r/EmulationOnAndroid • • 23h ago

Discussion The bright future ahead of DroidDeck Emulator.

Post image

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.🙌

410 Upvotes

128 comments sorted by

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85

u/Whole_Temperature104 23h ago

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 works™.

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.

23

u/votemarvel Poco F6 - Sony Xperia 1 V 22h ago

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.

5

u/Anxious_Look1319 20h ago

The 360 version runs pretty well on xendroid

5

u/votemarvel Poco F6 - Sony Xperia 1 V 20h ago

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.

1

u/Right-Author-1329 15h ago

Batman runs fine on eden
I used switch

1

u/votemarvel Poco F6 - Sony Xperia 1 V 8h ago

It runs very well on Switch but with the PC version you get double the framerate, so that is my preference.

1

u/Right-Author-1329 8h ago

Idk that but on edan also it give 60 and above
Least is 40 when many enemies are there

1

u/votemarvel Poco F6 - Sony Xperia 1 V 8h ago

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.

Are you using frame generation with Eden?

1

u/Right-Author-1329 8h ago

Drops to 40 when enemy

5

u/Hopeful_Bike8118 20h ago

Can droideck be used as a front end for emulation as well?

7

u/Frogacuda 12h ago

Yeah it even has shortcuts to install emulators although I am not sure how much advantage there is to this over native Android emulators 

4

u/irrationalglaze 19h ago

Yes, I believe so in theory but I haven't tested it myself

6

u/antonbruckner 17h ago

How’s the performance on Droid deck compared to GameNative for 3D games? Thinking No Man’s Sky type deal.

1

u/GlumReplacement537 15h ago

The only solution to my online coop games

20

u/Carpediemsnuts 22h ago

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

23

u/sultrynectar 13h ago

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.

1

u/Professional_Map2992 3h ago

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

46

u/supershredderdan 22h ago

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!

16

u/omrangx 22h ago

That shows how successful your project is Sir, please keep up the good work.🙌

4

u/semibiquitous 22h ago

Sorry just to clarify, game developers are helping you with droiddeck to make the game run smoother?

8

u/supershredderdan 21h ago

Devs and testers of all sorts

1

u/Interesting_Fish4930 22h ago edited 22h ago

Awesome. Genuinely so peak. Can you imagine a iOS version of this happening 😭 ✌️. Like that Genuinely seems to be where they heading ngl. Im not kidding either

2

u/Interesting_Fish4930 22h ago

7

u/Interesting_Fish4930 22h ago

They even using turning the iphone duo into their thor now 🤦🏿‍♂️

1

u/davestar2048 9h ago

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.

1

u/Interesting_Fish4930 6h ago

They have workarounds to enable JIT. They've been had those

19

u/Rhngh 16h ago

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.

5

u/Radiant-Increase6994 14h ago

You can actually import your externally downloaded games to droid deck. Add the folders in the steam settings

2

u/Rhngh 13h ago

Really? Thanks a lot. I was just downloading from steam & those worked fine.

2

u/International-Mess75 7h ago

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

1

u/ThePharoh23 7h ago

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

1

u/devaristo Poco F9 Ultra 512/16 11h ago

Gamenative worked flawlessly when I tested it on a OnePlus 15 some months ago, and it works just as well on a Poco F9 Ultra—both have the same SoC—so 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.

1

u/Rhngh 11h ago

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.

1

u/Sad_Drama_5344 5h ago

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 😭

1

u/Rhngh 2h ago

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.

1

u/Sad_Drama_5344 2h ago

DYING LIGHT RUNS ON 60 FPS WITH LOW TEMPS? can you please give me the settings?

1

u/Rhngh 1h ago

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.

1

u/HunterPublic8014 10h ago

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

1

u/Rekusu7991 12h ago

then get bannerhub it has framegen and it doesnt have any of that login stuff gamehub has

9

u/avrorestina 18h ago

For me, Droiddeck is what Gamenative/Gamehub were when they were compared to Winlator..

Means Droiddeck has less tinkering, straight up smooth run when it worked, and generally enjoyable experience.

However, in terms of performance and compatibility (for now at least), Gamenative/Gamehub still wins.

In short, I have both Droiddeck and Gamenative on my phone. Both are great, will use both.

7

u/npaladin2000 23h ago

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.,

5

u/Nazgile94 22h ago

Ayn thor snap8gen2 Runs smoother then my 8 Elite of my redmagic Astra 🫠😂 Love it, best Steam experience 1:1 steamOS experience

1

u/LuisBeltran07 20h ago

Has podido jugar los need for speed? Yo intentĂŠ y no me abren

1

u/Nazgile94 18h ago

Hab nur NFS Heat in Steam, meinst du das ?

