NX2navi/docs/README-BuildKit.md

NX2navi build kit

This kit builds The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo Switch 2, game version 1.1.1) as a native Windows program on your PC, from your own copy of the game. The kit contains no game code or data. Everything the build writes (ocarina.exe, the RomFS image, the shader cache, your saves) comes from your game: keep it to yourself.

The NX2navi launcher (NX2navi-Setup.exe, launcher.md) does everything below for you, the downloads included, and keeps the game up to date. This page is the same build by hand.

What you need

• 64-bit Windows 10 or 11, 16 GB of RAM, a Vulkan 1.3 graphics card with mesh shaders and a current driver (tested on NVIDIA).
• Your own dump of the game as a .nup file (or its exefs and romfs folders), with the 1.1.1 update: program 0400486024DEC000, main build e0f3ccfa. Other versions are refused.
• About 34 GB free on the disk you build to, besides the dump.

One-time setup (about 15 minutes)

1. Python 3.12 or later from python.org. Tick "Add python.exe to PATH" in the installer. Then, in a Command Prompt:

   py -m pip install numpy lz4 zstandard zbic fonttools pillow
   

   zbic unpacks the game's compressed program files. It is a separate GPL-2.0 package you install yourself; the kit only calls it. fonttools and pillow draw the Xbox, PlayStation, Steam Deck and keyboard and mouse button prompts, when the kit has a prompt-art folder.

2. MSYS2 from msys2.org, installed to the default C:\msys64. Open MSYS2 UCRT64 from the Start menu and paste:

   pacman -S --needed mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-clang mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gcc mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-sdl3 mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-opus mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-libvpx mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-dav1d mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-zstd mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-vulkan-headers mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-vulkan-loader mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-vulkan-memory-allocator
   

   Answer Y when it asks. If MSYS2 is somewhere other than C:\msys64, add --msys <folder>\ucrt64 to the build command.

Build (about 10 to 15 minutes, once)

Unpack this kit anywhere, open a Command Prompt in its folder and run:

py -I tools\make_game.py --nup "C:\path\to\your game.nup" --out "C:\Games\Ocarina"

With extracted folders instead, use --exefs "C:\path\exefs" --romfs "C:\path\romfs" in place of --nup. To only check that your dump is the right version, add --check (it builds nothing).

The build checks the version, unpacks the program files, packs the 26 GB RomFS image (every file is checked against the dump's own checksums) while it turns the game's code into C and compiles it (about 6 minutes on a 16-thread Ryzen 7; longer on fewer cores), then prepares every one of the game's shaders for your graphics card (about 5 more minutes), so the game does not stop to compile shaders while you play. When the kit has a prompt-art folder, it last draws the Xbox, PlayStation, Steam Deck and keyboard and mouse button prompts from that art (about a minute) into the romfs-patches-* folders beside the game. The game it builds is for this PC's processor. You can use your PC meanwhile. If it stops, run the same command again: finished steps are skipped.

When it says finished, start C:\Games\Ocarina\ocarina.exe. You can delete C:\Games\Ocarina\build-cache (about 1.5 GB) afterwards.

Linux

The same command builds a native Linux ocarina on an x86-64 Linux 6.7 or later (the write watch needs PAGEMAP_SCAN) with a Vulkan 1.3 driver that has VK_EXT_external_memory_host and VK_EXT_mesh_shader (NVIDIA, RADV). It takes clang, clang++ and lld from PATH and links against the system's libraries; --msys is not used.

1. Packages, on Arch and its derivatives (other distributions: the same libraries and their -dev headers):

   sudo pacman -S --needed clang lld sdl3 opus libvpx dav1d zstd vulkan-headers vulkan-icd-loader \
       python python-fonttools python-pillow python-numpy python-lz4 python-zstandard dotnet-sdk
   

