The mod scene has grown so fast on the switch. i'm impressed. Whenever the revision comes out, ill use my launch switch just for this type of stuff
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Switch Homebrew is now running Android (play native SHIELD games like Portal, Borderlands 2, MGS3; mobile ports like GTA SA + even stream Overwatch)
- Thread starter vestan
- Start date
You can do this sort of stuff without risk of a ban. I'm happily doing similar and I go online with my Switch all the time (and it's updated to the latest software).
Are you talking exclusively about booting into other OSes and never touching Horizon, or using Homebrew on Horizon as well?
I'm new to this cfw thing, where can I find reliable tutorials/instructions?
Really makes me want to pickup a second Switch. Was waiting for the end of the game cycle to mod it but this is insanely tempting.
Isn't homebrew on Switch like, not a persistent thing? Don't you have to redo the hack every time you turn the system off?
You can keep the system in sleep mode, if you completely turn off the switch then you need to run the hack again which is as simple as putting a dongle in the USB port. No pc required. Can even use an android phone or jailbroken iPhone.
It's insane how many good games are on shield and would run on Switch that haven't received cheap ports yet.
Just never touching Horizon, even via EmuNAND (though that is tempting in the future, but would really have to feature something over and above what Lakka does).
Yup! When I say it doesn't result in a ban, it hasn't resulted in a ban for me. Yet (though it's unlikely because it is undetectable).
But yeah, it's effectively dual boot. I just make sure I remove the homebrew SD card with Lakka on it before I boot back into the regular Switch OS *just in case* they can see there's non-Nintendo stuff on there.
There's another method called "EmuNAND" which emulates the Switch OS on a microSD (so you can hack that if you want) but if you go online with that running, it's bansville. But IMO that's really only beneficial for pirating stuff and SOME emulators that aren't in Lakka.
The only thing Switch is lacking is a coldboot without having to implant a modchip into your switch to load Hekate which is the bootloader accessed through RCM (recovery mode). Once a coldboot is implemented then cfw and homebrew will be pretty much a permanent thing. Accessing homebrew isn't a hard thing to do for non-patched Switches.
Steps are pretty simple, use jig->payload loader->load Hekate payload->access Homebrew/CFW. Supposedly a coldboot is being worked on but waiting on the model revisions to release or something
I feel like I've reset(power off->on) my Switch since launch day less than a dozen times
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This is amazing
And I'm literally aghast that Portal works and it isn't just... a thing I can buy. Even with this in existence, just do it, I'll buy it!
And I'm literally aghast that Portal works and it isn't just... a thing I can buy. Even with this in existence, just do it, I'll buy it!
It's awesome what the homebrew community has achieved on Switch. I just use it for basic emulators, to play classic console and arcade games but there is some really advanced stuff out there now, like this Android mod.
I wonder if there'd be a day I can run Dolphin on the Switch to play Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD.
Wonder what it'd be like with the average Switch wifi. Unless you're talking about docked.
OP
OP
You can literally do that right now. Pokemon XD in particular is fully playable at full speed.
Good for people who are interested in this. Homebrew has never been my thing, I'd rather keep my console as it came.
But it does seem interesting and I know the possibilities are enormous.
But it does seem interesting and I know the possibilities are enormous.
I'm on the "when I've got the Pro" train. Christ knows how for along this will be by that time... amazing.
At this point, Nintendo might as well have an adroid-esque store for NVIDIA based games. You know they will fix this loophole instead in the pro.
When was it fixed?
I got my switch when smash bros came out. Is that gonna work?
Sony is currently developing offficial one will be released in few weeks.
Probably not. You can refer to this:
Switch Informations by serial number - READ THE FIRST POST before asking questions
TL;DR. Compare your serial here to know if your Switch is patched or not: Serials beginning with XAW1: Serials between XAW10000000000 - XAW10065000000 are safe to buy Serials between XAW10066000000 - XAW10120000000 are possibly patched Serials above XAW10120000000 are definitely patched...
gbatemp.net
Nice one!
I already have a spare launch Switch. Been waiting to get it all homebrewed up. Just need to find a good, noob guide and also the time.
I already have a spare launch Switch. Been waiting to get it all homebrewed up. Just need to find a good, noob guide and also the time.
Looks like I don't need to get Sword/Shield until next year then, thanks!
This might get me to put a CFW on my Switch. Being able to play my Steam library on my Switch is a dream come true. Question is do i wait until a new revision is released or do i go ahead and use my launch unit. I lean more towards the first option as i still fear i might fuck something up and lose access to NSO.
Edit: Well, i have to use my launch unit anyway because the newer models patched the exploit but what i meant is to have one untouched console for online play and the other for homebrew.
