Hello! I am actively testing a wide variety of PC titles on a Samsung Galaxy S25 FE (Exynos 2400 / Xclipse 940 GPU, 8GB RAM, UFS 4.0) using Winlator with the ExynosTools wrapper.

[mahack39-beep]

Hello! I am actively testing a wide variety of PC titles on a Samsung Galaxy S25 FE (Exynos 2400 / Xclipse 940 GPU, 8GB RAM, UFS 4.0) using Winlator with the ExynosTools wrapper.

Below is my comprehensive breakdown of performance benchmarks, stability, and rendering bugs across 12 different games:

1. Counter-Strike 2: Unplayable. Severe low FPS (around 5–15 FPS) combined with VAC anti-cheat errors and broken mouse input routing.
2. Hello Neighbor (DirectX 11): Great stability and optimization, running smoothly at 60+ FPS.
3. GTA IV (DirectX 9): Highly unstable frame pacing and stuttering, fluctuating radically between 15 and 100 FPS.
4. GTA V (DirectX 11): Solid and stable FPS, but suffers from frequent, random crashes (likely memory leak or driver crash).
5. Stray (DirectX 11): Very poor performance, runs at roughly 20 FPS even at the lowest settings (640x480 resolution), likely due to heavy BCn texture decoding overhead on the CPU.
6. Escape the Backrooms: Fails to render completely, resulting in an immediate black screen on launch.
7. Escape the Backrooms Together: Decent performance (40-50 FPS), but heavily plagued by severe visual artifacts, flashing textures, and glitchy geometry.
8. Cyberpunk 2077 (Patch 1.6): Completely unplayable for real gaming due to heavy input lag, but managed to squeeze out around 15-20 FPS at 640x480 resolution on ultra-low settings.
9. Mortal Kombat 9 (2011): Very good! Runs flawlessly at a stable, locked 60 FPS on medium settings.
10. Mortal Kombat X: Great optimization, runs perfectly at 60 FPS on medium settings.
11. Fallout 3 (DirectX 9): Incredible performance, running at 120+ FPS smoothly.
12. GTA San Andreas (PC Version): Perfect performance, running at a stable 60-100+ FPS smoothly on maximum settings.

Hardware observations: The raw computing power of the AMD RDNA3 architecture is exceptional, as proven by the Mortal Kombat titles, Fallout 3, and GTA SA, but software translation wrappers (DXVK + Zink + ExynosTools) cause heavy overhead and rendering anomalies in newer open-world or heavy-textured games.

I am ready to capture Logcat logs, test experimental Vulkan/Mesa/Zink driver configurations, or try any modified library builds you have for the Xclipse 940 to help debug these bottlenecks. Thank you for your hard work!

Originally posted by @mahack39-beep in #90 (comment)

[github-actions]

🤖 Bannerlator AI

Excellent report — very detailed and exactly the kind of data that helps understand non-Qualcomm GPU behavior. Here's my analysis of your benchmarks with specific recommendations based on the codebase:

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Architecture Context

The Xclipse 940 is AMD RDNA 3 — it's neither Adreno nor Mali, so two critical code paths apply:

1. Driver gating (GPUInformation.java:11-12): Only "System" driver is selectable on non-Adreno GPUs. All Turnip/Freedreno drivers are Adreno-only. You're correctly using ExynosTools (an external Vulkan layer stack) as your Vulkan ICD — Bannerlator doesn't ship an RDNA3 ICD.

2. BCn texture handling (XServerDisplayActivity.java:3420-3434): The VendorID != 0x5143 gate correctly activates BCn emulation for Xclipse. Since Xclipse/RDNA3 lacks hardware BC1/BC3/BC7 decode (unlike Qualcomm's native support), you should use the "Wrapper + bcn_layer" driver for any BCn-heavy game.

3. DXVK default (DefaultVersion.java:22): The DXVK version selector checks contains("Mali") — Xclipse doesn't match, so it defaults to DXVK 2.3.1-arm64ec-gplasync. This is a newer DXVK but may not be optimal for RDNA3. If you hit rendering issues, try DXVK 1.10.3 manually (same version as the Mali fallback).

