Anka — a Nintendo Switch 2 emulator for Windows, focused on performance.

Not affiliated with Nintendo, the Eden project or Franseven; please report problems in this repository's Issues, not to them.

The name

Anka is the Zümrüdüanka of Turkish myth, the phoenix that rises from its ashes: an emulator born from the ashes of yuzu, which closed.

The full documentation is README_ANKA.md. The README.md at the top of this tree is the upstream project's own.

Downloads and setup

Download Anka-1.1.1-win64.zip from the Releases page (SHA256SUMS.txt there lets you check it).

Anka runs on its own. You need Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) and a GPU with a current Vulkan driver; the zip carries everything else the programs need (the Qt 6.8.3 DLLs and plugins, the Visual C++ runtime DLLs).

1. Unzip Anka-1.1.1-win64.zip into a new folder (all of it, the core2 folder too). Anka also reads .nup game files (see the README).
2. Run anka.exe.
3. Install your own keys and firmware as with other Eden-based emulators (Anka provides none; only use what you legally own).

Coming from PokeDinner-Eglantine 2.0.0: copy your user folder next to anka.exe (see Saves and settings).

Do not unzip Anka into a PokeDinner-Eglantine 2.0.0 folder: its Qt DLLs would replace 2.0.0's.

To uninstall, delete the Anka folder; move your games and its user folder (keys, firmware, saves) out first if you want to keep them.

Without menus: anka-cli and the launchers

anka-cli.exe is the program without menus. Put your game in the Games folder (or drag it onto a launcher) and double-click a launcher:

Launcher	When to use it
start-recommended.bat	Recommended. The fastest settings we measured (Donkey Kong Bananza).
start-reactive-experimental.bat	Experimental. Reactive Flushing on: on our PC about 7% slower at the game's opening and about 15% faster in open areas. If you see image errors, go back to the recommended one.
start-safe.bat	For troubleshooting and for games other than Bananza. The GPU shortcuts Anka keeps on by default turned off (EDEN_NX2_LIGHT_DRAW=0 and the rest of its list) and the optional settings that change play cleared. Anka's fixes and its changes without a switch stay in.

On the first start a launcher makes anka-cli's settings file (user\config\sdl2-config.ini) as a copy of anka.exe's qt-config.ini, so your controller setup comes along; it never changes a settings file that already exists (anka-config.ps1, a small, readable PowerShell script, does this). The game starts in full screen: quit with Alt+F4.

Anka's second core

Since 1.1.0 the package has a second emulator core, core2\anka-core2-cli.exe, built from zortos293's Lichii (its nx2 branch, GPL-3.0) with Anka's changes. It is used for one game, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (title id 0400486024DEC000): anka.exe and anka-cli.exe recognize that game and start the second core for it, with the same user folder. The first time a game starts on Anka's second core after its shaders were cached, they are prepared again for your graphics driver; this can take a while (also after a driver update), and later starts are faster. Details: "Anka's second core" in README_ANKA.md.

Settings

In anka.exe: Emulation > Configure... > Anka. The Preset box at the top has four choices:

• Recommended (the first start's choice): all eight settings on, Reactive Flushing off (Graphics > Advanced). The setup we measured (with GPU Mode Fast, the default); the same as start-recommended.bat. On Anka's first start it also turns Reactive Flushing off in qt-config.ini by itself; choosing Recommended later turns it off as well.
• Recommended + Reactive Flushing: all eight on, Reactive Flushing on, barrier feedback loops on (Graphics > Advanced; Reactive Flushing needs it) and EDEN_NX2_RX_RT_FIT=3. Experimental; the same as start-reactive-experimental.bat.
• Safe: all eight off, Frame generation off, and the GPU shortcuts Anka keeps on by default off too (EDEN_NX2_LIGHT_DRAW=0 and the rest of start-safe.bat's list), in every game. Other graphics settings such as Reactive Flushing stay as they are; Anka's fixes and its changes without a switch stay in.
• Custom: chosen by itself when you change a box by hand.

Recommended was measured in Donkey Kong Bananza only. If another game shows image or speed problems, try Safe first and report it with the game's name.

GPU Mode (GPU accuracy) starts at Fast (Low), as in newer Eden versions (2.0.0 started at Accurate, High, on desktop); our measurements used Fast. If a game shows image errors, set Graphics > Advanced > GPU Mode to Accurate for that game (its Properties) or globally.

Below the presets, six settings apply to all games and two to Donkey Kong Bananza only (Dynamic frame rate and Frame pacing; off in other games). The settings are read once per session and take effect at the first game you start. If you change them after a game was already started, or start a game that needs other settings (Bananza after another game or the other way round), Anka asks whether to restart and does it for you. A switch you set outside the program (your environment, your own .bat or nx2_switches.txt) always wins; its box is greyed out.

The tab also has a Frame generation box:

• Off (the default): frame generation off.
• 2x: FSR3, one generated frame per real frame (fixed). On a 60 Hz screen it holds the game at 30 fps.
• Dynamic: FSR3 with a 120 fps target, capped at the screen's refresh rate when it is known. It steps between 1x and 4x only while the screen can show the extra frames and the game's own frame rate holds (a step that lowers the game's frame rate by more than 8% is undone).
• Other (Graphics tab) is shown, not chosen, when the Graphics tab holds another frame generation setup; the Anka tab leaves it as it is.

