Xbox 360 emulators
| |
| Original model Xbox 360 (2005) | |
| Developer | Microsoft |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Flextronics, Wistron, Celestica, Foxconn |
| Type | Home video game console |
| Generation | Seventh |
| Release date | November 22, 2005 |
| Discontinued | WW: April 20, 2016 |
| Predecessor | Xbox |
| Successor | Xbox One |
| Emulated | ~ |
- For emulators that run on the Xbox 360, see Emulators on Xbox 360.
The Xbox 360 is a seventh-generation console released by Microsoft on November 22, 2005, and retailed for $399 ($658 in 2026). It had a triple-core PowerPC Xenon CPU that ran at 3.2 GHz with 512 MB of RAM and an ATI Xenos GPU at 500 MHz. 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 hindered by the need to physically modify the console compared to the Xbox) and homebrew documentation of the console's GPU, file format, and various other APIs were performed early. Due to the system's complexity and PCs of the time lacking the necessary 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.
Emulators
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 You can use this frontend (but it's Windows only. Use Wine if on Mac or Linux), which is easy 1-click download, setup and simple frontend for Xenia Canary fork including netplay and mousehook branches. Similarly to Xenia Edge, it brings numerous quality-of-life and UX improvements via the interface like override game index database (similar to other database-featured emulators), enabling quick fixes for QoL improvement for specific titles.
- ↑ The 'Playable' count reflects only those titles free of game-breaking bugs. Many other games may reach gameplay but remain hindered by crashes, softlocks, or performance-halting issues.
- ↑ Compatibility reports for the master version no longer maintained and can be considered as obsolete.
- ↑ https://x360mobile.com/#:~:text=50%25-,OF%20WHICH%20PLAYABLE,-EMULATION
Comparisons
- Xenia
- Xenia is the leading hybrid approach (utilizes very high-level emulation (HLE) approach for the CPU, while relying heavily on Low-Level Emulation (LLE) for the GPU[1][2]) Xbox 360 emulator that has made it the furthest. While it isn't nearly as compatible as RPCS3 is for PlayStation 3, impressive performance outshines RPCS3 due to RPCS3's extremely challenging SPU emulation resulting reasonably higher CPU demands. Due to its approaches and other reasons/optimizations (see high and low-level emulation#Future Outlook section), it is making Xenia more reliant on GPU performance instead of CPU (especially compared to RPCS3). But keep in mind that it still depends heavily on CPU single-thread performance due to graphics API-related calls and focusing solely average CPU utilization percentage numbers may give you false impression. So in summary: just like most other software emulators, CPUs with better single-threaded performance will give you better framerates than before (considering you're not hitting GPU bottleneck).
- aX360e is ported based on the arm64-backend branch of Xenia. It also incorporates most of the code from the Xenia Canary project, with dedicated optimizations tailored for the Android platform. Currently limited to a selection of games, actual game performance is dependent on your device's hardware capabilities, and most titles may not run at full speed.
- Canary fork compared to the master builds offer improved performance, it has experimental changes that may or may not work, but it also has more functions/tends to work better. On top of that, it has Linux builds[3] and some hardware features and enhancements are currently only available in this fork and its branches mentioned below. At this point they're separate, nothing is getting merged to master.
- Even though Xenia utilizes very high-level emulation (HLE) approach for the CPU, there was a Xenia Canary branch named "Xenia Nukernel" which tried to emulate; the six individual hardware threads on the original Xbox 360 CPU, certain kernel timing quirks (clock interrupt update every 1 millisecond, "background scheduling"), the kernel's thread scheduler, deferred procedure calls, asynchronous procedure calls (done more accurately than on Xenia, plus kernel ones are supported), much more accurate and portable emulation of synchronization primitives, supports guest objects without creating host objects for them. Nukernel was mostly focused on reimplementing parts of the kernel's threading subsystem, not io or memory, which are also messed up. Developer of this branch said that: "It really felt like starting from scratch on the kernel side, because for a long time nothing booted on it". However, this specific branch has been discontinued in 2024, but the future goal for the main Canary forks is to achieve proper thread management similar to what nukernel aimed to achieve, which is expected to help resolve many fundamental stability and timing issues. This transition is already underway, with the recent improvements of both Canary and Edge. See Virtualization and Resource Management section for more information about this approach.
