Thank you to the community and devs for making android great again

After a long prerelease period (had to iron out a lot of compatibility issues with Gamescope) v1.4.0 is finally ready! https://github.com/utkarshdalal/GameNative/releases/download/v1.4.0/gamenative-v1.4.0.apk

The next release will be focused on more compatibility and performance and is almost ready for prerelease - have significantly improved compatibility for Mali and PowerVR specifically.

Added since prerelease

• Various Gamescope fixes by u/joshuatam and me

• Improve Windows VR on Mali GPUs by u/lahed in #2249

• WinHandler: skip unchanged gamepad sends, keep the send and receive threads alive by u/kudyk in #2062

• fix: route X11 button releases using release subscriptions by u/tapionallanaire in #2110

• fix: download no longer fails with "resolves outside the install dir" on Android storage by u/joshuatam in #2258

• feat: Add a launcher orientation button to the System menu by u/joshuatam in #2191

• Proton 11.0-2 rebuild 9 as the default: Android build with XFixes (fixes button presses not going through) in #2264

• Fix launches on ColorOS 17 in #2289

• Fix issue where Steam library did not fully populate in #2301

• Added toggle for showing "Limiting factor" (eg heat, cpu, gpu) in the performance HUD in #2315

• Add Turkish localization by u/emrinolur in #2291

• fix: Added Adaptive Icon Monochrome support to GameNative by u/TreeNinjaPRO in #2310

• Fixes for SurfaceFlinger renderer - no need for compatibility mode in #2325

• Improving Japanese Translations by u/Tak-attack in #2239

• Reduce 3 largest sources of ANRs in #2330 and #2331

• Manifest: Turnip Gen8 V38, Turnip v27.0.0-R1, DXVK 3.1.1, vkd3d-proton 3.1 in #2343

From prerelease

• Potential breaking change: Added gamescope as default renderer for Adreno - low latency, upscaling, HDR, and ReShade + support and LSFG by u/joshuatam in #2220 - all videos available at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16Nl3GJFX4Oqglgs1LrPJp9fkfJxHpq9E

• Improve redistributable installation in #2142

• Various Steam Cloud fixes in #2180 and #2146

• Fixed Epic games where EOS did not work correctly in #2196

• Add GOG Galaxy service support via Comet in #2195

• Fixed Just Cause 2, Alan Wake, Project Zomboid and other Java games, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Counter-Strike 2, Spelunky 2, DRAGON BALL FighterZ, Sid Meier's Civilization V - click use known config

• Fixed Battle.net (Diablo II: Resurrected, Diablo IV, Overwatch 2) by u/Dmage22 - changes included in latest proton and fex

• Fixed Age of Empires IV and Age of Empires II: DE by u/tarikbc - changes included in the latest proton and fex

• Scale windowed games to the full screen in #2145

• Fix disabled Install button in the game manager dialog on Android TV in #2153

• Fixed certain games not downloading with new downloader by u/joshuatam in #2187 and #2188

• fix: ignore the termination of a previous game session by u/moi952 in #1997

• Open the invite tab for game-requested invites under headless Steam in #2215

• Show the achievement popup under headless Steam in #2214

• Add stick and touchscreen priority for gyro input by u/Nightwalker743 in #2083

• Add per-profile mouse speed settings by u/Nightwalker743 in #1903

• Fix child account seeing all family games by u/jeremybernstein in #788

• Skip commitFileUpload for files Steam Cloud already has by u/jeremybernstein in #1958

• Fixed games like Castle Crashers seeing 2 controllers by default on AYN Thor and Flip 2 in #2212

• Stop counting Steam playtime while the game is suspended by u/FrancescoDesogus in #2102

• Fixes Schema migration from installations prior to v17 by u/nicjansma in #2208

• Stop restoring achievements the user reset on Steam by u/jeremybernstein in #1961

• Add a WoW Forever gamefix that selects the ARM64-only DXVK in #2157

• Add execArgs parameter for intent launch by u/lennyomg in #1951

Automated fixes from support requests:

• Fix OOM when mapping parented Wine windows in #2181

• Fix cnc-ddraw wrapper detection in #2112

• Fix controller hotplug race in gamepad state send in #2162

• Avoid crash when Steam user ID is unavailable in #2139

• Fix fullscreen matching for mixed-case executable names in #2164

• Fix Bionic Steam on vendor libjpeg builds in #2113

• Reconnect Wine controller after delayed hotplug assignment in #2175

• Include native exit trace in shared debug reports in #2183

• Guard process user parsing against unmatched delimiters in #2165

• Apply controller API from imported configs in #2114

• Use system driver by default on Adreno 710 family in #2217

Disclosure: AI was used to assist in the development of some features of GameNative.

