Yuzu (emulator)

Last updated

Yuzu
Initial releaseJanuary 14, 2018;6 years ago (2018-01-14)
Final release
Mainline 1734 / 4 March 2024;7 months ago (2024-03-04)
Preview release
Early Access 4176 / 1 March 2024;7 months ago (2024-03-01)
Repository https://github.com/yuzu-emu/yuzu at the Wayback Machine (archived March 3, 2024)
Written in C++
Operating system
Platform
Type Video game console emulator
License GPL-3.0-or-later
Website https://yuzu-emu.org at the Wayback Machine (archived March 4, 2024)

Yuzu (sometimes stylized in lowercase) is a discontinued free and open-source emulator of the Nintendo Switch, developed in C++. Yuzu was announced to be in development on January 14, 2018, [1] [2] 10 months after the release of the Nintendo Switch. [3]

Contents

The emulator was made by the developers of the Nintendo 3DS emulator Citra, with significant code shared between the projects. Originally, Yuzu only supported test programs and homebrew.

On February 26, 2024, Nintendo of America filed a lawsuit against Tropic Haze LLC, the legal entity behind Yuzu's development. Development and official distribution of Yuzu ceased on March 4, 2024, after Tropic Haze settled the lawsuit with Nintendo of America for $2.4 million. [4] [5]

Features

Yuzu used a network service called Boxcat as a replacement for Nintendo's BCAT dynamic content network. [6] This feature was later removed due to being non-functional. The implementation was planned to eventually be replaced with one that allows the use of local BCAT files dumped from a Nintendo Switch. [7]

Yuzu also offered a resolution 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. [8] [9] Two years after the removal, the feature was finally readded under the codename "Project A.R.T". [10]

In December 2019, Yuzu added an experimental Vulkan renderer to its Early Access build and brought it over to its mainline builds. [11] On May 9, 2020, the development team announced an update that included experimental multi-core CPU emulation [12] [13] codenamed Prometheus.

In November 2020, Yuzu's developers added online functionality to the emulator but removed it shortly thereafter. [14] [15]

In June 2021, Fastmem support was added to early access builds of Yuzu. [16]

In July 2021, Yuzu concluded the "Project Hades", which aimed to rewrite the shader decompiler, bringing an improvement of the overall performance of the emulator. [17]

In a statement to PC Gamer , the developers of Yuzu said that they were interested in potential optimizations to the emulator for use on the Steam Deck. [18]

On May 30, 2023, an Android version was released. [19]

Development ended on March 4, 2024, after Tropic Haze LLC, the legal entity representing Team Yuzu, settled a lawsuit with Nintendo of America, resulting in the shutdown of operations for both Yuzu and Citra emulators. [4]

Reception

In October 2018, Kotaku published an article noting that Super Mario Odyssey was playable. The author of the article expressed concern with the ability of Yuzu to emulate games that were available commercially at the time. [20] This would eventually lead to a legal battle against Nintendo.

PC Gamer 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. [21]

In October 2019, Gizmodo published an article noting that Yuzu was able to emulate some games at a frame rate roughly on par with the actual console hardware. [22]

Since 2021, various outlets have reported that Yuzu can run on the Steam Deck, enabling play of Nintendo Switch games on the system. [23] [24] [25] [26] [27]

Following the publication of a story by Kotaku on October 9, 2021, which covered the ability of both Yuzu and Ryujinx (another Switch emulator) to play Metroid Dread , [28] 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 efforts and that their coverage of the emulators did not equate to an encouragement to pirate the game. [29]

After the publicization of Yuzu's ability to run on the Steam Deck, 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 takedown notices against unofficial content creators. [30] [31]

On August 23, 2023, Denuvo announced that they had developed "Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection", a new digital rights management solution for Nintendo Switch titles which aims to allow developers to block play via emulators such as Yuzu. [32] [33] [34]

On February 26, 2024, Nintendo of America filed a lawsuit against Tropic Haze LLC, the legal entity behind Team Yuzu. [35]

On March 4, 2024, Tropic Haze LLC settled in their lawsuit with Nintendo of America for $2.4 million, leading to Yuzu shutting down its operations. [4]