- X360 Mobile; is built upon the codebase of Xenia Canary. According to devs statement: "We made the choice to keep X360 Mobile closed-source to prevent fraudulent forks, malicious repackaging (e.g., injecting adware/spyware into our builds), and to protect our proprietary ARM64 conversion pipeline and compiler optimizations. We want to ensure that users receive only secure, highly optimized, and officially signed packages directly from this repository or our official website."
- Canary Netplay; this branch is used for online play, see Xbox Live page Xbox 360 section for detailed information. Also supports system link support.
- Xenia Edge; this is a bleeding-edge experimental fork of the Xenia emulator, originally based on Xenia Canary branch. It has macOS builds, and the focus is on faster iteration, higher default game compatibility, usability and platform support. Unlike standard Canary builds, Xenia Edge includes a built-in frontend, which can be considered as better option to using Xenia Manager with Xenia Canary. It inherits all Canary features (such as the XAM profile manager), but it does not currently include Canary Netplay functionality. It brings numerous quality-of-life and UX improvements compared to Xenia Canary (e.g., XEX swapping simulation). Similar to Xenia Manager, it features an override game index database, enabling quick fixes for QoL improvement for specific titles. Relevant improvements are intended to flow back upstream over time.
- XeniOS; this branch is an experimental Apple-focused fork-currently based on Xenia Edge. It exists as a fast-moving place to develop, test, and ship iOS and macOS work while also carrying platform changes that benefit ARM64 Windows, Linux, and Android. Relevant improvements are intended to flow back upstream over time.
- Xenon
- Xenon is an LLE Xbox 360 emulator written in C++, so it has completely different approach for emulation compared to Xenia but this project will also provide better understanding and reverse engineering of the system and helps other projects similarly to PPSSPP and JPCSP situation. Currently only small programs work and
boots xboxkrnl. See their discord channel for more information.
- Fission
- The official emulator on the Xbox One (X|S) 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 hardware features.
- Xbox One X and Xbox Series X further improve on the emulation with enhancements like better loading times, 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 a November 2021 update Microsoft ended 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've 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."[4]
Enhancements
| Name | Xenia Canary | |
|---|---|---|
| Controls | Disguise peripheral support through passthrough Tricking the software into thinking that the original controller was connected even though they identify themselves with different device IDs. When a game tries to identify a connected 'nearly the same internally' controller, emulator will tell it that the equivalent original controller is connected instead, allowing it to work. |
? |
| Input lag mitigating | ✗ | |
| Mouse injector | ✓ | |
| Real peripheral support (passthrough) Ability to passthrough USB HID devices or Bluetooth adapter for emulated system. |
✓ | |
| Turbo button | ? | |
| Graphics | Aspect ratio hack 16:9 is already supported, but there is no support by system for render games in other aspect ratios such as 16:10, 21:9, and 32:9. |
✓ |
| Better texture filtering Enhancement option for providing better texture filtering methods comparing the original hardware had. |
✓ | |
| Pre-rendering anti-aliasing (SSAA, MSAA) |
✗ This enhancement feature shouldn't be confused with Xbox 360's native 2x/4x MSAA. | |
| Ray tracing (DXR, VRT and MRT) |
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
| |
| Resizable internal resolution | ✓ | |
| RTX Remix | Implementing RTX Remix technology in an emulator is unfortunately quite challenging and unlikely to be feasible soon. You can use ReShade for post-processing. | |
| Super-resolution techniques (DLSS, XeSS and FSR 2+) |
Requires access to the depth buffer and temporal data like motion-vectors, so it is quite challenging and unlikely to be possible soon. | |
| Texture replacement | ✗[n 1] | |
| Performance | Frame generation (LSFG, DLSS-FG and SM, XeSS-FG, AFMF and FSR FG) |
Implementing frame generation technology in an emulator is unfortunately quite challenging and unlikely to be feasible soon however post-processing techniques such as motion interpolation is quite possible. Input latency will be a crucial factor, but its impact likely varies depending on the specific technique used, it is recommended to use after applying the "Internal Framerate Hack". While AFMF or LSFG can be used with xenia, please be aware some visual glitches and artifacts may occur at this time.