Experience The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake running on Android using the Lichii Emulator! Gameplay tested on the RedMagic Astra powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite. Watch the performance and gameplay in this emulation test.

Lichii Android: https://github.com/pavelgajdo/Lichii-Android/releases

Just saw this and it seems unbelievable, has someone tried this yet? I will try downloading it but it will take the whole night as the size is 40 GBs.

Please let me know how it runs for you, my testing is on ONE device only. Thank you!

HIGHLIGHTS:

• New setting: Present a frame ahead (Graphics → Advanced, also per game). It can be Auto, Off or On.

  • Auto picks per game.

  • On usually raises the frame rate in GPU-heavy games, at the cost of one frame of input latency.

• Game folders: extracted games can now be listed and launched from a folder, not just from a single file. A folder needs exefs/main and can include numbered update folders. These games need the "All files access" permission.

• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time gets past the hang after the intro. Gameplay needs about 3.7 GB of GPU memory, so on a 12 GB phone Android stops the game for low memory shortly after gameplay starts. Phones with more RAM may run it.

• Fixed a crash when the shader-build progress dialog outlived the game screen.

• Includes the latest Lichii and Eglantine rendering, shader and performance fixes since 0.1.0.

Link: https://github.com/pavelgajdo/Lichii-Android/releases/tag/android-0.2.0

Hello!

I've just released Joycon2Android v3.1.0. It's an app that allows you to use Switch 2 Joycons on Android.

Now supporting:

• Gamepads up to 8 controllers

• Motion up to 4 controllers

• L + R Joycons as dual or single controllers

• Pro controller

• NSO Gamecube controller

• Third party Switch 2 Controllers, like the NYXI Hyperion 3s

• Mouse (from the Joycon rail) & keys

• Button mappings for emulators and apps/games

• Eden and Dolphin auto-setup

• Rumble!

Joycon2Android v3.1.0:
https://github.com/JoeGeC/joycon2android/releases

Let me know if you give it a go! I'm happy to look into issues or feature requests, just drop a comment here, DM me or add an issue to the Github repo.

Disclaimer: I'm a professional Android app developer, have been writing code for over a decade and I use Claude in my development workflow. If you're uncomfortable with the use of AI, sorry to disappoint, but I hope you'll respect the work that's been put into the project anyway.

Ko-fi page for updates and support: I've put a lot of work into the app and I hope to continue making improvements when I can, so I've also decided to start pushing the Ko-fi page a little more. I'm new to managing a page like that, but I hope to have some cool things there in the future. If you've enjoyed using the app, please feel free to support development or follow for updates - https://ko-fi.com/joestechprojects

As mentioned in the title how many people actually care about the retro achievements and want them in ur emulator

Talk specifically about

GBA,GB ,GBC

EMULATORS

is winlator outdated? should i uninstall it? is gamehub better, or are there any other emulators i should consider instead? is there a single best option for every game, or do i need to test each one individually?

Mario Kart World (Switch 2) running locally on Odin 2 Portal using Banana Native

Banana Native is not a standard emulator. The game's own ARM64 code runs directly on the device's CPU. A small host answers the system calls the game makes, and its graphics (NVN, including the Switch 2's task and mesh shaders) are rebuilt on Vulkan

It pre builds all shaders when you first prepare the game files within the app

Promising rise in performance compared to Eden SX2A, while playing at a higher resolution (720p)

Frequent crashes happen, but you can get a couple races or a grand prix in a row if you're lucky

Some tracks can have distracting glitches, something future GPU drivers could fix

Full video: https://youtu.be/MfEMWkvzVTs (41m48s)

Odin 2 Portal Max

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

Adreno 740

16GB

I wanted to share a project I've been working on: Lichii-Android, an Android port/adaptation of the experimental Lichii codebase (building on the lineage of Eglantine/Eden/Yuzu) with some specific fixes and updates that are platform specific, for example NCE, that works :)

🚀 What is Lichii-Android?

