The original Xbox release of Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition and Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix, recompiled and lifted instruction by instruction to C with xboxrecomp and compiled natively for the Nintendo Switch, Linux, macOS and Windows without the requirement of emulation.

Organised after the release of nfsu2-sw, whose Switch layer has been a great inspiration for this toolkit.

The Switch build can play towards the end until 100% career progress. Playing requires maximum overclock with the game running at 20-25 FPS of the game's maximum 30 FPS. Improvements are focused on performance.

Playing on Mac or Linux, 30 FPS is consistently achieved with 5x upscale settings (close to 4K) support. Improvements are focused on graphics and minor bug fixes.

Visit the installation page for a guided experience or manually package the folder by downloading the files from our releases and organise the folder according to the following hierarchy:

SD card (sdmc:)
└── switch/
    ├── mcdub3-nx/                    ← DUB Edition
    │   ├── mcdub3-nx-usa.nro
    │   ├── mcdub3-nx-eur.nro
    │   ├── game-usa/                 ← USA disc
    │   └── game-eur/                 ← European disc
    │
    └── mcdub3remix-nx/               ← Dub Edition Remix
        ├── mcdub3remix-nx-usa.nro
        ├── mcdub3remix-nx-eur.nro
        ├── game-usa/                 ← USA disc
        └── game-eur/                 ← European disc

Copy the game files to the /game directory within this folder. Move this folder to sdmc:/switch/mcdub3-nx/ on the Nintendo Switch. Install the .nsp to get a plug-and-play experience.

The Mac application can be packaged and installed by following these instructions:

1. Install the Xcode command line tools (xcode-select --install) and Homebrew.

2. Clone the repository and install the requirements for building the game:

   git clone https://github.com/laureladastra/mcdub3-nx.git
   cd mcdub3-nx
   make setup

3. Put your extracted disc in game/: default.xbe and all the other files from the disc, not the ISO. A disc extraction utility is bundled with this repo. To extract your disc you can run:

   make extract ISO=<file.iso>

   A second edition goes beside it in game-<edition>/: make extract ISO=<file.iso> EDITION=eur unpacks the European disc into game-eur/, make mac-app DISC=$PWD/game-eur builds the app with it, and make run EDITION=eur plays it from the repo.

4. Lift the game's code to C, once (10 to 20 minutes; every edition uses the same lift):

   make lift

5. Build the app:

   make mac-app DISC=$PWD/game

   The application file lands in work-dub/mac_app/Midnight Club 3.app. Drag it to your Applications folder. By default the app renders at scale 5 (3600x2400) with menu and HUD art at 5 too; a slower Mac plays more smoothly with lower values, for example make mac-app SCALE=1.5 UI_SCALE=2 (see Upscaling). SETTINGS bakes in any other setting from the Settings tables as a default, space-separated: make mac-app SETTINGS="RECOMP_GL_SHARPEN=0.3 MC3_MOVIE_VOLUME=80". Without GAME, the first start opens the folder where the app wants the disc: ~/Library/Application Support/mcdub3/game/. Settings, saves and the log live in that mcdub3 folder too.

You can also play the game without making the app by running make build run.

The game can be run locally without packaging:

1. Get the code and install what the build needs:

   git clone https://github.com/laureladastra/mcdub3-nx.git
   cd mcdub3-nx
   make setup

2. Put the extracted disc in game/ (make extract ISO=<file.iso> from an ISO). A second edition goes in game-<edition>/ beside it (make extract ISO=<file.iso> EDITION=eur) and plays with make run EDITION=eur.

3. Lift the game's code to C, then build and play:

   make lift
   make build run

   Settings go on the command line, for example make run RECOMP_GL_SCALE=2. The keyboard plays as player 1 and SDL game controllers (Xbox, DualSense) are supported.

The game can be run locally or packaged by following these instructions:

1. Copy the code to a folder without spaces in its path (e.g. C:\Games\mcdub3-nx):

   git clone https://github.com/laureladastra/mcdub3-nx.git

2. Put your extracted disc (default.xbe and the rest) or .iso in the game folder. The installer will automatically unpack the .iso. A second edition goes in a game-<edition> folder beside it (game-eur for the European disc); make build EDITION=eur makes the game start that one.