|
| Internal frame rate hack | ✓ | |
| Overclocking | ✗ | |
| 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. |
✗ | |
| Rendering latency reduction technologies (LatencyFleX, Reflex, Xe-LL and Anti-Lag+)
|
✗ | |
| Post-processing | AI-powered filter (Freestyle) |
? |
| Filters | ✗ | |
| Inverse tone mapping compatible | ? | |
| Post-rendering anti-aliasing (FXAA, TXAA and MLAA/SMAA) |
✓ | |
| Post-rendering scaling (Sharp bilinear, Lanczos and FSR 1) |
✓ | |
| Shader chain | ✗ You can use ReShade for this. | |
| Quality of life | Automatic emulated controller connect/disconnect Automatically connects or disconnects emulated controllers when a new or current controller is connected or disconnected. |
✗ |
| Automatic updater | ~ Canary branches have automatic update option. | |
| Big Picture Mode | ~ | |
| Built-in cheat manager | ✗ | |
| Built-in custom resolution/CRTSwitchRes For using this on Windows, you need CRT Emudriver. Another option is using EDID editor tool such as "Custom Resolution Utility". |
✗ | |
| Built-in mod editor and manager | ✗ | |
| Built-in patch manager | ✗ | |
| Built-in save manager | ✗ It has no GUI or manager for virtual disk content (xenia automatically creates a directory for emulated HDD), neither Xbox 360 Memory Card emulation capability. | |
| Command-line options | ✓ | |
| Index/Compatibility databases Many modern emulators incorporate database-driven per-game overrides to apply targeted fixes or tweaks for quality-of-life (QoL) improvement without requiring users to manually edit global config files for each title. This approach allows quick, centralized application of workarounds for specific games, such as graphics fixes, timing adjustments, or compatibility flags, while keeping the emulator's default settings intact. This auto fix feature shouldn't be confused with "Per-game profiles" enhancement feature. |
~ Xenia Edge fork and Xenia Manager frontend supports this feature. | |
| Pause/Resume emulation | ✗ | |
| Per-game profiles | ~ Using per-game setting for each game in Xenia requires creating a separate "xenia.config.toml" file for each one and launching them manually through a batch script or command line. Another option is using Xenia Edge or Xenia Manager. | |
| Portable and stealth Useful enhancement feature for non-personal computer use or plug-and-play scenarios. However, the software may still require the necessary prerequisites and dependencies for your operating system if it is not statically linked. |
✓ | |
| SDL backend support Provides controller plug-and-play and automatic input mapping through SDL GameController database. |
? | |
| Streamable compression format | ✓ | |
| Variable refresh rate compatible | ✓ | |
| TAS features | Fast forward/Turbo speed | ✗ |
| Macros/Scripts/Lua | ✗ | |
| Movie recording/playback | ✗ | |
| Rewind | ✗ | |
| Save states/Snapshots | ✗ | |
| Misc. | Ambient sounds simulation Simulation of audio from original hardware and environments, such as mechanical hard drive, floppy diskette, and optical drive noises (e.g., head seeks, spin-up/down, tray loading, disc spinning, and clicking), variable CRT flyback transformer whine (the classic high-pitched "coil whine" that dynamically changes pitch based on screen brightness and content), arcade cabinet effects (e.g., fan hum or button rattles), and other background ambient noises. |
✗ |
| Audio filters and presets Simulation of characteristic playback limitations and coloration of vintage consumer audio hardware, such as CRT television speakers, arcade cabinets, handheld consoles, early PC sound outputs, and low-fidelity integrated speakers. These filters are not intended to be perfectly accurate recreations, but rather to evoke the tonal qualities, distortion, bandwidth limits, resonance, and compression associated with 8-bit and 16-bit era devices. Examples include mono or narrow stereo output, reduced frequency response, speaker cone distortion, mild saturation, aliasing, and preset lo-fi profiles inspired by classic TVs, portable game systems, radios, and retro multimedia hardware. |
Exclusive to libretro cores at the moment. | |
