPs0_I

He also has a Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/LukeUsher
Click to expand...

I didn't even know Cxbx-reloaded was still getting updated. I've been waiting for XQEMU to get significantly better for years and it honestly seems stagnant in comparison.
LLE is an admirable goal, but development is super slow when compared to HLE.
 
E

epmode

Member
Oh god, will I finally be able to play Rallisport Challenge 2 on PC? With a >480p resolution?

Pls pls plsplspls
 
L

LelouchZero

Member
This is really cool, there's so many awesome talented developers that work on emulators!

it's good to see that XQEMU and CXBX Reloaded are progressing.
 
B

BlazeHedgehog

Member
I

infinitys_7th

Member
Not knowing the technical side of emulation but hearing the chatter, I always thought it was fascinating that Xbox was so difficult to emulate. I remember when PS3 came out people were claiming it would never be emulated due to the Cell processors, but it seems like its emulation got ahead of Xbox.
 
Ar¢tos

Ar¢tos

Member
infinitys_7th said:
Not knowing the technical side of emulation but hearing the chatter, I always thought it was fascinating that Xbox was so difficult to emulate. I remember when PS3 came out people were claiming it would never be emulated due to the Cell processors, but it seems like its emulation got ahead of Xbox.
Click to expand...
Different emulation challenges. The difficulty of ps3 emulation was mostly the raw power needed on a x86 architecture to emulate the CELL, since the cell was very SIMD focused and x86 lacks in SIMD ability. The cell architecture, instruction sets and the ps3 APIs are well documented and that information is not hard to get hold of.
The difficulty of XBox emulation is more of lack of knowledge of how the software/APIs work, not lack of hardware power to emulate it.
 
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