Exagear Desktop for ODROID boards (Powerful x86 emulation)

[odroid]

Eltechs' ExaGear Desktop is a powerful emulator for porting almost any x86 applications to ARM-based devices.
In a nutshell, if you need some Windows apps or on your ODROID for any specific purpose (e.g. Notepad++ or even MS Word), ExaGear is the best solution to make it happen.
Not mentioning the fact, that some native Linux applications, such as Skype and TeamViewer, when launched within ExaGear run even faster than launched via Wine on Linux.

There is a free trial version you can enjoy. You can install it quickly on Ubuntu/Debian Linux images with a few commands only.
Please visit this link to learn how it is powerful and simple.
https://eltechs.com/exagear-desktop-trial-for-odroid/

[meveric]

You can also find a self-made compatibility list here where i checked different games how they work on the XU3/XU4 and how you can get them to work.

[gregb49]

Eltechs' ExaGear Desktop is a powerful emulator for porting almost any x86 applications to ARM-based devices.

If you come to this completely cold,as I did, and have some very basic questions, there are some useful documents at https://docs.eltechs.com/. The drawback with Exagear, IMO, is that a level of experience is assumed, beyond newcomer, so some of the very obvious questions are not answered. This made the first day of my trial, infuriating. The forum at http://forum.eltechs.com/ deals mainly with older installs of exagear, so a lot of the advice is not applicable. IE earlier versions appear to come with a manual. I couldn't find one in the trial version. There is also a lot of spam on the Forum.

I'm trying exagear in my quest to find a useable ARM device as a desktop (non-gaming) replacement and exagear does seem to overcome one or two ARM specific shortcomings, but I might just wait until ARM devices mature a bit further rather than go down the emulation path. However if there is an application that is very important to you, that runs under x86 CPUs but not under an ARM processor, then this might be worth you trying.

[meveric]

There are a couple people that have already experience with ExaGear on ODROIDs, so you can ask if you want to know something, and some might even be able to test stuff for you and tell you how to set it up.
But yes some basic linux knowledge is required.

[gregb49]

But yes some basic linux knowledge is required.

Thanks, but it wasn't my lack of Linux knowledge, although I'm very much a user rather than a coder. It was getting off the starting grid - that basic. It took me quite some while just to work out that the installation gave you an X86 terminal window, through exagear, and an ARM terminal window, accessed through the usual commands, and both at the same time. I thought something was broken to start with because I couldn't find any documentation. My problem was that basic.
I did get to like being able to use Dropbox and one or two other utilities but never managed to get Simon to work properly.
I think the target audience will be gamers who want to be able to run those x86 systems. Meanwhile, I will progress my quest for trying to make my 'office' work with an Odroid XU4, even without Dropbox.

[meveric]

I've tested the Linux version of Xenonauts on ExaGear.


Results are "mixed" I would say. The game itself runs ok, but it uses SDL2 for acceleration and we don't have acceleration inside ExaGear, therefore it's rather slow, but since it's and Round-Based-Strategy-Game it doesn't need to be fast, as you don't need to react quickly on anything.

The game requires a lot of RAM, therefore this game won't run on a device with less than 2GB RAM.

Still I would love to see a native armhf port of this game as this might actually work with acceleration on the ODROID.
There's also a Community Edition of the game, but I haven't seen any sources of this game either, so maybe if we contact them we manage to create a native Linux armhf Version of the game.

Find an overview of all games I tested and how to install them here: https://oph.mdrjr.net/meveric/other/Exa ... r/ExaGear/
Or more infos and pictures about Xenonauts directly under: https://oph.mdrjr.net/meveric/other/Exa ... -Linux.htm

[meveric]

Total Annihilation
Total Annihilation is one of my favorite RTS game of all time.
Back in the days we enjoyed playing it on LAN parties much more than Command and Conquer.
Most people that knew C&C and TA agree that TA was the better game.
More units, more maps, larger maps, better physics, better graphics, awesome multiplayer.



The game runs very fluently under ExaGear and I can play the game without issues in 1280x720 on my XU3/XU4.
Occasionally I have some scratchy sounds when too many explosions are going on on the screen, but aside from that it's really fun to play.

You can check it out under: https://oph.mdrjr.net/meveric/other/ExaGear/TotalA.htm
Or check for other games that I tested under https://oph.mdrjr.net/meveric/other/ExaGear/

[meveric]

A Golden Wake
A Golden Wake is a point and click adventure from Wadjet Eye Games, many of which run directly under Linux and so does this.


This means, the game runs directly in the ExaGear environment and can be started by simply clicking the icon on your Desktop.
No need to use Wine or PlayOnLinux. Just install the game and you're ready to play.
It's a nice Adventure that plays in the "Golden 20s".
Check out the trailer on GoG:

You can check it out under: https://oph.mdrjr.net/meveric/other/Exa ... -Linux.htm
Or check for other games that I tested under https://oph.mdrjr.net/meveric/other/ExaGear/

[meveric]

Just finished a complete play-through of "A Golden Wake" (it''s not just testing I do )
Game was really fun to play and even a little educational
I can highly recommend it for people who like that genre.

