Box64 on Asahi with experimental GPU driver

Let’s try some games using Box64 on the M1, now that there is a first experimental version of the GPU driver.

This driver provides OpenGL 2.1 profile, so a few games should already be working.

After an update of the Asahi system, and the installation of the “edge” kernel and mesa driver, I also updated box64 to latest version (and setup a BOX64_BASH env. var. so I can launch shell script to install GOG and HumbleBundle games).

I also built lastest manghud to try have some info, but many time, it was breaking things, so I used it only a few times.

I started with WorldOfGoo. I tried it before, so I know it works. Without the GPU driver, Software 3D was used, o it was never 60fps.

And new yeah! 400fps, that’s some better speed, and full proof this driver is already working very nicely!

So, lets install FTL, another games, not too demanding graphic-wise

And it’s working fine here too. Capped at 60fps, as the VSync is there.

I tried another 2D games, Not A Hero and it was also super smooth (but not working with mangohud)

And a small 3D game: Barony, also working fine, but with a few graphics issue here and there, like on the main title

I tried some Unity3D games (using MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=3.2), but I was less lucky. They were either crashing (RaceTheSun, ImmortalRedneck) or showing garbage on screen (AbsoluteDrift, BroForce) or plain white screen (MiniMetro).

I also tried PrisonArchitect, that worked fine, and TokiTori 2, that also worked fine. But tried to alter video options resulted in a crash. It might be a box64 issue here.

Starbound, that works fine on other machine, were crashing here. Maybe some box64 bug on machine with non-standard pagesize. Some for Knytt Underground. Box64 needs some debugging on the M1/Asahi.

That was just a quick test, to test the freshly out Mesa MacM1 driver. And it’s really promising, so kudos to the Asahi and Mesa teams!