Emulation General Wiki

Compatibility layers

Revision as of 23:13, 22 December 2025 by Emunix (talk | contribs)

While not strictly emulation per se (hence why Wine stands for "Wine Is Not an Emulator"), compatibility layers allow software written for one operating system to run on a different OS, often by translating system calls made by an application to their equivalent calls in the host operating system. In theory, this should allow for near-native performance since no processor emulation takes place, but in practice some software such as games will tend to run a bit slower due to other bottlenecks that occur as a result of replicating the correct behavior. Compatibility layers may also make use of wrappers, which translate a specific API to another because accounting for graphics APIs like Direct3D that aren't supported on non-Microsoft platforms. Additionally, compatibility layers may also use emulation in order to run software built for a different architecture, see High and low-level emulation page for more information about terms like "hypervisors", "simulators", "compatibility layers", "wrappers", "FPGA" and "software emulators".

Compatibility layers

Name Platform(s) Latest version Compatibility License Active Recommended Runs the following software
PC / x86
Wine         11.0
(Dev: 11.10 )
Haiku 		? LGPLv2.1 (Copyleft) ✓ ✓ Windows applications
Janus-UAE 1.4 ? LGPLv2 (Copyleft) ✗ ✓ 68k Amiga applications
Whisky   2.3.5 ? GPLv3 (Copyleft) ✗ ~ Windows applications
Proton
(included with Steam) 		  10.0-4
git 		? BSD-3-Clause
LGPLv2.1		 ✓ ✓ Windows games
TeknoParrot   TPBootstrapper
[https://teknoparrot.com/download

