Support for the Nintendo Switch

The Nintendo Switch was announced today and looks awesome so far.
For those who missed it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5uik5fgIaI

It’s based on an Nvidia Tegra Chip, so other than the Wii U, it should be possible for Cocos2d-x to support the Switch.
Unity is already listed in the partners of the Nintendo Switch.

Is anyone of the Cocos2d-x Core Development Team already in contact with Nintendo to support the Switch?
If not, I think we should do everything we can to make it possible!

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Agreed, I would love to see this too. :slight_smile:

Me too! I have couple console-bound games I’d love to bring to Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo doesn’t support OpenGL. This counts us out without us supporting them.

Also, the version of the compiler Nintendo uses doesn’t support c++11

Looking at the CafeSDK API Ref, this would be a decent amount of work. We would need to make a lot of glue functions. Also you would have to develop on Windows.

@slackmoehrle I suspect your correct about OpenGL on Switch. But maybe they might is time? (probably not)

C++11 - Really? I’d be surprised if the Nintendo Switch SDK doesn’t support C++11

Isn’t the Cafe SDK for the Wii U? I suspect they’ll have a new SDK for the Nintendo Switch.

Yes Cafe is for WiiU, which is all that is available. C++11, yup, nothing. Greenhills supports it, but Nintendo doesn’t use a version that does. I do hope they update the toolchain when the Switch SDK’s are available.

Ok cool. I’m hoping the Switch SDK will be better and easier to use than Cafe.

Me too :slight_smile: Very much so.

@slackmoehrle I know that you do not support the Wii U for many reasons that have a valid point.

But since the Nintendo Switch will be based on an Nvidia Tegra it will most definitely support Open GL.

That’s why I was asking if anyone of the core Cocos2d-x Team already talked to Nintendo and if anybody has a Devkit yet (many developers out there already have one to make games for the release)

Nintendo doesn’t support OpenGL. This counts us out without us supporting them.

If you say this, it sounds like you’re sure that it will not support OpenGL in the new console.

But this sounds like you’re not so sure about the Switch SDK:

I do hope they update the toolchain when the Switch SDK’s are available.

I was not asking to support any old Nintendo SDK, I was asking to support the NEW one, that will probably be a lot less painful to support. Please clarify if you comments are about the Nintendo Switch already and if you have any more detailed information than we have.

My comments are about CafeSDK

Just because the Switch has a Tegra doesn’t mean they have to support OpenGL

We have not, nor are there plans to talk with them.

@slackmoehrle Okay, thanks for clarifying :wink:

Yes, sure - it’s not a 100%, but it’s a much higher Chance than anytime before to bring Cocos2d-x to Nintendo Hardware.

It’d be cool if you guys would consider talking to Nintendo again to find out if it’s possible to support this new console.
Evaluating the possibilities for new systems is an exciting part of being a game engine community.

I’d love to help and do the work here, but I’m not in the core development team of Cocos2d-x. Anyone of the core team should be the one talking to Nintendo on this one :wink:

Could you give us some insights on how the decision making for the engine’s roadmap works?
What could we do to make it easier for you guys to (at least) evaluate the possibility on this?
Is it totally off the table to even try this, or are there some regular talks with the whole team in which one could bring this up and discuss it together?

Nvidia have stated the Switch uses a set of brand new, custom developed APIs designed for efficiency on the Switch hardware. Nothing is confirmed until the devkits land of course, but given the above I’d doubt OpenGL would be an option.

How about that backend agnostic v4 of Cocos eh? :wink:

We currently aren’t targeting any consoles specifically. We don’t have the man power. I am not involved in deciding what functionality goes into the engine and in what timeframe. I do know the engineering team looks at requests from developers, GitHub isssues and market trends at a minimum.

I’ll talk to the engineering team about this but I imagine I will be told there are no plans at this time.

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Hi @slackmoehrle

Since, the development team doesn’t have the man power, like you mentioned in your post. Would it be possible to have a Kickstarter Campaign to raise funds to acquire such manpower through temporary work? I’m pretty sure there are lots of users who would contribute, including me… Thanks and God Bless…

Sincerely,

Sunday

We aren’t in a position to do this. It isn’t my call either. I can communicate the desires of the community to our engineering team.

To be honest If we were going to more actively support consoles I don’t think it would be Nintendo first.

@slackmoehrle Cool, thank you.

It’s not like I (and as it seems the others as well) except a full solution by the engineering team. We would totally love to participate in supporting this new platform. But to achieve this, we’d need somebody of the core dev team to also work on it and support the process. But the most important part would be first of all for somebody of the core dev team to contact Nintendo and ask a few questions. I guess there’s not too much manpower needed for that :wink:

Some people of the Cocos2d-x community will always have special needs, and if we work together on fulfilling these the engine can grow as a whole. But if we don’t, everybody will create their custom solutions and not share them with the community (or it’s harder to include the solution later) or move away to Unity.

I’m thinking of examples like this, where the developer added better support for desktop.
http://discuss.cocos2d-x.org/t/a-quiver-of-crows-steam/

I’ll communicate with the team. If you really want to support Switch you should become a Nintendo Dev and use either their SDK or NWF or Unity. Plus there is no emulator. Nintendo devs need a dev kit. I don’t see but maybe a few people here investing in a dev kit. You cannot release a game without one.

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Thank you, Yes, I’m aware of the requirements to become a Nintendo Dev and we’re currently thinking about investing in a dev kit. That’s why I’m currently trying to figure out if it will be possible to keep using my favorite game engine on the Nintendo Switch in the future :wink:
We’re trying to evaluate if it will be possible to port Cocos2d-x (together with the Cocos-Team) to the Nintendo Switch. Otherwise, as you also said, Unity is probably the easiest solution.

I imagine the Switch dev kit will be up there in price. Both of my dev kits were pricy. I haven’t touch either one in about 6 months. EShop isn’t lucrative imho right now. I almost never buy games off the EShop myself even.

Yes, I imagine so as well. Can you say what the price was exactly back then or is it under NDA?
The last thing I’ve seen for the Wii U was 10k, you might know better :wink:

The for the EShop: It’s a whole new game for the new console. We do not know yet how many they will sell and if it will be successful. I wouldn’t develop a game for the Wii U now, but at the beginning to mid of it’s cycle, the EShop was a good place for games and I’ve seen a couple great ones there.

In short, thanks for the warning, but we’re aware of all these things and are still willing to develop for the Switch.