Curious how this will impact the major games that are incompatible due to denuvo type stuff
That doesn't even work properly on x86 Wine, so ARM is pretty much hopeless right now.
That is false. Denuvo DRM works on Linux and has for many years.
FEX-emu – Run x86 applications on ARM64 Linux devices
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Re: FEX-emu – Run x86 applications on ARM64 Linux devices
#52I'n incredibly impressed by valve's commitment to playing the long game. It makes sense to have the frame by arm since the system is lighter and its clear this is just the trojan horse to get arm linux into every gamer's house. I wouldn't be surprised if we end up with an arm steamdeck 1-2 version from now when the tech is ready.
Too bad Arm doesn't allow architectural licenses, because this is exactly the kind of thing Valve and the FEX developers would want to extend the ISA to support. I bet we see a RISC-V backend to FEX in the next 6 months, it probably already exists in a private repo. FEX is the shootstring, extra special discount budget (not maligning) version of Rosetta. Apple should sell Rosetta to Valve.
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Re: FEX-emu – Run x86 applications on ARM64 Linux devices
#53> FEX allows you to run x86 applications on ARM64 Linux devices, similar to qemu-user and box64. It offers broad compatibility with both 32-bit and 64-bit binaries, and it can be used alongside Wine/Proton to play Windows games. > It supports forwarding API calls to host system libraries like OpenGL or Vulkan to reduce emulation overhead. An experimental code cache helps minimize in-game stuttering as much as possibl…
Not just used by, Valve is sponsoring FEX. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45903610#:~:text=Valve%...
I wouldn't call this random comment reliable testimony that they are sponsoring FEX.
Re: FEX-emu – Run x86 applications on ARM64 Linux devices
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Too bad Arm doesn't allow architectural licenses, because this is exactly the kind of thing Valve and the FEX developers would want to extend the ISA to support. I bet we see a RISC-V backend to FEX in the next 6 months, it probably already exists in a private repo. FEX is the shootstring, extra special discount budget (not maligning) version of Rosetta. Apple should sell Rosetta to Valve.
> Apple should sell Rosetta to Valve. Isn't Rosetta kinda bad though? And won't get much better because it's not open source?
Rosetta performance is best in class to my knowledge, although they had the benefit of being able to add custom instructions and modes to the cpu to make some parts easier. Meaning Rosetta would not have helped valve unless they built the frame on apple silicon.
As for not improving, it is likely that Apple no longer feels the need to invest in Rosetta improvements now that Apple silicon is so dominant and software support is already very strong, but nothing is stopping them from investing in it if they need it for example for gaming
Re: FEX-emu – Run x86 applications on ARM64 Linux devices
#55One problem I see is that (e.g.) Qualcomm Adreno GPUs don't even run most Windows games well when executed natively under Windows, due to games only being optimized for GeForce and Radeon. I assume this problem only gets worse when trying to run DirectX games through some sort of translation layer with FEX/DXVK.
Re: FEX-emu – Run x86 applications on ARM64 Linux devices
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Apple should sell Rosetta to Valve. Isn't Rosetta kinda bad though? And won't get much better because it's not open source?
Rosetta performance is best in class to my knowledge, although they had the benefit of being able to add custom instructions and modes to the cpu to make some parts easier. Meaning Rosetta would not have helped valve unless they built the frame on apple silicon. As for not improving, it is likely that Apple no longer feels the need to invest in Rosetta improvements now that Apple silicon is so dominant and software s…
Rosetta is abandonware:
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple-silicon/abou...
Why would a company on its way to the moon, entrust such an important project as translation layer between two major architectures to a single rinky-dinky corp that got rich selling common electronics marketed as luxury fluff, that's on the decline and has head so far stuck up its butt that it thinks it can do whatever it wants, instead of just write it themselves with support of the global developer community?
Apple could never do games because there are no luxury games. That's completely out of their zone of comprehensibility.
Re: FEX-emu – Run x86 applications on ARM64 Linux devices
#57Presentation at FOSDEM2022: https://archive.fosdem.org/2022/schedule/event/fex/
A little old but still interesting.
Re: FEX-emu – Run x86 applications on ARM64 Linux devices
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
That doesn't even work properly on x86 Wine, so ARM is pretty much hopeless right now.
That is false. Denuvo DRM works on Linux and has for many years.
I didn't say it doesn't work at all, but it's been problematic. An example:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/05/denuvo-will-lock-you-o...
Re: FEX-emu – Run x86 applications on ARM64 Linux devices
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rosetta performance is best in class to my knowledge, although they had the benefit of being able to add custom instructions and modes to the cpu to make some parts easier. Meaning Rosetta would not have helped valve unless they built the frame on apple silicon. As for not improving, it is likely that Apple no longer feels the need to invest in Rosetta improvements now that Apple silicon is so dominant and software s…
Rosetta is abandonware: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple-silicon/abou... Why would a company on its way to the moon, entrust such an important project as translation layer between two major architectures to a single rinky-dinky corp that got rich selling common electronics marketed as luxury fluff, that's on the decline and has head so far stuck up its butt that it thinks it can do whatever it wants, i…
I don’t know if the two companies have such different futures.
The games industry as a whole is in potentially terminal decline, have you seen all of the redundancies lately?
Re: FEX-emu – Run x86 applications on ARM64 Linux devices
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not just used by, Valve is sponsoring FEX. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45903610#:~:text=Valve%...
I wouldn't call this random comment reliable testimony that they are sponsoring FEX.
As the random commenter I agree. By "support" I meant that they have a line of product and a strategy that relies on FEX to work and work as seamlessly as possible.
If they contribute to FEX at even a fraction of what they did to wine and Proton it is indeed huge.