seedds
476b1135b4
Octopath Traveler 0 1.0.5 (Unreal Engine 4.26 / 4.27 mobile renderer, SDK 19.3.13) plays from boot through character creation into the story on the Mac (15 minutes with the iPhone memory layout, no crash); not yet run on an iPhone. - Shaders: the 10,324 are in the two shader code archives of the game's pak, each one Oodle-compressed. uepak.py reads the version 11 pak (AES-256 index; the key is the window of main that decrypts it, never printed or written; AES through CommonCrypto) and the archives; the Mac host decodes them with the game's own OodleLZ_Decompress (DM_OODLE_JOB, hle_oodle.c, build-gated) and shader_split.py reads the decoded LSLG records (profile key shader_ue_decode; the NSP script's decode_ue_shaders stage). Bindings measured: Engage's separate texture layout. - Memory: Unreal's nninitStartup reserves a 62 GB address region and its FMallocBinned3 37 GB of it. A cut skips the allocator's constructor and the host puts its own FMalloc vtable on a malloc zone in the object (hle_uemalloc.c); the region is capped at 2 GB with the game's own -SwitchVirtualAddressSpaceSize (new profile key game_args, also for the iOS app) and SDK 19's node area is cut to 62 MB as Engage's, for a 3.75 GB guest block. - Host: game arguments are set before nninitStartup, as on hardware; an undefined weak import nothing defines binds to 0, as rtld binds it (Tears of the Kingdom boots the same with the old and new hosts: its weak glslc* imports now resolve to 0); nvnCommandBufferFenceSync (OP_FENCE_SYNC), the texture / sampler pool getters, vi::GetLatestFrameNumber / ListFrameHistory; DM_ALIAS_WINDOWS for sizing fixed-window allocators. - Rewriter: a byte jump table whose add sits 17 instructions before its br (jump_bytes_far, tried last). - build_ipa.sh quotes FONT_PY (a python path with spaces failed the font step). Open: 61 vertex shaders pick a texture slot at run time (dynamic handle), 16 compute shaders with 3D image atomics do not build. The profile (dm/games/01005270232F2000) holds the shader tables, translation chain b-ba76ba138e78.
nxnative
Play your own Nintendo Switch games natively on iPhone and iPad. Bring your game (its NSP files) and your prod.keys; one script turns them into an IPA that you sideload.
It is not an emulator: the game's own code runs directly on the Apple chip, with Switch graphics rebuilt on Metal. Nothing from any game is in this repository, and the project is not affiliated with Nintendo or any game publisher.
Acknowledgements
This project is built on other people's work:
- d2r-mobile (MIT) developed this native-execution approach, for Diablo II: Resurrected. nxnative (first called smbw-mobile) started as a copy of its generic parts: the NSO rewriter, the host that stands in for Horizon, the NVN-on-Metal layer and the iOS app shell. Fixes go both ways.
- Ryujinx (MIT): its shader translator (
Ryujinx.Graphics.Shader,Ryujinx.CommonandSpv.Generator1.3.2, indm/third_party/ryujinxwith a few fixes listed in its README) turns the games' Maxwell shaders into SPIR-V. Its emulation of the kernel and system services is also a reference when the host's behaviour is in doubt. - Atmosphère: its kernel, mesosphère, is the reference for Horizon's synchronization semantics (address arbiter, condition variables).
- yuzu: Maxwell instruction encodings for the shader reference tool, and a cross-check for kernel behaviour.
- LibHac: reads NSPs and layers updates over the base game in
dm/tools/nx_extract. hactool did the first extractions. - SPIRV-Cross: SPIR-V to Metal Shading Language.
- deko3d (zlib): its texture layout size algorithm is ported in
dm/gfx/nvn/nvn_tex.c. - libvpx (VP9 movies), stb_vorbis (movie sound), libdeflate, the Vulkan headers and NVIDIA FLIP ship in
dm/third_partywith their licenses (list). - Capstone, lz4, fontTools and XcodeGen are used by the build.
