Xenia

Xenia

Xenia•Canary/Edge•XeniOS
Original developer(s)	Ben Vanik (Initial work. Retired 2016.)
Current developer(s)	DrChat (Also worked with B. Vanik), Rick Gibbed and Xenia community
Latest version	v1.0.2844 (Xenia) Rolling/Git (forks)
Platform(s)	Windows Linux macOS Xbox One Xbox Series X and Series S iOS
Emulates	Xbox 360
Website	Xenia.jp (Xenia) Xenios.jp (XeniOS)
Support ($)	Patreon Patreon (gibbed) GitHub Sponsor (gibbed) GitHub Sponsor (JoelLinn) GitHub Sponsor (Razzile)
Programmed in	C++
License	BSD-3-Clause
Source code	Xenia Xenia Canary Xenia Edge XeniOS

Xenia is an experimental, free and open-source Xbox 360 emulator for Windows, and other OSes.

Download

Main article: Xbox 360 emulators#Emulators

Overview

Xenia originally began development in early 2013 as a side project by Ben Vanik. It was the first emulator to run a commercial Xbox 360 game, Frogger 2. Up until 2018, progress continued steadily until the developers hit a roadblock in accurately emulating Xenos, the GPU of the Xbox 360.

For the next three years, an active contributor named Triang3l completely rewrote the GPU implementation with the primary goal of addressing this. Once implemented, it more than doubled performance. Triang3l also built a different, faster and more accurate memory emulation, which should lead to fewer broken vertices and textures being seen in-game.

Xenia is capable of 3x3 upscaling, but such a feature is resource-intensive and can only be accomplished with high-end GPUs at the moment.

System requirements

Main article: Computer specifications#Recommended Specifications

Features

Some of Xenia's settings and game screenshots. View picture to enlarge.

• Video Upscaling

Up to 3x, depending on the game. Accessible via the text config file.

• Post-Processing

Including Nvidia FAA and/or AMD Fidelty FX resampling.

• Controller Binding

Accessible via the text config file.

• Individual Game Patching

A feature exclusive to Canary forks and branches.

Configuration

Xenia Manager

Developer(s)	Shazzaam and contributors
Release
Latest version	4.3.2 [+]
Active	Yes
Platform(s)	Windows, Linux (via Wine/Proton)
Type	Xenia Frontend / Library Manager
Programmed in	C#
Website	xenia-manager.github.io
Support ($)	Ko-fi
License	BSD-3-Clause
Source code	GitHub
Issue tracker	GitHub

Most configuration options usually found in the GUI are instead found in the file xenia.config.toml (xenia-canary.config.toml for canary builds, xenia-canary-netplay.config.toml for canary-netplay builds). The file can be opened and edited with any text editor without having to change the file extension and can be found under the filepath "...\Users\User\Documents\Xenia" along with shader cache and per-game files when using windows (but you can make it portable if you place portable.txt in the same folder as xenia.exe, canary builds are portable by default). GPU options such as v-sync, resolution scale, and much more can be found in the xenia.config.toml file.

If you are trying to emulate Xbox Live Arcade titles, then the line "license_mask = 0" should be changed to "license_mask = 1". The demo mode and full game files for XBLA titles are actually identical, and this option allows the games to exit demo mode.

For checking if your games work and any fixes, tweaks, or settings, see compatibility list, OR; For users who prefer a graphical interface over manually editing text files, Xenia Manager is a popular, unaffiliated third-party tool. It provides a dedicated frontend to manage game libraries, automatically download Canary updates, apply game patches, and adjust configuration settings per-game without needing to manually edit the `.toml` files. Or better yet, just use Xenia Edge.

Xenia on Other Operating Systems

Linux, SteamOS, and Steam Deck

For Linux-based platforms, including SteamOS and Steam Deck, Xenia Canary and Xenia Edge provide native Linux builds. The Vulkan backend is generally recommended, as its performance and compatibility have improved significantly and are now comparable to the D3D12 backend.

For Xenia master builds (which are not recommended over Xenia Canary or Xenia Edge anymore), Linux users may use the vkd3d wrapper with the D3D12 backend as an alternative to Xenia master's older Vulkan implementation. Recent improvements to vkd3d have increased compatibility and enabled a growing number of titles to run correctly through the D3D12 backend on Linux. Users running Proton Experimental already have the vkd3d-proton wrapper included by default.

Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S (UWP)

The UWP ports of Xenia Canary and Xenia Canary Netplay are available for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles running in Developer Mode. These ports allow Xbox 360 emulation directly on Xbox hardware using the UWP platform. Compatibility and performance may differ from their desktop counterparts, and support is typically dependent on the respective port maintainers rather than the main Xenia project.

macOS and iOS

Xenia Edge provides experimental macOS builds through its release channel. Another and even better option is XeniOS, a fork of Xenia Edge focused specifically on macOS and iOS platforms. Compatibility and performance in both projects continue to improve and are generally comparable to Xenia Canary.

Android

Although Android targets are currently built in continuous integration (CI), no official Android release of Xenia is available. Existing Android CI artifacts consist primarily of compiled components and do not represent a functional emulator package suitable for end users. For additional information on Android development status, see the #dev-android channel in the Xenia Discord server.

Several unofficial Android forks based on Xenia and Xenia Canary have appeared. However, these projects are closed-source, have not been verified by the wiki, and are not officially supported by the Xenia project.

Online play

Main article: Xbox network#Xbox 360

Main article: Xbox 360 emulators#System Link

External links

• Xenia Canary game patches
• Xenia game settings repo, Xenia Manager optimized settings repo - information on optimal settings for games on Xenia.
• Official Discord Server
• r/Xenia reddit
• Informative overview on building an emulator (Xenia blog)
• A-Train HX running at 60 FPS on Xenia