Lakka Switch, L4T edition
​

I am proud to finally release the L4T version of Lakka Switch!
New kernel, new logo, new drivers, audio... everything is fresh and clean.

Did I mention Rayman 3 was full speed on Dolphin? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

General system updates

• New Linux kernel and underlying operating system, based on Linux4Tegra and Jetson Nano drivers
  • mainline kernel has been deprecated
  • system features should now be on par with the L4T Ubuntu distribution, except for dock support
  • Bluetooth was lost in the battle and needs some rest to come back stronger
• aarch64 is now the default and mainly supported architecture
  • arm has been deprecated since L4T doesn't support it
• New logo made with the help of jaames and the R:S community

New features and improvements

• Audio now works through the internal speakers and headphones
• The new GPU driver supports both Vulkan and OpenGL
• RAM is now locked at full speed (1600Mhz), was 800MHz before
• The system is now way more stable and should boot for everyone with a decent SD card (no more black screen of death)
• RetroArch has been updated to add menu widgets (fancy onscreen notifications)
• Overclock profiles have been updated :
  • Renamed all profiles
  • Added more overclock profiles
  • Added underclock profiles

New cores

• mupen64plus-next (N64 emulator)
  • The core is full speed, even on aarch64 thanks to the new dynarec
  • Includes the updated version of the GlideN renderer
• picodrive (various Sega consoles)
  • The core replaces Genesis Plus GX (Game Gear support has been dropped)
• Beetle PSX HW (PSX emulator with OpenGL and Vulkan renderer)
  • The core performs worse than PCSX ReARMed for now, even with Vulkan
• reicast (Dreamcast emulator)
  • The core is full speed on all commercial games, no visual glitches
  • The OIT renderer works (better accuracy), speed is still good on 1x resolution
  • The core needs the Dreamcast BIOS files to be placed in /lakka/storage/system/DC
  • WinCE games are currently not supported - there is a WinCE version of the reicast core in the works but the aarch64 dynarec is too slow for the games to be playable (for now)
• Yaba Sanshiro (Saturn emulator)
  • The core is full speed on all commercial games
  • Yabause and Kronos were also added but both perform worse than Yaba Sanshiro
• theodore (Thomson MO/TO emulator)

Updated cores

• Dolphin : Vulkan support
  • With Vulkan, Dolphin runs decently - some games are playable, some are full speed... see for yourself, try it and experiment with different games and settings!
• PCSX ReARMed : Switch optimizations and CHD support
• PPSSPP : doesn't crash anymore when closing content

Removed cores

• mupen64plus
• parallel-n64
• Genesis Plus GX
• Ishiiruka
  • It might come back once the core is updated with the (beta) Vulkan renderer

Credits

• Kernel and drivers work: NVIDIA, switchroot team (especially ByLaws and langerhans)
• Lakka Switch work: natinusala and plaidman
• RetroArch, original Lakka distribution: libretro team
• mupen64plus-next: Gillou and m4xw
• PCSX ReARMed: Switch optimizations by m4xw, CHD support by aliaspider
• Dolphin core: aliaspider
• reicast core: flyinghead

Download link

The Lakka Switch website has been updated with the new version: https://lakka-switch.github.io/documentation/

Please note that you can't dual boot Ubuntu and Lakka Switch for now (it will always boot Ubuntu).

 

[Basketto]

Thanks for the answers. Playing some Mario Sunshine right now. Minor FPS issues but hopefully improve in the future. :3

Search this thread for Sunshine performance settings, it should run full speed at 1750 Overclock.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

The last lakka release(like all) many developers contributed to. I have zero doubt their is a play core available for the switch. The thing is, all these developers have jobs and lives they attend to. I saw sleep mode running on nat’s twitch post a month ago on lakka, and their hasn’t been an update yet. Their can be many reasons as to why their hasn’t been one. Maybe they want to add multiple features? Maybe they are working on stability issues? Maybe the builds are not yet complete? As hard as it is, unless you wan’t to build and compile a play! core yourself(which im not entirely sure of how to do), just need to sit tight and wait till the team is ready to publicly release something else.

Honestly, at this point, given that, from what I remember, lakka-switch ran pretty well for DC (with the PS1 running slowly for some reason, there was a fix I remember reading about), I would like to see this support wireless controllers and the dock as the next. Yes, adding more emulators would be nice, but I haven't seen much of Play! in action because I've heard that it's in the early development stages right now. Otherwise, I might give more of a shit about PS2 emulation, but most of the games from that era that could have a chance of coming to the Switch at this point in time are already playable in one form or another.

