Switch 2 emulation on PC: Eden-NX2 arrives and Lichii boots the Ocarina remake

Switch 2 emulation on PC has gone from nothing to early experiments in a few days. A developer known as Takoroka published Eden-NX2, an experimental Switch 2 branch of the Eden emulator, on October 29. A separate emulator called Lichii has reportedly booted the Ocarina of Time remake for Switch 2. Every report describes these results as very early and rough.

Eden-NX2

According to TweakTown, Takoroka put the pre-release on the Eden project's git server and described it as experimental Switch 2 integration that needs a lot of fixes. The same coverage says Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza can boot on Windows PCs. Gadget Pilipinas reports that Mario Kart World loads but stutters, runs slowly and shows visual bugs. It adds that Donkey Kong Bananza cannot reach 60 frames per second.

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit, and the Microsoft Visual C++ x64 runtime.

• A Vulkan GPU with at least 8 GB of VRAM and at least 16 GB of RAM.

• A Windows-only package that includes a graphical app and a command-line app.

• The source code is published. Takoroka says only Windows was tested and that the code can be ported to Linux.

• No games are included, and the emulator loads titles from a folder the user supplies.

The release notes say unimplemented shaders leave some meshes missing and cause graphical glitches, according to Gadget Pilipinas. WindowsForum calls the build a proof of concept rather than a dependable way to play. It also notes that reported results conflict with each other. Eden itself descends from the Yuzu codebase. Yuzu shut down in 2024 after Nintendo took its developers to court.

Lichii and the Ocarina of Time remake

DSOGaming reports that the Switch 2 emulator Lichii can boot and run the new Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake on PC shortly after the game's release. The outlet says only some Lichii forks manage this. The official Lichii build may not run the game yet. The game is far from fully playable. The open-world area shows flashing artifacts and bloom problems, while the Great Deku Tree area appears to work. DSOGaming cites a YouTube video by reznoire showing about 40 FPS on a Core i9-14900K with an RTX 4090. The video does not say which fork was used. The GBAtemp thread title makes the same claim, but the thread text available here has no further detail.

What it means for the scene

Several outlets link the speed of these projects to the recent public Switch 2 jailbreak, called ns2jb. Gadget Pilipinas says Eden-NX2 arrived about a week after it. A GBAtemp thread also points to a fork of Eden-NX2 called Eglantine, plus a separate fork named Eden-NS2. Users in that thread are comparing the forks. WindowsForum says Eglantine is reported to run Mario Kart World faster, citing XDA Developers. That claim is not confirmed independently here.

Several points remain open. Mainline Eden has not merged Switch 2 support, according to reporting summarised by WindowsForum. Compatibility lists do not exist yet. Performance claims vary between outlets. Results from forks of different origin are hard to compare. Tests so far are qualitative and run on high-end hardware. None of the reports show a Switch 2 game running well on typical PCs.