Dolphin on the switch

[mrhlll]

Since the switch was reasently hacked (Webkit exploit allowing memory modification and possably kernal execution) and i know you (Dolphin team) already support arm and thetegra x1, i figured it can't be to hard to get a version of dolphin on the nintendo switch when a homebrew inevitably emerges

(eng not my first language and to lazy to check)

[MayImilae]

Ok, first of all, the Switch is not "hacked"! All they did was tap into a webkit exploit. That's all. That gave them browser access and nothing more.

All the exploit allows is an access point to possibly use to actually hack the Switch. On the 3DS, the browser was quickly compromised as well, plus they had the SD card as an access point and individual games being broken as access points! In fact, there was a hello world (exactly what has happened with the Switch ) in early 2011! Despite that, they were only able to start running practical arbitrary code in userland in 2015. And of course, that was friggin hard to use, and almost no one even tried it. Boot Access, what we typically call "jailbreaking" (which occurred with the Wii very very early and easily), occurred four years after release (and only announced 5 years after release)! Which was, you know, last year. Until we have boot access, homebrew will be exceedingly difficult to near impossible for all but the most dedicated hackers. Homebrew for the 3DS is only just now taking off!

Basically, we are probably years away from having the ability to run arbitrary code, and years more from total control and easy to use homebrew. As tough as the 3DS and Wii U have been to access, Nintendo has tightened security with each generation, and the Switch is bound to be tougher than they were. Now isn't the time to celebrate anything.

As for how well Dolphin could run on the Switch... we don't actually know the SoC yet, so we don't know. It could be an X1, X2, or (most likely imo) highly modified X1.

[Helios]

And so the threads begin

[KHg8m3r]

Not only that, we don't really know anything about the Switch operating system, or how it runs games, or anything really.

In a theoretical sense, though, with a proper "jailbreak" and the tools to make apps for it, it'll probably run better than the current Shield TV.

[ThisIsMyDogKyle]

(03-16-2017, 08:23 AM)MayImilae Wrote: Ok, first of all, the Switch is not "hacked"! All they did was tap into a webkit exploit. That's all. That gave them browser access and nothing more.

All the exploit allows is an access point to possibly use to actually hack the Switch. On the 3DS, the browser was quickly compromised as well, plus they had the SD card as an access point and individual games being broken as access points! In fact, there was a hello world (exactly what has happened with the Switch ) in early 2011! Despite that, they were only able to start running practical arbitrary code in userland in 2015. And of course, that was friggin hard to use, and almost no one even tried it. Boot Access, what we typically call "jailbreaking" (which occurred with the Wii very very early and easily), occurred four years after release (and only announced 5 years after release)! Which was, you know, last year. Until we have boot access, homebrew will be exceedingly difficult to near impossible for all but the most dedicated hackers. Homebrew for the 3DS is only just now taking off!

Basically, we are probably years away from having the ability to run arbitrary code, and years more from total control and easy to use homebrew. As tough as the 3DS and Wii U have been to access, Nintendo has tightened security with each generation, and the Switch is bound to be tougher than they were. Now isn't the time to celebrate anything.

As for how well Dolphin could run on the Switch... we don't actually know the SoC yet, so we don't know. It could be an X1, X2, or (most likely imo) highly modified X1.

Actually, chipworks released the die shots yesterday, it appears to be a stock X1.

[Helios]

chipworks is known to be... Not the best when it comes to actually identifying chips.

They fucked up the Apple SoCs pretty badly too. Entirely failed to identify the "little" cores as existing.

They're not the worst, but given their track record, I'd rather have another group also do a decap to see if they find the same results.

[Fallcrest]

(03-16-2017, 08:43 AM)Helios Wrote: And so the threads begin

It won't really have begun until there are people un-ironically asking why Dolphin doesn't emulate the Switch. I give it 3 months, tops. 

[AnyOldName3]

But, yeah, why doesn't it? The starlet co-processor in the Wii is an ARM chip, and we can HLE the code that runs on it, so we should be able to HLE anything that runs on the Switch's processor. We just need someone to reverse engineer Breath of the Wild and come up with a platform independent C++ implementation what we can include with Dolphin.

[Helios]

I did some research on a decapping of an X1 back when nvidia shipped the shield tv and they appear to be identical. Chipworks might not have fucked this one up

[KHg8m3r]

I know very little about actual dies, so I can't comment on that. But reading the Chipworks tear-down, something did pop out to me. The Broadcom BCM4356 wifi/bluetoth chip also has support for FM radio. I don't know if the Nintendo Switch actually uses that part of the chip, but it would be cool to see like a radio app or something