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Homebrew Autorun - Play Windows PC games on your Nintendo Switch.

forgotten-865

forgotten-865

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Autorun is a homebrew app that runs Windows games and programs on the Switch. It brings Wine - the layer that lets Windows software run outside Windows - to the Switch's own operating system, and translates the games' PC (x86) code for the Switch's ARM processor with Box64. You bring the games: copy your own PC copies to the SD card and start them from Autorun's library.

Autorun is experimental. Some games run well, many start and then stop on something that isn't done yet. Every run writes a log that says where.
Click to expand...

What you need​

  • A Nintendo Switch with custom firmware (Atmosphère) that can run homebrew.
  • A microSD card with room for Autorun and your games.
  • Your games, as installed PC folders. Autorun runs 32-bit Windows games, which covers most PC games up to the early 2010s; games that exist only as 64-bit don't run yet.

Installing​

  1. Download the Autorun package (a .zip).
  2. Unzip it to the root of your SD card. Everything goes into switch/wine.
  3. Start Autorun from the Homebrew Menu.
Games need a lot of memory. Open the Homebrew Menu from a game (hold R while starting it) rather than from the Album, or put Autorun on the HOME menu with Settings -> System -> Make an Autorun forwarder and start it from there.

Adding games​

  1. Copy the game's folder into switch/wine/drive_c on the SD card. That folder is the game's C: drive.
  2. In Autorun, press + -> Add game and choose the game's .exe.
  3. Press A to play.
Adding a game enables DXVK, which draws Direct3D games through the Switch's Vulkan driver. To keep new games on WineD3D, turn off Settings -> Give a new game DXVK.

Settings a game expects to already have​

Some games read a settings file that their own installer or launcher normally writes, and refuse to start without it. Autorun ships those files, in the same place Windows keeps them: switch/wine/drive_c/users/wine/Documents on the card, which a game sees as its Documents folder.
Fallout: New Vegas is one. With no settings of its own it decides it does not know the graphics card, hands itself over to FalloutNVLauncher.exe and closes. The included My Games\FalloutNV\FalloutPrefs.ini names the Switch's GPU and asks for 720p, so the game starts instead. Leave it where it is. The game rewrites that file once you change its options in game, so if you edit it yourself keep the sD3DDevice line under [Display].

Games that need the 32-bit forwarder​

A few older games only work when loaded at fixed low memory addresses - Need for Speed Underground 2 and Halo are two. Autorun notices when a game needs this and offers to set it up: Settings -> System -> Make a 32-bit forwarder adds an "Autorun 32-bit" icon to the HOME menu. Start those games from that icon



https://github.com/danfromtico/autorun
 
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albarapa said:
Can anyone who's already tried it tell me what resolution is possible in nfs most wanted with v1 oc?
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  • Halo: Combat Evolved: Plays at about 30 fps. Max graphics even without an overclock. Needs the 32-bit forwarder.
  • Need for Speed Underground 2: Playable on low settings without overclock; max settings with overclock. Races run at roughly 20-45 fps. Requires xinput mod.
  • Need for Speed: Most Wanted: Playable on low settings without overclock; max settings with overclock. Requires xinput mod.
  • Left 4 Dead 2: Reaches in-game. It's heavy and has room for improvement. Needs Goldberg Steam emulator since Autorun is single-process and doesn't have Steam.
  • Fallout: New Vegas: Reaches in-game. Heavy, with room for improvement.
  • WarCraft III: In game at 24-34 fps, menus at about 50 fps; intro movie plays. (Needs one-time setup).
  • OpenTTD 15.3 (x86): Runs at up to 60 fps with OpenGL and sound.
  • Quake III Arena (Quake3e): Plays at 1280x720, about 37 fps.
 
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masagrator said:
Translation doesn't use software state machine.
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Wow, what a detailed explanation! You must understand the code behind this very well! I bet there aren't any nuances to this :) Maybe you could go to GitHub page of the creators and explain to them in the same way why this is emulation and not translation so they can update the description!
 
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albarapa said:
Wow, what a detailed explanation! You must understand the code behind this very well! I bet there aren't any nuances to this :) Maybe you could go to GitHub page of the creators and explain to them in the same way why this is emulation and not translation so they can update the description!
Click to expand...
I don't need to
Screenshot_2026-09-20-21-08-17-359_com.android.chrome-edit.jpg
 
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Custom launchers for some games are not supported i guess, I tried running NFS Carbon with the NFSCO mod and the game refuses to launch, it creates the 32 bit forwarder needed but returns to the HOS. (log attatched). Will try with the vanilla version and edit post.

EDIT: So i tried NFS Carbon vanilla, and according to the logs the frontend tries to load d3dx9_30.dll but fails. I created the dxvk folder on drive_c folder and added the DirectX 9 files and it still crashes on startup. Will open a issue on GitHub as well if i find the time. I attached the log
 

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