   Python 3.10 or later (with 3.14 the RomFS step uses its own compression.zstd, else the zstandard package; the button prompts need fonttools and pillow when the kit carries button art), then zbic, which the kit only calls (GPL-2.0): pip install --user zbic, or in a virtual environment with the packages above. Vulkan Memory Allocator is one header: the system's (AUR vulkan-memory-allocator), else the build fetches the pinned 3.4.0 into toolchain/vma/ and checks its hash. The Vulkan headers must be release 363 (1.4.363) or newer: the runtime names extensions that older headers do not declare (VK_KHR_pipeline_binary among them), and distributions with long support package older ones. The AppImage carries the pinned headers (toolchain/vulkan-headers/, tools/vulkan_pin.py) and builds against them whatever the system has; a build from a kit or a source checkout uses the system's when they are new enough and otherwise fetches the pinned ones there once and checks their hash. The loader's library still comes from the system (vulkan-icd-loader, libvulkan-dev, vulkan-loader-devel). The compiler is the system's too. The releases are built with clang 23; an older one works as far as it compiles the runtime (one without #embed, before clang 19, takes the menu's font from a header the kit carries). Before its long steps the build checks every runtime source with that compiler and links against the libraries, so a compiler, a header or a library it cannot use stops it in the first seconds, with the compiler's own words, and not after the RomFS image.

2. The shader translator: a kit with bin/nx2navi_xlate has it; from a source checkout, build it once with python tools/build_xlate.py (needs the .NET 10 SDK). The build copies it beside the game. A kit also carries the runtime's own shaders compiled; from a source checkout the build compiles them first, with glslc, spirv-as and spirv-val (on Arch the packages shaderc and spirv-tools).

3. Build, then play:

   python3 -I tools/make_game.py --nup "/path/to/your game.nup" --out ~/Games/Ocarina
   ~/Games/Ocarina/ocarina
   

With 16 GB of RAM, add --jobs 4: the compiles run beside the 26 GB RomFS image, and one clang per logical processor can fill memory and swap until the kernel stops processes of the desktop session (about 10 minutes on a 12-thread Ryzen with 4 jobs). Do not play or prepare shaders while it builds.

The profile, logs and settings are in the --out folder as on Windows.

On NVIDIA the driver keeps the shaders it compiled in nvidia-cache beside ocarina, not in ~/.cache/nvidia, where one run adds at most 1 GiB while the preparation at the end of the build makes about 1.5 GB. The game makes and sets the folder unless the environment sets __GL_SHADER_DISK_CACHE_PATH, and a limit of 8 GiB unless it sets __GL_SHADER_DISK_CACHE_SIZE. When it cannot make or write the folder, it sets neither and the driver keeps its own folder and limit; the log says which (vk: NVIDIA's shader disk cache). Deleting the folder costs one slow start; ./ocarina --warm-shaders fills it again.

The game reads the memory it may use: the limit of its cgroup v2 (systemd-run --user --scope -p MemoryMax=16G ocarina, a container's) and the machine's MemAvailable, whichever leaves less. Linux does not fail an allocation when memory runs short, it ends the process, so while less than the larger of 4 GB and a tenth of that limit is left the game drops stale textures and evicts idle ones. The log names the limits at the first check (platform: memory limits). That cannot give back what the game needs after its start: about 10 GB in Kokiri Forest at a 2160p game resolution.

AMD FSR 3.1 loads AMD's amd_fidelityfx_vk.dll, which only the Windows build can use: on Linux the menu offers neither FSR 3.1 upscaling nor FSR 3.1 frame generation, and taa = fsr3 or framegen = fsr3 in nx2navi.ini leave the game's own scaling and swapchain as they are (the log says so).

NVIDIA DLSS (RTX cards) needs the driver's own libnvidia-ngx.so.1 on the library path (the proprietary driver's utilities package, nvidia-utils on Arch) and NVIDIA's DLSS library libnvidia-ngx-dlss.so.<version> beside ocarina. The AppImage's kit has the library in bin/ with libnvidia-ngx-dlss-NOTICE.txt, which names its licence, and the build copies both beside ocarina (tools/make_appimage.py --no-dlss leaves it out; such an AppImage downloads the same pinned library from NVIDIA's repository after a build on a machine with NVIDIA's driver, checks its SHA-256 and writes the notice, unless NX2NAVI_NO_DLSS=1 is set or a library is already there). From a source checkout, or to use another DLSS version, put the library there yourself: NVIDIA publishes it as lib/Linux_x86_64/rel/libnvidia-ngx-dlss.so.<version> in its DLSS repository, tagged v<version>, and tools/dlss_pin.py names the version the kit carries. Later builds keep a library they did not place. Without it DLSS does nothing on Linux.