Games
All of these are tested on an iPhone and playable:
| Game | IPA | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Super Mario Bros. Wonder | ~4 GB | |
| Fire Emblem Engage | ~15 GB | Upgraded to 60 fps (30 fps on Switch) |
| Metroid Dread | ~5 GB | |
| 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim | ~5 GB | |
| Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury | ~3 GB | |
| The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | ~16 GB | Upgraded to 60 fps (30 fps on Switch) |
| The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening | ~6 GB | |
| Super Mario Odyssey | ~6 GB | |
| Hades | ~4 GB | |
| Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity | ~15 GB | Upgraded to 60 fps (30 fps on Switch) |
| Fire Emblem: Three Houses | ~13 GB | Upgraded to 60 fps (30 fps on Switch) |
| Super Mario Galaxy | ~3 GB | |
| The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom | ~17 GB | Upgraded to 60 fps (30 fps on Switch) |
| Monster Hunter Rise | ~22 GB | Upgraded to 60 fps (30 fps on Switch) |
| Ace Attorney Investigations Collection | ~7 GB | |
| Hades II | ~4 GB | |
| Unicorn Overlord | ~4 GB |
 Super Mario Bros. Wonder |
 Fire Emblem Engage |
 Metroid Dread |
 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim |
 Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury |
 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild |
 The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening |
 Super Mario Odyssey |
 Hades |
 Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity |
 Fire Emblem: Three Houses |
 Super Mario Galaxy |
 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom |
 Monster Hunter Rise |
 Ace Attorney Investigations Collection |
 Hades II |
 Unicorn Overlord |
Needs iOS / iPadOS 26 or later on an iPhone 15 Pro or newer (A17 Pro chip or later) or an iPad with an M1 chip or later: the games' textures are BC-compressed, and older iPhones can't read that format. Other games aren't supported yet. For them the script writes a survey and still tries its best to pack an IPA, guessing the game's settings; such an IPA may not start.
Pack an IPA
1. Get nxnative and its tools (once, on a Mac with Xcode and Homebrew):
git clone https://github.com/seedds/nxnative.git && cd nxnative
brew install xcodegen zstd spirv-cross
brew install --cask dotnet-sdk
python3 -m pip install lz4 capstone fonttools
2. Put one game's NSPs in a folder, base game (an NSP, or an XCI cartridge dump) and update (and any DLC):
~/Games/MarioWonder/
Super Mario Bros. Wonder [010015100B514000][v0].nsp
Super Mario Bros. Wonder [010015100B514800][v327680].nsp
3. Run the script:
python3 scripts/build_ipa_from_nsp.py ~/Games/MarioWonder -k ~/keys/prod.keys
The IPA appears in the same folder (here ~/Games/MarioWonder/SMBWMobile.ipa). The first build takes 30–60 minutes, later ones about 10. You need free disk space of about twice the NSPs' size plus 10 GB. Options such as -o (output path) and --app-name are listed by -h.
4. Install the IPA with your sideloading tool (AltStore, Sideloadly, LiveContainer, …). The app gets the game's name, icon and version (the update's version, for example 1.2.1 for Mario Wonder; the base game's when there is no update).
Play
Touch controls. Tap 2D / 3D at the top to switch layouts; the app remembers your choice. Wonder, Engage, Dread, 13 Sentinels and Link's Awakening start in 2D, the other games in 3D. In Super Mario Galaxy, touches outside the controls move the pointer. A connected game controller hides the touch controls and keeps every button.
- Game language is English by default. For Chinese, add the line
DM_LANG=zh-HanstoDocuments/env.txt. - Saves and logs are in the Files app, under the app's name:
save/andlog.txt. When something goes wrong, sendlog.txt(the previous run islog.prev.txt). - Short stutters the first time a new scene appears are normal: the app compiles graphics for it once and remembers them for the next launch.
- Reinstalling: some sideloading tools give a reinstalled app a new data folder. Copy
save/andpso_user.tsvover from the old one to keep your progress. - Settings without rebuilding: put lines like
DM_OPMODE=0(handheld mode: lower resolution, higher frame rate) inDocuments/env.txt.DM_FPS_TARGET=30keeps Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom at their original 30 fps, which saves battery.
Known issues
- No amiibo and no online features.
- Fire Emblem Engage: after switching away from the app and back, some sounds may stay silent until you restart it.
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses: small square patches on the ground where decals land.
- Super Mario Galaxy: effects drawn as points or lines come out one pixel wide.
For developers
How it works, the script's options, running games on the Mac, adding a game, and per-game notes: docs/development.md. In-depth bring-up and debugging notes: docs/agents.
License
MIT (see LICENSE). Third-party code keeps its own license; see dm/third_party.