Projects

Rapier - Gizmondo multiplatform emulator / Windows CE subsystem reimplementation

Created on 2024-07-19 by Tuxality, last modified on 2024-09-25

PLEASE NOTE:
Rapier is a project that is attempting to reimplement by one person at least partially Windows CE 3.x - 5.x subsystem, which is almost 10 years codebase of the giant Microsoft Corp. based on a clean room reverse engineering approach. It will take a lot of time to reimplement such and a lot will change regarding the quality of the emulation as well as the compatibitlity depending on the progress. Please do not ask for the deadline / release / support for your favourite game X / whatever. However, comments with ideas regarding the feature set are very much welcome!

Rapier is a Windows CE subsystem reimplementation and Gizmondo high-level emulator written from scratch, based purely on clean reverse engineering attempts. Currently it is using dynarmic ARM JIT core and is able to execute some Windows Mobile test samples as well as Gizmondo (Windows CE) games at full speed, including input as well as preliminary sound support. Additionally touch input is supported if running Windows Mobile applications including proper coordinate translation when renderer output is scaled. OpenGL ES stack of the emulated device is reimplemented with use of deferred renderer including software support for S3TC / DXT1 texture compression as well as support for specific extensions found in handhelds with NVIDIA GoForce 4500/5500 and Intel 2700G GPUs. No native ARM version is planned in the near future.

Project originally started in 2015 under a WMBox name, then was scrapped and started from scratch in 2024. New project name Rapier refers to the codename of my favourite Pocket PC 2000 operating system which is Windows CE 3.0 based and due to such platform being minimum support target of this project.

Currently the goal is to support Windows Mobile software that uses OpenGL ES 1.x Common Lite and Common Profile implementation, software that uses DirectDraw (DDRAW) as well as software that makes use of GAPI (GX) which was written with Pocket PC 2000 up to Windows Mobile 6.5.x in mind (ARM variant). Additionally Gizmondo software written with Windows CE .NET 4.2 in mind is also supported by the project including high-level support for the Gizmondo specific hardware such as Micronas / MASG device. It is intended to support all available Windows Mobile OpenGL ES stacks such as but not limited to the Intel 2700G (PowerVR MBX Lite), NVIDIA GoForce 4500/5500 and Adreno 130 (MSM72xx/MSM75xx). Support for the OpenGL ES 2.0 stack available for example in Adreno 200 based devices is planned in the future, although it is not high on the priority list and may be scrapped in the future depending on target software availability.