The RPCS3 team has announced the successful implementation of arm64 architecture support for their PlayStation 3 emulator. This development enables the popular emulator to run on a broader range of devices, including Apple Silicon machines, Windows-on-Arm, and even some smaller Arm-based SBC systems like the Raspberry Pi 5. The journey to arm64 support began in late 2021, following the release of Apple's M1 processors, with initial efforts focused on Linux platforms. After overcoming numerous technical hurdles, the development team, led by core developer Nekotekina and graphics specialist kd-11, achieved a working implementation by mid-2024. One of the primary challenges involved adapting the emulator's just-in-time (JIT) compiler for arm64 systems.

The team developed a solution using LLVM's intermediate representation (IR) transformer, which allows the emulator to generate code once for x86-64 and then transform it for arm64 platforms. This approach eliminated the need to maintain separate codebases for different architectures. A particular technical challenge emerged from the difference in memory management between x86 and arm64 systems. While the PlayStation 3 and traditional x86 systems use 4 KB memory pages, modern arm64 platforms typically operate with 16 KB pages. Though this larger page size can improve memory performance in native applications, it presented unique challenges for emulating the PS3's graphics systems, particularly when handling smaller textures and buffers. While the emulator now runs on arm64 devices, performance varies significantly depending on the hardware. Simple applications and homebrew software show promising results, but more demanding commercial games may require substantial computational power beyond what current affordable Arm devices can provide.

After being forced to shut down at the beginning of October, it looks like the open-source Nintendo Switch emulator, Ryujinx, may have found a new home. Late last week, a new fork of the Ryujinx emulator popped up online. The original Ryujinx project's lead developer, known online as gdkchan, took down the GitHub page after a mysterious offer from Nintendo. Although there was speculation that the creator of the project was offered money to shut the emulator down, the wording on the new GitHub project seems to suggest that Nintendo forced Ryujinx to shut down. The GitHub page for the new project is run by a developer that goes by GreemDev, who doesn't seem to have been involved with the original Ryujinx before it shut down.

GreemDev's Ryujinx is starting out as a direct fork and continuation of the original, although there are hints that the new Ryujinx will take on a slightly different nature in the future. For starters, it doesn't look like GreemDev plans to offer any documentation for the Nintendo Switch emulator—at least not yet. This is likely partially to avoid Nintendo's ire and because creating documentation is a lot of additional work for developers. Instead, the GitHub directs readers to the former Ryujinx documentation on Archive.org, indicating that, although there are intended changes in-store for the future of Ryujinx, the current forked version basically picks up where the original left off.

Nintendo is living up to its litigious reputation this week, with news reports emerging of the gaming giant issuing a massive wave of copyright strikes on any YouTube videos containing footage of emulation. In addition to this, it seems like Nintendo may have had some harsh words for the lead developer of a popular open-source Switch emulator.

As of an announcement today, the open-source Switch emulator, Ryujinx, is no longer available for download from its GitHub repository. One of the more active developers for the project confirmed via a message in the official Discord that the lead developer, who goes by gdkchan, was contacted by Nintendo with an "offer," although given the outcome of the interaction, it was likely less an offer and more a threat. Shortly before that, Retro Game Corps, a popular content creator in the Nintendo emulation community, posted on X that his YouTube channel had received multiple copyright strikes, requiring that he move away from showing game emulation on-screen.

In a notable step forward for the RISC-V architecture, the Box86 and Box64 emulator developers have successfully run The Witcher 3 on a RISC-V processor. While performance is far from optimal, even on a Milk-V Pioneer with a 64-core processor and an AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT graphics card, the achievement is remarkable.

RISC-V, a free and open-source instruction set architecture, is still in its early stages compared to established platforms like ARM and x86/x64. Despite this, the Box86/Box64 team, known for creating environments to run Windows programs on Linux, has demonstrated that AAA gaming is possible on RISC-V hardware. To accomplish this feat, the developers utilized Box64 with Wine and DXVK to emulate the necessary instructions.

