Xendroid+ forks XenDroid with big claimed Xbox 360 speedups on Android

There's a new Xbox 360 emulator option for Android. Xendroid+, created by developer phforner0, is an open-source fork of XenDroid, the Android port by rfandango. It runs on the Xenia and Xenia Canary core with an ARM64 JIT, and it's tuned for Snapdragon phones and handhelds with Adreno GPUs. The first numbered stable release, v0.1.0, came out on October 19, and preview builds have followed since.

Claimed performance

• Crysis 3: 30 fps (the game's cap) at the first checkpoint, up from about 22, with its lighting and textures fixed.
• Gears of War 3: 25 to 30 fps (the cap). GPU time in its heaviest scene drops from about 40 ms to 28 ms a frame, and its washed-out colors are fixed.
• Need for Speed: Most Wanted: about 21 fps without forcing the GPU clock, up from about 12, with boot and gameplay crashes fixed.
• Forza Horizon 30 fps (cap), Forza Horizon 2 27 to 30 fps, Halo 4 about 26 to 30 fps, Sonic Unleashed 50 to 52 fps, and Halo: Reach 30 fps in menus and the intro, dipping to 19.
• GTA IV (about 22 fps) and Red Dead Redemption (about 25 fps) were only tested in menus and intros, and the GPU command thread holds them back.

What changed under the hood

• Per-game settings that load when a title starts.
• Faster exact shader paths and textures that load straight into images.
• A lighter GPU command thread: rendered output is copied back into game memory only when a game actually reads it.
• Fewer descriptor writes on Turnip. The notes cite Red Dead Redemption dropping from 7,260 a frame to 14.
• ARM64 JIT fixes and cheaper system calls.
• Asynchronous shader compilation with a persistent pipeline cache, for less stutter.
• Audio that stutters less in heavy scenes.
• Experimental frame generation (Win-FG and LSFG, off by default) that shows a 30 fps game at 60 on screen.

Compatibility: a goal, not a promise yet

Broader game compatibility is a stated goal, but there's no public Xendroid+ compatibility list yet, and the developer says results depend on the game, the device and the GPU driver: some titles run well, others glitch or don't boot. The release notes do list specific fixes. Rise of the Tomb Raider's main menu and first level now render, Forza Horizon 2's scenery and Halo 4's cutscenes are fixed, and Need for Speed: Most Wanted no longer freezes before its first race. The latest builds also take a first step toward XNA games like Bastion.

What you need

Android 10 or newer (Android 11 to pick a games folder), a 64-bit ARM device and Vulkan. The developer recommends a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 or newer, and custom Turnip drivers only load on Adreno GPUs (see our Turnip driver guide). It reads ISO, ZAR, GOD, default.xex folders and XBLA packages. Use only games you dumped from your own discs or console. Xendroid+ includes no games, and Overclocked doesn't host or link game files.

Xendroid+ is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Download it only from the GitHub releases page, which lists a SHA-256 for every APK. It's now in the Overclocked emulators list.

Source: phforner0/Xendroid-Plus on GitHub. Facts verified against the original report; written by Overclocked.