Homebrew Discussion About Vulkan on the Switch

[notimp]

Am I missing something here? Do we already have hardware acceleration through OpenGL?
If not then Dolphin will be nowhere near running on the switch. We will either need OpenGL or Vulkan hardware acceleration to even port much simpler N64 or PSX emulators.

We have it as part of Linux (== running an entirely different OS on the switch with and entire different subset of issues), we don't have it as part of "the normal Nintendo OS" where most of the emulation homebrew development "should" be happening.

If you are interested in running emulation on top of a Linux OS, the most interesting unifying project here would be lakka, which has drawn close to zero interest in this community so far. If you go with a more stock linux - you'll also go with stock linux emulators (for other systems) which kind of defeats the purpose of hacking a popular console (the ability to "optimize" special ports, use its native UI, quickly switch to other games you might be playing, ...). There is still more force behind the "run our own apps on Nintendos OS" side of the scene, and hopefully always will be. But - so far no hardware acceleration.

 

[Deleted User]

We have it as part of Linux (== running an entirely different OS on the switch with and entire different subset of issues), we don't have it as part of "the normal Nintendo OS" where most of the emulation homebrew development "should" be happening.

If you are interested in running emulation on top of a Linux OS, the most interesting unifying project here would be lakka, which has drawn close to zero interest in this community so far. If you go with a more stock linux - you'll also go with stock linux emulators (for other systems) which kind of defeats the purpose of hacking a popular console (the ability to "optimize" special ports, use its native UI, quickly switch to other games you might be playing, ...). There is still more force behind the "run our own apps on Nintendos OS" side of the scene, and hopefully always will be. But - so far no hardware acceleration.

We Have Hardware Acceleration for Linux and also Lakka is Almost Ready

 

[SimonMKWii]

God damn, imagine Lakka + Vulkan!
It would be a dream come true.

P.S. I strongly advise against running emulators in Horizon, especially with all the errors that are bound to occur, you'll be sending those reports to Nintendo, which breaks their EULA.
Running it in an isolated OS means you won't have access to Nintendo's servers, meaning Nintendo won't receive those reports, although Nintendo aren't likely to ban you for using a different OS anyway.
It's your device, so as long as you don't modify their firmware, I can't see why Nintendo would have a problem with that.

 

[Deleted User]

Am I missing something here? Do we already have hardware acceleration through OpenGL?
If not then Dolphin will be nowhere near running on the switch. We will either need OpenGL or Vulkan hardware acceleration to even port much simpler N64 or PSX emulators.

Dolphin is already working very nicely on the Switch, and people are already working on a proper GPU driver for hardware acceleration.

Just give it some more time and it'll flourish like crazy. Let's not forget, it's still SUPER early days.

 

[notimp]

We Have Hardware Acceleration for Linux and also Lakka is Almost Ready

Its fundamentally a question as to where emulation dev resources are congregating. It could be Linux/Lakka, but I still "hope" (for entirely selfish reasons... ) that its not.

But there also has to be an argument made about being the first one to the pitch - and if a linux distro with a simple frontend for emulation exists (lakka)... And plays PSX, PSP, ... games, people will use it.

 

[Fadi5555]

We Have Hardware Acceleration for Linux and also Lakka is Almost Ready

Actually @natinusala did a great job about lakka on switch he also add some cores including ppsspp.

Also did many changes for more information see this link
https://github.com/lakka-switch/Lakka-LibreELEC/commits/Lakka-V2.1-dev

To see the cores here:

 

[Axido]

We Have Hardware Acceleration for Linux and also Lakka is Almost Ready

So, what was the state of audio support again when it comes to Linux (especially Lakka) on Switch. I always read that some Switch hacking projects don't feature audio at all.

To me having proper sound is fundamental for a good gaming experience.

And one other question: What's with all those unnecessarily capitalized words in your post?

 

[Deleted User]

So, what was the state of audio support again when it comes to Linux (especially Lakka) on Switch. I always read that some Switch hacking projects don't feature audio at all.

To me having proper sound is fundamental for a good gaming experience.

And one other question: What's with all those unnecessarily capitalized words in your post?

We can only Repeat again and again there is no ETA For Audio

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Actually @natinusala did a great job about lakka on switch he also add some cores including ppsspp.

Also did many changes for more information see this link
https://github.com/lakka-switch/Lakka-LibreELEC/commits/Lakka-V2.1-dev

To see the cores here:

He Disabled the Cores...