RPCS3, the popular PlayStation 3 emulator, has been updated to improve compatibility with upcoming AMD Zen 5 CPUs. The update addresses low performance and crash issues when running on Zen 5 CPUs by treating those processors as Zen 4. While this doesn't boost performance, it significantly improves stability. Users are encouraged to download the latest version (RPCS3 v0.0.32-16742 or newer) to benefit from this fix. Since 2023, RPCS3 has shown notable FPS improvements across various CPU types, including lower-end models.

If you're not familiar with RPCS3, it was founded by programmers DH and Hykem in May 2011. The emulator was publicly released in June 2012, quickly gaining attention from the open-source community and PlayStation enthusiasts. Today, RPCS3 is co-developed by new lead developers EladAsh and kd-11, along with many GitHub contributors.

The open-source Yuzu Switch Emulator attracted immediate Nintendo attention, around The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's launch window. Last Monday, news reports put many spotlights on freshly-filed legal documentation—the Japanese multinational video game firm's North American office took Tropic Haze LLC to court in Rhode Island. The aforementioned limited liability company created and distributed Yuzu and Citra—Switch and 3DS software emulators (respectively). Nintendo's lawsuit claimed that Tropic Haze's Yuzu software illegally circumvents their software encryption, and played a significant role in facilitating piracy "at a colossal scale." A prime example was presented in the case of Tears of the Kingdom—allegedly over one million illicit digital copies were distributed prior to its official retail release. The lawsuit proposed that "defendant (Tropic Haze) is thus secondarily liable for the infringement committed by the users to whom it distributes Yuzu."

According to a new filing, Tropic Haze has agreed to cease all operations and pay Nintendo $2.4 million in damages. This swift announcement arrived much earlier than expected—Yuzu's developer reportedly "lawyered up" late last week. According to Eurogamer: "over the weekend, Tropic Haze announced it had retained the legal services of an attorney and would be responding Nintendo's lawsuit within 60 days, but a new filing has now been spotted confirming both parties have reached a settlement—pending the court's final approval." A permanent injunction prevents Tropic Haze from: "offering to the public, providing, marketing, advertising, promoting, selling, testing, hosting, cloning, distributing, or otherwise trafficking in Yuzu or any source code or features of Yuzu." This order seemingly extends to Citra (their 3DS emulator): "other software or devices that circumvent Nintendo's technical protection measures." Tropic Haze has been ordered to surrender its website domains and turn in all held physical circumvention devices. Yuzu creators are required to not establish "new entities or associations to develop similar Nintendo emulation software" in the future. Open-source "Nuzu" and "Suyu" follow-ups/spiritual successors have already popped up online.

Game File reporter, Stephen Totilo, has discovered a new Nintendo-filed legal document—the Japanese multinational video game company's North American office is ready to do battle (in court) with Tropic Haze. The latter's Yuzu Switch Emulator is the focus of Nintendo's legal case—initiated on February 26, at the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island. Totilo's social media summary of goings-on stated: "Nintendo is suing the creators of popular Switch emulator Yuzu, saying their tech illegally circumvents Nintendo's software encryption and facilitates piracy. Seeks damages for alleged violations and a shutdown of the emulator." The Dolphin Emulator—a Gamecube and Wii emulation platform—was removed from Valve's Steam store last year, following the sending of a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown order, but its development team was not pursued in US courts. The House of Mario is reportedly fiercely protective of its intellectual properties and technologies—gaining a hard-nosed reputation for engaging in plenty of legal action over decades past.