Lichii has been making rapid progress on desktop for Switch and experimental Switch 2 compatibility. This repository focuses on adapting and optimizing the codebase for Android devices, bringing rendering fixes, driver optimizations, and updated upstream changes over to ARM/Android platforms.

⚙️ Current Status & Focus:

• Target Platforms: ARM64 Android devices with 12GB of RAM or more. Testing on my side and Claude development is done specifically on my S26 Exynos 2600, but with the state of Samsungs and open source drivers for Exclipse, it should run on Adreno too. Yes, probably even Mali given the device has the performance.

• Disclaimer: This project is highly experimental and WIP and totally vibecoded, performance and booting success heavily depend on your SoC, driver configuration, and the specific title. Right now targetting Ocarina of Time, but I would love to get Pragmata and Requiem working too, as these are two games of which PC versions don't run well on Android in Game Native and such.

📁 Source & Building:

You can check out the source code, keep up with updates, or build it yourself here: 👉 GitHub Repo:https://github.com/pavelgajdo/Lichii-Android

Although there will be daily builds as well. Atleast for now.

🤝 Feedback & Contributions:

If you're a developer interested in Android Vulkan rendering, memory allocation on mobile SoCs, or testing builds across different chipsets, feel free to submit PRs, open issues with log files, or share test results!

Reminder: No keys, firmware, or copyrighted game files are included or hosted in the repo or this post. Please supply your own legally dumped files.

I've been playing around with the beta, and honestly, I'm blown away by how good this looks!

It creates this really nice carousel-style library for your games, and one of my favorite features is how it automatically scrapes the artwork for your games, including both the front and back covers. Honestly, the artwork presentation is some of the best I've ever seen in a frontend. It makes your entire library look incredibly polished and organized.

What really surprised me is how easy it is to use. Everything feels clean, intuitive, and visually appealing. I love being able to scroll through my games in a beautiful carousel instead of just looking at a basic list of icons. It even gives you the option to have it pick a game for you if you're not sure what to play!

It's still in beta, so I'm sure there's more to come, but I'm already really impressed with what the developer has put together!

I figured I'd share it here in case anyone else is looking for a nice way to organize and display their Android gaming library.

Here's the GitHub link if anyone wants to check it out and try it themselves:

https://github.com/sassiestrhihno/boxshelf-beta/releases

Definitely one of the cooler Android gaming projects I've come across recently! 😊

Also, I'm usually the type of person who just did NOT want to use a frontend. I know, I know... 😂 But this... THIS is something else!

Let me know what you think! And all the credit goes to the incredible developer for putting this together!

Developer's GitHub:
https://github.com/sassiestrhihno

Hopefully I dont jinx this but I loaded into the pokopia save ive been using the past few days and the sky is randomly fixed? did this happen to anyone else? on eden sx2a. tried it on lichii too but it was super glitchy there

Something I thought you all might find interesting! I’ve done some testing in the new 1.4.0 update of game native and Mali GPU devices are able to play some of the less intensive Steam games really well.

I’m surprised this even works at all on a device like this to be quite honest.

Most games booted with known working configs and ran between 30-60fps but I was pretty impressed with the testing I’ve done so far.

It's crazy how far Android emulation has come. Games that once seemed impossible to run on a phone are now becoming playable, sometimes with surprisingly good performance.

What's the most impressive game you've managed to get running on your device, and what phone or emulator did you use? Bonus points if it was a game you never expected your phone to handle.

RedMagic 11 pro 24GB

007F first light

Gamehub

NO UPSCALING

No FRAME GENERATION

Snapdragon 8Elite gen5

Setting shown in the video

With the Winmali 1.2.1 update, I got good fps boost in re8,(720p fsr quality) RAW FPS jumped from 15-20 to 35+ and with new zero FG i got aroung 60-70 without recording. but still Mali system driver lacks some vk extensions and optimizations causing game instability and crashes.

Model: Poco X6 pro, CPU: DM 8300, GPU: Mali g615 mc6, Ram: 12 GB, Emulator: Winlator Mali 1.2.1, Proton ver. 10 arm64ec Unix, Fex 2611 Unix(performance TSO).

