Kortex

A modern desktop frontend for emulation libraries, inspired by emulio and built with libGDX + Kotlin/Java for performance, portability, and long-term maintainability.

Kortex is a new desktop emulation frontend project inspired by the original emulio vision: an EmulationStation-style experience with better usability, cleaner architecture, and modern tooling.

Project Status

This repository is currently in an early bootstrap phase.

• The codebase is set up and builds correctly.
• The desktop launcher is in place.
• The current app logic is still the default libGDX starter screen.

In short: foundation first, features next.

Vision (Inspired by emulio)

Kortex aims to continue the same core idea behind emulio:

• A modern, fast, and customizable emulation frontend.
• Desktop-first cross-platform support (Windows, Linux, macOS).
• Better maintainability than older C++ frontends by using a JVM-based stack.
• Smooth UI and scalable architecture for future contributions.

Tech Stack

Based on the current Gradle configuration:

• Language: Java + Kotlin
• Framework: libGDX (LWJGL3 desktop backend)
• Build tool: Gradle (with wrapper)
• Java compatibility: source/target JVM 11 (packaging tasks use JDK 21 runtimes)

The project also includes a rich set of ecosystem libraries (KTX, VisUI, Guacamole, Artemis, Kryo, LML, and others) to support UI, data handling, ECS patterns, and tooling.

License

This project is licensed under GNU GPL v3.0.

See LICENSE for the full text.

Project Structure

• core: Shared application code and game/frontend logic.
• lwjgl3: Desktop launcher and packaging/distribution tasks.
• assets: Runtime assets (UI skin, fonts, images, etc.).

Getting Started

Requirements

• JDK 11+ (JDK 21 recommended for packaging/distribution tasks)
• No global Gradle install required (wrapper included)

Run in Development

On Windows:

.\gradlew.bat lwjgl3:run

On Linux/macOS:

./gradlew lwjgl3:run

Build

./gradlew build

Windows equivalent:

.\gradlew.bat build

Create Runnable JAR

./gradlew lwjgl3:jar

The output will be generated in lwjgl3/build/libs.

Packaging Tasks

The desktop module already includes dedicated tasks for platform-specific JARs:

• lwjgl3:jarMac
• lwjgl3:jarLinux
• lwjgl3:jarWin

There is also support for native packaging via Construo configuration in lwjgl3/build.gradle.

Relationship with emulio

Kortex is intended as a fresh continuation of the same product direction established by emulio, while modernizing the project setup and dependency stack.

If you are familiar with emulio, you can think of Kortex as a new-generation codebase targeting the same category of software.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome as the project grows.

At this stage, the most useful contributions are:

• Architecture and feature planning
• Core frontend systems
• UI/UX implementation
• Platform integration and testing