Glossary¶

This page explains the acronyms and the SDK terms that the other pages use. The site shows these explanations as tooltips where a term appears.

Acronyms¶

APC¶

Asynchronous procedure call: a function queued to run on a guest thread.

APU¶

The Xbox 360 audio hardware and its register block at 0x7FEA0000.

D3D12¶

Direct3D 12.

DLL¶

Dynamic link library. A DLL that a game loads is recompiled as a DLL module.

DPC¶

Deferred procedure call: work the kernel queues to run on the Kernel Dispatch thread.

EDRAM¶

The embedded memory of the Xenos GPU that render targets are drawn into.

GDFX¶

Game Disc File System: the filesystem of an Xbox 360 disc image.

HID¶

Human interface device. The hid.* settings cover input devices.

IRQL¶

Interrupt request level of the kernel.

MMIO¶

Memory mapped I/O: device registers that a game reads and writes at memory addresses. The GPU block is at 0x7FC80000 and the APU block at 0x7FEA0000.

MnK¶

Mouse and keyboard. The hid.mnk_* settings turn them into a gamepad.

MSVC¶

Microsoft Visual C++, the compiler that built the game code that ReXGlue recompiles.

PCR¶

Processor control region: the kernel block for each guest thread.

PM4¶

The packet format of the GPU command stream.

PPC¶

PowerPC, the CPU architecture of the Xbox 360.

SDL3¶

Simple DirectMedia Layer 3: the window, input and audio library behind the -sdl3 driver modules.

SEH¶

Structured exception handling: __try, __except and __finally.

STFS¶

Secure Transacted File System: the package format of downloaded content and saves.

SVOD¶

Secure Virtual Optical Drive: the package format of a disc installed to storage.

TLS¶

Thread local storage.

TOML¶

The text format of the manifest and the config file.

VMX128¶

The vector instruction set of the Xbox 360 CPU, with 128 vector registers.

XAM¶

Xbox Application Manager: the system library of the services that games use, such as input, UI, content, profiles and achievements. rexxam implements its exports.

XBDM¶

The Xbox 360 debug monitor module, xbdm.xex.

XDBF¶

The data section of a title executable with achievements, strings and icons.

XEX¶

The Xbox 360 executable format.

XInput¶

The Windows gamepad API behind rexhid-xinput.

XMA¶

The Xbox 360 compressed audio format, a variant of Windows Media Audio Professional that the console decodes in hardware.

XUID¶

The 64 bit ID of a user profile.

SDK Terms¶

Codegen¶

The step, run by rexglue codegen, that analyzes the PowerPC code of the XEX files in the manifest and writes the C++ that replaces them. See Codegen pipeline.

Console Overlay¶

The in game overlay that shows the log and takes commands. Its hotkey is the backtick key, set by ui.bind.console. See Overlays and dialogs.

Detour¶

A function hook whose body can call the original function, which stays callable as __imp__name. See Hooks.

DLL Module¶

A binary of a project other than the entrypoint, named by its DLL file name without the extension.

Driver¶

The host implementation a system runs, such as SDL3 audio or Vulkan graphics.

Driver Context¶

What a driver receives from the SDK: an IDriverContext when it starts, and the game interfaces when a game attaches. See Driver Context.

Driver Module¶

A shared library that provides drivers, such as rexapu-sdl3, rexhid-xinput or rexgpu-xenos-vulkan. A program loads it by name and never links it.

Entry Point¶

The address of the function where a binary starts running.

Entrypoint¶

The main XEX of a project. Every other binary is a DLL module.

Function Table¶

The table in guest memory that maps a guest address to its recompiled host function. See Function table.

Game Root¶

The folder that holds the entrypoint and the DLLs of a game, set by [project].game_root or title.game_root.

Graphics Family¶

The type of graphics driver a program requires: kXenos or kNone.

Guest¶

The Xbox 360 side: the recompiled code, its memory, threads and paths.

Headless¶

The state of the UI system when it has no display: ui.driver is none, the UI driver reports no display, or the window failed to open. Message boxes only log, and prompts are canceled. See Headless.

Hook¶

Host code that replaces or runs inside a recompiled function. A function hook replaces a whole function, a detour calls the original as well, and a mid function hook runs at one instruction. See Hooks.

Host¶

The PC side: the operating system, the devices and the native program.

Idle Pad¶

A virtual gamepad on user 0 that never presses anything, so a game that waits for a controller starts without one. See Input.

Interface¶

A class declared with REX_DECLARE_INTERFACE that a module provides and code finds by name and version. See Interfaces.

Jump Table¶

The branch targets of a bctr instruction, which codegen recompiles as a switch.

Kernel Export¶

A host function that takes the place of a function that a game imports from xboxkrnl, XAM or XBDM.

Kernel Module¶

One of xboxkrnl.exe, xam.xex and xbdm.xex, which the runtime creates. A kernel export belongs to one of them.

Layer¶

In settings, the source that wrote a value: default, title, file, environment, command line, runtime or lock. A stronger layer overwrites a weaker one. See Layers. In the manifest, the shared layer holds the keys that apply to every binary.

Link¶

A short name such as game: that stands for a device path. See Links and Mounts.

Log Category¶

A LogCategory: a named log channel with its own level. See Logging.

Manifest¶

The TOML file that lists the binaries rexglue codegen recompiles and their settings. See Project manifest.

Module¶

A library that rex::Init loads, connects and initializes.

Mount¶

A device path mapped to a provider: a host folder, a container or a null device. See Links and Mounts.

Pin¶

A reference from IObjectTable::Get that keeps a kernel object valid for the length of a call. See Kernel services.

Present Thread¶

The thread that makes the present calls of the graphics system and presents frames. See Graphics.

Provider¶

The class that serves the files of a mount: HostProvider for a host folder and ContainerProvider for an STFS, SVOD or disc image. See Providers.

Recipient¶

The read and write functions that receive the game's accesses to a GPU or APU register block. See Attaching a recipient.

A function, such as an SEH funclet, that uses the registers of its caller instead of its own.

rexglue¶

The command line tool that creates projects and recompiles the XEX of a game into C++. See Command line.

Settings Class¶

A class derived from SettingOwner that declares settings.

Shared Layer¶

The manifest keys outside any binary table, which apply to every binary. See Includes.

Shim¶

An SDK function that replaces a library function inside the game, such as memcpy. A shim is a function hook that the SDK provides. See Shims.

System¶

One of IInputSystem, IAudioSystem, IUISystem or IGraphicsSystem, which connect the game to the host through drivers.

Title¶

The Xbox 360 game program that is recompiled and run.

Title Workspace¶

The memory that XAM allocates from on behalf of the game, through ITitleWorkspace. See Title workspace.

Tool Mode¶

A runtime built from an image with no code. It loads the kernel and mounts the game files, but installs no recompiled code.

UI Thread¶

The thread that called App::Init.

User¶

One of the four controller slots, 0 to 3, that a game reads input from.

Write Watch¶

A one shot watch on a physical page that calls its listeners on the next write, including host writes through GuestMemory.