| Debug features | ~ Xenia has debugger, but there is no documentation, and it is tough to understand how it works. See xenia discord dev channel for more information about debugging. | |
| EmuVR support | Exclusive to libretro cores. So there is no support at the moment. | |
| File browser Lets the user look at the ROM's internal files. |
✗ | |
| Free Look Free Look is an 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. | |
| RetroAchievements | ✗ | |
| Rich Presence (RPC) Allows the emulator to share real-time game session details (e.g., current game title, level, boss, playtime, or custom status) with external applications. This enables features such as displaying what you're playing on your profile, inviting friends to spectate, or triggering join-in-progress functionality where supported. |
✓ | |
| Screen translator Using optical character recognition (OCR) and other techniques, this feature can provide live translation of in-game text, text-to-speech for visually impaired users, and more — either on demand or automatically. |
You can use RetroArch's AI Service or the standalone offline bquenin's Interpreter. | |
| Plugin support | Xenia Canary and its forks support plugins; you can use tools like CoDXe.
| |
Hardware features and peripherals
| Name | Xenia Canary | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware features | Alternative display modes | ✓ | ||
| Connectivity | Ethernet | ~ | ||
| IR receiver | ✗ | |||
| Wi-Fi | ✗ | |||
| Xbox Live (incl. Game Room) |
~ | |||
| Controller vibration | ✓ | |||
| Dolby Digital and 5.1 Dolby Pro Logic II |
✓ | |||
| DVD drive | ~ | |||
| Flash memory | ? | |||
| Xbox 360 system software | Achievements Not to be confused with RetroAchievements. |
✓ | ||
| Dashboard including apps | ~ | |||
| Xbox emulation (Fusion) | ✗ | |||
| Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) | ✓ | |||
| Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG) | ✗ | |||
| Peripherals | Camera | Kinect | ✗ | |
| Xbox Live Vision | ✗ | |||
| Controllers | Big Button Pad | ✗ | ||
| Chatpad | ✓ | |||
| DJ Hero turntable | ~ Passthrough support only, no emulation support. | |||
| Drums and guitars | ✗ | |||
| Fishing controllers | Rapala Rod and Reel (Rapala Pro Bass Fishing) | ✗ | ||
| Rod and Reel (Bass Pro Shops: The Strike) | ✗ | |||
| Light gun | Top Shot Elite | ✗ | ||
| Top Shot Fearmaster | ✗ | |||
| Rock Band 3 MIDI Pro Adapter | ✗ | |||
| uDraw GameTablet | ~ | |||
| Wireless Racing Wheel | ✗ | |||
| Headset | ? | |||
| HD DVD player | ✗ | |||
| Karaoke microphone | ✗ | |||
| Keyboard and mouse Not to be confused with mouse injector support on emulators. Mouse functionality requires third-party hardware adapters (e.g., XIM, XFPS, Max Shooter) and is not natively supported. |
~ | |||
| Stereoscopic 3D | ✓[n 1] | |||
| Storage | External USB mass storage device | ✗ | ||
| Xbox 360 Hard Drive | ~ | |||
| Xbox 360 Memory Card | ✗ | |||
| Toys-to-life | Disney Infinity Base | ✗ | ||
| LEGO Dimensions Toy Pad | ✗ | |||
| Skylanders Portal of Power | ~ | |||
| Xbox 360 Media Remote | ✗ | |||
| Xbox SmartGlass | ✗ | |||
| Misc. | Development kits | ~ | ||
| Disc scratch Similarly to cartridge tilting on cartridge-based systems, people intentionally scratch their discs to make a particular glitch work more reliably. |
No emulator currently includes built-in disc scratch simulation, as it would require low-level emulation of optical drive error correction, which is not implemented. As a workaround, you can try the external Real-Time Corruptor (RTCV) tool. It is a real-time memory/data corruption tool for inducing glitches during emulation, which might mimic some effects of a scratched disc (e.g., visual/audio artifacts or crashes). However, it is not a true "disc scratch" simulator, as it works on live memory rather than simulating physical disc read errors. | |||
| Power light | ✗ | |||
System Link
Offline multiplayer gaming on the Xbox 360 home console over a LAN (local area network) multiplayer games, just like LAN tunneling for PlayStation systems. Over time, most private game servers have been shut. However, computer programs such as XBSlink, SVDL and XLink Kai allow users to play multiplayer for LAN supported games by using a network configuration that simulates a worldwide LAN.