 

[SkittleDash]

I was wondering, does Dolphin have cheat support? Such as Action Replay?

 

[EmulateLife]

Otherwise, I might give more of a shit about PS2 emulation, but most of the games from that era that could have a chance of coming to the Switch at this point in time are already playable in one form or another.

I don't think you realize how many exclusive ps2 games there were. Maybe more than any other console.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:PlayStation_2-only_games

That's not to say I believe Play! or any PS2 emulator on Switch will ever be fully capable of running ps2 games, I do not.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

I don't think you realize how many exclusive ps2 games there were. Maybe more than any other console.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:PlayStation_2-only_games

That's not to say I believe Play! or any PS2 emulator on Switch will ever be fully capable of running ps2 games, I do not.

Point is, if I'm emulating PS2 games, I'm using Windows 10 with a PC because that's the sorry state of PCSX2 at the moment.

 

[Fenderbendr]

So I've tried the GameCube Mario sunshine settings someone posted around here and they make that and THPS3 run well, but I also tried those settings with Mario Tennis and Mario golf, but those games are really choppy and slow.

Are there some other settings to try to mess with to improve performance on other games? I'm overclocking the Switch cpu at 1785, and the gpu at 691.

I'm using PAL versions of the games btw

 

[Jackson98]

I was wondering, does Dolphin have cheat support? Such as Action Replay?

You can add cheat support for all cores, but you need to enable it. User interface/Views/Quick Menu then enable the appropriate settings.

 

[SkittleDash]

You can add cheat support for all cores, but you need to enable it. User interface/Views/Quick Menu then enable the appropriate settings.

Yeah, I did that. Learned that there's no libretro format cheats for Dolphin yet.

 

[Flarez942]

Is there any way to improve preformance on Dolphin? I overclocked the CPU and GPU and when playing metroid prime it plays poorly. Meanwhile games like Twilight Princess and Super Smash Bros. Melee run fine

 

[OldGnashburg]

Is there any way to improve preformance on Dolphin? I overclocked the CPU and GPU and when playing metroid prime it plays poorly. Meanwhile games like Twilight Princess and Super Smash Bros. Melee run fine

How is Twilight Princess running fine? I have incredibly low performance with TP in Castle Town and Hyrule Field with both my CPU and GPU overclocked.

 

[QwertyCody]

So I made an account on GBATemp to explicitly do these things:

1. Thank you for your work compiling and configuring Lakka for Switch
2. Thank you for allowing me to play through Wind Waker (after lots of config!) at my own leisure again
2a. Being a business professional I rarely have time to game anymore so the switch is a blessing and Lakka just adds way more to that.
2b. Wind Waker was my favorite game growing up.
3. Volunteer my programming and systems engineer background if there is anything you may need or want assistance with if there is a ongoing project.

Let me know, otherwise have a fantastic day and thank you so so much for your work and time.

I've lurked on GBATemp for years and leeched off projects but this is the first one that's got me jumping out of my skin like this.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

 

[ZachyCatGames]

Is there any way to improve preformance on Dolphin? I overclocked the CPU and GPU and when playing metroid prime it plays poorly. Meanwhile games like Twilight Princess and Super Smash Bros. Melee run fine

You can try lowering the emulated CPU clock if you haven't already. There's not much else beyond that, and performance is unlikely to increase much over time

 

[chillyshackk]

So I made an account on GBATemp to explicitly do these things:

1. Thank you for your work compiling and configuring Lakka for Switch
2. Thank you for allowing me to play through Wind Waker (after lots of config!) at my own leisure again
2a. Being a business professional I rarely have time to game anymore so the switch is a blessing and Lakka just adds way more to that.
2b. Wind Waker was my favorite game growing up.
3. Volunteer my programming and systems engineer background if there is anything you may need or want assistance with if there is a ongoing project.

Let me know, otherwise have a fantastic day and thank you so so much for your work and time.

I've lurked on GBATemp for years and leeched off projects but this is the first one that's got me jumping out of my skin like this.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

Check their web site, github and discord if you want to help and get in contact with them. They haven't been commenting much lately on this project here.

 

[Flarez942]

How is Twilight Princess running fine? I have incredibly low performance with TP in Castle Town and Hyrule Field with both my CPU and GPU overclocked.

