Nintendo 64 - Nintendo Switch Online

This page documents the N64 application available via Nintendo Switch Online.

The internal name is "Hovercraft".

This uses an updated version of the N64 emulator used by SM3DAS. Like SM3DAS, Vulkan is used for rendering.

This saves various PlayReports. This also uses bcat.

NPDM

Same as SM3DAS Mario64 (besides programId etc), except the following services are additionally accessible: audout:u, bcat:u, bsd:u, bsdcfg, friend:u, nifm:u, nsd:u, sfdnsres, ssl. Flags is 0x27.

Details

Like SM3DAS, this uses JIT for running the emulated executable. The game archives also contains an AOT NRO. A NRO does get loaded, however it's not used other than that (no symbols from the NRO are resolved). Patches are applied at runtime with the config/lua files from the game archives.

A maximum of 0x1000-bytes are loaded from the launch-parameter, with buf[read_size]=0. Hence, this is a string. When available, this seems to be used to select which game to launch.

RomFs contains the following:

• "/kc.dat", "/Pipeline.cache", "/shader_font_frag.spv", "/shader_p1_frag.spv", "/shader_p1_vert.spv", "/shader_p2_srgb_frag.spv", "/shader_vulkan_frag.spv", "/shader_vulkan_vert.spv".
• "/.nrr/" contains:
  • "l-classics-app.nrr"
  • "libHovercraftJITPlugin.nrr"
  • And NRRs for each game's AOT NRO.
• "/bootapp/" contains "init.json", "resources.json", and "resources/" which contains:
  • Various UI/graphics data is stored here under various sub-dirs. This also includes "scripts/", which contains Lua scripts in bytecode form.
    • One of these scripts at "/scripts/constants_nuse.lua" in the raw data, contains among various other data: "FirstDeliveryDate" "2019-09-01".
• "/nro/" contains "libHovercraftJITPlugin.nro", the NRO for the JitPlugin.
• "/sysdata/shaders/mesh.spirv", "/sysdata/shaders/sprite.spirv"
• "/titles/" contains the data for the emulated games:
  • "lclassics.titlesdb"
  • There's a sub-dir for each game containing:
    • "{dirname}-details.png"
    • "{dirname}.bnz": ROM-image compressed directly with zlib.
    • "{dirname}.dtz": cpio archive compressed directly with zlib, containing the following (these are under "metapack_temp\"):
      • The data here has mostly the same structure/format as SM3DAS rom/{subdir}, without the unused NRR. Filenames have the same "{fileid}_{TitleCode}.ext" format. When any texture data is present, it's included directly in this directory.
        • The .meta no longer contains "DataSection", which in SM3DAS specified what files to load from here.
        • The .lua file is optional. Compared to SM3DAS, Mario64 here (regions E/P at least) no longer has a .lua file, and the only remaining patches in config are for "Idle" and "BreakLoop". There's also various config differences compared to SM3DAS.
    • "{dirname}.png"

libHovercraftJITPlugin

This section documents the JIT plugin.

This is an updated version of the plugin used by SM3DAS. Besides compiler-version differences / funcs being moved around, there were actual code changes.

The struct passed as the InBuffer to Control is now 0xE00-bytes instead of 0xEB0-bytes. The internal workmem offsets / layout changed. Various funcs were updated etc.

The 0xE00-byte controldata struct has the following structure (all addrs/data are from the emulator user-process):