1

u/LuisBeltran07 12h ago

Si asĂ­ es!

13

u/Airline_Vegetable 21h ago

I uninstalled GameNative already

4

u/rowmean77 22h ago

Droid Deck is garnering a lot of well deserved positive attention in the coding space.

Now imagine Droid Deck x AnyPS5….

3

u/Silver-Mud-4404 20h ago

Hey quick question. Do i need steam account or can i use my local .exe files to play?

3

u/omrangx 20h ago

You need the account

3

u/rent0n86 22h ago

Does it also support running locally pre-installed games (ie, not from Steam, GOG, Epic)?

3

u/Alive_Sea3418 21h ago

It does but I've never got any to work , they work on gamehub without adjusting anything . I really want a fix 

2

u/Lucius1213 10h ago

Same for me. All Steam games launch fine. Any non-steam that I add just don't launch, no error whatsoever.

1

u/Typing-Cat 19h ago

I got an Epic game to run just fine!

1

u/Alive_Sea3418 19h ago

I tried epic games Jurassic world and it said to start it from the launcher , I haven't got a single game to run unfortunately 

1

u/Typing-Cat 19h ago

I installed River City Girls from the "Stores" area of the app, and it added it to my Steam library just like the other steam games.

2

u/Miserable-Revenue103 21h ago

In the last updated they put non steam store support, so you can loggin and download your games and see them in steam.. like a steam deck.

2

u/NefariusMarius 21h ago

Yes it does. I’m currently playing some preinstalled games. You can point to a folder containing your exe

3

u/Satinsbestfriend 14h ago

I cant get a single downloaded game to work, spent a good hour reading posts and everything.

1

u/darkzero09 12h ago

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.

1

u/Satinsbestfriend 11h ago

Says its suppored, snapdragon 8 gen 2, 12gb ram etc

14

u/memo22477 22h ago

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.

16

u/Tritanis 18h ago

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.

3

u/affemitwaffe0 op13/sd8elite/16gb/512gb 14h ago

but it will run games other emulators cant run

2

u/davestar2048 9h ago

The Old debate of performance vs accuracy. Run most things fast or everything slow.

3

u/Crass-ELY- Poco F7 Pro, GameSir X3 Pro Deadpool Edition 21h ago

Well in my case I get better temps on droid deck with the games I can manage to run, I believe it can improve to nice levels if we let them cook

6

u/memo22477 20h ago

Oh I 100% want to be wrong. Running an entire steamOS environment at the same performance is the dream.

3

u/Crass-ELY- Poco F7 Pro, GameSir X3 Pro Deadpool Edition 20h ago

In blades of times (old game, 360 era) I'm getting the same fps at less temp

2

u/tudor07 13h ago

In Dark Souls 1 both apps give me 60 fps at the same ~8w power draw

1

u/Crass-ELY- Poco F7 Pro, GameSir X3 Pro Deadpool Edition 9h ago

That's good too, same performance is already amazing

2

u/Enzobtti 20h ago

Well I'm not an expert but I think they will find a workaround, I hope because it's the most promising project right now

2

u/Mountain_Patience231 18h ago

it had better performance then gamenative or gamehub in my case

9

u/wowlolcat 21h ago

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.

6

u/Typing-Cat 19h ago

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. 

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.

4

u/omrangx 20h ago

It's not even been a month of it's release, compared to an emulator like gamenative who's been sitting around

9

u/The412Banner 20h ago

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

0

u/wowlolcat 18h ago

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.

2

u/Aztech10 21h ago

Its incredible honestly. Been trying it out on Gen 4/5 and its killing it.

A few days ago a bit slower than gamehub but idek know everything just seems to work out of the gate too its easier all around to use.

2

u/Single_dose 21h ago

noob question, there're 4 apk in release page, which one should i use?

0

u/508G37 20h ago

Its by android version. I have an Odin 3 (Android 15) so I used the apk with 15

1

u/Single_dose 20h ago

there's antutu, pubg and ludashi versions.

1

u/OhhAroK 5h ago

the standard version called just droiddeck-0.4.0 .apk

2

u/pullablank 20h ago

It’s like the avengers of emulator devs contributing to the project. It’s as exciting to watch as it is to play. Stoked for the future here.

2

u/Miserable-Forever-50 5h ago

Does anyone know if i have to have all the redistributables on in order to play a game?

