Xenia

Xenia is a free and open-source research project for emulating Xbox 360 games on modern Windows PCs. A set of minimum requirements must be met for the emulator to run. Enjoy! Xenia will check for the minimum supported CPU and GPU on startup and error out if one is not detected, make sure that you have the latest drivers installed. You cannot just remove the checks in the code and assume things will work.

The goal of this project is to experiment, research, and educate on the topic of emulation of modern devices and operating systems. All information is obtained via a reverse engineering of legally purchased devices, games, and information made public on the internet. Senia is not for enabling illegal activity.

Features and Highlights

Pixel-perfect Accuracy
A lot of corners are cut for one reason or another: performance, lack of understanding, lack of documentation, etc. Getting something that perfectly matches the output on a real console isn’t really possible with an approach. Conversely, this allows much more freedom to provide higher-quality or faster implementations.

Xbox Live Connectivity
Xenia Xbox 360 Emulator tool for PC will never be able to connect to the real Xbox Live network. A simulated Live-like network is possible, however, anything that interfaces with the official Microsoft services is not only not possible, but not something the project seeks to enable.

Game Servers
Some multiplayer games are peer-to-peer, however many have some server components required for either matchmaking or actual session hosting. Though it’d be possible to work with such homebrew servers if projects sprung up to support them the app itself will not be attempting to do so.

Original Xbox Backwards Compatibility
Microsoft released a compatibility layer that enabled original Xbox games to run on the 360. Though likely feasible to get running under the tool, it’s not a goal. There’s likely to be a lot of trickery going on that most games don’t do, and distribution of the compatibility layer isn’t possible.

FAQ

Xenia crashes when I run it!
Make sure your PC meets the system requirements of the app. This project is in early development phases and is not meant to be used by those who aren’t comfortable debugging the code. Issues filed with ‘it’s broken’ are generally unhelpful, and in most cases, the team knows what’s broken (the assumption is everything). If it doesn’t work for you and you cannot figure out why come to the Discord for community-provided support.

Does Xenia run on Linux or macOS?
The project is designed to support non-Windows platforms but until it’s running games it’s not worth the maintenance burden. macOS will likely remain unsupported until Apple supports Vulkan.