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] 		? Proprietary ✓ ✓ PC-based arcade games
Rosetta   N/A ? Proprietary ✗ ✓ PowerPC OS X applications[N 1]
CrossOver       [N 2] 22.1 ? Proprietary ✓ ✓ Windows applications
WOW64   N/A ? Proprietary ✓ ✓ 32-bit Windows applications
WineVDM   git
Dev 		? GPLv2 (Copyleft) ✓ ✓ 16-bit Windows applications
Sober   Flatpak ? Proprietary ✓ ✓ Roblox (Android version)
Minecraft Bedrock Launcher     v0.15.0 ? GPLv3 (Copyleft) ✓ ~ Minecraft: Bedrock Edition (Android version)
Linuxulator   Wiki
Docs 		? BSD-2-Clause (Permissive) ✓ ~ Linux applications
Android Translation Layer   git ? GPLv3 (Copyleft) ✓ ~ (WIP) Android applications
libhoudini   1, 2, 3, 4, 5
6, 7, 8, 9 		? Proprietary TBD ~ ARM Android applications
libndk*   1, 2 ? Proprietary TBD ~ ARM Android applications
Cygwin   3.6.4-1 ? GPLv2 (Copyleft) ✓ ~ Providing POSIX compliant APIs, Linux-alike shell and tools on Windows for developers.
UEngine   git ? GPLv3 (Copyleft) ✓ ✗ Android applications
Darling   git ? GPLv3 (Copyleft) ✓ ✗ (WIP) macOS applications
xDroid   11.1.51 ? Proprietary ✓ ✗ Android applications
Wineskin   1.7 ? LGPLv2.1 (Copyleft) ✗ ✗ Windows applications
WineBottler   4.0.1.1 Dev ? LGPLv2.1 (Copyleft) ✗ ✗ Windows applications
WoW   N/A ? Proprietary ✗ ✗ Windows 9x applications
Win3mu   Source ? GPLv3 (Copyleft) ✗ ✗ Windows 3.x applications
NTVDMx64   git ? ? ✓ ✗ DOS applications
Ardi Executor       2.1.17 ? MIT (Permissive) ✗ ✗ Classic Mac OS applications up to System 6
DOSEmu   1.4.0 ? GPLv2 (Copyleft) ✗ ✗ DOS applications
DOSEmu2   git ? GPLv2 (Copyleft) ✓ ✗ DOS applications
Windows Subsystem for Linux 1   Install guide ? ? ✗ ✗ Allows developers to run a Linux environment.
KMRE   2.4.6.8
2.4.8.7-0k0.9[N 3] 		? ? ~ ✗ Allows openKylin/Ubuntu Kylin to run Android applications.
Windows CE Compatibility Layer   git ? MIT (Permissive) ~ ✗ [N 4] Windows CE applications.
Boxedwine       20.1.2
git
Old repo 		? GPLv2 (Copyleft) ? TBD 16-bit and 32-bit Windows applications.
compat_linux   Docs
Manual 		? BSD-2-Clause (Permissive) ✓ TBD Linux applications
compat_linux   Manual ? BSD-4-Clause (Permissive) ✓ TBD Linux applications
nb-qemu   git
bionic 		? GPLv2 (Copyleft) ✓ TBD ARM Android applications
Berberis   git ? Apache 2.0 (Permissive) ? TBD RISC-V Android applications
Mobile / ARM
Rosetta 2   N/A ? Proprietary ✓ ✓ x86-64 macOS applications on Apple Silicon[N 5]
CrossOver   22.1 ? Proprietary ✓ ✓ Windows applications
Game Porting Toolkit   Installation guide ? Proprietary ✓ ✓ Windows games
Prism   N/A ? Proprietary ✓ ✓ x86 and x86-64 Windows applications on Windows for ARM64 [N 6]
Box86/Box64       v0.3.8 /v0.4.2 ? MIT (Permissive) ✓ ~ x86-64 Linux applications
FEX-Emu     git ? MIT (Permissive) ✓ ~ x86-64 Linux applications
Wine     Android builds
ARM support 		? LGPLv2.1 (Copyleft) ✓ ~ Windows applications
Android Translation Layer   git ? GPLv3 (Copyleft) ✓ ~ (WIP) Android applications
Winlator   11.1 ? MIT (Permissive) ✓ ~ (WIP) X86 Windows applications
MiceWine   0.5.0 ? MIT (Permissive) ✓ ~ (WIP) X86 Windows applications
GameHub(GameFusion)   3.0.5 ? Proprietary ✓ ~ (WIP) X86 Windows applications
Vita2hos   Alpha 0.3 ? GPLv2 (Copyleft) ✓ ✗ PlayStation Vita applications
Hangover     git ? LGPLv2.1 (Copyleft) ✓ ✗ Windows applications
Skyline   git See Switch page MPL 2.0 (Copyleft) ✗ ✗ Nintendo Switch games and homebrew
ExaGear-KunPeng   5.1.0 ? Proprietary ✓ ✗ x86 Linux applications into Kunpeng platform instructions in real time
KMRE   3.0.0.0-0k0.15
2.5.0.2-0k0.1tablet3[N 7] 		? ? ~ ✗ Allows openKylin/NeoKylin (with supported processors) to run Android applications.
Boxedwine     20.1.2
git
Old repo 		? GPLv2 (Copyleft) ✓ TBD 16-bit and 32-bit Windows applications.
compat_linux   Docs
Manual 		? BSD-2-Clause (Permissive) ✓ TBD Linux applications
Consoles
Nintendont     git See Gamecube page ? ✓ ✓ GameCube games
nnCompat   20.1.1 98% Proprietary ✓ ✓ Nintendo Switch games
Misc
felix86   git ? MIT (Permissive) ✓ ~ (WIP) x86-64 Linux applications on RISC-V.
LATX   1.5.3 RC1 ? Proprietary ✓ TBD x86 Linux applications into LoongArch64 instruction set.
  1. ↑ Support ended with OS X 10.7 Lion.
  2. ↑ https://support.codeweavers.com/en_US/chrome-os/
  3. ↑ 2.4.8.7 is untested-NeoKylin never announced nor shipped this with x86 releases.
  4. ↑ Currently only Solitaire and etcha.exe are known to work.
  5. ↑ AVX instruction support added in macOS 15 Sequoia.
  6. ↑ https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/prism-x86-64-emulator/
  7. ↑ 2.5.0.2 is only for some industrial tablets or similar devices with Phytium processors.