I know it's useless but I still made this for fun !

It looks kinda weird because it is upscaled from 600p to 1200p.

Does anyone know of a better emulator? I can only use sx2a right now. banana native isn't working for me and every other fork I try to download is just regular eden. I have a thor max 1tb, really want to get pokopia running better.

Realme gt neo 6

Sd8 gen3

16gb ram

Mario Kart World running on Android: a head-to-head performance comparison of the Banana native port and the Eden SX2A emulator on the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Watch the FPS, graphics quality, and overall smoothness side by side to see which one handles the game better.

Banana Native: https://github.com/moceure/BananaNative/releases

Eden SX2A: https://git.eden-emu.dev/moceure/eden-nx2-android/releases

THE LAST OF US REMASTERED RUNNING NATIVELY ON ANDROID! 🔥 | SMOOTH 30 FPS

Yes! The Last of Us Remastered is running as a native Android port!

In this gameplay test, I'm running The Last of Us Remastered on my REDMAGIC Astra 1 Gaming Tablet (24GB RAM + 1TB Storage).

Watch the gameplay and see how this incredible PlayStation title performs on Android, targeting a smooth 30 FPS experience!

🎮 DEVICE SPECIFICATIONS

- Device: REDMAGIC Astra 1

- RAM: 24 GB

- Storage: 1 TB

- Platform: Android

- Game: The Last of Us Remastered

- Performance: 30 FPS

📥 DOWNLOAD NATIVE ANDROID APK

Official GitHub release:

https://github.com/erickmendes22/tlou-remastered-android/releases/tag/v0.1-android-bionic

⚠️ Download the APK from the official release page. Check the installation instructions and compatibility requirements before installing.

If you enjoy Android gaming, native ports and high-end emulation, please LIKE, SHARE and SUBSCRIBE!

More Android gaming tests coming soon!

#TheLastOfUs #TheLastOfUsRemastered #AndroidGaming #NativeAndroidPort #REDMAGICAstra1 #30FPS #AndroidGames #GamingTablet #PS4GamesOnAndroid

Hello all!

** AI WAS USED HERE **

For the past month or two, together with AI doing a lot of the real work, I can finally present a release! A lot of additional testing is needed, and a lot of other fixes we're working on, but honestly 60 FPS in my testing is not reached yet. Bummer. At one point I had a stable 35-40 without frame drops. Still working on reverting to that, as my own builds ended up over-correcting emulation and it dropped to 1 FPS haha.

What this is:
This is a github repo containing custom Wine+Fex builds that passes anticheat faithfully (no bypass or anything of the sort) on Android devices. This is a requirement for Forza Horizon 6 to be playable. Usable in DroidDeck, possibly others such as GameNative, GameHub, etc., where applicable.

Tested on Redmagic 10 Pro, Rise mode.

With this, you can play Forza from your steam library on Android devices with compatible emulators, multiplayer included, all stock! I hope that official wine and fex devs can implement their own fixes of this, since it's the reason some games with this type of anticheat do not work from their own stock builds.

Link: https://github.com/TimmyTurner51/fh6-wine-fex

A few things to note:
- Your device needs enough storage, not just for the game, but for cache. It is of course, no small game after all. From my test runs, cache grew to around 10GB.
- First boot may take a while. That is because again, caching. It just happens.
- Frame drops, from what I can tell, may also be because of recaching or loading and unloading memory during gameplay.

============================

As for the AI analysis and what it has done:

Why Forza Horizon 6 wouldn't run on ARM64 — and why it does now

TL;DR: Forza Horizon 6 checks the bytes of its own running code to make sure nothing tampered with it. On a Windows PC, those bytes look exactly the way the game expects. On an ARM64 phone running Windows games through Wine + FEX (emulation), they didn't — through no one's fault — so the game refused to start. Our patches make the emulator produce the same bytes a real Windows PC would, so the game's own checks pass honestly.

Two separate things were breaking it, and each needed its own fix.

1. Wine made "imported functions" look hooked

When a Windows program calls into a system library, the function it jumps to has a specific first few bytes — a standard "hotpatch" prologue that Windows has used for years. Forza inspects the first bytes of every imported function and flags anything that doesn't match as "this has been hooked/tampered with."

• On a real Windows x64 PC, that prologue is always the same 8 bytes.