Edit: Well, i have to use my launch unit anyway because the newer models patched the exploit but what i meant is to have one untouched console for online play and the other for homebrew.
I guess this would work if you want to use as much of the screen as possible:
But Citra will probably run too slow anyway. DraStic for DS emulation will be more interesting.
This can run on a separate SD card, and there's nothing done on the main switch itself that gets modified. It's perfectly fine to do both on the one console, it's what I do :)
Edit: That's not to say this could never be detected/cause a ban, but because nothing is getting modified in the slightest (it's all kept to the microSD) the chances are incredibly minimal, if any.
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True. I guess Citra would be a bit much for the Switch. I would look forward to DS emulation. I just need to figure out how to get my game saves from my cartridges over to a emu game save.
Once you touch homebrew/cfw. There is no guarantee you won't be banned in the future no matter how slight that chance may be. There's definitely ways that are proven to prevent bans currently, but it all depends on what Nintendo does in the future to detect tampering.
If you don't mind risking a system ban (meaning its hard to get your account off of it) then you can try. If not then wait for a revision, there likely will be another exploit down the line if the hackers have any desire to do it.
With the news/rumours of an incoming Switch revision, I spent the last day or so modding my switch. I did this with the full understanding that Nintendo may ban my console at any point if I bring it online.
That said, I did some pretty cool things. The most difficult part for me (having previous Nintendo console modding experience) was to bend a paperclip properly to short pin 1 and 10. After dozens of trial and error attempts and a lot of reading, I was able to set it up in a "quad-boot" scenario on a 32GB microsd:
1. Stock Switch OS (Horizon)
-I'll be keeping this offline until I get a "new" model Switch and move my Nintendo profile over, as there are a few games I'll be picking up between now and the likely launch of the new switch (Mario Maker, Zelda, etc.)
2. Hacked Switch OS (Atmosphère)
-This was the first thing I tried, because I wanted access to the Homebrew launcher similar to Wii/WiiU/3DS
-I was able to extract my save file from my Zelda cartridge (or maybe the internal NAND) using an application called Edizon. This puts me more at ease, I have over 200 hours on my save. I didn't bother editing the save file, because I'm not interested in that. I will experiment in the future to see if I can import that save somehow to the WiiU version of the game running using CEMU, but I'll probably try the save file on my Wii U first, since I haven't figured out a way to RIP BotW to FAT32 yet (4GB filesize limit).
-I installed retroarch, and using the roms extracted from my SNES classic mini, I was able to run them all without issue - even with CRT shaders, etc.
-I set up an app so my SD card is hosted over the network via SSH/FTP. That way I can mount my SD card to my PC and transfer files over WiFi - very cool
-I was able to get Morrowind running natively using OpenMW and transferring my Steam assets. Controller support is a little wonky, but it works great with Mouse and Keyboard. Converted my PC save to OpenMW as well and it seems to work fine.
-Next thing I want to try is importing some Skyrim mods and seeing if I can get those to work on my copy of Skyrim switch, some people have reported success
-Then I would like to attempt to move my installed games to a USB HDD and see if I can get those to boot when plugged into my dock. This seems difficult, so may not bother as I have a big 128GB card for my purchased games. The only game I'd want this for is L.A. Noire, since I had to delete that a while ago (over 40GB!). Might just buy a bigger microsd or something.
3. Ubuntu (L4T/Linux4Tegra)
-This one is INCREDIBLY interesting. It was a bit of a long convoluted process imaging my SD card to support this and then resizing the appropriate partitions to allow the other 2 OSes to live side by side on the same card.
-The main reason I wanted this is because someone ported Moonlight to ARM64, so I was able to build it and stream games from my PC using Nvidia's Geforce Streaming protocol. It works quite well!
-Here's a picture of me streaming Destiny 2 from my PC at 720p60, GLORIOUS:
-Sleep mode works, but is only L2 state as far as I can tell. Still, it improves sleep drain to ~1% per hour. Not as good as stock switch OS, but an improvement.
-Touch screen works! I can also use my Joy-con as a mouse, and the touch keyboard will pop up 95% of the time
-Chromium works, so does YouTube (up to 1080p, smoothly). Casting from Chromium to my Chromecast also worked for me, but was a bit slow. Netflix won't work due to DRM issues, but it is being worked on through a customized Gentoo compile, so will try that in the future.
-BLUETOOTH AUDIO WORKS WELL! I was able to sync to my Airpods and watch videos/listen to music no problem, while also having both Joy-con paired along with a bluetooth keyboard. This gives me hope Nintendo will officially support this in the future.
