NX2navi/docs/tester-guide.md

Tester guide: running NX2navi Recomp on your GPU

This guide is for testing the build on a GPU other than the developer's (AMD RX 9070). You build it from source with your own copy of the game and your own console keys. Nothing from the game is in this repository, and nothing you build from it may be shared.

What you need

• Windows 10 or later, an x86-64 CPU with SSE4.2 (AVX2/FMA recommended: they build the default, faster version), about 60 GB free.
• A GPU with Vulkan 1.3 and VK_EXT_external_memory_host, with a current driver.
• Ocarina of Time base game (1.0.0) and the 1.1.0, 1.2.1 or 1.4.3 update, dumped from your own Switch as NSP or XCI.
• prod.keys dumped from your own Switch. Never send it to anyone, and never paste it into a log or an issue.

Build

1. Follow building.md: the toolchain, then build steps 1-6 (Python environments, config.local.toml with your own paths, extraction, the shader translator, lifting and linking, shader preparation). The result is build\<ver>\nx2navi.exe, with <ver> the game version you built (v143 or v121).
2. Check the build without the game: build\<ver>\nx2navi.exe --selftest must print a pass.
3. To run the build on another of your machines, package a portable folder (building.md, "Portable folder"). The folder holds game code: for your own machines only.
4. The installer (installer.md) is the other route to a machine without the toolchain: it builds the game there from your own files. No installer release is published yet.

Run and collect the log

Every run writes its log to logs\nx2navi.log next to nx2navi.exe; the four runs before it are kept as nx2navi.1.log to nx2navi.4.log, and Open log folder in the settings menu's Advanced tab (F1) shows them. Copy the log before you start the game again. A file stops at 64 MiB. Started with 2> file, the game writes its log to that file instead.

From cmd.exe in the repository root, with the validation layer on:

set NX2NAVI_VK_VALIDATION=1
build\<ver>\nx2navi.exe

NX2NAVI_VK_VALIDATION=1 turns on the Vulkan validation layer (it comes with the Vulkan SDK). It makes the game slower; do one run with it and one without (set NX2NAVI_VK_VALIDATION=).

If the game stops with a lost device (the log says device lost or VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST), the lines starting with vk: pass marks name the render pass or dispatch the GPU was running. AMD GPUs write them by default. On an NVIDIA GPU, set NX2NAVI_PASS_CRUMBS=1 (or GPU pass marks: On in the Advanced tab) before the run that reproduces the crash.

The game keeps running behind other windows (assume_focus = 0 in nx2navi.ini pauses it instead). Shaders the preparation did not cover compile on first use, so the first minutes of play can stutter. Play into the open field (load a save, walk around for a minute, fight something if you can), then close the window.

Choosing the GPU

A laptop with an iGPU and a discrete GPU, or two cards, lists every GPU at the top of the log (vk: gpu 0: ...).

• set NX2NAVI_GPU_NAME=Radeon picks the first usable GPU whose name contains that text (case does not matter).
• set NX2NAVI_GPU_INDEX=1 picks GPU 1 from that list.

The line vk: using gpu N: <name> says which one ran.

Mods

Mods and cheats made for the emulators go into mods/ next to nx2navi.exe, one folder per mod. mods.md covers installing them, their order, code patches, what does not work and what to check when something looks wrong; cheats.md covers cheat files. The log names every mod at the start (mods: <name>: ...); when you report a problem with mods, list them with their download links.

What to send back

1. logs\nx2navi.log from each run. It contains no keys and no game files. The lines that matter most start with vk caps: (GPU, driver, features and the fallbacks taken), vk: gpu, validation and gfx_shader:.
2. GPU model, driver version, CPU, RAM, and whether it is a laptop. Copy system info in the settings menu's Advanced tab (F1) puts these and your changed settings on the clipboard. Say which game update you ran.
3. What you saw: how far it got (menu, loading, field), roughly how smooth it ran, and screenshots of anything wrong (black or missing areas, flickering, wrong colours, missing grass). Win+Shift+S is fine.
4. If it crashed or hung: what you were doing. The log of that run ends with the crash report, so send it whole.
5. For a bug you can trigger again: a recording of your input (set NX2NAVI_INPUT_RECORD=input.txt, see controls.md, "Scripted input") and the save you started from.

Steam Deck

Build or install on Linux (installer.md, "Linux release"), in Desktop Mode. The game then runs in either mode; for Game Mode, add nx2navi from the install folder to Steam as a non-Steam game.

The game recognises the Deck (LCD and OLED) and uses its device profile for every setting nx2navi.ini does not set: fullscreen, the screen's own 1280x800 (16:10: the camera and interface take that shape), the game's own 3D scale, vsync and a 40 fps limit. These are starting points, not measurements. What helps most:

1. The performance overlay (F10, or both stick clicks L3 + R3) in full mode: the frame rate, mean and longest frame time over a minute in Lookout Landing, in the Depths and in the Sky, with the settings named.
2. The same with fps_limit 30, 45 and 60 and render_scale 50, 67 and game, so the defaults can be picked from measurements. Steam's own performance overlay (the ... button) adds power draw and temperatures.
3. LCD or OLED, SteamOS version (uname -r in Desktop Mode's terminal), and the game update.
4. Anything that looks stretched, squeezed or cut off, with a screenshot. At 16:10 the menus keep their 16:9 proportions in the middle of the taller screen, the HUD sits at the top and bottom edges, and full-screen backgrounds reach them; pre-rendered cutscenes play stretched.

device_profile = desktop in nx2navi.ini turns the profile off; deck turns it on elsewhere, to try the Deck's settings on a PC.

Switches for the developer's questions

Only set these when asked; each forces a fallback the build picks by itself on GPUs that need it.

Variable	Effect
NX2NAVI_VK_NO_FLOAT64=1	Translate shaders without 64-bit floats
NX2NAVI_VK_SSBO_ALIGN=64	Treat storage buffers as needing 64-byte alignment
NX2NAVI_VK_SUBGROUP_PIN=0	Do not pin shaders to 32 lanes; tell the translator the GPU's own subgroup size

Each switch makes the first launch translate every shader again.