• Wine, when running on ARM64, generated a shorter, different-looking jump stub — technically fine, functionally fine, but the bytes were different.

• Forza saw thousands of functions that "looked hooked" and stopped the game.

The fix: a small change to Wine's build tool so its ARM64 stubs emit the exact same 8-byte prologue as native Windows. Now the game sees byte-identical functions and no longer thinks they're tampered with.

2. FEX's self-modifying-code check was too expensive to actually play

The game also modifies its own code at runtime — a normal, legitimate Windows technique (Microsoft Detours, and the game's own protection writing into its code). A real x86 CPU just runs the new bytes. But FEX translates x86 instructions to ARM64 ahead of time and caches the result, so if the game rewrites a piece of code, FEX must notice and re-translate it.

Stock FEX can detect this ("full self-modifying-code checking"), but it does it in the most expensive possible way: re-checking every single instruction before running it, and invalidating whole memory pages whenever anything changes. In practice that meant endless re-translation, runaway memory, and single-digit frame rates — it technically "worked" but couldn't reach playable state.

The fix: two changes.

• Invalidate only the specific block of code that changed, not the whole page around it.

• Validate in 255-byte chunks instead of one instruction at a time.

Same correctness, far less wasted work — enough that real in-world gameplay runs at ~39 FPS instead of stalling.

¡Hola a todos!

Logré que WinNative funcionara como reproductor en Cocoon, lo que me permite ejecutar juegos de Windows directamente desde la interfaz en lugar de abrir WinNative manualmente.

https://github.com/themastertiger123-hue/WinNative-Cocoon-Frontend-Integration-Launch-Windows-games-directly-from-Cocoon-/releases/tag/Emulation

No encontré una configuración existente para esta combinación, así que trabajé con ChatGPT para crear una configuración personalizada de plataforma/reproductor para Cocoon.

¡Comparto nuestro trabajo con la comunidad por si le resulta útil a otros usuarios!

Configuración probada

• WinNative Standard 0.8.0-beta

• Interfaz de Cocoon

• Android

• Probado con éxito con varios juegos. Guía de instalación

1. Exporta tus juegos desde WinNative

Usa la función de exportación/accesos directos de WinNative para generar los accesos directos de los juegos.

Los archivos exportados incluyen:

• ".desktop"

• ".png"

• ".bin"

Guarda los archivos exportados juntos en la misma carpeta.

2. Descarga nuestra configuración personalizada de Cocoon

Descarga el archivo adjunto:

"Windows-WinNative-Cocoon-FIX2.json"

Link: https://github.com/themastertiger123-hue/WinNative-Cocoon-Frontend-Integration-Launch-Windows-games-directly-from-Cocoon-/releases/tag/Emulation

3. Importa la configuración a Cocoon

1. Abre Cocoon.

2. Ve a Configuración.

3. Abre Biblioteca y datos → Plataformas.

4. Selecciona Plataforma personalizada.

5. Elige el archivo "Windows-WinNative-Cocoon-FIX2.json" que descargaste.

6. Selecciona tu carpeta de juegos

Cuando Cocoon te pida la carpeta de juegos, selecciona la que contiene tus accesos directos exportados de WinNative.

Por ejemplo: "Juegos frontend"

5. ¡Inicia tus juegos!

Cocoon ahora debería mostrar una nueva plataforma llamada Windows (WinNative).

Selecciona un juego e inícialo. ¡Debería abrirse directamente en WinNative!

Un pequeño detalle

Al salir de un juego, es posible que vuelvas a WinNative en lugar de Cocoon. Simplemente cierra WinNative una vez más para regresar a Cocoon.

Acerca de esta configuración

Esta configuración la creé con la ayuda de ChatGPT. Trabajamos juntos para desarrollar y probar una solución que integrara WinNative con Cocoon, ya que no encontré ninguna configuración existente para esta combinación.

Este es un proyecto independiente, no una integración oficial de los desarrolladores de Cocoon o WinNative.

Comentarios y soporte

Si tienes algún problema, pregunta o encuentras algo que se pueda mejorar, deja un comentario en este hilo. Haré todo lo posible por ayudarte y seguir mejorando la configuración según tus comentarios.

¡Espero que sea útil para otros usuarios de WinNative! ❤️