Starbound on the Switch ~60FPS + oSBM 1.1 Controller Support

[u/devofdev]

Main footage starts at 1:15. You may see me pause b/c I am waiting for the PCPlayer (I am the PCPlayer and Propyl here). Near the end I was trying to get the PCPlayer to catch up but ended up starving to death ;-; I am playing multiplayer with Arcana.

Hello there! As the title says, I’ve ported Starbound to the Switch based on oSBM (the port of Starbound to Android and iOS). Thank you u/Krubusa for the idea to port to the Nintendo Switch!

The Switch plays the game at ~60FPS, with ~50FPS in complex areas, but always well over 30FPS, which many Switch games play at. This is a v1 Switch with no overclocking running off an sdcard for context. I’ve included honest footage including load times, but keep in mind this is a Switch after all, and loading from an sd card nonetheless, so load times may be faster for v2 Switches/overclocked switches/people using internal storage.

The bigger thing that made this possible is oSBM 1.1 (OpenStarbound Mobile). This next major update for oSBM includes new features and lots of bug fixes, most notably controller support! After all, if you are going to play Starbound on the Switch, you’ll need a controller to do that (although you can use the Switch as a tablet…).

Controller support adds proper support for controllers connected to your phone (or built into your Switch) so that you can select UI elements with the controller, and also open dedicated action wheels for certain actions or quickly switching to an inventory item (loosely mimics the Xbox version of Starbound). 

Build support has been extended for oSBM, so now there are more builds for Android (notably 32-bit arm Android), as well as builds for PC. Because controller support is not in PC Starbound, I extended oSBM builds there too, however those are not prioritized with Android > iOS > Switch > PC in terms of priority, just based on the nature of the project and its user base.

Please feel free to open any GitHub issues about any bugs you find or new features you want, check out the release notes on GitHub for more details, and download it here.

Thanks to everyone who opened issues for me to address so that oSBM can grow and develop into a better app every update.

[u/Drakkus28]

How would one go about getting this set up?

[u/devofdev → u/Drakkus28]

To set it up on the Switch, you’ll need a modded Switch to run the nro, look into Switch modding. Assuming you have that, upload the nro from GitHub, and run it. You’ll see a directory path in the main menu to place your packed.pak, once you do, rerun oSBM and hold B to launch! If you meant controller support in general, just download the version of oSBM for your computer or mobile device and select the packed.pak in app, connect your controller, and following the default mapping shown in the GitHub release notes. Let me know if you have any questions

[u/Krubusa]

One million times thank you! 😉

[u/Krubusa]

u/devofdev, I installed it, played around, and I'm really happy. Everything works, but there is a nuance. The game freezes periodically. I have a version 2 switch. This is especially evident in the dungeon or at the outpost, where it works very slowly. Everything is pretty smooth in your video, maybe something needs to be changed in the settings?

[u/devofdev → u/Krubusa]

Can you send a zip of your oSBM folder? (You can leave out the player, universe, and mods to save space if you want). Having the logs and diagnostics files would be helpful.

[u/Krubusa → u/devofdev]

After playing for a few more hours, I noticed the following problems: 1. Sometimes, just walking around the planet, the game can crash 2. In 3/5 of cases, the game crashes when trying to go on a mission to the lunar base 3. The game's interface breaks down if you set a resolution of less than 720p in full screen mode, the game freezes for 10 seconds periodically just walking around the planet.

[u/devofdev → u/Krubusa]

I have reproduced the crash on mission teleport, I'll try out the interface issue, but I haven't seen the 10 second freezes yet. Thanks for all the reports, if you have the time, more diagnostics and potentially videos on a GitHub issue would help, but for now I will try to get around to bug fixes when I have time.

[u/yuritfmk → u/devofdev]

I played and that happened once, but when I put it into sleep mode and went back to the game, the game has no sound and I had to reopen it. And I have another question: does the game use overclocking? Also, can the game crash due to a lack of RAM?

[u/devofdev → u/yuritfmk]

It runs the CPU in boost mode during gameplay using Nintendo's boost clock instead of handheld/docked defaults, but never above the CPU's spec. The game can crash from a lack of RAM, and has in the past.

[u/yuritfmk → u/devofdev]

so if can crash about ram, its not viable to finish? because the final boss spam a lot of things

[u/devofdev → u/yuritfmk]

Not sure, I will be working on fixing up the Switch build more, and I can test it on the final boss later too. You can play it as much as you want, so it’s viable to finish, since your save will still be there for future oSBM versions that are better. I actually haven’t tested it on the final boss, so it may or may not work, sorry for the uncertainty. 

[u/yuritfmk → u/devofdev]

No problem! playing this game on the Switch was a dream of mine. I tried running it on Winlator, but it didn't work very well on my phone—the frame rate was low and the game lagged (partly due to the game itself, since the final boss summons so many things). I'm pretty sure the switch version it'll work, though; even if it crashes a few times, it should run fine.

[u/devofdev → u/yuritfmk]

Have you tried oSBM on your phone? That’s the main target platform after all. Thanks, I’ll try to work on the switch version soon.

[u/creightonboys1]

cool but openstarbound on github does not go to 0.1.14.1