Xbox 360 emulators
Developer | Microsoft |
---|---|
Type | Home video game console |
Generation | Seventh generation |
Release date | 2005 |
Discontinued | 2016 |
Predecessor | Xbox |
Successor | Xbox One |
Emulated | ~ |
- For other emulators that run on Xbox 360 hardware, see Emulators on Xbox 360.
The Xbox 360 is a seventh-generation console released by Microsoft on November 22, 2005, and retailed for $399. It had a triple-core PowerPC Xenon CPU that ran at 3.2 GHz with 512 MBs of RAM and an ATI Xenos GPU. The console's life saw the option of a motion-sensing camera called the Kinect.
The Xbox 360 had a relatively strong modding scene (although compared to the Xbox it was hindered by the need to physically modify the console) and homebrew documentation of the console's GPU, file format, and various other APIs was performed early. Due to the complexity of the system and PCs of the time lacking the needed performance, emulation was slow to develop for this console compared to previous generations, with Xenia being the only serious option since 2013 and developing steadily since then.
Contents
Emulators
Name | Platform(s) | Latest Version | Hardware features and peripherals |
Enhancements | Compatibility | FLOSS | Active | Recommended |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PC / x86 | ||||||||
Xenia | v1.0.2817 canary |
~ | ~ | 18% 303 out of 1628 tested titles[1] |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Mobile / ARM | ||||||||
Xenia | N/A | ? | ? | N/A | ? | ~* | ✗ | |
Consoles | ||||||||
Fission | Patch based | ~ | ~ | 29% 633 out of 2155 titles |
✗ | ✗ | ✓ | |
Xenia | 1.1.4 | ~ | ~ | 18% 303 out of 1628 tested titles[1] |
✓ | ✓ | ~ |
Comparisons
- Xenia
- Xenia is the leading Xbox 360 emulator that's made it the furthest. While it isn't nearly as compatible as RPCS3 is for PlayStation 3, impressive performance outshines RPCS3: which has reasonably higher CPU demands due to extremely challenging SPU emulation. This is partly because Xenia utilizes more High-Level Emulation (HLE) for the CPU, while relying heavily on Low-Level Emulation (LLE) for the GPU[2]. Because of this HLE and LLE approach: it's optimizes CPU work for host, and making Xenia more reliant on GPU performance. Xenia supports various enhancements and some of the hardware features. For emulation on Linux: see this page.
- Fission
- The official emulator on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S consoles. There is no "Xbox Live Indie Game & XBLIG" support. Load times are faster, but emulation suffers from input lag due to forced v-sync. Beyond this, Fission supports some of the hardware features.
- Xbox One X and Xbox Series X further improve on the emulation with enhancements like better framerate, texture filtering, higher resolution and auto HDR in some games. Note that an Internet connection is required to download each game on its first run.
- However with November 2021 update Microsoft ends the program and said: "This latest and final addition of 70+ titles to the backwards compatibility program was only possible through the passion and feedback from the community," Microsoft said. "Your constant requests for specific titles and enhancements encouraged the Backwards Compatibility team to partner with the original creators to preserve thousands of games from over four generations of Xbox. While we continue to stay focused on preserving and enhancing the art form of games, we have reached the limit of our ability to bring new games to the catalog from the past due to licensing, legal and technical constraints. Thank you for being part of this journey with us."[3]
Hardware features and peripherals
Name | xenia | Fission | |
---|---|---|---|
Xbox 360 system software | Dashboard and apps | ✗ | ~ |
TrueSkill | ✗ | ? | |
Achievements | ~* | ✓ | |
Xbox Live | ~ | ✓ | |
System Link | ✗* | ✓[N2 1] | |
DVD Drive | ✗ | ~ | |
Xbox Emulation (Fusion) | ✗* | ~* | |
Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) | ✓ | ✓* | |
Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG) | ✗ | ✗ | |
Peripherals | |||
Kinect | ✗ | ✗[N2 2] | |
HD-DVD Player | ✗ | ~ | |
Xbox 360 Memory Card | ✗ | ✗* | |
Portal | Skylanders Portal | ✗ | TBD |
LEGO Dimensions Toy Pad | ✗ | TBD | |
Disney Infinity Base | ✗ | TBD | |
Rock Band 3 MIDI Pro Adapter | ✗ | TBD | |
Microphone | ✗ | ✗[N2 2] | |
Drums and Guitars | ✗ | ✗[N2 2] | |
Big Button Pad | ✗ | TBD | |
LightGun | Top Shot Elite | ✗ | TBD |
Top Shot Fearmaster | ✗ | TBD | |
uDraw GameTablet | ~* | ✗* |
- ↑ Xbox 360 System Link compatible games for Xbox One
Xbox 360 System Link compatible games for Xbox Series S/X - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Games like the original Guitar Hero and Rock Band series won't work as they require proprietary accessories that aren't compatible, nor do any that require the original Kinect motion camera. Even if you have an Xbox One Kinect still, it is not compatible with previous Xbox 360 Kinect games using Fission.
