yuzu

yuzu

Developer(s)	yuzu Team
Latest version	git [+]
Active	No
Platform(s)	Windows Linux Android
Emulates	Nintendo Switch
Compatibility	Official List
Website	yuzu-emu.org
Programmed in	C++
License	GPLv2
Source code	GitHub
BIOS/Keys	Required

yuzu is a discontinued open-source Nintendo Switch emulator and debugger written in C++. Prior to its discontinuation, it was the most popular Nintendo Switch emulator and was easier to set up Template:Why? than its main competitor, Ryujinx. It is no longer officially available for download, but archived downloads are available.

Archived Downloads

	Early Access Builds (built by pinEApple) Patreon releases
	Latest Archived Builds
	Latest Archived Builds

Overview

As of March 2022, an estimated half of the Nintendo Switch library can be played from start to finish, like Super Mario Odyssey, which had correct graphics and speed after 1 year of it getting to boot up.

History

yuzu reached in-game on several Nintendo Switch exclusives in November 2019, and has been improving in compatibility by the day with active developers ever since.

The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+, Puyo Puyo Tetris, and Cave Story+ were the first games to boot. In late April 2018, yuzu booted its first Switch exclusive, 1-2-Switch. Three months later, yuzu was able to run its first 3D rendered game, Minecraft: Story Mode.

This progress report from July 2018 details the extensive work required to research the Switch and get yuzu up and running, chronicling the compatibility status of a small bundle of games and apps over time. The post also covers a surprising number of similarities between the hardware and firmware of the 3DS and Switch, and why portions of Citra were reused in yuzu.

Yuzu started showing some 3D rendering on Super Mario Odyssey in early August 2018. This long-awaited exclusive brought a lot of interest in the project. The team covered all the changes that month in another progress report from September 2018.

In May 2020, multicore CPU emulation was implemented, improving framerates on many titles. This feature appears to cause audio slow down, so the developers recommend enabling audio stretching in order to mitigate it.

In July 2021, yuzu's shader decompiler was rewritten, allowing the generation of pipeline cache for Vulkan users and providing a considerable performance boost.

In October 2021, resolution scaling was added to the emulator that allowed it to render games up to 6x the original resolution or 0.5x on the low end. It also added AMD FidelityFX™ Super-Resolution as a window adaptation filter among others.

On May 30, 2023, the emulator was ported to Android. This version was in early access, with a free and a paid version available.

Lawsuit

Nintendo sued Yuzu (TROPIC HAZE LLC) on February 26, 2024, over copyright infringement. On March 4, 2024, Nintendo and Tropic Haze settled out of court, with US$2,400,000.00 in Nintendo's favor, along with an injunction preventing Yuzu's management from continuing development of Yuzu or assisting Citra with development. Distribution of Yuzu and Citra ceased after the lawsuit's conclusion, and a statement was put on the websites of both emulators and the official Discord. Also see Legal Status of Emulation.

[1]

External links

• Official compatibility list (archived)
• Official website (archived)
• Twitter news feed (abandoned due to the lawsuit)
• Donation email link (archived), (No longer avaliable to donate due to the lawsuit)

Forks

For more information about other Switch emulators, see Nintendo Switch emulators#Comparisons.

Sudachi

Initially conceived by Jarrod Norwell as an experimental port of yuzu to iOS/iPadOS, the project was rebased on Yuzu's EA-4176 build following the yuzu takedown. Subsequently, the project evolved to include further improvement of the project and distributions for Linux and macOS. While it was once available on separate repositories for Windows and Android, DMCA takedowns led to the closure of both repositories and the associated Discord server[2][3] (see "2024 - Yuzu (Switch) vs. Nintendo" section of the Legal Status of Emulation page). The project is now distributed through its own hosting platform. Requires a paid Apple Developer Account or TrollStore to use the com.apple.developer.kernel.increased-memory-limit entitlement. Sudachi is widely considered to be the most mature and actively developed yuzu fork available. The iOS version of Sudachi has been neglected for some time due to the developer's focus on another emulator, so there is a fork called "Pomelo", so for those platforms using "Pomelo" is recommended instead of using Sudachi.

Sudachi is nearing its end, according to a tweet from project developer Jarrod Norwell. He stated, "Nintendo Switch emulation and most of the community surrounding it are making it a very unsafe and unpleasant environment. Between the various forks that exist providing no benefits, the accusations, the immature and predatory nature of a lot of "leaders" it just is not worth hanging around it anymore."[4]

	1.0.11
	1.0.2 (ipa)

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Suyu

suyu

Developer(s)	suyu team
Latest version	0.0.3 [+]
Active	Somewhat
Platform(s)	Windows Linux Android macOS
Architecture(s)	x86_64, ARM64
Emulates	Nintendo Switch
Website	suyu.dev
Programmed in	C++
License	GPLv3
Source code	suyu.dev
BIOS/Keys	Required

suyu is a fork of yuzu from where that project left off (based on the latest EA-4176).

Unlike its parent project, the Switch firmware is required (like older versions of yuzu) as well a title.keys file for eshop/nsp games, updates and DLCs (on yuzu, they were auto generated if missing).

The repository was originally hosted on GitLab, but it was forced to move after GitLab took it down, citing the use of the raw yuzu code. It is hosted on a self-managed instance of Forgejo. This decision, along with various precautions[5], suggests a desire to avoid legal claims similar to those faced by yuzu. Later, the team tried to recruit programmers to start to study the code. Thus, there is an adaptation period needed to see some serious advancements, and in the meantime, in response to concerns about the project's financial motivations, the suyu team emphasized a strict policy against accepting donations; they assure users that there is no intention to profit from the emulator. But there have been inexperienced coding criticisms from some in the community directed at the developers' work. Their discord server was shut down (see "2024 - Yuzu (Switch) vs. Nintendo" section of the Legal Status of Emulation page)

Messages from suyu developers about leaving the project: kksowo's message on Paste.bin, The Death of Suyu by u/AMA2581 on r/suyu. After this, however, the founder of the project states that they will still try to maintain the project as much as they can. Their Discord server is shut (see "2024 - Yuzu (Switch) vs. Nintendo" section of the Legal Status of Emulation page), and the project could be considered dead.

Releases

External links

• Official website
• Repository
• Chat Platform

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torzu

torzu is a fork of yuzu. To prevent take-downs, the Git is preliminarily hosted using the Tor network, needing the Tor browser to access. Currently, it has a mirror on NotaBug, but this may be taken down without notice. torzu still aims to remain "compilable on Linux and Windows" and serve as a "good base to fork" in the future. torzu doesn't publish official releases or offer official support.

git (Dark Git)

git mirror (NotABug)‡

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Citron

Citron is a fork of yuzu.

(x86) (ARM)

20241118

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Pomelo

A fork of Sudachi maintained by Stossy11 focused on iOS/iPadOS support. Just like with Sudachi, this also requires a paid Apple Developer Account or Trollstore to work.

Official Site

git

External links

• Compatibility list: 64% 87 out of 136 reported titles

System requirements

See Computer specifications#Yuzu and forks