Okay maybe I was stretching it a tiny bit, but in the opening areas it ran fine for me.

 

[Jackson98]

Considering Lakka progress is slow, because of how many developers contribute to it , I thought i would share
a bit more testing and mainly on N64/Dreamcast/PS1

Disable Vsync and enable Adaptive Vsync, increases peformance large margins for N64(and a few other emulators) at pretty much no visible disadvantage 99% of the time
Enable Threaded video
N64 emulation- all stock GPU(handheld)/CPU running HD 1280x720

Banjo Tooie: Runs 100% fps, however the game has very occasional fraction of a second stutters maybe 1 time every few minutes or so, however the fps doesn't drop, running handheld with sharp textures.
Goldeneye: 100% fps maybe dropping to 98% fps in most intensive places however pretty much perfect
Conker's Bad Fur Day: Absolutely perfect, have completed 100% audio and gameplay
Donkey Kong 64: Gameplay is 100% perfect full speed however their is minor lag entering a Kong Swap Barrel(loading) and using the Banana Warp pads(loading)
Mischief Makers: Game runs 90-100% speed most of the time sometimes dropping down to 80%.
Yoshi Story: Still haven't found a solution to this, game runs full speed until you try and move Yoshi then fps drops from 100% to 20%, no amount of overclocking has any effect whatsoever.
Zelda Ocarina of time: Running 100% fps using a beautiful (3DS style)high resolution texture pack.

PS1 Emulation

Not sure why it took me so long to figure out, however
BEETLE>PCSX

Even though PCSX has a few higher FPS by default, Beetle offers 100 more configuration options but most importantly
1) Increase resolution over 10X scale (you actually can't do this at all with PCSX you are stuck playing at under 400p ;P)
2) Change emulated clock speed

Crash Bandicoot: Runs full speed 60FPS stock CPU/GPU 2x resolution, Lower Beetle clock speed to 50%/disable dithering
Diablo: Runs full speed stock CPU/GPU 2x resolution, Lower emulated clock speed to 70%/disable dithering.

If one of these gets a Dynarec, I hope its Beetle, because games look 100X better after upscale and it has many more options.

Dreamcast Emulation

All stock CPU/GPU resolution upscaled to x960p

Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver: Runs perfect
Super Magnetic Neo(DC Crash Bandicoot): Runs perfect, however make sure to use either CHD or GDI as CDI breaks at a certain point in game.
Silver(use CDI) runs about 90% in gameplay needs minor overclocking
Record of Lordoss War(DC Diablo) Runs 95%-100% speed, slow downs when lots of enemies on screen, minor overclocking helps.
Skies of Arcadia: Perfect
Sonic Adventure: Perfect
Rayman 2: Perfect

Highly suggest download the GDI to CHD converter raspberrypie website, Magnetic Neo for example is 10% of the original size and runs perfectly.

I have included some optimisations for some of the harder to emulate N64 games below, delete the .txt extension, show SD card Hidden files and place inside Lakka/storage/.config/retroarch/config/
Mupen64Plus-Next OpenGL. Make sure to delete the .txt extension so they read Banjo-Tooie.opt for e.g They must also be renamed to match your rom(not including .n64/z64/v64). So if you have Goldeneye 007 (USA).n64 as your rom the opt file needs to be renamed Goldeneye 007 (USA).opt.

 

[legendheaven]

Hey m8s what emulators work on this im new on lakka thing

 

[pcwizard7]

Hey m8s what emulators work on this im new on lakka thing

all that the normal retroarch but better in most cases plus psp,dreamcast, gamecube and wii games

 

[Josshy0125]

How is Twilight Princess running fine? I have incredibly low performance with TP in Castle Town and Hyrule Field with both my CPU and GPU overclocked.

Castle town slows down a little, but not by much. Hyrile field drops to like... 7-9fps. Everything else is full speed though. Im almost through the game on lakka

 

[Basketto]

Anyone had any luck playing virtual console N64 on dolphin? Ive tried a few games, every one gives a black screen on boot .

 

[EmulateLife]

Anyone had any luck playing virtual console N64 on dolphin? Ive tried a few games, every one gives a black screen on boot .

It seems like you're making things more difficult for no reason in trying to get an emulator to work within an emulator. You'd have a better chance running those games directly with Mupen64plus-next either with Lakka or in Horizon.