Generated frames need a screen faster than the game's frame rate; on a 60 Hz screen they only help below 30 fps. The presets do not change it, except Safe, which sets it to Off. The box writes the Graphics tab's frame generation settings (Enable Frame Generation, type FSR3, multiplier / target frame rate).

Reactive Flushing (through a preset) and Frame generation are graphics settings, which cannot change in a running game: changed while a game runs, Anka keeps them and applies them when you press Restart Now, or when the game stops if you chose Later (the tab says so). Details: "The Anka tab" in README_ANKA.md.

Saves and settings

The zip has an empty user folder next to anka.exe, so Anka runs in portable mode: its settings (user\config\qt-config.ini), keys, firmware, saves (user\nand) and log stay in that folder, apart from any other emulator; it does not use %APPDATA%\eden (except that anka.exe also reads a nx2_switches.txt there, if you made one). Coming from PokeDinner-Eglantine 2.0.0, copy your 2.0.0 user folder next to anka.exe (a portable 2.0.0 has it next to eglantine.exe; otherwise copy the contents of %APPDATA%\eden into Anka's user folder): your keys, firmware, saves, game list and controller come along, and 2.0.0 keeps its own copy.

What is faster

Measured in Donkey Kong Bananza only, on one PC only (Ryzen 7 5700X, 64 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, 1440p 170 Hz display), with the program without menus (then called eden-cli), frame generation off unless stated. The menu program runs the same code with the same settings but was not measured on its own.

Only Donkey Kong Bananza was measured. The general improvements run in every game, but other games, other CPUs and AMD or Intel GPUs were not tried, so there is no claim of measured speed or tested compatibility for them.

• 2.0.0's eglantine.exe measured 17.3 FPS in the heaviest view (far view, by hand); Anka's builds measured 42-53 FPS uncapped and 39-46 FPS with the dynamic frame rate patch in the opening and open area. This is not a controlled A/B (different scenes, modes and runs), only a rough indication.
• Single steps, each against the same build: split GPU thread stages +7.3 to +8.7%, per-draw shortcuts +6.8 to +7.5%, the macro JIT filter +6% (39.6 -> 42.1 FPS), profile-guided optimization +15.8 to +21.5%, the terrain's indirect draws on the host GPU about +48% in the far view (~20.8 -> ~30.8 FPS).
• With the dynamic frame rate patch and FSR3 frame generation aiming at 120, one 3.6 minute session of normal play had a median of 46 game FPS, 119 frames a second on screen and 99.8% game speed. One session, not a benchmark.

The method and every measurement: "Measured results" in README_ANKA.md; every change since PokeDinner-Eglantine 2.0.0: CHANGELOG_ANKA.md.

Roadmap

Every update goes into one emulator, Anka. Per-game presets are planned. No dates.

Building

See BUILDING_ANKA.md.

License

Anka is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later (LICENSE.txt), like Eden and Eglantine. Each release has the complete corresponding source next to the program: Anka-1.1.1-source.zip (this repository at the release commit, tag anka-v1.1.1), Anka-1.1.1-core2-source.zip (the second core, built from its own commit), Anka-1.1.1-deps-source.zip (the third-party libraries built from source) and Anka-1.1.1-prebuilt-source.zip (the sources and build scripts of the four prebuilt libraries: FFmpeg, OpenSSL, SDL3, sirit). anka.exe links Qt 6.8.3 dynamically (LGPL-3.0; Qt Charts GPL-3.0); the program zip carries the Qt DLLs, which you may replace with your own build of Qt 6.8.3. Third-party notices are in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES_ANKA.txt in the release zips and in LICENSES.

Credits

Built on. Anka builds on Eden, Eglantine (the PokeDinner fork by Franseven), yuzu and Sudachi; their copyrights and credits are kept. It is not an official release of those projects. Please report Anka's problems here, not to them.

• Franseven's Eglantine (PokeDinner-a-Eglantine-Fork).
• The Eden, yuzu and Sudachi teams and all their contributors.
• Forks whose ideas were ported, credited in the code: Selevet, elBart0, Duck912 / moceure's eden-nx2-android, and ZendNevs (the dk_dynamic_fps patch that the dynamic frame rate setting ports). The upstream commits picked into Anka are listed with their authors in the changelog.

Most of Anka's code, its commit messages and its documents were written by an AI coding assistant (Claude Opus 5.5, by Anthropic) under the direction of the human maintainer, who decided what to try, played and tested the builds, and is responsible for the release. Every commit made with the assistant says so with an Assisted-by: line, as the Eden project's AI policy asks.

Known issues

• Fixed in 1.1.1: crash on NVIDIA drivers 617 and newer when something breaks or explodes in the game (VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST; issues #3, #7, #8, #10, #12). The driver 610.88 workaround is no longer needed. If it still crashes, please attach the log (below) and name your driver version.
• Grass and plants missing (#1): the Recommended preset turns Reactive Flushing off; the Recommended + Reactive Flushing preset shows them, but is slower in some places.
• White / black bands on the island (#4): open; Reactive Flushing does not fully remove them.
• The full list: "Known issues" in README_ANKA.md.

Issues

Report problems at https://github.com/EddizEge/Anka/issues (please not to Franseven, the Eden project or the other upstream projects). Say which program (anka.exe or anka-cli.exe) and which preset or launcher you used, the game's version, and attach the log file (user\log\eden_log.txt in the Anka folder; for a game on the second core user\log\core2\eden_log.txt).

Nintendo Switch and Donkey Kong Bananza are trademarks of Nintendo. Use Anka only with games you own.