Offset	Size	Description
0x0	0x8	Data addr: g_pGPR
0x8	0x8	Data addr: g_pFPR
0x10	0x8	Data addr: g_pCP0
0x18	0x8	Data addr: g_nRegHi
0x20	0x8	Data addr: g_nRegLo
0x28	0x8	Data addr.
0x30	0x8	Data addr: g_nFCSR
0x38	0x8	Data addr: g_bN64CpuCmpEndCheck
0x40	0x8	Data addr: g_nN64CpuPC
0x48	0x8	Data addr: g_nN64CpuJmpPC. s32, normally -1. When not -1 this is a value which can be copied into g_nN64CpuJmpPC by the generated code, with g_nN64CpuJmpPC being reset to -1 afterwards regardless of the original value.
0x50	0x8	Data addr.
0x58	0x8	Data addr: g_nN64CpuHaveExp
0x60	0x6A8	Array of funcptrs. Called with w0=instruction_value from generated code for handling instructions' implementation, when the plugin itself doesn't handle it.
0x708	0x8	Funcptr: n64CPUProcInstCOP1Check()
0x710	0x8	Funcptr.
0x718	0x8	Funcptr.
0x720	0x8	Funcptr: n64CPUSetRegisterCP0(int, unsigned int)
0x728	0x8	Funcptr: n64CPUGetRegisterCP0(int)
0x730	0x20	Funcptrs for reading data: n64MemDefaultRead{bitsize}(unsigned int), where bitsize is {8, 16, 32, 64} (32 uses n64MemDefaultRead32WithDestLog). Unused by the plugin.
0x750	0x20	Funcptrs for reading Special data: n64MemDefaultReadSpecial{bitsize}(unsigned int), where bitsize is {8, 16, 32, 64}.
0x770	0x20	Funcptrs for writing data: n64MemDefaultWrite{bitsize}(unsigned int, ...), where bitsize is {8, 16, 32, 64} (32 uses n64MemDefaultWrite32WithDestLog). Unused by the plugin.
0x790	0x20	Funcptrs for reading data via the WithDestLog version: n64MemDefaultRead{bitsize}WithDestLog(unsigned int), where bitsize is {8, 16, 32, 64}.
0x7B0	0x20	Funcptrs for writing data via the WithDestLog version: n64MemDefaultWrite{bitsize}WithDestLog(unsigned int, ...), where bitsize is {8, 16, 32, 64}.
0x7D0	0x8	Funcptr: n64CPU_CallLuaAfterInst(unsigned int, unsigned int)
0x7D8	0x8	Funcptr: n64CPU_CallLuaBeforeInst(unsigned int, unsigned int)
0x7E0	0x8	Funcptr.
0x7E8	0x4	Array count for the the following array.
0x7EC	0x180 (0x20*0xC)	Array data with the above count, each entry is 0xC-bytes. The emulator loads this from config array "Idle". +0 = u32 emu_pc_addr (config "JmpAddr"), +4 = u32 instruction_value (config "JmpInst"), +8 = u32 is_idle (config "IsIdle", 0x1 = enabled).
0x96C	0x4	Array count for the the following array.
0x970	0x280 (0x20*0x14)	Array data with the above count, each entry is 0x14-bytes. The emulator loads this from config array "SpecialInst". +0 = u32 emu_pc_addr (config "Addr"), +4 = u32 instruction_value (config "Inst"), +8 = u32 flags. The emulator sets the flags to 0 by default, then compares config "Type" with various strings to determine the value. Flags: bit0 = Type "BreakLoop", bit5 = Type "LoadFrameBuffer", bit6 = Type "Lua_BeforeInst", bit7 = Type "Lua_AfterInst". When the config for {any of the previously mentioned Type strings} is set to value 1, the emulator will also enable the corresponding flags bit mentioned above. Likewise with config "Return", which sets flags bit8. When the plugin loads a funcptr from +0x790, it will load a funcptr from +0x750 instead if there's a matching entry here which has bit5 set.
0xBF0	0x4	Array count for the the following array. The plugin doesn't use this.
0xBF4	0x80 (0x10*0x8)	Array data with the above count, each entry is 0x8-bytes. The emulator loads this from config array "FrameBuffer". +0 = u32 (config "Addr"), +4 = u32 (config "Length"). The plugin doesn't use this.
0xC74	0x4	Array count for the the following array.
0xC78	0x180 (0x20*0xC)	Array data with the above count, each entry is 0xC-bytes. The emulator loads this from config array "SpecialBlock". +0 = u32 (config "BeginAddr"), +4 = u32 (config "BeginInst"), +8 = u32 flags. Flags defaults to 0. If config for "NoRunTime" is value 1, flags bit0 is set.
0xDF8	0x4	Set to 0 by default, then if available the emulator sets bit flags here depending on the content of the config for "Cmp", "g_nN64CpuCmpTLBCheckLevel".
0xDFC	0x4	Set to 0 by default by the emulator. With config "Cmp", "CodeMultiAddr" this is set to 1. Config "Cmp", "BlockDynamicPC" from SM3DAS is not supported. The plugin doesn't use this field, since support for "BlockDynamicPC" was removed. All code which used to use this now assumes val!=2, with code for ==2 being removed.

Versions

This section documents the game-update changes.

v1.1.0

ExeFs:

• NPDM only had the usual ACID pubkey/signature update.
• main: updated

RomFs:

• "/bootapp/init.json": updated
• "/resources/fonts/l-ko.fnt", "/bootapp/resources/fonts/l-zh-hans.fnt": updated
• "/bootapp/resources/scripts/states/network/statesessionstartup.lua": updated
• "/bootapp/resources/scripts/states/ui/stateingame.lua": updated
• "/bootapp/resources/scripts/states/ui/statepause.lua": updated
• "/bootapp/resources/scripts/sys/sysgamedetails.lua": updated
• "/bootapp/resources/scripts/system/playreport.lua": updated
• "/bootapp/resources/scripts/system/titlelistmanager.lua": updated
• The localization data under "/bootapp/resources/strings/" was updated.
• "/nro/libHovercraftJITPlugin.nro": Rebuilt, only changes were the buildid and the path in the .nrs had a string for "build" changed to "patch".
• "/.nrr/": NRRs were updated/added.
• "/Pipeline.cache": updated
• "/shader_font_frag.spv": removed
• "/titles/":
  • "lclassics.titlesdb": Updated, entries were added for Paper Mario.
  • Added directories "N-2992_e" and "N-2992_p", for Paper Mario.
  • Updated "N-3030_e/N-3030_e.dtz" / "N-3030_p/N-3030_p.dtz" (Star Fox): the .cfg had a "VertexHack" entry added. Additionally for P-region, a new entry was added under .cfg "Idle" and the AOT NRO was updated.
  • Updated "N-3038_e/N-3038_e.dtz" (E-region-only OOT): the .meta had a field for "NerdStreamFillRatio" added, following the line for "SndSampleRate".