Forks

On March 5, 2024, the Yuzu source code was forked by a different development team as "Suyu" (pronounced as "sue-you"; the name is also a tongue-in-cheek play on Nintendo's history of litigation). [36] A contributor said, "Suyu currently exists in a legal gray area we are trying to work our way out of. There are multiple plans and possibilities for what to do next. Things are still being organized and planned." [37] On March 21, 2024, after a DMCA takedown request, Suyu was removed from GitLab; the takedown notice cited violations of its anti-circumvention provisions, and warned that the platform's hosting of the code could constitute trafficking of an anti-circumvention device. After some hours, its leader decided to move to a self-hosted repository. [38] [39] In April 2024, chat platform Discord banned the accounts and servers of Suyu, another fork titled Sudachi, and their lead developers. [40] Suyu has since switched to a self-hosted chat service.

A second Yuzu fork, called Torzu, has also appeared. It is notable for having its main git repository and development done in the Tor darknet. While takedown notices from Nintendo have taken down mirrors of the fork from GitHub and similar services, [41] the Tor-based hidden services remain active.

On April 29, 2024, Nintendo of America filled a DMCA takedown notice to GitHub, resulting in the shutdown of 8,353 forks. [42] [43]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Lilly, Paul (January 15, 2018). "Nintendo Switch 'Yuzu' Emulator Announced By Citra 3DS Developers". HotHardware . Archived from the original on October 31, 2019. Retrieved July 4, 2019.
  2. ↑ Reisinger, Don (January 16, 2018). "Nintendo Won't Be Happy About This Switch Emulator". Tom's Guide . Archived from the original on July 4, 2019. Retrieved July 4, 2019.
  3. ↑ Horti, Samuel (January 14, 2018). "Switch emulator announced, made by team behind Citra 3DS emulator". PC Gamer . Archived from the original on January 14, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 Carpenter, Nicole (March 4, 2024). "Nintendo wins $2.4M in Switch emulator lawsuit". Polygon. Retrieved March 4, 2024.
  5. ↑ "yuzu - Nintendo Switch Emulator". yuzu-emu.org.
  6. ↑ "Boxcat". yuzu emulator team. Archived from the original on October 15, 2019. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  7. ↑ "Remove Boxcat BCAT backend by Morph1984 · Pull Request #7102 · yuzu-emu/yuzu". GitHub. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
  8. ↑ "Resolution Rescaler · yuzu". yuzu. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
  9. ↑ "Implement Native Resolution Rescaling by FernandoS27 · Pull Request #2860 · yuzu-emu/yuzu". GitHub. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
  10. ↑ "Project A.R.T. Advanced Rendering Techniques by FernandoS27 · Pull Request #7219 · yuzu-emu/yuzu". GitHub. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
  11. ↑ CaptV0rt3x (December 3, 2019). "New Feature Release - Vulkan". yuzu emulator team. Archived from the original on December 3, 2019. Retrieved December 3, 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ↑ "New Feature Release - Prometheus · yuzu". yuzu. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  13. ↑ Palumbo, Alessio (May 9, 2020). "Yuzu, the Nintendo Switch Emulator, Can Now Take Advantage of Multicore CPUs". Wccftech. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  14. ↑ Lilly, Paul (November 4, 2020). "Popular Yuzu Nintendo Switch Emulator Adds Online Support, Quickly Backtracks". HotHardware . Archived from the original on November 4, 2020. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
  15. ↑ Plunkett, Luke (November 3, 2020). "Nintendo Switch Emulator Adds Online Support, Quickly Regrets It". Kotaku . Archived from the original on November 5, 2020. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
  16. ↑ "Fastmem Support" . Retrieved June 13, 2021.
  17. ↑ "New Feature Release - Shader Decompiler Rewrite · yuzu". yuzu. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