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Per-Game Diagnosis

Working Well (Expected)

Game	Notes
Hello Neighbor (DX11)	Light enough for RDNA3's raw throughput; BCn usage is minimal
Mortal Kombat 9 & X	Fixed-function-heavy DX9 titles with low texture compression load
Fallout 3 (DX9)	Older engine, minimal BCn; raw compute shines
GTA SA (DX9)	Trivial rendering load

Performance-Expected Issues

Stray (~20 FPS at 640x480): You're correct — BCn texture decoding is the bottleneck. Recommendation: Use the "Wrapper + bcn_layer" driver with these settings:

• BCN_COMPUTE_AUTO=0 (force decode on all textures)
• BCN_TRANSCODE_TO_ASTC=1 (ASTC is likely better supported on Xclipse than raw BC decode)
• BCN_COMPUTE_IMAGE_VIEW=1 (storage image path, default)

Cyberpunk 2077 (~15-20 FPS): At this tier of game, DXVK+Zink translation overhead + BCn + shader compilation stutter is the wall. Not much can be done at the wrapper layer — the RDNA3 hardware is sufficient but the software stack adds ~3-5x overhead for DX12→Vulkan1.1→ExynosTools pipeline.

Instability Issues

GTA V (random crashes): Likely a memory pressure issue on 8 GB RAM (system + Wine + DXVK + game all competing). Suggestions:

• Use the PERFORMANCE_MALI Box64 preset (Box64PresetManager.java:102-120) — it sets WEAKBARRIER=1 and NATIVEFLAGS=0 which reduces Box64 memory pressure
• Lower DXVK max frame latency (dxvk.maxFrameLatency=1 in DXVK config)
• Check if crashes correlate with texture streaming spikes (e.g. driving fast through the city)

GTA IV (15-100 FPS stutter): Frame pacing instability is a known DXVK+Zink issue on non-Adreno GPUs. The game's engine also has inherent frame pacing problems even on native hardware. Try:

• MESA_VK_WSI_PRESENT_MODE=fifo (vsync-like, caps to display refresh but eliminates micro-stutters)
• Box64 STABILITY preset instead of default for GTA IV's older engine

Rendering Failures

Escape the Backrooms (black screen): This is almost certainly a DXVK/VKD3D compatibility issue, not GPU-specific. The game likely requires a DXVK feature that ExynosTools' Zink layer doesn't fully implement. Check:

• What DirectX version does it use? (If DX12, try switching to DXVK's DX11 fallback if the game offers it)
• Logcat output at launch — look for Vulkan validation errors or VK_ERROR_*

Escape the Backrooms Together (artifacts): The flashing textures and glitchy geometry suggest BCn decompression errors or shader compilation issues in ExynosTools. This game likely uses BCn textures heavily. Recommendations:

• Use "Wrapper + bcn_layer" with BCN_COMPUTE_AUTO=0 (force decode)
• Enable BCn debug logging (BCN_LAYER_LOG_LEVEL=info,error + BCN_PROFILE_TRANSFERS=1) — capture the logcat around artifact appearance to see if transcoding is failing on specific texture formats

CS2 (unplayable): VAC anti-cheat is a Wine/Proton compatibility issue — this is expected and unfixable from the wrapper side. The low FPS is compounded by DXVK shader compilation overhead on first launch.

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Specific Settings to Test

For your Xclipse 940 + ExynosTools setup, I'd recommend a baseline config:

Setting	Value	Reason
Graphics Driver	Wrapper + bcn_layer	Non-Qualcomm GPU, needs BCn transcode
BCN_COMPUTE_AUTO	0	Force decode all BCn textures (most compatible)
BCN_TRANSCODE_TO_ASTC	1	ASTC native on RDNA3's texture units
Box64 Preset	Performance_Mali	Reduced memory pressure, WEAKBARRIER=1
DXVK version	Try both 1.10.3 and 2.3.1	2.3.1 may have regressions on RDNA3
Present Mode	mailbox (default) or fifo	FIFO may help GTA IV frame pacing
MESA_VK_WSI_PRESENT_MODE	mailbox	Best for non-vsync scenarios

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Logs That Would Help

If you're willing to capture logcat, the most useful captures would be:

1. Escape the Backrooms Together — start with Wine Debug enabled, BCn debug logging on. Filter logcat for BCN_LAYER and VK_ERROR tags around the time artifacts appear.
2. GTA V crash — capture logcat from ~30 seconds before a crash. Filter for MESA, CRASH, signal, OutOfMemory.
3. Escape the Backrooms black screen — full logcat from launch to black screen. The Vulkan validation layer output or DXVK initialization logs will reveal the failure point.

The codebase doesn't have Xclipse-specific sysfs paths for GPU monitoring (HudMetrics.java:141-164 only covers Mali/Adreno/PowerVR), so the GPU load % in the HUD will likely show as unavailable on your device — that's a known gap if you want to track utilization.

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ℹ️ Please read — about this project

Bannerlator is a personal build — made by me (The412Banner), for my own device, my own needs, and my own use.

