Box64 and RISC-V in 2024
In August 2024, The Witcher 3 became the first AAA game to run on RISC-V, aided by the Milk-V Pioneer hardware, though challenges in x86 instruction emulation persist.
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In August 2024, significant progress was reported in running x86 applications on RISC-V architecture using Box64. Notably, The Witcher 3 became the first AAA game to run on a RISC-V PC, achieved through the collaboration of developers who enhanced the RISC-V backend. Initially, the RV64 DynaRec could only handle simpler Linux games due to incomplete x86_64 instruction support and hardware limitations. The introduction of the Milk-V Pioneer, a 64-core RISC-V PC with a PCIe slot for graphics cards, allowed for better testing and debugging, leading to the successful implementation of more x86 instructions. Despite the achievement, challenges remain, particularly in the emulation of certain x86 instructions that are not well-supported in RISC-V, such as bit manipulation and atomic operations. The current implementation of RISC-V still lags behind ARM64 and LoongArch64 in terms of efficiency and performance, but the future looks promising with ongoing developments in hardware and software support.
- The Witcher 3 is the first AAA game to run on RISC-V using Box64.
- Progress in RISC-V emulation has been made possible by new hardware like the Milk-V Pioneer.
- RISC-V currently supports about 1,000 x86 instructions, significantly fewer than ARM64.
- Challenges remain in emulating certain x86 instructions due to RISC-V's limitations.
- Future developments in RISC-V hardware and software may improve performance and compatibility.
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