Nintendo Switch Clock(s)

[impeeza]

Hi everyone I was looking for information about the different(s) clock(s) inside the Switch, I use plurals because even there is really an only clock, different pieces of software uses different versions of the same clock with different offsets.

As long I know there are:

• RTC Clock, It can be changed with EmuNAND Switcher or UBUNTU
• Hekate (Really NYX) clock, set his offset with the RCT Clock on the file "SD:\bootloader\nyx.ini"
• HOShave two clocks:
  • "NetworkSystemClock" Theoretically is set by the NTP daemon and can be changed with some Homebrew (see below).
  • "UserSystemClock" is set by user on the HOS interface

Searching on GBATemp, I found homebrew to change the NetworkSystemClock
https://gbatemp.net/threads/switchtime-manipulate-time-based-events-in-games.552477/
https://gbatemp.net/threads/luxray-...rd-and-shield-in-form-of-a-sys-module.557242/
https://gbatemp.net/threads/luxray-...rd-and-shield-in-form-of-a-sys-module.557242/

So, what is the difference between NetworkSystemClock and RCT?

 

[thesjaakspoiler]

As far as I understand it, the RTC (Real Time Clock) is the real hardware clock, wired directly to the battery of your switch.
So even if you completely turn your Switch off, it will keep ticking.
The NetworkSystemClock fetches the time from an NTP server on the internet and probably they just calculate an offset between the RTC and NTP time.
But if you would never connect your Switch to the internet, it will never update the time and probably use the RTC as a fallback.

The UserSystemClock is also uses the RTC and also uses just an time offset.
Some operating systems separate the system clock from the user land clock in order to manage switching between timezones and summer/winter time more easily.