It's a personal continuation of the Winlator Star Bionic project (star-emu/star) after it was discontinued and archived. None of the original developers are involved except me; it stands on their work plus cherry-picked commits from across the community — all credited in the repo.

This is NOT an official or general-purpose Winlator release. It is built and tuned for my hardware and my workflow, and published as-is purely in case it happens to be useful to someone else.

• No guarantee it works on any other device, GPU, or Android version.
• No support, and no commitment to fix anything that works for me but not for you. If a feature works on my device, it isn't broken — for me, which is what this build is for.
• Bug reports / feature requests for setups I don't run may simply be closed. That's not personal; this just isn't a community-support project.
• You're free to use, modify, fork, or share it (GPL-3.0). If it doesn't work on your setup, that's expected — it wasn't built for it.

Cited from the Bannerlator codebase. For a follow-up, open a new question.

[mahack39-beep]

Could you recommend which emulator is better? GameHub or Winlator versions, along with compatibility layers and CPU translators. Version 2.3.1 paired with Proton 9.0 x64 and Proton 10 ARM64 causes screen distortion, severe blurriness, or a black screen. Basically, I need the optimal settings for all games that can run on my device. If it's not too much trouble. Thanks!"

[The412Banner]

Thanks for the incredibly thorough report @mahack39-beep — that's genuinely useful data. I'll be straight with you about what Bannerlator can and can't do for your device, then give you the best settings I can.

The honest part first

Bannerlator is a personal build tuned for Adreno / Snapdragon hardware. Your Xclipse 940 is AMD RDNA3 — not Adreno, not Mali — and Bannerlator ships no RDNA3/Xclipse Vulkan driver. On any non-Adreno GPU the driver picker is hard-gated to "System" only (GPUInformation.java), meaning it just uses whatever Vulkan ICD your device/ExynosTools provides. So the whole translation stack that's hurting you (DXVK → Vulkan → ExynosTools/Mesa) lives below anything Bannerlator controls, and I can't tune it for your GPU. That's the real ceiling you're hitting on the heavier games — the RDNA3 silicon is plenty, but the software path adds the overhead.

Which emulator / layers / translators

This is device-specific and honestly not something I can rank authoritatively for RDNA3, because the fork you use (Bannerlator, GameHub, stock Winlator, etc.) doesn't change that DXVK→Vulkan→ExynosTools pipeline — that's where your bottleneck and rendering bugs come from, and it's the same across forks. For an Exynos/Xclipse device you'll get the best results from a build that's specifically maintained around ExynosTools/Xclipse, not an Adreno-focused one like this. That's not a knock on your setup — it just isn't what this build is targeting.

Your DXVK 2.3.1 + Proton distortion/black-screen

On non-Mali/non-Adreno, Bannerlator defaults to DXVK 2.3.1-arm64ec-gplasync (DefaultVersion.java), which is aggressive and often mismatches the ExynosTools ICD → exactly the distortion / blur / black screen you're seeing. Things to try:

• Switch DXVK to 1.10.3 (the older, most-compatible version — it's the fallback we ship for Mali). This alone often fixes the black-screen/distortion on non-Adreno ICDs.
• Prefer a plain x86_64 Proton over the arm64ec builds if your ExynosTools/Box64 path allows it — arm64ec + gplasync is the fragile combo here.
• Lower the internal resolution and let the game upscale.
• Black screen on launch usually = the ICD failed to present — make sure ExynosTools is actually loaded as the System Vulkan ICD.

Best per-game guidance I can give

• BCn-heavy games (Stray, etc.): use the "Wrapper + bcn_layer" graphics driver (wrapper-bcn_layer) — RDNA3 lacks hardware BC1/BC3/BC7 decode, and that wrapper does BCn in a compute layer. It's your best lever for the texture-decode stall.
• GTA V random crashes: classic 8 GB memory pressure (system + Wine + DXVK + game). Set DXVK dxvk.maxFrameLatency=1, drop texture/streaming settings, and try the Performance Box64 preset.
• CS2 / Cyberpunk: these are effectively out of reach on this stack (anti-cheat + DX12 translation overhead) regardless of settings — that's expected, not a fixable bug here.
• The titles that already run great (MK9/MKX, Fallout 3, GTA SA, Hello Neighbor) are the fixed-function/low-BCn DX9–DX11 sweet spot, which is exactly what you'd predict.

I'm going to close this out since the improvements you need are in the ExynosTools/Mesa/driver layer for RDNA3, which is outside what this Adreno-focused build can support — but thank you again, the report was excellent and I hope the DXVK 1.10.3 + bcn_layer changes help.