Dashboard and apps
The Dashboard is a graphical user interface developed for Xbox 360. You can launch various applications from this interface as well. Also supports media streaming (music, photos and videos) with PC using Windows XP MCE with Xbox 360's built-in version 2 Media Center Extender functionality and app. This functionality shouldn't be confused with other standalone Windows Media Center Extender devices or original Xbox Media Center Extender version 1 add-on.
- xenia has no support for dashboard emulation at the moment, though there are several old builds partially supports various dashboard revisions. But keep in mind that you can emulate various Kiosk discs for Xbox 360 such as: "Xbox 360 Retail Kiosk Disk 1.0" for "Blade" interface. Another alternative for this using compilation discs such as: "Xbox Live Arcade" for "Blade" interface and "Xbox Live Arcade Game Pack" for "New Xbox Experience" interface, however all of these discs are partially compatible with latest xenia builds so do not expect perfect experience. Recently xenia-canary developer Gliniak share a video about custom build of xenia-canary he working on for dashboard emulation and further said: "This presents some of functionalities that might be available in Xenia in the future. It's still not perfect, not even close of being fully stable and reliable, but I'm working on it". For more information see xenia discord.
- Fission only supports Xbox 360's Xbox Guide dash menu, Friends/Party and Notifications, other than that, there is no Dashboard interface emulation whatsoever. Some of the Xbox 360 apps supported (Xbox One and Series X/S apps] on the newer consoles though.
TrueSkill
- Xenia do not support TrueSkill at the moment but Heungsub Lee's TrueSkill might implemented to xenia-canary for stats in the not so distant future.
- Fission do not support this feature? Microsoft published the algorithm and have discontinued it's use in the Xbox One. Microsoft is using a new system for the Xbox One.
Achievements
Xenia-canary latest builds support Xbox 360 achievements but only partially; because there is no support for achievement progress, only achievement unlock notifications works. Demonstration
For activating notifications for achievements and using sound and custom font you need to change settings from "xenia-canary.config.toml";
- [UI]
- show_achievement_notification = true
- custom_font_path = "C:\\Users\\USERNAME\\AppData\\Local\\xenia-canary\\YOURFONTNAME.tff"
- [General]
- notification_sound_path = "C:\\Users\\USERNAME\\AppData\\Local\\xenia-canary\\YOURSOUNDFILENAME.wav"
Xbox Live
The "Xenia WebServices" project, currently under development, simulates Xbox Live functionality for online multiplayer games. You need to use "xenia-canary-netplay" fork to connect and play. See ongoing development for "xenia-canary-netplay" fork on xenia-netplay discord channel.
- See this page for the "xenia-canary-netplay" compatibility list. See this page for active online users and sessions on Xenia WebServices.
- See Preservation projects page for more information about revive projects.