[cebersp]

Hi,
as it is not for free I had not been sure, if it would be wise to invest the money for ExaGear.

But I can report, that ExaGear together with wine is running LtSpice quite well! LtSpice is a fast free spice simulator, which can simulate electronic circuits.
http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/

Christof

[meveric]

Hi,
as it is not for free I had not been sure, if it would be wise to invest the money for ExaGear.

Luckily for this we now can install a free trail version to test this before buying the software.
But I'm glad to hear your software works well

[meveric]

Currently Eltech has a "black-friday sale" for their licenses and offer them for 25% off

[odroid]

One more nice demo video! Diablo II on XU4
It was my favorite action-RPG in '2000~2002.

[meveric]

Resonance
Resonance is a point and click adventure from Wadjet Eye Games and runs natively under Linux similar to A Golden Wake


Therefore you can run it directly under the ExaGear environment and by simply clicking the icon on your Desktop.

No Wine needed, as it runs directly uner Linux.

In this game you follow the stories of 4 protagonists to solve a crime in a thrilling sci-fi adventure.

Check out the trailer on GoG:

You can check it out under: https://oph.mdrjr.net/meveric/other/Exa ... -Linux.htm
Or check for other games that I tested under https://oph.mdrjr.net/meveric/other/ExaGear/

[odroid]

Another nice video. Beasts and Bumpkins by EA. Very addictive strategy game.

[meveric]

Inherit the Earth - Quest for the Orb
Inherit the Earth - Quest for the Orb is an adventure in game in the style of the classic Lucas Arts adventures like Monkey Island or Indiana Jones.



The game was ported to Linux and runs natively under x86, which means you can also run it directly under ExaGear by simply installing the game on your ODROID.
No Wine needed, as it runs directly under Linux.

Humans made the animals intelligent and then left, so they are now the Inheritances of the Earth.
You play as Rif the fox and have to solve the riddle about the stolen Orb of the Storms.

Check out the game on GoG: https://www.gog.com/game/inherit_the_earth for more pictures and infos.

You can check it out under: https://oph.mdrjr.net/meveric/other/Exa ... -Linux.htm
Or check for other games that I tested under https://oph.mdrjr.net/meveric/other/ExaGear/

Side Note: The game also runs under ScummVM without the need of ExaGear.

[francisscott]

It's important to know that wine doesn't work on C1 with exagear and that this issue is known for years.

http://forum.eltechs.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=107

[meveric]

Actually not exactly true.
There are different things here that play into it.
1. ExaGear emulates x86 processor, that doesn't mean you have to run a graphical application at all... you could still run x86 terminal applications, like a web-server or something similar.
So in general ExaGear works even IF graphical applications do not work, ExaGear itself still does.
2. The C1 is known to have graphical issues, that has nothing to do with ExaGear, many different programs have graphical issues.
A solution/workaround here is to reduce the bpp in the boot.ini either to 16 or 24 bpp and disable the alpha channel with that, this can help fix graphical issues.
IF this can fix this particular issue, is another thing.

In that particular bug, the bpp was never touched, so that might have been a simple solution for the issue.

[mcoburn]

Hmm, I wonder if this will work for Unity Game Engine runtimes? As in, Windows x86 builds of games created inside Unity?
Unity can use DirectX 9 and 11 for graphics output as well as OpenGL/Vulkan. On other platforms like mobile it's OpenGL ES 1.1/2/3 compatible if OpenGL Core is not available.

Unity games can run inside WINE as well and since Unity is a closed source engine, the only Linux builds that are emitted are x86 or x86_64 binaries. Maybe Exagear Desktop could boot the Linux x86 builds of those games? Or is Exagear Desktop hard-wired to only emulate Windows environments?

[meveric]

Hmm, I wonder if this will work for Unity Game Engine runtimes?

Yes and no, it can run Unity games, but since you have NO 3D acceleration whatsoever, it's unusable slow.

Maybe Exagear Desktop could boot the Linux x86 builds of those games?

It could, but once again, as you do not have any GPU acceleration available at all it wouldn't do you any good.

Or is Exagear Desktop hard-wired to only emulate Windows environments?

Nope, Exagear only provides a x86 environment, per default it's running on Linux. We use WINE to run Windows games, but WINE is a Linux application as well, so you can run other Linux applications just as fine.

[m4f2g]

for how long is this trial available?
I looked further into that payment method dont prefer methods like that;no normal bank transfer. But those guys make it with no (free)update for the 35€ basic version shooting the bird... not sure if they really release updates. but okay; if it let run some of my favourite x86 apps on xu4; it's maybe an option for me, but first i need to install that ogst image.

[meveric]

I think the trail was only for 3 days. But you're right with the updates. Haven't heard from them in a while. Maybe there are some new packages.

[m4f2g]

Maybe i take the enterprise version of it...
Mass deployment... not in my case, but useful if i have more than one device...
mhhm if they include theire source code...