DLSS Frame Generation (RTX 40 and 50 cards) runs through NGX itself on Linux, without Streamline. It needs NVIDIA's libnvidia-ngx-dlssg.so.<version> beside ocarina (the same repository, lib/Linux_x86_64/rel/; no kit carries it) and DLSS upscaling on when the game starts. Frame generation in the Screen menu then offers NVIDIA DLSS, which switches at once, with a DLSS multiplier of 2x to 6x (above 2x on RTX 50 cards) or Dynamic, which generates only the frames needed to reach the display's refresh rate (framegen = dlss and fg_mult in nx2navi.ini). The log says ngxfg: DLSS Frame Generation available when NGX found the library.

tools/make_appimage.py packs this kit into one NX2navi-Linux-<version>-x86_64.AppImage with its own Python and the pinned Vulkan headers, for players without a source checkout: it checks for the packages above (their Vulkan headers are not needed), installs zbic with pip on its first run, picks --jobs from the memory, builds into ~/Games/Ocarina (or the folder given after the dump) and writes play.sh beside the game.

Playing

• F1 opens the settings menu. Settings are saved in nx2navi.ini beside the game; saves go to profile\.
• Every shader was prepared during the build. After an update of your graphics driver, the next start shows "Preparing shaders" once while the driver rebuilds them. With a driver that has Vulkan's graphics pipeline library it lasts at most about 20 seconds once the shaders are translated, and the remaining pipelines are built in the background while you play.
• On an NVIDIA card, set Shader Cache Size to Unlimited in the NVIDIA app (Graphics, Global Settings). The driver keeps the prepared shaders' libraries in that cache, and a smaller limit drops the oldest as new ones come in (a 2048 MB cache could not hold them): every start then builds them again in the background, and play stutters, with some things missing for a few frames, until that is done. The log's library warm lines say when this happens.
• Screen in the menu has Texture filtering (anisotropic, up to 16x, at once), Texture detail (Reduced and Low leave out the largest versions of the big surface textures so that the game fits the video memory of 6 and 8 GB cards; Automatic picks by the card), Upscaling (DLSS on NVIDIA RTX cards, FSR 3.1 on any card where amd_fidelityfx_vk.dll loads), Frame generation (NVIDIA DLSS on RTX 40 and 50 cards, with a DLSS multiplier of 2x, or 3x and 4x on RTX 50 cards; FSR 3.1 on any card where it loads; it needs DLSS or FSR 3.1 upscaling on; the frame limit counts the frames the game draws and the generated ones come on top), HDR (the game's picture tone mapped to your display, with its own grading rows, or Native, the game's own HDR; turn HDR on in Windows first) and the resolution. A setting that takes effect only when the game starts again says "after restart" once you change it, until you set it back, and the Restart button at the bottom then counts the settings waiting for it.
• Controls in the menu has Button prompts: the game's own, or Xbox, PlayStation, Steam Deck or keyboard and mouse ones when the build drew them (a kit with prompt-art). It takes effect after a restart. The keyboard and mouse prompts show the keys nx2navi.ini binds when the build runs: after rebinding keys, run py -I tools\make_game.py --rebuild --out "C:\Games\Ocarina" to draw them again (it skips everything else).
• The build copies NVIDIA's DLSS library nvngx_dlss.dll (with nvngx_dlss-NOTICE.txt, which names its licence) and FSR 3.1's amd_fidelityfx_vk.dll beside ocarina.exe from the kit's bin\. To use another DLSS version, put your own nvngx_dlss.dll there: later builds keep it. On Linux the library is libnvidia-ngx-dlss.so.<version> (see "Linux").
• A kit with bin\dlssg\ (made with tools/make_kit.py --dlssg) also brings DLSS Frame Generation on GeForce RTX 40 and 50 cards: the build copies nx2navi_dlssg.dll, NVIDIA Streamline's runtime, nvngx_dlssg.dll and their licence texts beside ocarina.exe, and Frame generation in the Screen menu then offers DLSS too.
• Logs are in logs\. When reporting a problem, say where you were in the game and which graphics card you have, and attach logs\nx2navi.log. Never send game files.

If something goes wrong

Message	What to do
not game version 1.1.1	Install the 1.1.1 update and dump the game again
the Python package ... is missing	Run the pip install line above
...\clang.exe is missing	Run the pacman line above in MSYS2 UCRT64
clang is not on PATH (Linux)	Install the packages under "Linux"
nx2navi_xlate is missing (Linux)	Build the translator with python tools/build_xlate.py
needs ... GB free	Free space on the --out disk, or build to another one
The game opens and closes	Update your graphics driver, then send logs\nx2navi.log