PocketGPU

English | 日本語

Thanks for reading this README. I'm Tsuruta.

PocketGPU is for people who have a powerful phone but a PC without a graphics card. Connect the phone to the PC with a cable, and the phone does the GPU work for the PC.

It works as a Vulkan driver on Windows and Linux. DirectX and OpenGL apps run through DXVK, vkd3d and zink. The phone side runs on iPhone and Android.

Built with Claude Code. Most of the code here was written together with Claude.

• Setup and repair scripts for testers: setup (also at tsurutanmen/pocketgpu-setup)
• Discord: https://discord.gg/F3Mk8DBxqQ
• License: Apache-2.0 (mc/pumpkin-ios is GPL-3.0)

Screenshots

The iPhone shows up as one more Vulkan GPU on the PC:

Unigine Heaven, DirectX 11 through DXVK	0 A.D., Vulkan

Try it

1. Download PocketGPU-*-windows.zip from Releases and extract it.
2. Install RpcServer-*.ipa on the iPhone with your own Apple ID (AltStore, Impactor, iloader or xtool), or android/pocketgpu.apk on an Android phone.
3. Plug the phone into the PC and double-click Setup-PocketGPU.cmd. Then drop a game's .exe onto Run-on-iPhone-GPU.cmd.

What you need to install

These are not in this repository. They come from Apple, LunarG, Microsoft and others. The kit's Setup-PocketGPU.cmd checks them and offers to install them with winget.

For	What	Where
iPhone on Windows	Apple USB driver and Apple Mobile Device Service	Apple Devices from the Microsoft Store, or iTunes
Windows	Vulkan loader vulkan-1.dll, 64 and 32 bit	Vulkan Runtime from LunarG
Windows	Visual C++ runtime	vc_redist.x64.exe
iPhone	A way to install the app with your own Apple ID	AltStore, Impactor, iloader or xtool
Android	adb	Android platform-tools
iPhone on Linux	usbmuxd	Your distro's package

What is in here

Folder	What
vk/icd	Vulkan driver (ICD) for the PC. It sends Vulkan calls to the phone
vk/remote	The receiver that runs the calls on the phone GPU (server.c, also built for Android)
vk/tests	Small Vulkan, D3D9/10/11/12 test programs
vk/tools	Tools used while measuring and debugging
vk/third_party	bcdec, lz4, stb_image
Sources	iPhone app (PocketGPU) and the camera-only app (PocketCam)
android	Android app (Java). It also carries the receiver from vk/remote
pc	PC tools: kit builder, USB forwarding, iPhone log and status tools
pc/kit, pc/kit_linux	Scripts that go into the Windows and Linux kits
pc/app	Windows app PocketGPU.exe (C#, WPF)
pc/cam	Windows webcam receiver, virtual camera and its installer
pc/audio	Windows mic receiver
pc/livecap	Live captions
pc/linux_media	Linux webcam and mic receivers
pc/opengl	OpenGL add-on pack: runs OpenGL apps through Mesa zink
win	Scripts that run games and samples on the phone GPU for testing
mc	Patches and glue to run the Pumpkin Minecraft server inside the iPhone app (optional)
patches	Patches applied to llama.cpp and whisper.cpp
ci, .github/workflows, codemagic.yaml	Build scripts
setup	Setup and repair scripts for the kits, with their tests. Same as tsurutanmen/pocketgpu-setup
server/kit-worker	Cloudflare Worker for kit downloads, updates and tester logs
server/discord	Discord bot and the scripts that hand out kits and publish updates
docs	Plans and test notes (Japanese)
docs/kit	Install guide, FAQ and research notes for testers (Japanese and English)

Build

Target	Command	Needs
Windows driver and tools	vk/build_win.sh <out>	zig (zig cc). No Visual Studio
Linux driver (incl. WSL, Steam Deck)	vk/build_linux.sh <out>	gcc and the Vulkan headers
Android receiver	vk/build_android.sh <out>	Android NDK. No Android Studio
Android app (.apk)	android/build_apk.sh	Android SDK build-tools 35 and platform 34, JDK 17. No Gradle. Set PGPU_SERVER_DIR to the receiver built above
iPhone app (unsigned .ipa)	ci/build_ios.sh	macOS and Xcode 26.3. Runs on Codemagic or the ios.yml workflow
Windows app	pc/app/build.cmd	The C# compiler that comes with Windows (.NET Framework 4.8)
Webcam, mic and captions for Windows	pc/cam/build.sh, pc/audio/build.sh, pc/livecap/build.sh	zig
Pumpkin library for the iPhone app	ci/build_pumpkin_ios.sh	Rust. Only when MINECRAFT=true
Windows kit for one tester	python pc/make_kit.py <name>	The driver and app built above. Set PGKIT_UPDATE_URL to your own update server
Linux kit	python pc/make_linux_kit.py <name>	zig. Builds the Linux webcam and mic receivers too
Update server	npx wrangler deploy in server/kit-worker	A Cloudflare account. Fill in the YOUR-... values in wrangler.toml

Testers

• Toasty~ (bl7ck_ic3)
• BerBP (berbp_but_now_its_benny)
• Brewmasters (brewmaegger_s2)
• Josetruco1425 (josetruco1425)
• PabloC557 (remythemice557)
• ぴとん345 (piton345)
• Aurora (tranzide)
• 시유 (seeu0001)
• StarBite (iwannabitestars)
• Hi (balzer0699)

License

Part	License
Everything except the rows below	Apache-2.0 (LICENSE)
setup	MIT (setup/LICENSE)
mc/pumpkin-ios	GPL-3.0 (mc/pumpkin-ios/LICENSE). An iPhone app built with MINECRAFT=true links Pumpkin and is GPL-3.0 as a whole
vk/third_party/bcdec	MIT or Unlicense
vk/third_party/lz4	BSD-2-Clause
vk/third_party/stb	MIT or public domain

Not in this repository and fetched or built at build time: MoltenVK (Apache-2.0), llama.cpp (MIT), whisper.cpp (MIT), DXVK (zlib, the kit uses the dxvk-macOS async 1.10.3 build), vkd3d-proton 3.0.1 (LGPL-2.1, for the DirectX 12 tests), Mesa 26.2.4 from mesa-dist-win (MIT, for pc/opengl), Pumpkin (GPL-3.0).