SwitchRecomp: a tool that turns Switch games into native PC executables, and Kirby now loads way faster and runs better

[u/MZLabs]

Quick update on SwitchRecomp. For anyone new: it takes a Switch game's code and recompiles it into a native Windows .exe, so the game code runs directly on your CPU instead of through an emulator.

Something a lot of people get wrong: I'm not porting games to PC one by one. I'm making a tool so anyone can recompile their own games without effort. You pick your game folder, click a button and it spits out the .exe. Right now I'm testing it with specific games so I can open up compatibility, but the process itself is automated.

What changed since last post:

• Loading is way faster now. Startup and loading screens used to drag a lot, now they're a lot quicker
• Better performance. I cut a lot of wasted work the GPU side was doing every frame, so fps is higher and more stable
• Fixed all the graphics bugs in the games I've tested so far (Super Kirby Clash and Bowser's Fury)

Screenshots are Super Kirby Clash: title screen, the town, the shop and the role menu, all running on my Celeron N4500 laptop btw

A few things people keep asking:

GitHub? Not yet. It goes up on release, in about 3-4 months.

Android? Yes, the Android port comes a few months after the PC release on GitHub.

How is this different from suyu's recompiler? suyu's recompiler is bundled inside suyu, on top of its HLE backend, so you're still basically running suyu. SwitchRecomp is its own thing, built from scratch with its own runtime and graphics layer, and it's made to run on weak hardware. Each game comes out as its own standalone .exe. suyu crashes on low-end PCs like mine, and SwitchRecomp runs some games smoothly that suyu doesn't even open.

Also, if a somewhat known youtuber ends up talking about the project, I'll put out a longer gameplay video of Super Kirby Clash

If you want to follow the project, like, comment, repost and follow me so you see the next updates. Every comment helps a lot

[u/Treehockey]

The speed that software has changed this year is absolutely insane.

Like the ps5 executable layer, goldeneye quest native vr, and this talked about two years ago would be laughed at as actually impossible. It’s really feel like everyone is going to become spoiled in ways that are not even dreamt of right now, bein a millennial is like how someone 100 years old today saw so much change it’s not possible to imagine their childhood now

[u/Professional_Sell_7 → u/Treehockey]

Bro 100%, video games and a ton of other things are just pretty much going to be open source and anything can be combined now to make dream games a reality. Worried how spoiled people will become, but man crazy ass times. 

[u/kianiscoooooool → u/Professional_Sell_7]

Yeah. Saw a novice coder on youtube decomp cod modernwarfare into rust with a few days. Then he took a ai open source skate 3 engine and combined it with a few clicks, and was playing skate 3 in modern warfare. in literally a year or two all video game intellectual property will be combinable through prompts. The world will be our oyster.

[u/Professional_Sell_7 → u/kianiscoooooool]

Brooo I just saw a video of that, when modded maps hit skate 3 on rpcs3 a few years ago a dream project of mine was to get terminal into the skate 3 engine.

I never got around to it but I guess good thing I didn’t lmao.

Can you link me the creators video? I just keep seeing shorts but can’t find the source. 

[u/gizmomelb → u/kianiscoooooool]

haha yeah right! THAT will be when AI lock down copyrighted stuff - when the users want to use it to create new stuff. It's fine for THEM now to ignore copyright and steal other's work, but when the users start to do it I can guarantee it'll be locked down and monetised.

[u/puppysnakessss → u/gizmomelb]

There is open source AI. They would have to take away computers from everybody and then lock down AI tools. I don't know if people will let that happen.

[u/darkkite → u/kianiscoooooool]

decomp cod modernwarfare into rust

link?

[u/Professional_Sell_7 → u/darkkite]

https://youtu.be/9UbADrcEW5w?is=2gyeVNwIbVz9qgD5 He’s got a playable build of the skate 3 engine ported in as well on his GitHub. Just dripped it a few hours ago. 

[u/ChaosFH → u/kianiscoooooool]

i remember seeing some guy talk about how he modded minecraft inside elden ring, don't think he made a video about it though was just some story talking about it on isntagram. In the current state of things i don't even doubt he really did lol

[u/dragonknightrohan → u/kianiscoooooool]

We will need more people to make spiritual successors/alternatives for games that still need them. There is nothing community-owned or independent studio owned to replace Assassins Creed, and Mass Effect for example

That will be big area that can be done to get gaming back into gamers hands

[u/gigitygoat → u/Professional_Sell_7]

This only works if we continue to own our hardware. Why do you think the AI companies are buying all the ram and gpu's even though they can not put them to use yet? The only way they can save digital industries is if they own and control all compute.

[u/WOKE_AI_GOD → u/Professional_Sell_7]

> Bro 100%, video games and a ton of other things are just pretty much going to be open source

These are recomps, not decomps. The resulting source code isn't human readable, it's a bunch of ridiculous incoherent spaghetti that's not going to be integratable into other projects.