Nintendo's federal-level lawsuit alleges that Tropic Haze's Yuzu Switch Emulator played a large part in widespread illegal distribution of a 2023 flagship game title. They believe that "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom" was pirated over one million times in a time period prior to its official launch on Switch consoles, while Yuzu's Patreon funding almost doubled within the same cycle. Nintendo stated (through filed documentation): "With Yuzu in hand, nothing stops a user from obtaining and playing unlawful copies of virtually any game made for the Nintendo Switch, all without paying a dime to Nintendo or to any of the hundreds of other game developers and publishers making and selling games for the Nintendo Switch...In effect, Yuzu turns general computing devices into tools for massive intellectual property infringement of Nintendo and others' copyrighted works." They argue that Yuzu is capable of circumventing the Switch console's many layers of encryption—Tropic Haze's software, in their opinion, is "primarily designed" to break Switch software protections.

Well that blew up, huh? If you follow emulation or just gaming on the whole, you've probably heard about the controversy around the Dolphin Steam release and the Wii Common Key. There's been a lot of conclusions made, and while we've wanted to defend ourselves, we thought it would be prudent to contact lawyers first to make sure that our understanding of the situation was legally sound. That took some time, which was frustrating to ourselves and to our users, but now we are educated and ready to give an informed response.

We'd like to thank Kellen Voyer of Voyer Law for providing us with legal council for this matter. And to be clear, all of the analysis below is specifically regarding US law. Without further delay, let's begin.

Conflicting announcements and news items have surrounded a removal of the Dolphin emulator from Valve's Steam store - the emulation project's development team claimed that Nintendo had sent a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown order last week: "It is with much disappointment that we have to announce that the Dolphin on Steam release has been indefinitely postponed. We were notified by Valve that Nintendo has issued a cease and desist (order) citing the DMCA against Dolphin's Steam page, and have removed Dolphin from Steam until the matter is settled." This emulation application has been freely available online for many years, but an announcement was made back in March about a forthcoming release (Q2 2023) on the Steam store.

It has been widely reported that Nintendo is very protective of its technologies and intellectual properties - many examples of litigation (against pirating outfits and leakers) have been covered over the past year or two - but according to various sources (emerging over the weekend) it seems that Valve first flagged Dolphin as a potential legal headache. Valve apparently sought Nintendo's opinion about the matter of a Gamecube and Wii emulator getting distribution via Steam. A former treasurer on the Dolphin Emulation Project, Pierre Bourdon, criticized claims of the supposed takedown order and posited the following negotiations between involved parties: In this case, none of this process was followed. To the best of my understanding, this is what happened: "Valve legal contacted Nintendo of America (NoA) to ask "hey, what do you think about Dolphin?" Nintendo replied to Valve "we think it's bad and also that it violates the DMCA anti-circumvention provisions" (note: nothing about violating copyright itself). Also "please take it down." Valve legal takes it down and forwards NoA's reply to the Dolphin Foundation contact address."

We are pleased to announce our great experiment - Dolphin is coming to Steam! Our store page is now live, and you can visit it with the handy widget below. However, due to how Steam works, you won't be able to download the emulator through Steam just yet. Feel free to wishlist us to be notified when Dolphin is available to download on Steam! Dolphin is an emulator for the big N's 6th and 7th generation consoles, featuring enhancements such as increased resolution, save states, and netplay.

When we launch on Steam, we'll have a feature article detailing the process and features of the Steam release. We're pleased to finally tell the world of our experiment. This has been the product of many months of work, and we look forward to getting it into users' hands soon! You can continue the discussion in the forum thread of this article.

The popular PlayStation 3 emulator for PCs, RPCS3, just received a major update that lets it take advantage of the AVX-512 instruction-set on processors based on the AMD Zen 4 microarchitecture (the recently launched Ryzen 7000 series). RPCS3 emulates the PS3's CELL Broadband Engine SoC entirely on CPU, and does not use your GPU to draw any raster graphics. To emulate both a CPU and GPU of that time entirely on a multi-threaded CPU of today is no easy task, but is helped greatly by leveraging the latest instruction-sets. RPCS3 supports an AVX-512 code-path on Intel processors such as the Core i9-11900K "Rocket Lake," but the company has been fidgeting with AVX-512 support on its client processors since 12th Gen "Alder Lake." The developer of RPCS3 in a tweet confirmed that they have enabled AVX-512 support for AMD Zen 4 with the latest build.