- Xenia has no support for system link at the moment. But Xenia Canary fork Netplay branch supports most of the system link titles, see this page for more information. Netplay branch supports XLink Kai as well, but it is still experimental and limited to matches between other Xenia users. Sessions between Xenia users and Xbox 360 users isn't yet possible, see Xlink Kai: Xenia Support page.
- Fission supports System Link. See Xbox 360 System Link compatible games for Xbox One and compatible games for Xbox Series S/X.
- See Netplay#Local Multiplayer.
Achievements
Xenia Canary and its branches offers support for Xbox 360 achievements. These are the feature and pull requests for implementing the saving and restoring of unlocked achievements in the next session. A graphical user interface for viewing achievements has been implemented as well.
- For activating notifications for achievements and using original Xbox 360 sound and font you can use Xenia Edge's GUI, otherwise you need to change settings from "xenia-canary.config.toml" or "xenia-canary-netplay.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"
- See Xbox Live page for connecting your Xenia Canary Netplay profile to the "Xenia WebServices web API" for the achievement progress.
Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG)
- xenia emulator has no support for XBLIG and unlikely to be feasible soon.
- Fission has no support for XBLIG.
- A dev over on the subreddit recently shared a working proof-of-concept for a dedicated XBLIG emulator.
Stereoscopic 3D
See this page for a list of Xbox 360 games that support stereoscopic 3D.
- Main article: Virtual reality#Emulators with VR support
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 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 doesn't currently have any support for the Kinect. But you can use No Kinect Patch for Sonic Free Riders. There are also experimental efforts based on the Canary branch, to implement Kinect emulation using a webcam, but this feature is still a work in progress.
- There is a project called KinectFaker for emulating a Kinect Device (Version 1/xBox360) with Skeleton Tracking. The Kinect Toolkit provides a program, called Kinect Studio, which is able to record and play Skeleton Animations. Sadly, the Kinect Studio program works only on a PC with a connected Kinect Device. This emulator enables testing of Kinect applications without connected Kinect or Kinect runtime by reading skeleton animation files. Currently, only a self defined file format (defined with protobuf) is used and must be recorded first.
HD DVD Player
- Xenia has no HD-DVD support at the moment.
- Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles has no support for HD-DVD.
- See this dedicated page for more information about home media playback support for emulation software.
Xbox 360 Media Remote
Just like PlayStation 2's DVD Remote Controller and PlayStation 3 Blu-ray Disc remote, you can even play games with this remote other than multimedia along with being able to navigate the dashboard functionalities. The remote control allows for controlling portions of the Xbox 360 interface via infrared.
See also
External links
References
- ↑ Rick's xenia discord message about LLE and HLE
- ↑ chrispy's comments about xenia's approach
- ↑ For more information about Xenia emulation on Linux, Android or macOS, see this page.
- ↑ https://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-backwards-compatibility-adds-70-more-games-today-as-microsoft-ends-the-program/1100-6498021/