-Here's were I got a bit confused: the Dock is supported, along with HDMI out - thing is, the Switch was able to automatically detect my 4K TV and output 4K resolution! This really confused me as I don't even have a 4K HDMI cable connected, but on close inspection it certainly doesn't seem to be downscaling, so I have no clue what's going on, here. Possible that the switch can support up to 8K output like the Shield can? Either way, I was most impressed by that.
-Peripherals are supported, so long as they natively work in Ubuntu or have proper driver/extension ported for ARM64 - I tested an Xbox One controller over USB AND bluetooth, and it works on both, assuming you map the controls in Steam when streaming.
-Otherwise, this is basically a full ARM64 Ubuntu install, so pretty much anything goes, here, which is amazing. Installed a couple open-source games, Battle for Wesnoth, OpenCiv, TuxCart, all working nicely.
4. Lakka (Retroarch)
-This was mainly to test Dolphin support, which works pretty decently. I only have Windwaker and this was a bit complicated because as far as I could tell, the only way to rip gamecube games is using a Wii (my PC disc drive is disconnected anyway). Luckily, I had already done this a while ago to get Windwaker (not HD) to run on my Wii U natively. I was able to get it running nearly locked 30fps while upscaling the resolution 2x. ALMOST looks as good as Windwaker HD on my Wii U, minus the widescreen support and updated lighting (which in my opinion looks worse anyway). Except now I can play it portably. I was able to import my save as well without issue.
-Have not tested anything else because I already have SNES games running in Atmosphère, and I haven't figured out how to rip my PSP copy of Vice City Stories (only game I have) yet and my PSP charger is broken.
-I've read there is a way to extract my Majora's Mask rom from the WiiWare wrapper, but haven't tried that yet, either. I also have some 3DS-ware "rom" titles from the Ambassador program that I could extract I think, but haven't tried that yet.
-I've seen people report that Dreamcast emulation is at full speed for a good amount of games. Unfortunately my copy of Phantasy Star Online is scratched, so I can't rip it to test :( There are videos out there, though.
-The XMB looks dope on Switch
I'm EAGERLY awaiting the full Android release from XDA. DS emulation is supposedly really good on Android through Drastic, and I have a ton of DS cartridges that I would like to "rip" as well using a tool called Ninjhax, but my 3DS is already modded and in such a "carefully balanced" state I don't want to mess with it until I have patience to back it all up properly. Android going to push this whole setup over the top! Fun times ahead for what is shaping out to be the absolute GOAT for modded gaming hardware.
EDIT MORE PICS!:
Paperclip "jig" (my fingers!)
Nintendo XMB! (Lakka)
Compiling/building Dolphin (Ishiiruka) in Ubuntu!
That said, I did some pretty cool things. The most difficult part for me (having previous Nintendo console modding experience) was to bend a paperclip properly to short pin 1 and 10. After dozens of trial and error attempts and a lot of reading, I was able to set it up in a "quad-boot" scenario on a 32GB microsd:
1. Stock Switch OS (Horizon)
-I'll be keeping this offline until I get a "new" model Switch and move my Nintendo profile over, as there are a few games I'll be picking up between now and the likely launch of the new switch (Mario Maker, Zelda, etc.)
2. Hacked Switch OS (Atmosphère)
-This was the first thing I tried, because I wanted access to the Homebrew launcher similar to Wii/WiiU/3DS
-I was able to extract my save file from my Zelda cartridge (or maybe the internal NAND) using an application called Edizon. This puts me more at ease, I have over 200 hours on my save. I didn't bother editing the save file, because I'm not interested in that. I will experiment in the future to see if I can import that save somehow to the WiiU version of the game running using CEMU, but I'll probably try the save file on my Wii U first, since I haven't figured out a way to RIP BotW to FAT32 yet (4GB filesize limit).
-I installed retroarch, and using the roms extracted from my SNES classic mini, I was able to run them all without issue - even with CRT shaders, etc.
-I set up an app so my SD card is hosted over the network via SSH/FTP. That way I can mount my SD card to my PC and transfer files over WiFi - very cool
-I was able to get Morrowind running natively using OpenMW and transferring my Steam assets. Controller support is a little wonky, but it works great with Mouse and Keyboard. Converted my PC save to OpenMW as well and it seems to work fine.
-Next thing I want to try is importing some Skyrim mods and seeing if I can get those to work on my copy of Skyrim switch, some people have reported success
-Then I would like to attempt to move my installed games to a USB HDD and see if I can get those to boot when plugged into my dock. This seems difficult, so may not bother as I have a big 128GB card for my purchased games. The only game I'd want this for is L.A. Noire, since I had to delete that a while ago (over 40GB!). Might just buy a bigger microsd or something.
3. Ubuntu (L4T/Linux4Tegra)
-This one is INCREDIBLY interesting. It was a bit of a long convoluted process imaging my SD card to support this and then resizing the appropriate partitions to allow the other 2 OSes to live side by side on the same card.
