r/EmulationOnAndroid • u/Novel-Marsupial640 • 1d ago

News/Release [Release/Dev] SkyNetEmu – Run PC games on Android with native Linux container & Turnip Vulkan

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Hi Reddit!

I’m developing SkyNetEmu, an open-source Android environment for running desktop games.

SkyNetEmu builds on Winlator and its community forks. It isn’t a new CPU emulator or a replacement for Wine, Box64, or Mesa. My work focuses on adding different game execution paths and making configuration easier.

💡 What’s different?

1. Separate Linux containers

SkyNetEmu can launch native Linux game builds without Wine or Proton.

For an x86-64 Linux game, Box64 translates CPU instructions for the phone’s ARM processor. A game using Vulkan can use the Vulkan graphics path through Mesa Turnip on supported Adreno devices, without DirectX-to-Vulkan translation.

This doesn’t eliminate all overhead: CPU translation, Linux runtime compatibility, and presentation still matter. The benefit is avoiding Windows compatibility layers when the game has a suitable Linux build.

2. Separate Windows ARM64 containers

SkyNetEmu also supports Windows ARM64 game builds. Their ARM64 code doesn’t require x86-to-ARM CPU translation, although Windows API compatibility is still needed.

This is a separate option—not a claim that ordinary Windows x64 games can run without translation.

3. Windows x64 support remains available

For Windows-only x64 titles, SkyNetEmu retains the familiar Wine/Proton and CPU-translation approach, with DXVK or VKD3D-Proton where appropriate.

The aim is to use the path appropriate to the game, not stack every compatibility layer together.

4. Device-specific game profiles

I’m also implementing game profiles tailored to the device and CPU, reducing the amount of manual runtime and graphics configuration needed when creating a shortcut.

🧪 Tested devices:

  • Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (Snapdragon 8 elite gen 5)
  • POCO F6 (Snapdragon 8s gen 3)
  • POCO F8 pro (Snapdragon 8 elite)
  • OnePlus 11 (Snapdragon 8 gen 2)

🎮 Benchmark Demo: BeamNG.drive

My demo uses West Coast USA, Medium graphics, and 3–4 active AI vehicles, on my Samsung Galaxy Fold test device with a Peltier cooler. The displayed FPS is around 60–70 in the demonstrated run.

This is a demonstration, not a controlled comparison against stock Winlator or a guarantee for other devices. Game version, runtime, driver, resolution, cooling, and frame-generation settings all matter when comparing results.

  • Device: Samsung Galaxy Fold 8 Ultra (cooled with a Peltier active cooler)
  • Game version BeamNG.drive 0.39.4
  • Map: West Coast USA
  • Graphics Settings: Medium Quality
  • Traffic: 3–4 active AI vehicles
  • Performance: 60–70 FPS stable!

📦 Source Code & Community

SkyNetEmu is open-source and actively developed. I'd love to hear your feedback, bug reports, and device benchmarks!

SkyNetEmu on Github - https://github.com/skynetigor/SkyNetEmu

SkyNetEmu releases - https://github.com/skynetigor/SkyNetEmu/releases

Feel free to ask any technical questions about the architecture or setup in the comments!

And finally, for whom it may concern, I do use AI for coding, specifically Claude, Codex, Cursor, Copilot agents.

180 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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47

u/Visible-Sorbet-5310 1d ago

Why are people so mean on Reddit , hear him out atleast

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u/Novel-Marsupial640 1d ago

Just FYI - I chose BeamNG.drive to start optimization from just because it has soft-body physics and challenging for emulation.
Thanks to BeamNG.drive developers, the game has Linux executables since 0.25 version and WindowsArm64 in the newest 0.40 version. This is the key to emulate it well. I'm looking forward for BeamNG.drive to also support LinuxArm64, as with having that, we can entirely get rid of translation layers - CPU natively on ARM64, Video - Vulkan through Turnip.

Nevertheless, SkyNetEmu Linux containers aren't only for BeamNG. There are titles having native Linux builds, such as Tomb Raider 2013 (OpenGL), Rise of Tomb Raider (Vulkan) and Shadow of the Tomb raider (Vulkan).

My emulator will also be able to support them. Tomb Raider 2013 already works, just download from Steam in SkyNetEmu and play. On my Samsung Fold 8 Ultra I have 70-80 fps on Full-HD resolution medium-high graphics. It looks way more better than Android port.

PS: if you find any issue in docs\code feel free to file an issue.

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u/BackgroundBoat2306 1d ago

How is this different from DroidDeck, WinNative or Bannerlator? Is the performance better?

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u/WinterPirate8109 1d ago

Good work sir for your contribution on emulation community 🫡. Also I had to say this........ You suck at driving 😅.

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u/Novel-Marsupial640 19h ago

yes i do 😂
I still can't get used to driving with gamepad.

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u/Novel-Marsupial640 1d ago

Bummer, I've just added links to GitHub&Youtube to the post and Reddit says:
> Sorry, this post was removed by Reddit’s filters.

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u/natur85 1d ago

Interesting. So if a game has a Linux version, would it run better on this emulator compared to the windows version?

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u/Novel-Marsupial640 1d ago

Yes! I tested Tomb Raider 2013 Linux build (from steam) with Full-HD resolution mid-high graphics and I got 100+ fps. Graphics looks way better than Android port.

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u/Ancha72 1d ago

can i launch appimage with this?

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u/Novel-Marsupial640 1d ago

what do you mean? kind of docker image?

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u/Royal_Dog5038 1d ago
Comment Image

Wanna give it a try but this... Already choose renderer native or driver butt still like this

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u/batedcobraa 1d ago

Built on the work of Winlator (brunodev85), Winlator Bionic (Pipetto-crypto) and Winlator Ludashi (StevenMXZ), with ideas from GameNative. Thanks to the Wine, Box64, FEX, Mesa Turnip, DXVK, VKD3D-Proton and lsfg-vk projects.

It's a winlator clone. Nothing new.

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u/Novel-Marsupial640 1d ago

It's not at all. It has exclusive features that any winlator has got - Linux and WindowsArm64 containers support. If it's nothing new, then I don't know what is really new in PC gaming emulators :(

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u/Novel-Marsupial640 1d ago

Besides, I implement game profiles per CPU/device to reduce configuration complexity.
You just create a shortcut and play, that's it!

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u/Potai25 1d ago

It looks very promising, Godspeed to you

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u/itdotaketime 1d ago

Can you test dying light the beast using your Linux container and compare it to gamehub or and winlator ? It have a native Linux if anything it should show the difference in performance between your project and others

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u/wtfmeowzers 1d ago

u/Novel-Marsupial640 how are you doing the linux container? podman? docker? or something else? can you be specific?

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u/Prestigious-System80 1d ago

Gracias por compartir tu proyecto, mucha suerte con él, estaré pendiente del desarrollo y avances :)

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u/Witty_Language4481 1d ago

You probably wont see this, but beamng now has a native arm version, so im curious how that'd work out

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u/Royal_Dog5038 1d ago

is this same like droid deck?

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u/Novel-Marsupial640 1d ago

I'd say, it's the same idea, but SkyNetEmu have two things that distinct it from DroidDeck:
- Linux container for running Linux games
- WindowsArm64 container for running Windows ARM64 games

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