AC-Xi-Windows-Native-Recompilation

Ace Combat Xi — Windows native recompilation

Source project for the Windows x64 port of Ace Combat Xi: Skies of Incursion 1.1.3. The original ARM instructions are translated to C during the build and compiled to native x64 code. Adapted touchHLE components provide the iOS services the game uses. Graphics pass through ANGLE's GLES frontend to hardware Vulkan.

You need your own Ace Combat Xi 1.1.3 IPA to build and play. This repository contains the port's source code, build tools and dependencies. It does not include the original game, its assets or a compiled game executable.

Download and play

Download ACXi-Windows-Setup.zip from the Releases page, then extract it. Double-click Setup-ACXi.bat and select your own compatible IPA. Once the build finishes, double-click Play-ACXi.bat.

The download includes the tools needed to build the game. The first build can take a long time, especially on older PCs; leave the setup window open until it finishes. You need 64-bit Windows, a Vulkan-capable graphics driver and several gigabytes of free disk space.

Build from source

Follow BUILDING.md to install the required Windows build tools. Then run these commands, replacing the example paths with your own. The build checks that your IPA is the supported version.

python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
.\build.ps1 -IpaPath 'D:\Games\ACXi\game.ipa' -LlvmMingwRoot 'C:\Tools\llvm-mingw' -RunTests
python tools/fetch_angle.py
python tools/stage_local.py --compiler 'C:\Tools\llvm-mingw' --angle local/angle
.\local\player\ACXiNative.exe

These commands create the playable game in local/player on your own PC, using your IPA. That folder is created during the build; it is not part of this repository.

Features

• Original game timing retained, with about 30 game FPS and 60 host presentations per second observed on the tested PC. There is no frame-rate unlock.
• Keyboard, mouse and SDL controller input, in-game pitch inversion and right-stick free look.
• Controller vibration for gunfire, missile launches, damage, destruction, afterburner and stall feedback. Hardware vibration was reported working by the project owner; device coverage remains limited.
• F4 settings for output size/fullscreen, internal resolution, filtering, mobile-button visibility and keyboard/mouse options. Manual Save and optional Auto-save are available. Internal resolution/filtering/asset mode apply after restart; output-size/fullscreen changes are live.
• Mobile flight buttons default Off, with the original HUD and menus retained.
• F5 hardware/API, game/display FPS and frame-time overlay.
• Optional enhanced-asset loading code. The private enhanced texture, text and movie pack is excluded; the staging script selects original assets by default.

Controls

Action	Keyboard	Controller
Pitch / roll	WASD or arrows	Left stick
Yaw	Q / E	LB / RB
Throttle / brake	Space or Shift / Ctrl	RT / LT
Gun / missile	J / L or Enter	A / B
Target / radar	T / M or Tab	Y / View
Camera cycle	V	R3
Free look	Numpad 4/6/8/2	Right stick
Level flight	G	L3
Pause	Escape / F1	Start
Settings	F4	View + Start

Menus use arrows/WASD and Enter/Escape. Pitch inversion for controllers remains in the original in-game Controller menu. F4 inversion applies to keyboard/mouse. Pause the original game before spending time in F4: the settings overlay itself does not pause the simulation. Settings save through F4; Auto-save defaults Off.

Status

This is a development project. Bounded live checks reached Mission 1 and Extra Mission and covered combat, pause/resume, menus, saves, F4/F5 and window changes. The tested candidate showed no recurrence of the prior Vulkan crash in those sessions. Verification notes state the exact coverage.

Full campaign completion, all aircraft/missions, sustained mouse steering feel, audio listening/sync, controller variations and low-end Intel laptop performance remain unverified. The tested PC has an i7-9750H and GTX 1650. The clean source build validation is recorded separately in SOURCE_VALIDATION.md.

Credits

Original game: Project Aces / Namco Bandai. Runtime foundation: touchHLE and its contributors. Graphics: ANGLE with Vulkan. See THIRD_PARTY.md and the retained notices for dependency origins and licenses. Original game content is not covered by the source project's license. This is an unofficial fan project.