-The main reason I wanted this is because someone ported Moonlight to ARM64, so I was able to build it and stream games from my PC using Nvidia's Geforce Streaming protocol. It works quite well!
-Here's a picture of me streaming Destiny 2 from my PC at 720p60, GLORIOUS:
-Sleep mode works, but is only L2 state as far as I can tell. Still, it improves sleep drain to ~1% per hour. Not as good as stock switch OS, but an improvement.
-Touch screen works! I can also use my Joy-con as a mouse, and the touch keyboard will pop up 95% of the time
-Chromium works, so does YouTube (up to 1080p, smoothly). Casting from Chromium to my Chromecast also worked for me, but was a bit slow. Netflix won't work due to DRM issues, but it is being worked on through a customized Gentoo compile, so will try that in the future.
-BLUETOOTH AUDIO WORKS WELL! I was able to sync to my Airpods and watch videos/listen to music no problem, while also having both Joy-con paired along with a bluetooth keyboard. This gives me hope Nintendo will officially support this in the future.
-Here's were I got a bit confused: the Dock is supported, along with HDMI out - thing is, the Switch was able to automatically detect my 4K TV and output 4K resolution! This really confused me as I don't even have a 4K HDMI cable connected, but on close inspection it certainly doesn't seem to be downscaling, so I have no clue what's going on, here. Possible that the switch can support up to 8K output like the Shield can? Either way, I was most impressed by that.
-Peripherals are supported, so long as they natively work in Ubuntu or have proper driver/extension ported for ARM64 - I tested an Xbox One controller over USB AND bluetooth, and it works on both, assuming you map the controls in Steam when streaming.
-Otherwise, this is basically a full ARM64 Ubuntu install, so pretty much anything goes, here, which is amazing. Installed a couple open-source games, Battle for Wesnoth, OpenCiv, TuxCart, all working nicely.
4. Lakka (Retroarch)
-This was mainly to test Dolphin support, which works pretty decently. I only have Windwaker and this was a bit complicated because as far as I could tell, the only way to rip gamecube games is using a Wii (my PC disc drive is disconnected anyway). Luckily, I had already done this a while ago to get Windwaker (not HD) to run on my Wii U natively. I was able to get it running nearly locked 30fps while upscaling the resolution 2x. ALMOST looks as good as Windwaker HD on my Wii U, minus the widescreen support and updated lighting (which in my opinion looks worse anyway). Except now I can play it portably. I was able to import my save as well without issue.
-Have not tested anything else because I already have SNES games running in Atmosphère, and I haven't figured out how to rip my PSP copy of Vice City Stories (only game I have) yet and my PSP charger is broken.
-I've read there is a way to extract my Majora's Mask rom from the WiiWare wrapper, but haven't tried that yet, either. I also have some 3DS-ware "rom" titles from the Ambassador program that I could extract I think, but haven't tried that yet.
-I've seen people report that Dreamcast emulation is at full speed for a good amount of games. Unfortunately my copy of Phantasy Star Online is scratched, so I can't rip it to test :( There are videos out there, though.
-The XMB looks dope on Switch
I'm EAGERLY awaiting the full Android release from XDA. DS emulation is supposedly really good on Android through Drastic, and I have a ton of DS cartridges that I would like to "rip" as well using a tool called Ninjhax, but my 3DS is already modded and in such a "carefully balanced" state I don't want to mess with it until I have patience to back it all up properly. Android going to push this whole setup over the top! Fun times ahead for what is shaping out to be the absolute GOAT for modded gaming hardware.
EDIT MORE PICS!:
Paperclip "jig" (my fingers!)
Nintendo XMB! (Lakka)
Compiling/building Dolphin (Ishiiruka) in Ubuntu!
Last edited:
OP
OP
So XDA Developers were given a special hands-on look at the unofficial Android port and DraStic (Nintendo DS Emulator) runs flawlessly
Netflix runs too but you can't watch things in HD for some reason
Real great post, was super interesting reading your experiences. I'd really recommend getting a proper jig tho as the paperclip ones seems really unreliable. Also, was getting L4T set up too long winded or anything? I'd love to give it a shot so I can get Moonlight set up as there's no Switch port atm :(
Netflix runs too but you can't watch things in HD for some reason
Real great post, was super interesting reading your experiences. I'd really recommend getting a proper jig tho as the paperclip ones seems really unreliable. Also, was getting L4T set up too long winded or anything? I'd love to give it a shot so I can get Moonlight set up as there's no Switch port atm :(
Wow - excellent post. It seems like the potential of the Switch hardware is quite high and it's kind of being underutilized. Definitely looking forward to rectifying that.