box64 VS FEX

In the video, they mentioned they can't run steam on RISC-V because box64 doesn't support 32bit apps. In the README of box64, it is mentioned:

I see it can do more now, already tried some stuff. But see it is now more mature than months ago. Will try factorio again https://github.com/ptitSeb/box64/issues/665

Also, in the discussions of box64 is this thread: https://github.com/ptitSeb/box64/discussions/524 My guess is that you have to install both box64 and box86, the latest mesa drivers with vulkan support. And then try to launch the game with proton. There is also this issue that shows factorio running on a Rock 5B: https://github.com/ptitSeb/box86-compatibility-list/issues/284

In Box64, which is an emulator+JIT recompiler, and thus likely pretty slow?

macOS runs x64 executables just fine through Rosetta so I don't see why Wine couldn't make use of that hardware acceleration.

It's also possible to only simulate the entrypoints through Rosetta and then execute native aarch64 code from there. On Linux https://github.com/ptitSeb/box64 does exactly that, for example. However, with the performance Apple has been able to squeeze out of Rosetta, I'm not sure of that workaround is even necessary.

Recently, I got a server from Oracle Cloud, having 4 cores and 24GB of RAM. Then, using a software called Box86 and its 64 bit version called Box64, I succeeded in running Factorio! Unfortunately, 1.1.80 ran at 3 UPS! I went through each major version, testing each individual one down to 0.12. Here are my results!

You could try https://github.com/ptitSeb/box86 and https://github.com/ptitSeb/box64/ , I believe they allow you to emulate x86_64 on aarch64, though I have no experience with them, so cannot say for sure.

git clone https://github.com/ptitSeb/box64.git

If you have time and patience take a look at box86 and box64. These are basically like translation layers that allow x86/x86_64 applications to run on ARM. I personally haven't use them yet, so I can't provide a guide or vouch for game compatibilities. But by the look of the progress made by them so far it looks promising.

You can follow progress of this on https://github.com/ptitSeb/box64/issues/635

"A fast usermode x86 and x86-64 emulator for Arm64"

Could try this https://github.com/FEX-Emu/FEX + wine/proton. But as always keep in mind that playing on non-supported platforms can lead to bans in future (never happened but who knows).

It's explained in the video, it uses https://github.com/FEX-Emu/FEX

Steam is also funding an x86 tn ARM game emulator, which opens up the potential for it working on Android.

Valve is funding developers working on an x86-to-ARM layer, FEX. I'm assuming that the eventual end goal would be to run Steam on Android, one of the FEX developers was commenting on trying to get FEX to work on an S8 Tab Ultra.

Valve is also funding another translation layer, from x86 to ARM (see FEX).

Additionally, game emulation won't be optimal until someone fixes this issue from FEX-Emu, which will allow that emulator to run on Apple Silicon. QEMU-user is currently your best option though it is dead slow. Box64 is currently pretty capable, however, it will not be able to run any 32-bit libraries (which even modern games ship a few of).