Yuzu (emulator)
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Yuzu (sometimes stylized in lowercase) is a
free and open-source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...
emulator In computing, an emulator is Computer hardware, hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run so ...
of the
Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...
, developed in
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. Yuzu was announced to be in development on January 14, 2018, 10 months after the release of the Nintendo Switch. The emulator is made by the developers of the
Nintendo 3DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo. It was announced in March 2010 and unveiled at E3 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS. The system features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS video games. As an eighth-generatio ...
emulator Citra, with significant code shared between the projects. Originally, Yuzu only supported test programs and homebrew.


Features

Yuzu used a
network service In computer networking, a network service is an application running at the network application layer and above, that provides data storage, manipulation, presentation, communication or other capability which is often implemented using a client†...
called Boxcat as a replacement for Nintendo's BCAT dynamic content network. This feature was later removed due to being non-functional. The implementation will eventually be replaced with one that allows the use of local BCAT files dumped from a Nintendo Switch. Yuzu also offers a
resolution Resolution(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Resolution (debate), the statement which is debated in policy debate * Resolution (law), a written motion adopted by a deliberative body * New Year's resolution, a commitment that an individual mak ...
rescaling feature that simulates docked, undocked and beyond-native resolutions. After initially adding support for beyond-native resolution, the feature was removed again due to stability issues and inconsistent behaviour on different GPU vendors shortly after. Two years after the removal, the feature was finally readded under the codename "Project A.R.T". In December 2019, Yuzu added an experimental
Vulkan Vulkan is a low- overhead, cross-platform API, open standard for 3D graphics and computing. Vulkan targets high-performance real-time 3D graphics applications, such as video games and interactive media. Vulkan is intended to offer higher perform ...
renderer to its Early Access build and brought it over to its mainline builds. On May 9, 2020, the development team announced an update that included experimental
multi-core A multi-core processor is a microprocessor on a single integrated circuit with two or more separate processing units, called cores, each of which reads and executes program instructions. The instructions are ordinary CPU instructions (such a ...
CPU emulation codenamed ''Prometheus''. In November 2020, Yuzu's developers added online functionality to the emulator but removed it shortly thereafter. In June 2021, Fastmem support was added to early access builds of Yuzu. In July 2021, Yuzu concluded the "Project Hades", which aimed to rewrite the
shader In computer graphics, a shader is a computer program that calculates the appropriate levels of light, darkness, and color during the rendering of a 3D scene - a process known as ''shading''. Shaders have evolved to perform a variety of spec ...
decompiler, bringing an improvement of the overall performance of the emulator. In a statement to ''
PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...
'', the developers of Yuzu said that they were interested in potential optimizations to the emulator for use on the
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.


Reception

In October 2018, ''
Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...
'' published an article noting that ''
Super Mario Odyssey is a 2017 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. An entry in the ''Super Mario'' series, it follows Mario and his new ally Cappy—a sentient hat that allows Mario to control other characters and objects—a ...
'' was playable. The author of the article expressed concern with the ability of Yuzu to emulate games that were available commercially at the time. ''
PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...
'' noted that the emulator was able to run ''Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu!'' and ''Let's Go, Eevee!'' shortly after the games' release, albeit with audio issues. In October 2019,
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published an article noting that Yuzu was able to emulate some games at a
frame rate Frame rate (expressed in or FPS) is the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images (frames) are captured or displayed. The term applies equally to film and video cameras, computer graphics, and motion capture systems. Frame rate may also be ca ...
roughly on par with the actual console hardware. Since 2021, various outlets have reported that Yuzu can run on the
Steam Deck The Steam Deck is a handheld gaming computer developed by Valve Corporation. Released on February 25, 2022, the Steam Deck can be played as a handheld or connected to a monitor in the same manner as the Nintendo Switch. It is an x86-64-v3 devi ...
, enabling play of Nintendo Switch games on the system. Following the publication of a story by ''
Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...
'' on October 9, 2021, which covered the ability of both Yuzu and Ryujinx (another Switch emulator) to play ''
Metroid Dread ''Metroid Dread'' is an action-adventure video game developed by Nintendo and MercurySteam and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It was released on October 8, 2021. Set after the events of ''Metroid Fusion'' (2002), players control ...
'', Nintendo contacted the site's editorial team requesting a revision of the article, which was seen as encouraging piracy of the title. ''Kotaku'' responded by updating the article to remove language that was interpreted as such, and apologized to readers for the error. However, in an editorial addendum, they maintained that they believed emulation to be an important part of
video game preservation Video game preservation is a form of preservation applied to the video game industry that includes, but is not limited to, digital preservation. Such preservation efforts include archiving development source code and art assets, digital copies of ...
efforts and that their coverage of the emulators did not equate to an encouragement to pirate the game. After the publicization of Yuzu's ability to run on the
Steam Deck The Steam Deck is a handheld gaming computer developed by Valve Corporation. Released on February 25, 2022, the Steam Deck can be played as a handheld or connected to a monitor in the same manner as the Nintendo Switch. It is an x86-64-v3 devi ...
, several YouTube videos providing guidance on how to do so were taken down. Though it was not known who had issued the takedowns, outlets reporting on the news believed that it was Nintendo, given their past history of issuing
DMCA The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or s ...
takedown notices against unofficial content creators. On August 24, 2022,
Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH Denuvo Anti-Tamper is an anti-tamper technology and digital rights management (DRM) system developed by Austrian software company Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH, a subsidiary of Irdeto. The company also developed an anti-cheat counterpart. H ...
announced that they had developed "Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection", a new
digital rights management Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. ...
solution for Nintendo Switch titles which aims to allow developers to block play via emulators such as Yuzu.


See also

*
Emulators of Nintendo Switch Emulators of the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo's current eighth-generation video game console, have been in development since 2017, less than a year after the console's release. Multiple emulators are in development, the most well-known being Yuzu a ...
*
Video game console emulator A video game console emulator is a type of emulator that allows a computing device to emulate a video game console's hardware and play its games on the emulating platform. More often than not, emulators carry additional features that surpass ...


References


External links


Game compatibility list

Yuzu
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