DVD Drive
- xenia has no support for DVD-Video or Xbox 360 format DVD-ROM/XGD3.
- Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles (Fission) have support for DVD-Video, but there is no real support for Xbox 360 format DVD-ROM/XGD3, because it's only recognising the disc, after that it's downloading/installing the game from Xbox Live not from the disc itself.
Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG)
- xenia emulator has no support for XBLIG and unlikely to be feasible in the near future.
- Fission has no support for XBLIG.
Peripherals
Kinect
The Kinect was Microsoft's version of the EyeToy, a camera that also doubled as a motion tracker and microphone capable of detecting gestures and voices in order to play games without a controller. This was in contrast to the Wii with its Wiimote and the PS3 with its PlayStation Move. Despite getting native support on Windows, users have made open-source drivers for it.
Xenia does not currently have any support for the Kinect [4], with development on the feature unlikely to occur in the foreseeable future. [5] [6]
HD-DVD Player
- Xenia has no HD-DVD support at the moment and as mentioned in the DVD Drive section there is no support for DVD-Video either.
- Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles has no support for HD-DVD. Although as mentioned in the DVD Drive section: DVD-Video is supported.
- See this dedicated page for more information about home media playback support for emulation softwares.
Enhancements
Name | xenia | Fission | |
---|---|---|---|
Graphics | Resizable Internal Resolution | ✓ | ✓ |
Ultrawide hack Widescreen already supported on Xbox 360 system. But there is no support by system for render games in other ratios such as ultrawide 21:9 and 32:9. |
✓ | ✗[N2 1] | |
Texture Replacement | ✗* | ✗ | |
Ray-tracing | Implementing ray-tracing in an emulator is unfortunately quite challenging and unlikely to be feasible in the near future. However you can try "Screen-Space Ray Traced Global Illumination" shader using ReShade. Demonstration | ||
Pre-rendering AA (MSAA, SSAA) |
✗[N2 2] | ? | |
Super-resolution techniques (DLSS, XeSS and FSR 2+) |
Requires access to the depth buffer and temporal data like motion-vectors so it's quite challenging and unlikely to be feasible in the near future. | ||
Performance | Internal Framerate Hack | ✓ | ✓ |
Frame generation techniques (DLSS-G, ExtraSS and FMF) |
Implementing frame generation technique in an emulator is unfortunately quite challenging and unlikely to be feasible in the near future. Input latency will be the most important factor when it comes to frame generation. | ||
Overclock | ✗ | ✗ | |
Preload optical disc image to RAM For users with sluggish multi-platter HDDs or plagued by horrible seek times, this enhancement might offer smoother experience, potentially reduced power consumption; it also shines when disc images reside on a network drive. Although keep in mind that preloading image would take some time, and it will require additional amount of RAM capacity. |
✗ | ✗ | |
Post-Processing | Post-rendering AA (FXAA, TXAA and MLAA/SMAA) |
✓* | ? |
Post-rendering scaling (Sharp bilinear, Lanczos and FSR 1) |
✓* | ✓[N2 3] | |
Filters | ✗ | ✗ | |
Shader Chain | ✗ | ✗ | |
TAS features | Macros/Scripts/Lua | ✗ | ✗ |
Rewind | ✗ | ✗ | |
Fast-Forward/Turbo Speed | ✗ | ✗ | |
Savestates/Snapshots | ✗ | ✗ | |
Movie recording/playback | ✗ | ✗ | |
Controls | Mouse Injector Compatible | ✓* | ✗ |
Input lag-mitigating technique | ✗ | ✗ | |
Quality of life | Streamable compression format | ✓ | ✗ |
Built-in Graphics mod editor/manager | ✗ | ✗ | |
Built-in Cheat Manager | ✗ | ✗ | |
Per-Game Profiles | ? | ? | |
Command Line Options | ✓ | ? | |
Built-in Custom resolution/CRTSwitchRes For using this on Windows OS you need CRT Emudriver. Another option is using EDID editor tool such as "Custom Resolution Utility". |
✗ | ✗ | |
Misc | RetroAchievements | ✗* | ✗ |
Free Look Free Look is a enhancement feature that allows manipulation of the in-game camera. |
While freecam would be technically possible, it will require per-game patches. Said patches would require a significant amount of time to reverse the game's engine, which means that only someone talented with enough dedication to a single game could do it. | ||
Debug features | ~[N2 4] | ✗ |
- ↑ Only supports official 16:9 widescreen supported titles, no support for 21:9 or 32:9 ultrawide enhancements.
