Raikopon - a speedy, experimental 3DS emulator for Nintendo Switch (Dekopon Fork)

[Raibatsu]

Credit goes to Noihs for the picture. 10/10 Fedora.​

Raikopon is a fork of Dekopon - which is a fork of Azahar - a 3DS Emulator for Nintendo Switch.

I've always wanted to give back a little to the community I have always taken from, so here's my two cents. I forked Dekopon and added a bunch of tweaks from Tico's Azahar. Also sprinkled a bunch of my own changes on top to get so many speed upgrades. I am happy to also share that some of those changes are also ported over to Dekopon (and hopefully Tico soon).
My end-goal with Raikopon is to make a feature-rich, super-fast 3DS emulator that doesn't care as much about accuracy as it does about performance at stock clock speeds.

Features:
- Almost all of the features inside Dekopon are present here.
- Almost true async shader compilation support.
- Per-game settings support.
- FMV video speed hack or movie speed hack - allows you to play games with videos inside them at a nice performance. You can adjust the "Movie CPU Throttle" value to your liking. LDZ likes 25-35%, while Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon like 50-60%. You can experiment and see what works for you. Default value is 45%.
- On-the-fly cheats addition, removal, enable/disable without needing a PC in any way.
- A more refined UX for Settings and in-game. This is actively being worked on, I want to make it look and feel good without losing performance overhead.
- Tons of improvements ported over from Tico-Azahar - thanks Dan.
- Library menu error UI updates to show you if your legitimate ROM backup is valid or not.
- Proper shader compiling at the start of each game to get the best gameplay experience.
- Crash fixes for several games that are not yet a part of Dekopon (hopefully will be added soon).
- And many many more updates coming soon.

If you have any feature requests, feel free to share them here. I regularly update my fork as soon as I get time from my day job. If its within my power, I will definitely get it done.

Latest Version: 1.4.0 | 25/07/2026

Downloads: GitHub | Releases
Source code: GitHub | Source Code

ROMs default location is /switch/dekopon/roms/.
You can use Dekopon and Raikopon at the same time, since both share the same tree - I just have a bunch of modifications done on top, and I plan to keep it that way for the sake of simplicity unless our work diverges a lot.
All formats that Azahar natively supports are supported here too.

Different screen layouts can be cycled through via pressing the right stick.
Pressing '+' on a game shows information about it, including updates and dlc.

Enjoy!

 

[limasembilan]

can you add these 3 features from Citra MMJ, it really improves the performance on my low spec phone

 

[Raibatsu]

can you add these 3 features from Citra MMJ, it really improves the performance on my low spec phone

Sounds promising, let me see what I can do!

 

[justinbug2]

Is there on device decryption? I added the aes keys to literally every directory and the text saying my games are encrypted are too long for the switch to display fully so im confused

 

[Raibatsu]

Emulator version has been updated to V1.3.0 with the following changelog:

• New, better touch-supported UI with tabs.
• Improved shader compilation. Shaders compile much faster now and don't start compiling from zero before boot.
• Option to delete shader cache.
• Major UI updates to Settings menu with descriptions.
• Added more debug options: Skip Slow Draw, Skip Texture Copy, Skip CPU Write.
• A few more small changes that I may have forgotten to add here because of how big this update is.

I still cannot post links in comments section, so feel free to check the post for latest links.
Cheers!

Post automatically merged: Thursday at 5:29 PM

can you add these 3 features from Citra MMJ, it really improves the performance on my low spec phone

Hey, these options have been added now. They still apply emulator-wide, per-game config is a big feature but I do intend on implementing that sometime soon.

Post automatically merged: Thursday at 5:31 PM

Is there on device decryption? I added the aes keys to literally every directory and the text saying my games are encrypted are too long for the switch to display fully so im confused

On-device decryption isn't legal - as per Azahar's rules. I usually decrypt my ROMs on the 3DS itself and export in a friendlier format - unlike .3DS. I did add a few checks for general public so they know why their emulator is crashing. A lot of people reported in both Tico and Dekopon that they're crashing when trying to load ROMs, when the problem itself was that they had bad dumps or they didn't decrypt them properly.

Can you boot into the games even with the warning? Azahar does allow games to boot if you have provided AES-keys I think.

 

[dragonz]

​

My end-goal with Raikopon is to make a feature-rich, super-fast 3DS emulator that doesn't care as much about accuracy as it does about performance at stock clock speeds.

V1 Switch users, rejoice! @Raibatsu is the hero we needed. If you ever get the chance, the PS2 emulator could definitely use your magic touch.

 

[ber71]

Azahar does allow games to boot if you have provided AES-keys I think.

Not really. Azahar takes a very conservative approach to legal risks, so it can't decrypt anything, with or without aes_keys.
There is azahar plus, a fork from azahar which does enter somewhat in the gray area, and restored the ability to load encrypted games, if and only if you provide the keys.

 

[Raibatsu]

Not really. Azahar takes a very conservative approach to legal risks, so it can't decrypt anything, with or without aes_keys.
There is azahar plus, a fork from azahar which does enter somewhat in the gray area, and restored the ability to load encrypted games, if and only if you provide the keys.

Ah interesting, the underlying code still existed - which is why I was still doubtful.

