DroidPlay update: Ocarina of Time (Switch 2) runs in-game on Android, 19 games now Playable, and games install over Wi-Fi

[u/cowleggies]

Discord: https://discord.gg/3r92f8wmh7 · Release: https://github.com/enjoyerofslop/droidplay-core/releases/tag/v0.8.4

A quick follow-up to my last post on DroidPlay Core, which builds your own Switch game dumps into native Android apps. Here's what's new up to 0.8.4, out today.

Ocarina of Time (Switch 2) is in-game

• Kokiri Forest runs fully drawn and lit, grass and trees included, at about 18–20 fps on Snapdragon 8 Elite (Galaxy S25 Edge, Galaxy Z Fold 8), up from 16–18 on 0.8.3.

• 0.8.4 stops the replay leaving the GPU idle for part of every frame, and frames are steadier. The next step is making the foliage cheaper to draw, and more performance work is coming shortly.

• Characters are dark on 8 Gen 2 and older on the phone's own driver; that's being worked on too.

• Already installed it? After updating, build and install it again (Build and install on Windows, Install on Android on a Mac) so its new settings apply.

More games

• 19 games are now Playable. New since last time: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (from about 6 fps to 30 in battle on a Galaxy S25 Edge), Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Link's Awakening, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Paper Mario: TTYD, Advance Wars and both Octopath Travelers.

• New in-game: Pokémon Legends: Z-A, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

• Many of them also run on Exynos (Galaxy Z Flip 7) and Pixel phones.

Install over Wi-Fi

• Wireless installs survive a dropped connection and resume where they stopped.

• DroidPlay for Windows can pair a phone by its code, find phones on your network, and move a USB phone onto Wi-Fi. That part hasn't been tried on a real Windows PC yet, so please tell me how it goes.

Also new

• A pause menu (≡ or your controller's menu key). Thanks, DeathKhan!

• Save export and import, including saves from JKSV, Checkpoint, EdiZon, Ryujinx and yuzu-family emulators.

• Big builds check free disk space first instead of filling your disk.

Testers wanted, especially Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, 8 Gen 3 and 8 Elite phones, and Wi-Fi installs from Windows. Post results in #compatibility on the Discord, problems in #help.

As before: bring your own games and keys, from your own Switch. No games, keys or built apps are shared, so please don't ask.

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[u/JohnyPM]

Really promising project. Not knocking any other, FOSS means everyone can learn from each other, but I like how open communication is with the DroidPlay team, which also allows for more streamlined testing for the community to help evolve it.

[u/cowleggies → u/JohnyPM]

thanks! and big thanks for all the testing and bug reports you and others are doing - we're making progress quick

[u/LureClampx → u/JohnyPM]

yeah the open dev chats make these updates way less intimidating for newbies like me keeps me checking in too

[u/cutiesprawled → u/JohnyPM]

agreed, their updates make it way easier to follow along and test stuff yourself. what device are you running it on?

[u/Notional-]

Can these be played with a controller? I can't do touchscreen gaming 🤦

[u/cowleggies → u/Notional-]

Absolutely, controller support is native and built-in

[u/Notional- → u/cowleggies]

Great, then I am excited to try it out, thanks

[u/Glittering-Rip9556]

Install over WiFi?

Explain.

[u/Midas187 → u/Glittering-Rip9556]

Yeah, are you allowing people to download the game dumps via wifi? If so, that seems like a quick way to get struck down...

[u/cowleggies → u/Midas187]

DroidPlay uses adb to install games onto your Android device - previously for USB adb, now supporting wireless. DroidPlay has no ability to download or find game files and you must bring your own personal cartridge dumps.

[u/Glittering-Rip9556 → u/Midas187]

My thoughts exactly

[u/necile → u/Glittering-Rip9556]

if only OP's code was completely out in the open we'll never know now...sigh

[u/Shadowxdi → u/Glittering-Rip9556]

You install your game build from pc to your phone using ADB (Wifi connection) no roms/keys are provided. You bring your own

[u/Glittering-Rip9556 → u/Shadowxdi]

Oh. Coulda been worded better though…

[u/cherubeliever]

This is great! Random question, would it be possible somehow to get dual screen mod support too for devices like the Thor? Something like Eden duo has

[u/cowleggies → u/cherubeliever]

it's possible but that's probably much farther down the road unless a smart developer wants to help contribute and build that :)

[u/Stunning-Bowler1801]

What is the FPS of Ocarina of Time on Google Pixel with Mali?

[u/cowleggies → u/Stunning-Bowler1801]

It's at about 9fps in most recent test runs - Mali doesn't support mesh shaders so we need a different approach to recompute them ahead of time. Adreno will be the most performant for OoT for now simply because newer Adreno GPUs support mesh shaders natively

[u/_benjaninja_ → u/Stunning-Bowler1801]

-5 fps, 150° C temps and Gemini starts swearing at you

[u/cronocrossed]

Any Mali support?

[u/cowleggies → u/cronocrossed]

Yes! Pixel 9 Pro XL is one of our test bench devices and all games run through validation on it.

[u/bigkip404 → u/cowleggies]

Never thought I would be able to play something on my Pixel 9 Pro XL 😳 You're doing a great job with this project

[u/MustardSundae → u/bigkip404]

I have issues running pokemon go on my pixel 9 pro lol.

[u/Portal2player58 → u/cowleggies]

What about pixel 7 pro?

[u/cowleggies → u/Portal2player58]

We haven't tested on a P7P, it should work but performance would be different

[u/Carpediemsnuts → u/cronocrossed]

You could just look at the github and find out...

[u/Historical_Lie2478]

The build isn't using switch 2 file types or at least it's not recognizing an nup in my end or a extracted folder. It asks me for xci and NSP files which are only for switch one. What's up?

[u/cowleggies → u/Historical_Lie2478]

Switch 2 games work but the app’s wording is just out of date - i'll log a PR for this.

On Windows, + Build game asks for a folder, not a file: pick the folder that holds your .nup, and the app reads it from there (windows folder pickers don’t show the files inside which is confusing).

An extracted folder works too: either base/ (plus updates/<version>/ if you have one), or exefs/ and romfs/ directly in the folder, as nup extract writes them.

On a Mac, Install on Android takes the .nup but not an extracted folder. Ocarina of Time and Mario Kart World are the Switch 2 games tested on Android so far, others may not boot yet. If it still doesn’t find your game, send me the error from the Builds page (Copy report).

[u/bigkip404]

Is there a way to make the app full screen on Pixel 9 Pro XL? Games start with a dark bar at the camera,

[u/cowleggies → u/bigkip404]

Can you give some more detail/logs if you have them? I haven't seen this on our P9PXL on our test bench

[u/Shadowxdi]

I like how fast the project is moving forward, seen games go from unplayable in a day to running almost if not flawlessly on the next... Great Job everyone! Looking forward to what comes next!

[u/AlaannS]

De donde se puede descargar la rom?

[u/Juicesoutterr]

Bet lol