 

[Fadi5555]

We can only Repeat again and again there is no ETA For Audio

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------



He Disabled the Cores...

Yes it was disabled but he put them back just see here:
https://github.com/lakka-switch/Lakka-LibreELEC/commit/680576b2bbe51ecea1c9eb1987001e2370b94259

 

[natinusala]

About citra, they wrote a JIT GPU compiler in a shader. That's quite impressive.

Actually @natinusala did a great job about lakka on switch he also add some cores including ppsspp.

Also did many changes for more information see this link
https://github.com/lakka-switch/Lakka-LibreELEC/commits/Lakka-V2.1-dev

To see the cores here:

PPSSPP is one of the cores that I removed because it didn't compile, along with desmume. See https://github.com/libretro/Lakka-LibreELEC/pull/471

I'll see if I can put them back at a later time, however I don't think PPSSPP will work (it needs to be rewritten from scratch).

 

[Deleted User]

About citra, they wrote a JIT GPU compiler in a shader. That's quite impressive.



PPSSPP is one of the cores that I removed because it didn't compile, along with desmume. See https://github.com/libretro/Lakka-LibreELEC/pull/471

I'll see if I can put them back at a later time, however I don't think PPSSPP will work (it needs to be rewritten from scratch).

PPSSPP will need alot more work ... its another step its like somebody would compile Citra (it worked inside linux)

 

[Fadi5555]

About citra, they wrote a JIT GPU compiler in a shader. That's quite impressive.



PPSSPP is one of the cores that I removed because it didn't compile, along with desmume. See https://github.com/libretro/Lakka-LibreELEC/pull/471

I'll see if I can put them back at a later time, however I don't think PPSSPP will work (it needs to be rewritten from scratch).

First of all I want to thank you so much for your efforts.
We really appreciate that.
Actually we'll hope to get ppsspp it's really amazing emulator it has a huge library of games.
I hope our dream will come true.
Also we just thinking about damon pro (it's ps2 emulator running on android devices with pretty good performance).
I wish if there's ability to port to switch.

 

[Fadi5555]

PPSSPP will need alot more work ... its another step its like somebody would compile Citra (it worked inside linux)

Both ppsspp and citra are using arm chip which will make the port into the arm devices like mobile phones or Nintendo switch much easier.

 

[natinusala]

So the PPSSPP core is up to date after all. I'll see if I can make it work.

 

[Fadi5555]

So the PPSSPP core is up to date after all. I'll see if I can make it work.

Thank you so much.
You'll make us very happy and grateful.
Thanks again.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Vulkan will take some of the unnecessary strain away from the CPU leaving more important graphical tasks to Vulkan, and AI Encoding/Decoding, or similar computations to the CPU emulators are a balancing act on the Hardware you're dealing with, too much any one way will cause instability this is just one step to make this all more balanced.

don't take my word for it entirely though, I have a very tenuous grasp on Hardware, and Emulators, so my knowledge might be naive, or a portion of the whole truth, so take it with a grain of salt.

That's what I heard too. So in theory it should help at least a little, but how much is uncertain.

 

[natinusala]

Off-topic but https://twitter.com/natinusala/status/999042231507079168

cc @Fadi5555

 

[Fadi5555]

Off-topic but https://twitter.com/natinusala/status/999042231507079168

cc @Fadi5555

Wow wow wow.
I can't imagine you got ppsspp running through lakka at 60 fps wow
That's really fantastic.
All I can say the god bless you.
Thanks from my heart for your efforts we really appreciate your work a lot.
You're the legend.....

 

[thealgorithm]

Main issue is poor single core performance on the underclocked arm cores of the switch. (something such as a snapdragon 835 - even when throttled has double the performance per core) and even then just about manages decent speed on some games (Mario kart etc). I think for some games (and using speedhacks - underclock emulated gamecube cpu in emulator etc) its possible to get some games to run fairly well on the switch potentially

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

Vulkan IS OpenGL, https://www.khronos.org/

It's just got more features that help it work more efficiently and "closer to the metal"

Not saying "Oh it's just OpenGL with a new name!" more of "It's a new name but they added some really cool stuff"

Some of the work for the Switch could probably be ported over from the Shield TV Dev kit? Since it's the same SoC and all that...

https://developer.nvidia.com/develop4shield

If I was working on hacking with the Shield TV I would probably have that downloaded and peeking at some stuff for sure.