 

[Raibatsu]

The emulator has been updated to v1.4.0.
Download Link: Releases 1.4.0 | GitHub
Changelog:

• Almost-true async shader compilation has been added. This is turned on by default. Expect a whole lot of artifacts but we're chasing speed, not accuracy.
• Disabled CPU boost when compiling shaders by default and added it as a per-game option. CPU is still boosted when compiling shaders on the first screen.
• Drastically reworked how shaders are compiled and stored. Expect fewer shaders & expect blazing fast times when compiling shaders on the boot screen.
• Added per-game settings. This has been asked by so many of y'all, I probably should have made this a separate release. But I was three knees deep into the shader rework so I kinda didn't want to stash all that work just for this. Cheers.
• Added option to change your CPU Clock Speed per-game in the ingame overlay.
• And many, many more tiny performance & stability bumps. And probably a bunch more bugs since this is extremely experimental.

 

[halibali]

The emulator has been updated to v1.4.0.
Download Link: Releases 1.4.0 | GitHub
Changelog:

• Almost-true async shader compilation has been added. This is turned on by default. Expect a whole lot of artifacts but we're chasing speed, not accuracy.
• Disabled CPU boost when compiling shaders by default and added it as a per-game option. CPU is still boosted when compiling shaders on the first screen.
• Drastically reworked how shaders are compiled and stored. Expect fewer shaders & expect blazing fast times when compiling shaders on the boot screen.
• Added per-game settings. This has been asked by so many of y'all, I probably should have made this a separate release. But I was three knees deep into the shader rework so I kinda didn't want to stash all that work just for this. Cheers.
• Added option to change your CPU Clock Speed per-game in the ingame overlay.
• And many, many more tiny performance & stability bumps. And probably a bunch more bugs since this is extremely experimental.

This is an excellent update.
Compilation speeds have become significantly faster.

However, frequent stuttering still occurs in compiling shaders.
I’m not sure why this is happening, as there is no CPU bottleneck.

I am using an overclock setting of 2400/1000/2666, yet CPU usage is only around 50% even when stuttering occurs.
I think gameplay would be smoother if CPU usage could be increased.

 

[Ligeia]

Thanks a lot, I'll definitely check this out !

 

[Gaara4]

Is there an option to make the layout for just the top screen fullscreen?
I know it would be strechted.

 

[Frang2669]

Hey Raibatsu,
Just wanted to stop by and say thank you so much for the v1.4.0 release — this update is absolutely fantastic. The almost-true async shader compilation, per-game settings, and the fully reworked shader caching system are such huge upgrades to both performance and usability. It’s really impressive to see your vision of a fast, stock-clock-friendly 3DS emulator for Switch come together this well.
I heard you pulled a 20-hour all-nighter to push this update out, and that level of dedication to the community is genuinely amazing. Please don’t push yourself too hard — your rest and health matter way more than any feature or patch. There’s absolutely no rush on future updates; we’re all already more than grateful for everything you’ve built with Raikopon so far.
You’re doing really incredible work for the Switch emulation scene. Take all the time you need to recharge, and we’ll be excited for whatever you have planned next, whenever you’re ready.
All the best!

 

[Raibatsu]

This is an excellent update.
Compilation speeds have become significantly faster.

However, frequent stuttering still occurs in compiling shaders.
I’m not sure why this is happening, as there is no CPU bottleneck.

I am using an overclock setting of 2400/1000/2666, yet CPU usage is only around 50% even when stuttering occurs.
I think gameplay would be smoother if CPU usage could be increased.

Yeah those stutters are mostly the driver stalling. I am annoyed by those micro-stutters too - especially the huge ones that happen at the start of a big scene. This is why I didn't call it fully async shader compilation. It'd require me pulling apart the drivers and figuring frame by frame what's causing the CPUs to stop rendering.

It is in my gameplan but it will take a while to get to it. Thanks for the review!

Post automatically merged: Today at 3:10 PM

Is there an option to make the layout for just the top screen fullscreen?
I know it would be strechted.

I am probably going to work on a custom screen layout option next, so I'll keep this in mind for that. Thanks!

Post automatically merged: Today at 3:12 PM

Hey Raibatsu,
Just wanted to stop by and say thank you so much for the v1.4.0 release — this update is absolutely fantastic. The almost-true async shader compilation, per-game settings, and the fully reworked shader caching system are such huge upgrades to both performance and usability. It’s really impressive to see your vision of a fast, stock-clock-friendly 3DS emulator for Switch come together this well.
I heard you pulled a 20-hour all-nighter to push this update out, and that level of dedication to the community is genuinely amazing. Please don’t push yourself too hard — your rest and health matter way more than any feature or patch. There’s absolutely no rush on future updates; we’re all already more than grateful for everything you’ve built with Raikopon so far.
You’re doing really incredible work for the Switch emulation scene. Take all the time you need to recharge, and we’ll be excited for whatever you have planned next, whenever you’re ready.
All the best!

Hey, thank you for looking out for me. It genuinely makes me feel happy that a kind stranger on the internet feels empathy for another complete stranger.
I am more concerned about my full-time employment than I am about the nighters, but thank you! I'll try to slow down on the updates as to not get burnt out.


Have a lovely day.