Homebrew RetroArch Switch

[I_doTinySoldering]

Nice to see RetroArch development underway.

How programmable is the Switch video output? Are we stuck with 480p and 720p or is the console capable of outputting native 240p over HDMI?

What's the consensus on the Joy Cons at this point? I hear the wired controller has a strange method of polling that nullifies its advantage over the wireless Joy Cons.
Linky: gbatemp.net/threads/reverse-engineering-the-switch-pro-controller-wired-mode.475226

Given that Retroarch will be emulating multiple machines that have native controller to machine transport latencies of ~2ms, the Switch controllers could pose a significant road block to high end (OCD level) emulation performance.

@LibretroRetroArc
Will the Switch hardware be powerful enough delay processing frames to reduce latency for some cores?

 

[lordelan]

Nice to see RetroArch development underway.

How programmable is the Switch video output? Are we stuck with 480p and 720p or is the console capable of outputting native 240p over HDMI?

What's the consensus on the Joy Cons at this point? I hear the wired controller has a strange method of polling that nullifies its advantage over the wireless Joy Cons.
Linky: gbatemp.net/threads/reverse-engineering-the-switch-pro-controller-wired-mode.475226

Given that Retroarch will be emulating multiple machines that have native controller to machine transport latencies of ~2ms, the Switch controllers could pose a significant road block to high end (OCD level) emulation performance.

@LibretroRetroArc
Will the Switch hardware be powerful enough delay processing frames to reduce latency for some cores?

I can only compare that to the Wii U which has wireless controllers as well but at least 2D systems (SNES, Mega Drive and so one) are fully playable without latency.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Latency?
On what cores specifically is this latency most notable?

 

[dpad_5678]

*snip*
Anyways (on topic) this is still very cool, all the progress dev's made in the Switch scene and all, but I still feel no regret for updating past 3.0.0 or whatever firmware's considered "prime" right now. Still cool though.

 

[I_doTinySoldering]

Latency?
On what cores specifically is this latency most notable?

I asked about two potential (but not all) potential sources of input latency.

The Switch controller is never going to match native 8 bit, 16 bit, or arcade pcb latencies, but the faster the better.

Given that systems like the NES, SNES, and Genny poll the controller each frame, delaying the time that the emulator processes each frame allows the emulator to wait a moment to poll input. This reduces the amount if time the emulator has to completely process each frame (below the standard 16.6 ms), so it requires additional CPU muscle.

 

[Xyphoseos]

can we save on any games ?

 

[yardie]

can we save on any games ?

not yet buddy

 

[ShadowOne333]

can we save on any games ?

Not yet since the current way of loading NRO/NSO don't have rw permissions yet.
Once kernel comes around, that might change.
Or perhaps once the userland commands/modules are more well documented and implemented into libnx/libtransistor.

 

[syntaxyz]

Not yet since the current way of loading NRO/NSO don't have rw permissions yet.
Once kernel comes around, that might change.
Or perhaps once the userland commands/modules are more well documented and implemented into libnx/libtransistor.

Theoretically you could download and upload a save file while running Retroarch, but for that not to be concidered a hack it should be implemented in a way where you can share a folder using some well known protocol (ftp,samba,w/e) or have cloud file-management support like dropbox.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Theoretically you could download and upload a save file while running Retroarch, but for that not to be concidered a hack it should be implemented in a way where you can share a folder using some well known protocol (ftp,samba,w/e) or have cloud file-management support like dropbox.

You could, but afaik Retroarch for Switch doesn't have wifi or internet connection using the Switch's hardware yet.
That would be some months ahead when it starts picking up more with the releases of TZhax and TX's hardware mod.

 

[LibretroRetroArc]

Latest core to work with RetroArch Switch now thanks to the efforts of random contributors is Picodrive!

Unfortunately, the SH2 dynarec for Picodrive is ARMv7 32bit only, no AArch64. Fingers crossed that SH2 interpreter might be quick enough for Switch, although I bet it won't. I'd hope to be wrong though.

@Natehax and others already posted screenshots of this.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Latest core to work with RetroArch Switch now thanks to the efforts of random contributors is Picodrive!

Unfortunately, the SH2 dynarec for Picodrive is ARMv7 32bit only, no AArch64. Fingers crossed that SH2 interpreter might be quick enough for Switch, although I bet it won't. I'd hope to be wrong though.

@Natehax and others already posted screenshots of this.

Oh nice!
I'll add that to the OP.
Maybe @x0x0 could give the Picodrive core a try on the Switch to let us know about the performance running on interpreter

 

[ShadowOne333]

Proof of PicoDrive core running on the Nintendo Switch:

@RESWITCHED DISCORD , Thanks to B Monkey for Fixing some Heavy issues (we are also working on other Cores)

Courtesy of @Natehaxx

 

[ploggy]

Proof of PicoDrive core running on the Nintendo Switch:

Courtesy of @Natehaxx

Would be nice to see a vid of the game running though @Natehaxx ??

 

[Deleted User]

will upload a video on YT soon

 

[ploggy]

will upload a video on YT soon

Thanks, it can be added to op then with the rest.

Have you tried 32x? It would be interesting to see how well that runs too

 

[Deleted User]

atm we have issues with the newest libtransistor build it adds some new features which wont work with our old files wie compiled last night.

 

[Deleted User]

 

[SecureBoot]

More reasons to get excited for Team Xecuters work

 

[ShadowOne333]

Added the video to the OP
Also, thanks for the brief explanation on how things are at the moment, and what might be required for other cores to work on the Switch.

About the Saturn core, what size specifically did you get when you compiled the Saturn core?
So at the moment PegaSwitch doesn't load NROs above 30MB?