seedds
495963cfa3
Tears of the Kingdom 1.4.3's main stopped the rewriter at three new shapes: - An atomic update's retry path moved out of line: the failed stxr branches to ldxr; cmp; b.eq <the stxr>, which re-enters the window at its store (main+0x18598 -> 0x181fc, 8 sites). retry_block / site_retry_window give that block a patch copy of its own: the retry block and the window's tail from the store on, under one prologue, so no memory access falls between the exclusive load and the store. - A window no longer spans a second exclusive load. A retry block's ldxr at main+0x5a4674 used to open a window that ran on into the next, unrelated ldxr ... stxr loop, and branches to that loop's head landed mid-window. - Jump tables whose entries are relative to an adr, not to the table (main+0x393bb0: adr x18; ldrsw x1,[x17,x0,lsl #2]; add x18,x18,x1; br x18), with the bounds check on a copied register (mov w16,w15) and, once, a table base built far from the dispatch: every adrp + add pair building that register in the function is tried, and a table is accepted only if exactly one makes every target an instruction of the function. jump_adr_offsets is tried only where jump_offsets finds nothing. main now rewrites (134 windows, 8 retry windows, 814 tpidr_el0 reads as in the census). Every other extracted module of every title (31: Mario 1.0 and 1.2.1, Engage, Metroid, Sentinels, 3D World, Breath of the Wild, Link's Awakening, Odyssey, Hades) gives byte-identical output; only build_src.sha256, the rewriter's own hash, differs.
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, unmodified indm/third_party/ryujinx) 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 | NSPs to put in the folder | IPA | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Super Mario Bros. Wonder | base game + update 1.2.1 | ~4 GB | |
| Fire Emblem Engage | base game + update 2.0.0 (+ Expansion Pass DLC) | ~15 GB | Upgraded to 60 fps (30 fps on Switch) |
| Metroid Dread | base game + update 2.1.0 | ~5 GB | |
| 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim | base game + update 1.10 | ~5 GB | |
| Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury | base game + update 1.2.2 | ~3 GB | |
| The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | base game + update 1.9.0 (+ DLC) | ~16 GB | Upgraded to 60 fps (30 fps on Switch) |
| The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening | base game + update 1.1.0 | ~6 GB | |
| Super Mario Odyssey | base game + update 1.4.1 | ~6 GB |
Being ported: Hades (base game + update 1.0.38233). It plays on the Mac; its iPhone build is not tested yet, and the script cannot pack it yet.
 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 |
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 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. 3D World, Breath of the Wild and Odyssey start in 3D, the other games in 2D. 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.
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.
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.