  18. ↑ Fenlon, Wes (July 26, 2021). "Emulator developers see tons of potential in the Steam Deck". PC Gamer . Retrieved September 25, 2022.
  19. ↑ Conway, Adam (May 31, 2023). "Nintendo Switch emulator Yuzu officially comes to Android". XDA Developers. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  20. ↑ Plunkett, Luke (November 2, 2018). "Super Mario Odyssey is Already Playable in an Emulator". Kotaku . Archived from the original on July 14, 2019. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
  21. ↑ Horti, Samuel (November 24, 2018). "Watch Pokémon: Let's Go running on PC thanks to Yuzu emulator". PC Gamer . Archived from the original on July 4, 2019. Retrieved July 4, 2019.
  22. ↑ Liszewski, Andrew (October 4, 2019). "This Nintendo Switch Emulator for the PC Might Finally Be as Good as the Actual Console". Gizmodo . Archived from the original on November 20, 2019. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  23. ↑ Fenlon, Wes (July 26, 2021). "Emulator developers see tons of potential in the Steam Deck". PC Gamer . Retrieved September 24, 2022.
  24. ↑ Reynolds, Ollie (July 25, 2022). "Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Has Leaked And Is Fully Playable On The Steam Deck". Nintendo Life. Retrieved September 24, 2022.
  25. ↑ James, Dave (March 8, 2022). "Steam Deck vs Nintendo Switch". PC Gamer . Retrieved September 24, 2022.
  26. ↑ Fenlon, Wes (February 25, 2022). "The Steam Deck is already the emulation system of my dreams". PC Gamer . Retrieved September 24, 2022.
  27. ↑ Coyle, Anne-Marie (March 3, 2022). "Nintendo really doesn't want you to use Switch emulators on Steam Deck". GamesRadar . Retrieved September 24, 2022.
  28. ↑ Zwiezen, Zack (October 9, 2021). "Metroid Dread Is Already Running Great On Switch Emulators". Kotaku . Archived from the original on October 9, 2021. Retrieved September 25, 2022.
  29. ↑ Zwiezen, Zack (October 9, 2021). "Metroid Dread Is Already Running On Switch Emulators". Kotaku . Archived from the original on August 29, 2022. Retrieved September 25, 2022.
  30. ↑ Ishraq, Subhan (March 3, 2022). "Steam Deck Nintendo emulation videos are disappearing from YouTube". Eurogamer . Retrieved September 25, 2022.
  31. ↑ Galekovic, Filip (March 3, 2022). "Nintendo Blocking Videos Showing How to Emulate Games on Steam Deck". Game Rant . Retrieved September 25, 2022.
  32. ↑ Dedmon, Tanner (August 25, 2022). "'Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection' Announced by Controversial Anti-Piracy Company". ComicBook.com . Retrieved September 25, 2022.
  33. ↑ Shepard, Kenneth (August 25, 2022). "Denuvo Launching Switch Emulator Protection at Behest of Publishing Partners". Fanbyte. Retrieved September 25, 2022.
  34. ↑ "Denuvo security is now on Switch, including new tech to block PC Switch emulation". VGC. August 23, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2023.
  35. ↑ Seedhouse, Alex (February 27, 2024). "Nintendo Sues Creators Behind Yuzu Switch Emulator". Nintendo Insider. Retrieved February 27, 2024.
  36. ↑ "Creators Of New Switch Emulator 'Suyu' Hope To Avoid Nintendo's Wrath". Nintendo Life. March 12, 2024. Retrieved March 19, 2024.
  37. ↑ Orland, Kyle (March 11, 2024). "Here's how the makers of the "Suyu" Switch emulator plan to avoid getting sued". Ars Technica . Retrieved March 11, 2024.
  38. ↑ Orland, Kyle (March 22, 2024). "Switch emulator Suyu hit by GitLab DMCA, project lives on through self-hosting". Ars Technica. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
  39. ↑ Hollister, Sean (March 22, 2024). "GitLab confirms it's removed Suyu, a fork of Nintendo Switch emulator Yuzu". The Verge. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
  40. ↑ Hollister, Sean (April 11, 2024). "Discord is nuking Nintendo Switch emulator devs and their entire servers". The Verge. Retrieved April 12, 2024.
  41. ↑ "Nintendo Targets Switch Emulators Suyu, Nuzu, Uzuy, Torzu, and Sudachi".
  42. ↑ Roth, Emma (May 3, 2024). "Nintendo DMCA takedown wipes over 8,500 Yuzu emulator copies". The Verge.
  43. ↑ "Nintendo DMCA takedown notice". GitHub.
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