9 Exagear - Directx

For decades, the phrase "PC gaming on mobile" was a pipe dream confined to streaming services like GeForce Now or Steam Link. However, long before the era of high-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 emulation, a piece of software named ExaGear promised the impossible: running actual x86 Windows games on an ARM Android device.

The holy grail for many users was achieving stable performance with DirectX 9 titles. From Half-Life 2 to Need for Speed: Most Wanted, the DirectX 9 era represents a golden age of PC gaming. But how does ExaGear handle this complex API? Is it still relevant in 2024-2025? And how do you set it up for success?

This article dives deep into the relationship between DirectX 9 and ExaGear, exploring its capabilities, limitations, and the community-driven forks that keep it alive.

This report surveys the interaction between DirectX 9 (DX9) and ExaGear (including ExaGear Desktop/ExaGear Windows emulation and related x86-on-ARM compatibility layers), covering background, technical challenges, implementation approaches, compatibility, performance, troubleshooting, and practical recommendations for running DX9 applications on ExaGear-based environments. directx 9 exagear

Date: [Current Date]
Subject: Emulation of DirectX 9 graphics API using ExaGear software
Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility, performance, and limitations of running DirectX 9-based Windows games/applications on ARM devices (Android, Chrome OS, Raspberry Pi).

| Game Title | DirectX version used | FPS range | Status | |------------|----------------------|-----------|--------| | Diablo II (D3D mode) | DX 7/8 (fallback) | 40–60 | Playable | | HoMM III HD | DX 9 (basic) | 50–60 | Playable | | Half-Life (D3D) | DX 6/7 | 30–60 | Playable | | Half-Life 2 | DX 9 | 5–15 | Unplayable | | GTA: Vice City | DX 9 (light) | 20–35 | Borderline | | NFS: Most Wanted (2005) | DX 9.0c | 3–10 | Unplayable | | Morrowind (with MGE) | DX 9 (shaders) | 10–20 | Slow |

DirectX 9, released in 2002, introduced Shader Model 2.0 and 3.0. This allowed for dynamic lighting, normal mapping, and pixel shaders. Translating these features to OpenGL ES (mobile standard) is non-trivial. For decades, the phrase "PC gaming on mobile"

When you run a DX9 game on ExaGear, three things can happen:

The biggest breakthrough in 2023-2024 was the integration of DXVK (DirectX to Vulkan) into ExaGear forks.

Originally designed for Linux gaming, DXVK translates DX9, 10, and 11 calls directly to Vulkan. Since most Android GPUs have excellent Vulkan drivers: This report surveys the interaction between DirectX 9

This guide assumes you have downloaded the ExaGear Mod APK + OBB data. We will use the "Wine 3.0" container because it has the best DX9 compatibility.

Prerequisites:

Instructions: