Devlog 3, I made a Switch 2 emulator!

Sorry for lying to you in the title, I had to get your attention somehow. This is instead my Switch 2 cloudplay project .

In the last devlog

After hours of debugging I got my Switch 2 to recognize the fake Switch 1 pro Controller, since then I have made quick progress.

What i fixed/implemented

• The A button now works (i had it set to the wrong bit)
• Home button also now works (Vortice.XInput for some reason doesn’t support the Guide button so i had to implement something else)
• I setup my capture card via OBS to receive the Switch 2 ouput and I’m sending it via the moonlight streaming network to my Thor.

In the Youtube video below there’s a gameplay demo of me playing a round of Mario Kart World entirely from the Thor. (and even winning🎉)

What is next?

I want to make a desktop application that handles translating all the inputs to the pico and also a built in videostream so you dont need to have visual studio + OBS open all the time.

I also have alot more plans in the future like;

• v0.2 release: Optimizing latency, add rumble support.
• v0.3 release: Add Gyro support.
  -v0.4 release: My own streaming protocol so I don’t have to rely on moonlight. (might scrap this)
• v0.5 release: Add support for more input devices, and different capture cards.

See you in the next devlog!

https://youtu.be/6PGTXF4xbAI

(also I just now while writing found out Hackatime supports Visual Studio so I’m sadly missing a couple hours of tracked time 😫)

Devlog 2, A breakthrough!

Quick introduction

I’m working on a very janky Switch 2 cloudplay setup:

AYN Thor → Windows → XInput → C# → UART → Raspberry Pi Pico → fake Switch Pro Controller → Switch 2

After around 3 days of work the Switch 2 could;

• Identify the controller
• Complete the handshake
• Send bytes and other useful info to my Pico

But it would never actually connect with the Switch 2, I kept messing with the code, debugging, changing bytes I even asked AI but I never got the answer.

Then I had an epiphany,

What if all this time my code was working just fine and I wasn’t testing it correctly, so I sent a singular button press with right_buttons |= (1 << 3); and suddenly. It connected. Apparently, the Switch was waiting for an actual input report before considering the controller fully connected.

All that work and time just to mess up my entire codebase. At least I learned a little more about C and hexes 😓😓

What is next?

I think the project is close for a v0.1 release, I’ll need to;

• Fix the A button input
• Clean up the codebase from all the testing mess
• Test
• Build the application

In the future I want to build a special application instead of relying on OBS, reduce latency and add rumble + gyro support.

https://youtu.be/oTnj4p9ZfQ8

I’ve started on the project, and it’s been quite a lot to take in at once. I’m using various sources to actually find how to even make this whole interpreter (I’ll link them below), but that made me even more uncertain on how I’m going to finish this haha. I have used my existing Java knowledge to get a simple display working using Swing, and I’m able to record keypresses, so that’s definitely a good start. I’m now trying to understand how every single component should work in Pico8 but it’s quite hard to understand.

I’ve tried my best to “summarise” what every component does in the designated Java class but I still have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. I’m trying to only use actual human-made online sources and not just blatantly ask AI for help since that’s boring.

Next step is actually getting some kind of Chip behaviour working, let’s hope that’s gonna go well.

Sources that I used:

• https://austinmorlan.com/posts/chip8_emulator/
• https://tobiasvl.github.io/blog/write-a-chip-8-emulator/#memory

I’ve started on the project, and it’s been quite a lot to take in at once. I’m using various sources to actually find how to even make this whole interpreter (I’ll link them below), but that made me even more uncertain on how I’m going to finish this haha. I have used my existing Java knowledge to get a simple display working using Swing, and I’m able to record keypresses, so that’s definitely a good start. I’m now trying to understand how every single component should work in Pico8 but it’s quite hard to understand.

I’ve tried my best to “summarise” what every component does in the designated Java class but I still have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. I’m trying to only use actual human-made online sources and not just blatantly ask AI for help since that’s boring.

Next step is actually getting some kind of Chip behaviour working, let’s hope that’s gonna go well.

Sources that I used:

• https://austinmorlan.com/posts/chip8_emulator/
• https://tobiasvl.github.io/blog/write-a-chip-8-emulator/#memory

First response from the Switch 2!

I’ve been working on this for a couple days and I’ve finally gotten to the point where my Switch 2 is sending USB handshake packets to the Pico . Now I just need to match it and hopefully getting the Switch 2 to recognize it. 👀