RetroArch for the Nintendo Switch

RetroArch for the Nintendo Switch

October 15th, 2018, 17:17 Posted By: wraggster

This might just be the single biggest platform release at launch for a new platform ever for RetroArch! Right from day one, they are starting out of the gates on the Switch with over 44 libretro cores! You can download RetroArch for Switch here.

Features:

OpenGL support
Thanks to Mesa/Nouveau support, this Switch version comes with full-blown OpenGL support (thanks to fincsdev). This means that all of the advanced features available on the PC should be available on Switch as well! GLSL shaders should be supported, overlays are supported, and thanks to OpenGL support, we can use hardware-accelerated menus such as XMB/MaterialUI (with full thumbnail support, theming, etc). In addition to all this, it allows us to port libretro cores that require the use of OpenGL later in the future, such as Parallel N64, OpenLara, and potentially more like Reicast/PPSSPP/etc!
Touchscreen support (for MaterialUI/etc)
natinusala saw to it that this initial version received touchscreen support. Right now the DPI (Dots Per Inch) is kinda hardcoded for portable and not really meant for dock mode. This will be improved in the near future.
Full networking support.
Online multiplayer (with peer-to-peer and MITM matchmaking) should be available from Day One. Take note that performance of the core heavily matters in terms of the kind of quality you get out of your online experience, since the netplay implementation is rollback-based. Aside from multiplayer, you can also download cores, update assets, and all the features you would expect on the PC version.
RetroAchievements support
By registering an account at Retro Achievements and inputting your account details into RetroArch, you can obtain achievements for your games.
Game scanning
Scanning of your games should fully work, except for perhaps PS1 images right now.
Split Joy-Con support
If you go to Settings -> Input and enable Split Joy-Con (1 to 8), you can use a full Joy-Con as two separate controllers!
Core downloader
From Day One, it should be possible to download and update new cores as they arrive on a daily basis without even having to wait for the next RetroArch stable!
Runahead support
RetroArch Switch comes with runahead support from Day One! This is our game-changing feature that allows you to beat latency and even go beyond the fast response times of the original hardware. Performance of this feature is heavily dependent on the ‘performance’ level of the core and the Switch’s relative power. Try experimenting with cores, and don’t forget to turn it of for more demanding cores that balk under the pressure. Because RetroArch offers such a wide array of cores even for the same system, it’s entirely possible that one specific SNES or Genesis core is fast enough for the kind of runahead at x frames configuration that you are looking for.