Comparisons

  • Wine is a free and open-source compatibility layer that aims to allow computer programs (application software and computer games) developed for Microsoft Windows to run on Unix-like operating systems, primarily Linux and macOS. Since late 2017 there is also an experimental build for Android. Wine is almost as old as the Linux project, starting in the summer of 1993. Today it's widely used, very popular and sponsored by companies such as CodeWeavers and Valve, and has even received some support from Microsoft themselves who donated the Mono implementation of the .NET Framework to the Wine project. The core Wine development aims at a correct implementation of the Windows API as a whole. In this regard it's similar to the MAME project in its focus on correctness over usability. There are a lot of versions/forks of Wine which focus of different goals, such as usability, compatibility, gaming, office applications, etc. A few are listed below, Wikipedia has a more complete list.
    • Proton: is Valve's one-click solution to play Windows games on Linux. It's included in the Steam Linux client by default. Simply click on a whitelisted game and it will launch without any configuration, or enable it for all games in the settings. Proton is based on a fork of Wine in combination with other components such as DXVK (which is a wrapper explained below) and FAudio.
    • CrossOver is a commercialized, supported version of Wine from CodeWeavers. It uses additional patches on top of Wine to make it easy to use. They contribute all of their work on CrossOvers back to Wine and make up about two thirds of the commits made to Wine. CrossOver is available on macOS, Linux and Chrome OS.
    • Wineskin is an open-source compatibility layer which allows users to easily convert Windows software to macOS. The ports are in the form of Mac .app bundles with a self-contained Wine instance which are wrapped around the application to be converted.
    • Winlator is an Android application that lets you to run Windows (x86_64) applications with Wine and Box86/Box64.
  • TeknoParrot is a compatibility layer for Windows PCs to run games originally made for Windows-based arcade systems. Has since version 1.51 also support for some games running on Linux.
  • Rosetta was a compatibility layer for running PowerPC apps on x86-based Macs on OS X versions prior to 1.07. Rosetta 2 is a comptibility layer on Apple silicon Macs allowing x86-64 apps to run on ARM-based Macs. Note that Rosetta 2 is not strictly limited to MacOS apps as software such as Crossover is able to call it to emulate x86 code in Windows binaries.
  • Prism is the built-in compatibility layer in Windows on ARM to run traditional x86 (also x64 in Windows 11) Windows programs.
  • Box86/Box64 lets you run x86 Linux programs (such as games) on non-x86 Linux systems, like ARM (the host system needs to be 32bit little-endian).
  • Darling is a translation layer that allows you to run unmodified macOS binaries on Linux. In its nature, it is similar to the well-known Wine project. At this point, does not yet run macOS application with a GUI.
  • Minecraft Bedrock Launcher is a compatibility layer made specifically to run the Android version of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition on Linux and macOS. It is not compatible with any other Android apps.
  • Windows Subsystem for Linux 1 is a compatibility layer and shouldn't be confused with WSL2. WSL2 introduced important changes such as a real Linux kernel, through a subset of Hyper-V features, so it's not a compatibility layer like WSL1.
  • Berberis, libhoudini, libndk and nb-qemu are Android Native Bridges used to run apps made for other architectures. libhoudini was made by Intel and Google with its most notable use being on WSA for Windows 11, libndk was made by Google to expand Android compatibility on Chromebooks, there's no official source to download them other than online reuploads or extracting them from those systems yourself.
  • KMRE is a compatibility layer and it's the official solution to run Android applications on computers with Chinese homegrown Phytium/KunPeng ARM processors and NeoKylin Linux operating system, though later also available on x86-64 on Ubuntu Kylin. KMRE is not designed with third-party applications outside its app store and in fact, force installing third-party apps breaks older versions of KMRE. It's the go-to solution if you are restricted to working with these kinds of computers due to national security reasons. See KMRE section for more information.
  • Vita2hos is an early compatibility layer for Nintendo Switch that runs PlayStation Vita applications natively. Only able to load simple test homebrews such as vita-8 as of December 2022. Appears to only be developed every once in a while.

Shims

Shim is a library that transparently intercepts API calls and changes the arguments passed, handles the operation itself or redirects the operation elsewhere. Shims can be used to support an old API in a newer environment, or a new API in an older environment. Shims can also be used for running programs on different software platforms than they were developed for. the EmulateHeap compatibility shim broke on Windows 11 22H2, and Win32 API changes in 24H2 have messed up games that rely on quirky behavior.

See also

  • Wrappers - Translate a specific API to another.
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