- ↑ This enhancement feature shouldn't be confused with Xbox 360's native 2x/4x MSAA.
- ↑ It uses bilinear filtering resulting blurrier image.
- ↑ Xenia has debugger but there is no documentation, and it is very difficult to understand how it works. However there is a work-in-progress quick guide section for debugging.
Emulation issues
[Xenos] was a playground for experiments — it was developed near the end of the Direct3D 9 era, but still before Direct3D 10, and contained many features not standardized or even available at all on the PC, but when they ended up on the PC, the actual implementation could be significantly different; it also included completely unique features. [...] Contrary to a common misconception, the Xbox 360 [isn't] just a “DirectX 9 box”. It essentially contains a [tile-inspired] mobile-like GPU with much more raw power than a comparable mobile GPU. If you compare the registers of the Xenos and the Qualcomm Adreno 200, you can see that most of them are the same, as they are almost the same GPUs — the Adreno 200 was called the AMD Z430 before having been acquired by Qualcomm and was even referred to as the "mini-Xenos"!"
-Triang3l[7]
Due to requiring a large number of resources (see Dolphin and PCSX2 for specifications for their respective consoles), as well as the hardware not being properly documented yet[8], Xbox 360 emulation currently isn't at a point where people can reliably emulate most of the game library. However, Xenia is making slowly but surely progress on that front. That, plus the fact that Microsoft has implemented their own official emulation (Fission) of the system through the Xbox One and Series S/X, however with November 2021 update Microsoft ends the program.
For more information about Xbox 360 system and reverse engineering;
- Rodrigo Copetti: Xbox 360 Architecture Analysis
- Xenon Wiki
- emoose: xbox-reversing - Information & parsers for some under-documented Xbox360 structures/file formats (STFS/GDFX/XDBF/XEX...)
- rexdex: recompiler and references list
- Xenia Discord server (For general and development discussions on Xbox 360 emulation, especially for xenia and xenia-canary)
- Mesa gallium R300~R500
- MVG: Xbox 360 Emulation on the PC with Xenia takes a huge step forward, Why Microsoft switched from Intel to Power PC for the Xbox 360, The Story of Xbox 360 PartnerNet Game Leaks, How a Mini drill tool defeated security on the Xbox 360, How the Xbox 360 Hypervisor Security was Defeated, Why YOU need a Modded Xbox 360 in 2018, The Xbox 360 is still awesome in 2019
- Feature tracker: Vulkan-based GPU emulation implementation. Also see this discord conversation if you're interested Vulkan backend for Xenia.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Xenia GitHub repository issue page filtered by "state-playable", "state-gameplay", broken games, require XBOX Live Account Sign-in, "state-nothing".
- ↑ Rick's xenia discord message about LLE and HLE
- ↑ https://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-backwards-compatibility-adds-70-more-games-today-as-microsoft-ends-the-program/1100-6498021/
- ↑ Margen67 (August 20, 2021) FAQ. Xenia.
- ↑ Triang3l (November 30, 2021) Roadmap. Xenia.
- ↑ Github (October 20, 2018) Kinect Support (Issue Discussion). Xenia.
- ↑ Triang3l (April 27, 2021). Leaving No Pixel Behind: New Render Target Cache, 3x3 Resolution Scaling & Three Years in Xenia’s GPU Emulation. Xenia.
- ↑ Building an Xbox 360 Emulator