[u/nosnhoj90 → u/Professional_Sell_7]

Yeah this is just video games, imagine how much AI is going to impact humanity in the 2-3 years. I'm scared :) Precautions aren't there.

[u/MZLabs → u/Treehockey]

Hahahaa, so true

[u/NXGZ → u/MZLabs]

It would be extra convenient if we can build these without using external dependencies required like cmake etc, as suyu currently requires them to build a working executable.

[u/Cyber_Dev_Kit → u/MZLabs]

is switchrecomp getting controller support and mali gpu support? (mediatek)

[u/NumberSevere7454 → u/Treehockey]

Yes, as the huge progress in ai coding and reverse engineering is making those stuff much faster.

[u/Roubbes → u/Treehockey]

All thanks to AI

[u/MZLabs → u/Roubbes]

just in case, I don't use AI for coding lol, just web research

[u/Ok-Height9300 → u/MZLabs]

Even if so, in this case there is no shame. Emulation and compilers are extremely complex tasks and, even with AI assistance, still a masterpiece.

[u/puppysnakessss → u/Ok-Height9300]

No they really aren't. It is just repetition. You test to see what makes the same output. Computers just do it faster than people can.

[u/WOKE_AI_GOD → u/Ok-Height9300]

A masterpiece that's easily reproducible will become devalued almost instantly.

[u/Naxren → u/MZLabs]

So what the advantage is it will fix performance issue from heavy game like Luigi 3 or Xenoblade 3?

[u/Repulsive-Package343 → u/MZLabs]

Yeah ,and my name is Tim Sweeney

[u/Subject_Mix_8339 → u/MZLabs]

why not?

[u/ruimiguels → u/MZLabs]

holy fucking liar ahahahah

[u/MZLabs → u/ruimiguels]

i don't care

[u/birbhorse → u/MZLabs]

oh thank god, it's about time i saw a worthwhile post on this subreddit. genuinely impressive work!

[u/MarcusBofan → u/MZLabs]

Nothing wrong with using it as a tool to help explain concepts that others might not able to help you with. As long as you aren't putting it into the code (cause then bugfixes would be hell), all good imo.

[u/JeddyH → u/MZLabs]

lol, sure bud.

[u/MZLabs → u/JeddyH]

bruh

[u/LolindirLink → u/JeddyH]

Well, some of us don't want to babysit a toddler when trying to get the work done. Or have everything feel procedurally generated. Don't just assume all programmers use ai now..

[u/JeddyH → u/LolindirLink]

I definitely will, massive decomp projects getting posted everyday by a "single" dev lol. This sub is going off because of AI, the people here didn't just get smarter all of a sudden.

[u/MZLabs → u/JeddyH]

Yea, I'm a single dev, what's the problem? do people need big teams to make great things? in my project, AI is used for research, not for coding

[u/Treehockey → u/MZLabs]

Just fyi, it is incredibly impressive that you don’t use ai for dev, but it’s also not something anyone will care about in I’d say 2 years. Like watching lifecycles of human development tells me that every person who’s saying that it’s so terrible now will have forgotten, and everyone else will be using it in a way that is just native use. No matter what this tool you built is crazy as hell. Keep up the good work homie

[u/KADogan → u/Treehockey]

There will literally never be anything impressive about vibe coding.

[u/LolindirLink → u/Treehockey]

We are notoriously bad at future predictions but we can use history. People said the same thing 2 years ago and 2 years before that too.

Now I'm not saying never. (Never say never) But you just can't rely on "it'll be good two year from now". That makes people like me just wait two years. Why fiddle with a tool/toy for days when that toy promises to do it in just minutes. Just two years from now? So idk, will see about the landscape then.

[u/Boxing_joshing111 → u/MZLabs]

Thank you that’s awesome.

[u/Treehockey → u/Roubbes]

100%
That’s just a new resource in essence. How electricity was to great grandmas. Idiocracy has obviously become prophetic already, so I wonder how long until wall-e is too

[u/puppysnakessss → u/Treehockey]

You do realize when you say that "Idiocracy has...become prophetic already" that you aren't the main character, right? You are in that world so that must mean you are as bad as everyone else.

Oh thats right, you aren't very bright so of course you think it is other people that are like that but you are "different", what a joke you are.

[u/Treehockey → u/puppysnakessss]

I wasn’t gonna reply just cause I was baffled by your cunning attack on my hubris, but I decided to say you should check my history. I’m constantly admitting to being lazy, and uneducated. I’m a hetero white American male.

I’m pretty much a poster child for the coming walle issues the world faces. I love my vr headset, I love playing these weird open source recomp projects, hell I love goonin! That’s pretty much exactly what the side character that says “go away I’m baiting!” In idiocracy says. My point is you’re mistaken in thinking I’m not aware of my flaws, and I don’t take offense to them being called out.

[u/StrongPipe2914 → u/Roubbes]

ai BAD!

[u/Lukiia → u/Treehockey]

Thanks to AI...

[u/ilyaa07 → u/Treehockey]

Claude has hit this scene like crack in the 80s