When it comes to Nintendo Switch emulation, Ryujinx and Yuzu are both good choices, and it’s often a matter of personal preference which one you’ll use (I’m Yuzu, personally). But with their recent releases, Ryujinx have definitely been taking the lead, at least for some users.
Ryujinx brings Mac support
The obvious one first: Ryujinx is now compatible with MacOS, making it, to my knowledge, the only decent Switch emulator on that platform (correct me if I’m wrong, I’m the Jon Snow of MacOS!)
Not only did they bring compatibility to that platform, they’re apparently taking huge advantage of the CPU similarities between Apple silicon and the Switch. Both running on an ARM base, the developers of Ryujinx claim this tremendously helps some steps of the emulator, basically with no emulation required at all in some critical steps, where the Mac chipsets can simply run exactly the same commands as the Switch.
The same can’t be said about GPU hardware however, with Mac’s infamous “Metal” API being apparently limited, and hard to work with.
With a combination of wins and obstacles though, Ryujinx have managed to bring their emulator to Apple’s platform, a huge step toward more users for that Switch emulator.
You can read more on the Ryujinx MacOS port in their article here.
LDN3: Online gaming with real Switch consoles
Both Yuzu and Ryujinx support a flavor of online play. What used to be limited to “people running the emulator only” is now opening to “local network with Switch owners” for Ryujinx, with version 3 of their LDN (Local Wireless) service. This new release allows Ryujinx players to connect and play with actual Nintendo Switch devices (running CFW) on a local network.
Although in terms of audience, this feature will be impacting less people than support for MacOS, it still shows Ryujinx is one step ahead of the competition when it comes to cool features.
With both Ryujinx and Yuzu supporting more and more games, it is becoming clear that the distinction will come from additional features such as more platform support and this new LDN3 release.
You can read about the LDN3 release here.
Will you “switch” to Ryujinx?
As far as I’m concerned, I’ll still be a Yuzu user until something really compelling for my own use case comes to Ryujinx. What about you? Are you a Ryujinx or a Yuzu fan? Maybe you use both? Let me know why you chose one or the other in the comments!
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