seedds
9b7cb76104
An iPhone log of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity went from about 57 to 17 fps after the first battle's first cutscene, at thermal state 0 and with no frame held: the same ~1,400 draws a frame, but NVN calls from 82,000 to 287,000, GPU 15 -> 51 ms and the replay 12 -> 24 ms. The battle then runs many more small compute dispatches (on the Mac about 280 -> 900-1,500 a frame, each after a game barrier, about 17 texture binds each), and two host costs grew with them: - Every dispatch had a compute encoder of its own with full queue barriers on both sides, a GPU drain per dispatch (about 10 us each on the Mac). Dispatches now go into the open copy encoder (dispatch_enc), each after a barrier inside it as texture copies are, with the compute argument table set once per encoder: about 1.3 us each. DM_NVN_DISPATCH_OWN=1 (and DM_NVN_PASSGPU) gives each its own encoder again. - KTGL registers a texture into the next ID of a ring before every bind, so the per-ID view was rebuilt for half of all binds (newTextureViewWithPixelFormat, 45% of the replay thread). Views are now also kept by texture serial and view parameters (vc_get: 4 per texture, checked against the current base texture, dropped when the texture or its pool is finalized, live textures only), and a registration identical to what the ID holds keeps its view and the registration generation. 2,036 views made in a 15-minute battle run, 211 million reused. Mac (M4 Pro), original and fixed hosts side by side on the same route: frame p50 19.4 -> 16.7 ms before the cutscene and 34 -> 17.3 ms after it, GPU after it 17 -> 6.6 ms. Screenshots every 500 frames: the dark platform in some is a cloud shadow, as often in the original (8 of 51 vs 8 of 63). The earlier reading of the iPhone battle's GPU going from 10 to 41 ms as its GPU clock following the frame step's hold was wrong: the same rise comes with no hold, with the same growth in calls. The profile comment, the fps_hold row and the development notes now say so; fps_hold stays off.
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), 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); the upgrade needs update 2.0.0, it does not work with other versions |
| 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 upgrade needs update 1.9.0, it does not work with other versions |
| 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); the upgrade needs update 1.3.0, it does not work with other versions |
| Fire Emblem: Three Houses | ~13 GB | Upgraded to 60 fps (30 fps on Switch); the upgrade needs update 1.2.0, it does not work with other versions |
| Super Mario Galaxy | ~3 GB | |
| The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom | ~17 GB | Upgraded to 60 fps (30 fps on Switch); the upgrade needs update 1.4.3, it does not work with other versions |
| Monster Hunter Rise | ~22 GB | Upgraded to 60 fps (30 fps on Switch); the upgrade needs update 16.0.2, it does not work with other versions |
| Ace Attorney Investigations Collection | ~7 GB | |
| Hades II | ~4 GB | |
| Unicorn Overlord | ~4 GB | |
| Rhythm Heaven Groove | ~3 GB | |
| Octopath Traveler 0 | ~4 GB | Upgraded to 60 fps (30 fps on Switch); the upgrade needs update 1.0.5, it does not work with other versions |
| Pokémon Legends: Z-A | ~6 GB | |
| Cuphead | ~5 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 |
 Rhythm Heaven Groove |
 Octopath Traveler 0 |
 Pokémon Legends: Z-A |
 Cuphead |
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 "backports.zstd; python_version < '3.14'"
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 3D, the right stick (the camera in most games) is not drawn: swipe on the right third of the screen, starting anywhere off the buttons. In Super Mario Galaxy, other 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, Tears of the Kingdom and Octopath Traveler 0 at their original 30 fps, which saves battery.DM_SHOW_FPS=1shows the frame rate at the top left (--show-fpswhen packing turns it on from the start).
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.