u/AggravatingAd9020

Game: Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012)

Device: Xiaomi 15T Pro, MediaTek Dimensity 9400+, Immortalis‑G925 MC12, 12 GB RAM

Fork: Winlator Star (Bionic)

Crash Description:

After completing the first race (Keys to the City) and continuing to drive the Porsche 911 Carrera S in free roam, the game freezes completely within 30–90 seconds. The screen locks on a single frame while the engine audio loops in a constant acceleration tone. The GPU appears to hang—no error message is displayed, and the container must be force‑closed.

The freeze does not occur when switching to the Aston Martin V12 Vantage immediately after the race, nor does it happen when BCn Emulation Type is set to software (though that mode is extremely choppy). With the BCn Emulation Type set to compute and BCn Emulation on full or Auto (doesn't matter), the Porsche consistently triggers the hang. Driving the same environment with any other car does not cause the freeze, confirming that the problem is specific to the shaders or material properties of the Porsche 911 Carrera S.

Current Container/Shortcut Settings:

· Screen Size: 800×600 (4:3)

· Graphics Driver: Wrapper‑original (System)

· DX Wrapper: DXVK+VKD3D

· DXVK Version: 1.10.3‑async‑0 (Async disabled)

· VKD3D Feature Level: 12_1

· Vulkan Version: 1.2

· Present Modes: mailbox

· BCn Emulation: full

· BCn Emulation Type: compute

· Audio Driver: ALSA

· Box64 Preset: Compatibility

This appears to be a Mali‑specific GPU hang, likely triggered by a combination of the Porsche’s complex D3D11 shaders (metallic paint, reflections) and compute‑based BCn texture decompression under full emulation. Software BCn avoids the hang at the cost of severe stutter. Any insight into why this particular car overloads the compute pipeline would be greatly appreciated. Ps: I wanted to try a new game without using an external Save but the crash remains the same in both cases. I have tested a lot, I have come quite far from a black screen I am not gonna give up yet.

Device Info

· Phone: Xiaomi 15T Pro

· SoC: MediaTek Dimensity 9400+

· GPU: Arm Immortalis‑G925 MC12

· RAM: 12 GB

The Problem

When I first tried to run NFS MW 2012, races would freeze hard partway through—stuck on a frame with audio looping. It always happened at a specific spot, no matter the speed. Menus and free roam were fine, but the race trigger would hang the GPU.

What I Tried

· I started with a previous version of Ludashi and then the new Ludashi 3.0. It gave me a solid 60 FPS and much better texture loading (Vulkan XServer, BCn emulation), but the race freeze still happened every time.

· I spent days debugging: deleted movies, swapped car models (the Porsche trigger was one culprit), tweaked CPU affinity (CPU4‑7 only), tried mesa_glthread=false, changed Box64 presets, etc. Nothing completely eliminated the freeze. Nothing worked until now.

The Solution: Switching to Winlator Star (Bionic)

A community fork called Winlator Star (based on the Bionic Ludashi line) finally solved it. The race freeze is gone. The trade‑off: FPS dropped from ~60 to an average of 43 (range 33–72). Not perfect, but completely playable—and the game no longer crashes.

Important Note

I'm not an expert. Everything below is the result of trial and error. Tinker at your own risk, and always back up your containers. I would really like to improve the FPS if I could.

Winning Container Settings

· Screen Size: 1280×720 (in‑game resolution lowered to 800×600 for stability)

· Graphics Driver: Wrapper‑original (System)

· Vulkan Version: 1.3

· DX Wrapper: DXVK+VKD3D

· Present Modes: mailbox

· BCn Emulation: auto → compute

· BCn Emulation Cache: 0

· Box64 Version: 0.3.7

· Box64 Preset: Compatibility

· Audio Driver: PulseAudio

· Environment Variables: none added (only what’s default)

In‑Game Graphics Settings

· Resolution: 800×600

· Shadow Quality: Off

· Reflection Quality: Low

· Motion Blur: Off

· Ambient Occlusion: Off

· Texture Quality: Low

· V‑Sync: Off