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Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

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Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#161
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What online switch game is worth playing? I'm sure the mig will be decrypted, and they will just fake the signature for the homebrew games. I think that's how some of the older homebrew worked. The scene is pretty dead since smartphones exist though. I agree he should just get an old one but aside from maybe not liking the mig guys I don't see a problem with the product. The amount of blood from mining in Africa for…

> just fake the signature That's not how cryptography works.

Can you explain how it works? I read a bit here. https://wololo.net/2024/01/10/it-appears-team-xecuter-are-ba... it seems you can use different game certs to make it launch.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#162
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Having the ability to launch a game with a modded Switch, doesn't mean you have access to the SDK, or the documentation. The very same websites and forums and Discord servers where the people who come up with jailbreaks for the Switch hang out, can also point you to leaked copies of SDKs, and ways to use these with a jailbroken switch and/or an emulator like Yuzu. (After all, while most published console homebrew —…

Modern console devkits don't boot unless they have an Internet connection through the manufacturer's VPN, so buying devkits on eBay is useless now. They started doing this with the Xbox One. The reason why they did this is because of leakers. The Xbox 360's devkits connected to a separate Xbox Live network called PartnerNet, and anyone who wanted to test Xbox Live functionality - e.g. buying games or DLC - needed to…

Interesting! Has anyone gone to the effort to jailbreak the devkits + reimplement open versions of any network services the devkit depends on?

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#163
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But presumably the port touches the proprietary bits. So either A) that interface is not allowed to be distributed under the MIT license and they have a problem with Nintendo or B) the interface is fine to publish under MIT so why not make it more available?

It's comparable to how open source code can also be patent-encumbered. It's MIT licensed but Nintendo's NDA still applies. The license can't supersede that.

I feel like the license definitely can supersede that - you obviously wouldn't be GPL compliant if you required everyone who got access to your code to sign an NDA, for example.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#164
post #89
post #78

I know "asymptotically close to zero" about game development and the like, so if someone who works in this space could answer this I'd be appreciative: what, if anything, would make you use Unity or Unreal instead of Godot for making a game today? This isn't meant as a passive aggressive question to push some kind of open source narrative, but a genuine curiosity. Since I know basically nothing about the industry, I'…

Indie gamedev company co-founder here: 14 people team, 2 games released + next in progress and signed with publisher. There are few big reasons why you can't just go and use Godot. Publishers. Basically 3 years ago when we made our first game together using Godot it was main reason why we were rejected by some publishers. Now situation can be slightly different, but many publishers still have in-house pipeline that o…

Unity was already massive by its 5-7th year. It had tons and tons of released games at that stage. Not sure exactly why that hasn't happened with Godot but i guess it might still happen, just a bit more slowly.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure the Mig Switch will allow you to play homebrew, it is designed to replicate the (apparently reverse-engineered) security protocol of game cards signed by Nintendo. The Github repos you've seen previously are probably your best bet, they're designed for homebrew development, but to launch these you'd need to mod your Switch: with an unpatched original model (could easily be verified on https://ismyswitchp…

Even with that though, home-brew games are almost nonexistent on the Switch, or extremely minimal. Having the ability to launch a game with a modded Switch, doesn't mean you have access to the SDK, or the documentation. Without those things, you really can't write any useful programs. It's like gaining access to the cockpit of a plane, and having no manual or labels on what all the buttons do. If you truly want to de…

devkitPro (libnx) has a complete OpenGL implementation with solid SDL2 port. I have ported my game engine to it with ease. There are even homebrew Godot ports for Switch that have been going on for years now. There's absolutely no trouble with writing proper homebrew for the Switch, no deals with Nintendo necessary.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#166
post #6
post #4

Does Nintendo take a 50% cut if you publish on their eShop?

It's most likely around 30% which seems to be the norm for stores like this

Epic’s store is 12%. Tim Sweeney tweeted that Epic take 5% as profit and the rest are costs[1].

Puts the other stores’ 30% in context, though Xbox/Playstation/Nintendo do significantly more QA than Epic.

[1] https://twitter.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/112044179501033881...

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#167
post #145
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then explain some "games" for the Game Boy Color where the quality was very subpar.

You said it yourself, Nintendo platform bouncers let too many spoil the party. Here is the thing, we aren't entitled to anything in life. Don't like the way consoles work? Don't buy them.

> Here is the thing, we aren't entitled to anything in life.

Are you sure about that? I'm entitled to a lot of things if my country's laws are anything to go by, for some reasonable definition of entitlement. I could be entitled to running my own software on a Switch if lawmakers say so. The EU already forced Apple, so what's another platform?

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#168
post #140
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unity so much more polished Unity has Timeline (and Cinemachine) Unity has Entity Component which is superior for many coders to Godot’s node system Unity has better 3D Unity has large bank of answered questions Unity exports to WebGL Unity Asset Store Assets are high quality, abundant and cost effective

>and Cinemachine Phantom Camera does most of that in Godot. >Unity exports to WebGL Godot also does that, albeit without C# support until the next major version.

The web export is very very bad currently. I know there is a PR where that is getting worked on, but currently it's basically recommended to use Godot 3.6 if you want to web export. It outright does not work for safari (and Im not sure if safari is the issue in this case, or at least not anymore. Webgl2 has been fully supported since v15 ?)

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#169
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just fake the signature That's not how cryptography works.

Can you explain how it works? I read a bit here. https://wololo.net/2024/01/10/it-appears-team-xecuter-are-ba... it seems you can use different game certs to make it launch.

Each physical cart has a unique certificate, signed by a private key held by Nintendo. That certificate is verified locally by the console, against a public key in the firmware. Without CFW, you have no way to bypass that signature verification.

In short, the flashcart works by making a full clone of the cart, cert and all. The console doesn't know it's not talking to an original game. That is, until Nintendo's servers notice multiple consoles playing the "same" cartridge at the same time.

If you really are only making and playing backups of your own games then you'd probably be fine, but I don't think anyone really buys these products with that use case in mind.

Re: Free Godot engine port for Nintendo Switch

#170
post #78

I know "asymptotically close to zero" about game development and the like, so if someone who works in this space could answer this I'd be appreciative: what, if anything, would make you use Unity or Unreal instead of Godot for making a game today? This isn't meant as a passive aggressive question to push some kind of open source narrative, but a genuine curiosity. Since I know basically nothing about the industry, I'…

Compared to Godot, as a hobby/volunteer game dev on some projects spanning a decade or more: I know Unity already, I enjoy it and have no compelling reason to leave, and it's much more mature in features, optimization, etc.
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