SilkNetNative app

Cross-platform desktop app written in .NET using Silk.NET.

Technologies:

• UI: Silk.NET ImGui extensions.
• Rendering: Highbyte.DotNet6502.Impl.Skia or Highbyte.DotNet6502.Impl.SilkNet (OpenGL) on a Silk.NET window.
• Input: Highbyte.DotNet6502.Impl.SilkNet.
• Audio: Highbyte.DotNet6502.Impl.NAudio, playback via OpenAL. Two C64 audio providers available: a sample-based one (good but not perfect accuracy — the default) and a command-stream synthesizer one (low CPU but inaccurate). See C64 audio.

Installation

Manual download, see section in installation.md

Features

System: C64

• A directory containing the C64 ROM files (Kernal, Basic, Chargen) is supplied by the user. When no directory override is set, the default is the shared user content directory ~/Documents/Highbyte/DotNet6502/roms/C64 (or the Windows Documents equivalent). The directory can be changed in the UI; user changes are saved to this host's appsettings.user.json under the OS local application data directory.

• Renderer provider Rasterizer -> target Skia 2-layer canvas

  • Character mode (normal and multi-color).
  • Bitmap mode (normal and bitmap mode).
  • Sprites (normal and multi-color).
  • Rendering of raster lines for border and background colors.

• Renderer provider Custom -> target Skia legacy v1

  • Character mode (normal and multi-color).
  • Pre-rendered images for each character.
  • Sprites (normal and multi-color).
  • Rendering of raster lines for border and background colors.

• Renderer provider Custom -> target Skia legacy v2

  • Character mode (normal and multi-color).
  • Bitmap mode (normal and bitmap mode).
  • Sprites (normal and multi-color).
  • Rendering of raster lines for border and background colors.

• Renderer provider Video commands -> target Skia commands

  • Character mode (normal).

• Renderer provider Custom GPU packet -> target SilkNet OpenGL

  • Character mode (normal and multi-color).
  • Bitmap mode (normal and bitmap mode).
  • Sprites (normal and multi-color).
  • Rendering of raster lines for border and background colors.

• Renderers using either SkiaSharp or SilkNet (OpenGL)

  • Character mode (normal and multi-color) with all renderers.
  • Bitmap mode (normal and bitmap mode) with the SkiaSharp2* and SilkNetOpenGL renderers.
  • Sprites (normal and multi-color) with all renderers.
  • Rendering of raster lines for border and background colors with all renderers.

• Input using SilkNet. Keyboard uses GLFW's positional keys, so both US and Swedish C64 keyboard layouts work; layout is auto-detected from the host (Win32 KLID / macOS TIS*) and can be overridden from the in-app C64 config UI. See Systems / C64 / Keyboard mapping for the full host-agnostic mapping.

• Audio via NAudio. Defaults to the sample-based SID provider; switch to the command-stream provider in the in-app C64 config UI if you need lower CPU. The SID emulation mode (Auto / Fast) is selectable in the same UI.

System: Generic computer

TODO

UI

Menu

A toggleable main menu by pressing F6.

Start and stop of selected system.

Configuration options of selected system.

Monitor

A toggleable machine code monitor window by pressing F12.

Stats

A toggleable stats window by pressing F11.

How to run locally for development

For development system requirements, see details under Development.

Prerequisites, compatibility, and troubleshooting

See SilkNetNative troubleshooting.

Visual Studio 2026 or 2022 (Windows)

Open solution dotnet-6502.slnx. Set project Highbyte.DotNet6502.App.SilkNetNative as startup, and start with F5.

VSCode

TODO