Denuvo by Irdeto, is pleased to unveil a revolutionary technology to protect games launching on Nintendo Switch from piracy. The announcement comes as the video gaming industry is gathered for this year's Gamescom, currently taking place in Cologne, Germany. Nintendo consoles have long suffered from piracy issues and the Switch is no different. Even if a game is protected against piracy on its PC version, the released version on Switch can be emulated from day one and played on PC, therefore bypassing the strong protections offered on the PC version. This can happen with any of the numerous games available on Switch.

By preventing piracy on Switch while blocking unauthorized emulations on PC, studios are able to increase their revenue during the game launch window, which is the most important period in regard to monetization. The Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection will ensure that anyone wishing to play the game has to buy a legitimate copy.

AMD's Fidelity Super Resolution (FSR) tech is being implemented in RPSCS3, one of the foremost emulators for Sony's Playstation 3. The emulator allows PC users to play otherwise PS3-exclusive games via software emulation. The nature of this emulation, however, leads to a couple important aspects. One pertains to performance: emulating non-existent hardware is one of the most resource-hungry workloads one can think of, and is highly dependent on the emulator's coding quality. Another is that since this is a software solution, it does allow to changes in maximum render resolution, for example, or the addition of visual effects or other modifications to the rendering pipeline. One limitation of this approach is that game support has to be added almost manually, checking and correcting the emulators' behaviors according to the software being played.

AMD's FSR tech been received with a rather enthusiastic response. This is in part due to its open source nature, but also because of its apparent ease of implementation and its higher compatibility with graphics cards new, old, and from the competition - unlike NVIDIA's DLSS, which requires specific hardware (Tensor cores) to be present in the GPU chip, locking it to only the latest NVIDIA products. This nature of FSR has led to its integrationn on the RPCS3 emulator, promising a relatively easy to implement performance and image quality increase compared to the original rendering pipeline, including 4K upscaling. Check after the break for a video of the tech in action (spoiler: the quality difference isn't nearly as close as what the thumbnail implies).

Yuzu is an experimental Nintendo Switch emulator from the creators of the Citra 3DS emulator. The emulator has come a long way since the early days with more games becoming supported and general performance improvements. The first major update of 2021 brings a rewrite of the buffer cache along with general bug fixes and stability improvements. The new buffer cache was tested with the Ryzen 5 3400G and resulted in an average performance improvement of 89% for tested games with the average FPS rising to 30. These improvements should greatly benefit those with lower-end hardware and are likely to increase in the future as the emulator is further developed.

While the RPCS3 emulator has been in development since 2011, it is only recently that it has begun to see rapid improvements thereby Bringing PS3 games to the PC platform in a playable way. In their latest update video, the development team behind RPCS3 showed off the most recent performance improvements they have made. Multiple titles have seen tremendous gains thanks to Nekotekina, who managed to approximate Xfloat. This has allowed more games to benefit from the SPU LLVM recompiler which delivers better performance compared to ASMJTT. It also results in LLVM seeing better compatibility with a broader range of titles that before did not run with it or had game breaking issues. They also demonstrated Improvements to SPU cache building with LLVM now being multi-threaded. This change cut the cache build time from 12 minutes and 34 seconds to a 1 minutes 28 seconds on an AMD Ryzen 7 1700.

To display their hard work the development team used Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time which saw a roughly 20-30% performance increase but is still not considered fully playable as of yet. Even so, the performance uplift means Sly Cooper is running in the low 40-50 FPS range which is an excellent start all the same. They also chose a first party title in Uncharted Drake's Fortune which thanks to the same changes received a massive uptick in performance of around 50%. While this means the game only went from 20 FPS to 29 FPS, it is still a sizable improvement.