boxedwine

Boxedwine is an open-source emulator for running Windows applications. Rather than reimplementing the Windows API directly, it runs a 32-bit build of Wine and emulates the Linux kernel and CPU underneath, which lets it host multiple Wine versions. It is written in C++ with SDL and targets several platforms. Key capabilities described in the README: - Runs 16-bit and 32-bit Windows programs. - Works on Windows, macOS, Linux, and the web (Emscripten/WASM). - Can run multiple Wine versions, from 3.1 through 11.0. - Supports applications and games using OpenGL, Direct3D, and Vulkan. Release 26R1 notes claim roughly 50% faster performance on all platforms except WASM, about 20% lower memory use for 64-bit builds, added Wine 11 support, OpenGL on top of D3D12 for the Windows ARM64 build, and improved (though not perfect) audio for web builds. Known limitations and TODOs listed by the project include: the Emscripten/web build is still slow and needs a JIT, the multi-threaded build stutters with sound, macOS OpenGL does not work with frame buffers, games released after 2010 have limited success, newer .NET versions do not work, and joystick support is missing. Tested platforms: Emscripten (WASM), Linux 64-bit x86/Arm64, macOS (ARM), Windows 32-bit, and Windows 64-bit x86/Arm64. The README also includes Cinebench 11.5 multi-core and single-core results and a Quake 2 timedemo figure across several host machines, presented as project benchmarks rather than independent measurements. Documentation links cover upcoming features, troubleshooting games and apps, developer debugging, build instructions, building OSMesa on macOS, and CPU emulation. Licensing: GNU General Public License v2 (GPL).