Wine version 5.0 was released almost exactly one year ago, and today the open-source project is back with another major v6.0 update. It adds major improvements to the Windows Compatibility Layer, including an experimental Vulkan renderer for WineD3D, support for sRGB, better support for input methods, and an initial USB kernel driver.
Unlike emulators or virtual machines, Wine (short for “Wine is not an emulator”) does not contain Windows or any Windows programs. Instead, it translates Windows APIs directly into Unix-readable instructions. While this often gives you more serious compatibility issues than an emulated operating system, you don’t get the performance typically associated with them.
The changes introduced in version 6.0 should make some games run more smoothly, and sRGB support is a boon for apps that previously couldn’t run through Wine due to lack of color space. Graphically, we get some D3D11 and D3D9 features like alpha-coverage multisampling, dual-source blending, and pre-rendered blending states. Programs also have the ability to draw arcs, ellipses and rounded rectangles using the Direct2D API. It could make many UI elements more modern. Base modules are now integrated in Portable Executable (PE) format, which helps bypass copy protection measures that check if DLL files on disk match the content in memory. But we’re only scratching the surface here – head over to Wine’s changelog for an in-depth exploration of what’s new.
You can download Wine 6.0 for Android from APK Mirror or from the open-source project website.