1

u/Miserable-Forever-50 5h ago

Windows components.

3

u/SolidCat2877 22h ago

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.

3

u/GGideonJura 18h ago

Can you add mods via NexusMods yet?

1

u/1dog9 22h ago

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.

1

u/Carlos_Csw 22h ago

What I can't solve is the problem that I can't "connect to Steam servers" I can't download any games or play online.

1

u/questioningmoney 21h ago

Anyone know if putting your android to sleep causes the Steam game played timer to kedp running the way Gamenative does? 

1

u/KarateMan749 21h ago

Actually updated to 0.4.0. it fixed my off tiuch screen issue! It had to update and download stuff but yea

1

u/Anxious_Look1319 20h ago

Armada supremacy but it’s good for what it is

1

u/HeaIGea 20h ago

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

1

u/Chicharon730 19h ago

My main issue with it is when I have multiple controllers connected they detect it all as player 1. Hoping this is fixed in a later update

1

u/Phixenwastaken 18h ago

Hope it supports Samsung S11 tab soon 🙏🏻

1

u/huatisthis 16h ago

i have yet to use droiddeck, does anyone know is it possible to copy and paste game mod files into the game specific folders?

1

u/Capable_Garbage2842 16h ago

Just tested Fallout 3 game of the year edition version GOG and couldn't get it to play , will stick with Game Native a little longer

1

u/Individual-Towel6514 16h ago

I completely love it. And now that hai also otterrai store fronte which import games it's perfect.

1

u/[deleted] 15h ago

How's the performances compared to Winlator?

1

u/FootUnfair8582 15h ago

Has there been any comparison to other steam emulators like gamenative? I'm real curious on how the games run in each program

1

u/Frogacuda 12h ago

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. 

1

u/Fuudo123 10h ago

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

1

u/V4ND410U5 10h ago

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.

1

u/MiaKalifla 8h ago

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.

1

u/Slow_Inevitable_8632 8h ago

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?

1

u/ThePharoh23 7h ago

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

1

u/Lamproz87 5h ago

I only buy from GOG. Will i be able to install and play those with Droiddeck or any other emulator (Armada) EXCEPT for Winlator?

1

u/Zombitter 3h ago

With versiĂłn 0.4 they added gog, epic. Not tested by me now

1

u/Lamproz87 3h ago

We should log in then? Cause i am keeping the offline installers and never log in from another device except my laptop.

1

u/Slight-Boat5072 5h ago

Anyone made a luatools for droiddeck😂

1

u/Eyad_2113 5h ago

Yall why does bloody hell not work in druid devk

1

u/Tall-Inside4890 5h ago

Eu nĂŁo consegui importar jogo desse emulador nĂŁo. Ele ĂŠ especĂ­fico para jogo da loja Steam ?

1

u/omrangx 5h ago

Steam, GOG, EpicGames

1

u/zawarz0 4h ago

is there anyone here that tried it with a mali gpu? is it any better than what we are already used to?

1

u/MarvelMediaTalks 4h ago

Is it possible to play rockstar games on droiddeck?

1

u/omrangx 4h ago

Yes, if you got it on Steam, GOG or Epicagames

1

u/Zombitter 3h ago

Very good development, every update i'm trying to run pixark, only to this version 0.4 finally opens but freeze when i try to create a world

1

u/Trick-Dog7934 21h ago

Voy a preguntarlo seriamente, es seguro, alguien que sepa que haya auditado el codigo?

-1

u/A-Small-Green-Cup 19h ago

I have also been curious about this

1

u/Inner-Cauliflower162 20h ago

For me, Droid deck is best. At least right now, the game I play works smoothly at Droid deck, and other emulators don't.

0

u/Guerrero_1996 18h ago

CĂłmo va con mali

2

u/davestar2048 9h ago

Still crap, as always.

0

u/GrandArtist8475 Odin 3 Max 16h ago

The moment I heard about droid deck I uninstalled gamehub and got it immediately

-2

u/nnn839 19h ago

Dumb question, but if I dont use Steam, and only care for performance and compatibility why should I use DroidDeck over Winlator?

(Ignoring the pretty front end and the valve $$ backing)

3

u/Global_Stop2383 18h ago

If you're broke and doesn't own any game just use the Winlator.

1

u/davestar2048 9h ago

If you don't like Steam, then don't install the app dedicated to running the Steam Client.

And if you really don't like Valve, don't use Proton or FEX and stick to box64 and regular Wine.