• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

Yuzu - An experimental open-source emulator for the Nintendo Switch from the creators of Citra

Reader mode

Deleted member 15428

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
13,464
About:

yuzu is a work-in-progress Nintendo Switch emulator. yuzu is an open-source project, licensed under the GPLv2 (or any later version). yuzu has been designed with portability in mind, with builds available for Windows, Linux, and macOS. The project was started in spring of 2017 by bunnei, one of the original authors of the popular Citra 3DS emulator, to experiment with and research the Nintendo Switch. Due to the similarities between Switch and 3DS, yuzu was developed as a fork of Citra. This means that it uses the same project architecture, and both emulators benefit from shared improvements. During the early months of development, work was done in private, and progress was slow. However, as Switch reverse-engineering and homebrew development became popular, work on yuzu began to take off as well.

In January of 2018, the yuzu team was formed out of several Citra developers, and the decision was made to release the project publicly. As an emulator, yuzu is in its infancy, and is only currently useful for Switch reverse-engineering and homebrew development.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

FAQ:

Can I play Switch games?

No – at this time, yuzu does not run any commercial Switch games. yuzu can boot some games, to varying degrees of success, but does not implement any of the necessary GPU features to render 3D graphics.

When will yuzu run games?

In short – we do not know how soon games might run. While yuzu is making great progress, Switch emulation is very complex. Running games is one of the team's top priorities, so we are actively working toward that goal!

Where does the name come from?

Citrus junos, or yuzu (from Japanese ユズ), is a citrus fruit, most commonly used in Asian cuisines. This name was chosen as an homage to Citra and its developers, whose work gave the foundation for this project.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Homepage: https://yuzu-emu.org/
Source code: https://github.com/yuzu-emu/yuzu
Twitter: https://twitter.com/yuzuemu

Mod Edit: We've let the piracy debate play out. It's time to get this thread back on the rails. If you'd like to discuss concerns about piracy, please bring it to another thread.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Foffy

Foffy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,376
Interesting that they're doing this now.

Doesn't Citra have a long way to go, especially on the optimization front?
 
Deleted member 4359

Deleted member 4359

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,259
Really, really quick turnaround for an emulator - we haven't seen a console get emulated this fast after release since the Game Boy Advance which I believe was pre release.

To those saying this is impossible, the GPU is very well documented and it's OS functionality is too - the only hurdle will be Nintendo fixing things and newer games having new encryption.
 
Alexander DeLarge

Alexander DeLarge

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
1,277
I really hope this moves along quickly. Bayonetta 3 being locked to 720p sucks and I'm sure No More Heroes will be the same or have a low frame rate cap.
 
Glio

Glio

Member
Oct 27, 2017
24,497
Spain
Disgusting.

Most of the people I know who use emulators are for piracy so it's my subjective and personal opinion
 
SinCityAssassin

SinCityAssassin

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,171
Stygr said:
Even if it isn't correct, i really doubt we will see a locked 1080p/60fps for Bayonetta 3 (i hope for 1080p/60fps) in docked mode, unless they cut graphic and effects.
My prediction is 720p/60fps, 900p/60fps docked, maybe with dynamic resolution.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Oh I'm not setting in stone what it was, but already proclaiming its a locked 720p based on bad intel and then basing an unrelated game's performance on that feeling is bad vibes to put out.
 
fiendcode

fiendcode

Member
Oct 26, 2017
24,909
Glio said:
Disgusting.

Most of the people I know who use emulators are for piracy so it's my subjective and personal opinion
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's more of an issue for stationary consoles though, the big advantage for Switch is it's hybrid nature and flexible use case. Until we get a GPDWin that can run Switch games better than Switch can it's not as much of a problem.
 
PogiJones

PogiJones

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,636
I really think that emulators contemporary to their emulated platforms do way more harm than good. Show some class and wait a few years.
 
Zellia

Zellia

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,769
UK
That was fast. Will be interesting to see how the shared improvements benefit Citra too.
 
Glio

Glio

Member
Oct 27, 2017
24,497
Spain
fiendcode said:
It's more of an issue for stationary consoles though, the big advantage for Switch is it's hybrid nature and flexible use case. Until we get a GPDWin that can run Switch games better than Switch can it's not as much of a problem.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I know people who would play on the microwave screen in the middle of the snow if somehow that way it was free
 
Deleted member 4359

Deleted member 4359

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,259
Maxey said:
Damn, these projects are starting fast. At some point we will have emulators release before the console is even launched.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
First GBA emulator was one month before it's launch.

EDIT - nope, September 2000 - so 6 months before, and ran one dev demo. I think dev kits were sent out and public like a year prior that could be one factor and it's really simple tech
 
Last edited:

Deleted member 15476

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,268
It will probably take a while before anything interesting happens with it. Also makes you wonder what really drived the Cemu team to keep the project closed source.
 
Ghostsonplanets

Ghostsonplanets

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,499
Nintendo really needs to reinforce security of theirs systems to stop the scene. Piracy, homebrew and emulation at this early of the console lifecycle will only be harmful to the Switch.
 
SinCityAssassin

SinCityAssassin

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,171
Ghostsonplanets said:
Nintendo really needs to reinforce security of theirs systems to stop the scene. Piracy, homebrew and emulation at this early of the console lifecycle will only be harmful to the Switch.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's the price of going with an off the shelf SoC. It's like a walled city being vulnerable through the sewer tunnel.

That said, it'd be closed off to a majority of the people buying a Switch anyways.
 
Deleted member 4359

Deleted member 4359

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,259
Ghostsonplanets said:
Nintendo really needs to reinforce security of theirs systems to stop the scene. Piracy, homebrew and emulation at this early of the console lifecycle will only be harmful to the Switch.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
If history means anything PS2 piracy was giant by it's first year overseas however the Switch is at that level of relevance and obviously it didn't kill that platform - however casual piracy was way less a thing over here in 2001.
 
BernardoOne

BernardoOne

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,289
Nice to see work starting this early. The GPU being extremely well documented will prove useful.
itsamiracle said:
It will probably take a while before anything interesting happens with it. Also makes you wonder what really drived the Cemu team to keep the project closed source.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Cemu is in a much better state and had much more progress than Citra.
 
Ghostsonplanets

Ghostsonplanets

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,499
Maxey said:
Is there any irrefutable evidence that early emulation hurts sales in a significant way?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Not irrefutable evidence. But going to my experience with friends and some reading online, a lot of people who are doubtous of buying the console are going to jump right now If there's a emulator of Switch. And they aren't going to buy the games. Of course emulation isn't is piracy, but It can be used that way and people will use.
 

Pokémon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,679
Ghostsonplanets said:
Nintendo really needs to reinforce security of theirs systems to stop the scene. Piracy, homebrew and emulation at this early of the console lifecycle will only be harmful to the Switch.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

According to the the Chaos Computer Club hackers the Switch seems to be one of the most secure consoles ever:

Nintendo has a new console, and it's more secure than ever.

The Switch was released less than a year ago, and we've been all over it.

Nintendo has designed a custom OS that is one of the most secure we've ever seen, making the game harder than it has ever been before.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Source: https://media.ccc.de/v/34c3-8941-console_security_-_switch
 
Valcrist

Valcrist

Tic-Tac-Toe Champion
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,683
I feel like this is patreon bait or something. They really should make Citra better first, but that's up to them as it is their own free time they're spending.

Executive Taxi said:
Can someone actually go into detail what benefit this emulator presents right now other than piracy?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Switch games with better graphical options, obviously.
 
Reader mode
You must log in or register to reply here.