The Witcher 3 Now Runs on RISC-V Processors

[Nomad76]

In a notable step forward for the RISC-V architecture, the Box86 and Box64 emulator developers have successfully run The Witcher 3 on a RISC-V processor. While performance is far from optimal, even on a Milk-V Pioneer with a 64-core processor and an AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT graphics card, the achievement is remarkable.

RISC-V, a free and open-source instruction set architecture, is still in its early stages compared to established platforms like ARM and x86/x64. Despite this, the Box86/Box64 team, known for creating environments to run Windows programs on Linux, has demonstrated that AAA gaming is possible on RISC-V hardware. To accomplish this feat, the developers utilized Box64 with Wine and DXVK to emulate the necessary instructions.





Performance remains a significant challenge, with The Witcher 3 running at only 15 FPS. However, this proof-of-concept demonstrates the potential of RISC-V and hints at its future possibilities. For those looking to replicate this experiment on lower-end hardware, disabling weather effects and removing vegetation in the game files may improve performance, as noted by one of the developers who previously ran the game on a 2015 Intel integrated GPU. The team documented the process on their blog so feel free to check for all the details.

The Box86 team identified x86_64 instruction emulation as a major hurdle in running The Witcher 3 on RISC-V. Significant computational resources are required to "translate" these instructions for the RISC-V architecture, highlighting areas for future optimization and development.

The Witcher 3 running On RiSC-V

This achievement builds upon the team's previous success in August when they made 2D games like Stardew Valley and World of Goo fully playable on RISC-V. The Witcher 3 project required more powerful hardware, specifically a Milk-V Pioneer - a 64-core RISC-V PC with a PCIe slot to accommodate the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT graphics card.

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[Assimilator]

has demonstrated that AAA gaming is possible on RISC-V hardware

Performance remains a significant challenge, with The Witcher 3 running at only 15 FPS.

Uh, yeah, no.

Also the SBC they used costs over a thousand pounds so it seems like RISC-V's promise of being cheaper is really shaping up well.

 

[Onasi]

This is an interesting curiosity from a technical standpoint, but nothing that has any practical relevance. As @Assimilator mentioned, a 10 year old game running at unplayable framerate on a hardware that costs a ton of cash and after a long work by dedicated specialists is just not really something that in any way “proves” RISC-V is ready for gaming (or anything except specialized workloads that it’s used for now). I mean, baby steps, sure, but overall I feel like “gaming on RISC-V” is kind of a “nobody cares” scenario.

 

[thevoiceofreason]

" to emulate the necessary instructions" carries a lot of weight here. They are emulating the entire x86-64 ISA on RISC-V.

 

[AlB80]

" to emulate the necessary instructions" carries a lot of weight here. They are emulating the entire x86-64 ISA on RISC-V.

It means: The Witcher 3 Does Not Run on RISC-V Processors. The Witcher 3 Still Runs on x86-64 Processors (emulated or not).

 

[JasBC]

It means: The Witcher 3 Does Not Run on RISC-V Processors. The Witcher 3 Still Runs on x86-64 Processors (emulated or not).

"The Witcher 3 does not run on Linux. The Witcher 3 still runs on DirectX and Windows APIs"

 

[Punkenjoy]

All CPU architecture can run any game as long as it has enough performance. The fact that the cpu have 64 core here is probably a downside as generally those boost at lower clock. I doubt the Witcher 3 is multi threaded enough to benefits from that much core.

I still wonder if it's live emulation that is really heavy or if it's offline where binary would be recompiled for RISC IV. A bit like apple did with ARM.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Why is this even news?
If is emulated and not natively running, then what's the point?

You ca run Doom 2 emulated on a washing machine, now that was interesting news.

From ATMs to Printers, Hackers Prove You Can Play 'Doom' on Anything

 

[R-T-B]

"The Witcher 3 does not run on Linux. The Witcher 3 still runs on DirectX and Windows APIs"

Theres a big difference between API wrappers like wine and fullon hardware emulation. One can be done relatively cheaply, the other can and will cost half your cpu cycles just in overhead.

The only reason this is impressive is the fact they even approached a usable framerate shows RISC-V actually has some oomph to it.

 

[Assimilator]

The only reason this is impressive is the fact they even approached a usable framerate shows RISC-V actually has some oomph to it.

Well yeah, I'd kinda hope that a 64-core processor would have some oomph.

 

[qlum]

Well yeah, I'd kinda hope that a 64-core processor would have some oomph.

Well in a lightly threaded game running on a cpu maxing out at 2ghz, don't know the ipc but lower performance makes sense with a translation layer that is not super mature to boot.

 

[R-T-B]

Well yeah, I'd kinda hope that a 64-core processor would have some oomph.

Do you really think the Witcher 3 uses all 64 threads?

 

[unwind-protect]

15 fps is suspiciously high for a full CPU emulator. Something is odd here.

 

[AlB80]

15 fps is suspiciously high for a full CPU emulator. Something is odd here.

Dynamic translation, not a regular interpreter.

 

[unwind-protect]

Dynamic translation, not a regular interpreter.

Who made it?

That's a pretty advanced piece of tech then.

 

[R-T-B]

Sounds like the FOSS community did, possibly under a sponsorship of some kind.