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Box86, an x86 app player for ARM with native rendering performance

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Re: Box86, an x86 app player for ARM with native rendering performance

#6
post #3

See this for a lot more details: https://www.giantpockets.com/box86-run-x86-code-and-games-on...

Thanks for linking that as well as your earlier HN posts about Box86:

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19389120

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19400920

I think there are a couple factors that have limited the awareness of Box86. One is having the word "Box" in its title which reminds too much of existing solutions DOSBox or Bochs that already do their job.

The second is occasionally headlining Box86 as an "emulator", taking into account that most of the audience does not get very far into the article. Even if Box86 does use x86 emulation it's important to highlight that libraries like OpenGL and SDL run natively. Compare that framing to WINE, which is so forthcoming on not being an emulator that it's in the name.

Re: Box86, an x86 app player for ARM with native rendering performance

#8
post #7

Where does he get these games? Are they freeware?

https://www.gog.com/game/airline_tycoon_deluxe

https://www.gog.com/game/world_of_goo (was also free on Epic Game Store a while ago, plus in a million different bundles)

for example.

The games used as tests seem to be lower end indie titles that can be found DRM-free (because you don't also want to have to work around that)

Re: Box86, an x86 app player for ARM with native rendering performance

#10
post #9

Nice progress towards making x86 redundant. Too bad it targets ARM and not rv64gc, but it's a start. I'm curious why it isn't based on qemu-user.

It targets a widely deployed architecture rather than one you can't buy at consumer level?
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