3. Double-click the installer install_windows.bat. The installer sets up MSYS2 (the build tools, in C:\msys64) if it doesn't exist, lifts the game's code, builds it and puts a Midnight Club 3 shortcut on the desktop. The first run takes about an hour and requires an internet connection to install the dependencies.

The game lives in work\build-windows-<arch>\dist\ (x86_64, or aarch64 on Windows on ARM): mcdub3.exe and its DLLs. Start it with the desktop shortcut or by double-clicking mcdub3.exe. Every build makes or refreshes the shortcut. Keep the exe in that folder (it needs its DLLs and finds the disc in the repo's game folder). Settings go in mcdub3_env.txt in that same folder, one NAME=value per line, for example RECOMP_GL_SCALE=2, according to the specifications in Settings. By default the game renders at scale 5 (3600x2400) with menu and HUD art at 5 too. The keyboard plays as player 1 and SDL game controllers are supported.

For developers: make and the other tools come with MSYS2 and only work in its own shell, not in Command Prompt or PowerShell (there, "make" is not recognised). Double-click tools\windows\shell.bat: it opens that shell in the repo folder, for x86-64 or ARM as your PC needs (by hand: C:\msys64\msys2_shell.cmd -clang64 -here, or -clangarm64 on Windows on ARM). Then the same commands as on Mac and Linux: make setup, make lift, make build run, make run RECOMP_GL_SCALE=2. make build also takes the app defaults, like make mac-app: make build SCALE=2 UI_SCALE=3 SETTINGS="RECOMP_GL_SHARPEN=0.3".

A setting in mcdub3_env.txt always wins over what the app was built with.

Profiles live where the Xbox kept them, in UDATA/54540079/ inside the game folder: game/ on Mac/Linux, sdmc:/switch/mcdub3-nx/game/ on the Switch, ~/Library/Application Support/mcdub3/game/, for the Mac application. Each profile is a folder with <name>.mc3 and SaveMeta.xbx. A uniform structure across platforms. We added build tools to work with saves. A tool to recognize saves and import them and a tool to sync save files.

Between the Nintendo Switch and a computer. With an FTP server running on the Switch (ftpd, sphaira, ...) and both on the same network, you can:

make save-sync-down HOST_IP=192.168.1.20   # Switch -> computer
make save-sync-up   HOST_IP=192.168.1.20   # computer -> Switch

make save-sync-down HOST_IP=192.168.1.20 GAME=remix              # the Remix's profiles
make save-sync-down HOST_IP=192.168.1.20 GAME=remix EDITION=usa  # its USA disc's

On the Switch the profiles are inside the disc folder the game plays from: game-<edition>/UDATA when that folder is on the card (e.g. sdmc:/switch/mcdub3remix-nx/game-eur/), otherwise game/UDATA. The tool looks there by itself; on the computer it uses the disc folder make run would play (game-remix-eur/ for the Remix), EDITION= picks another.

Both commands show the direction before copying (Switch to computer, or computer to Switch) and which profiles will be created or overwritten, and ask to confirm (YES=1 skips the question). HOST_IP is the Switch's address, shown by its FTP server. The port is 21 by default; for another, add it after the IP: HOST_IP=192.168.1.20:5000. Profiles are added or replaced, never deleted, and the receiving side is backed up to work-dub/saves-backup/ first. PROFILE= syncs one profile, by folder or by name (PROFILE=laurd), LIST=1 only shows both sides, FTP_USER=/FTP_PASS= if the server asks for a login (a server that requires encryption, FTPS, works too). The Mac app keeps its saves elsewhere: add UDATA="$HOME/Library/Application Support/mcdub3/game/UDATA" (the Remix app: .../mcdub3remix/game/UDATA). On a Mac, "No route to host" while ping works means the app you run make in lacks macOS's Local Network permission. It's per app (Terminal, iTerm, VS Code, VSCodium): allow it in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network, then restart that app.

Importing a save from a real Xbox. Profiles from an original Xbox, such as a memory unit dump (.gsx) from a save site, need re-signing first: the game calls them "damaged" otherwise. One command does both:

make import-save FILE=~/Downloads/midnight-club-3-dub-edition.gsx

It takes a .gsx or raw memory unit dump, an extracted save folder, a bare .mc3, or a PS2 save (.max, .sps, .xps) to check. Your saves are backed up to work-dub/saves-backup/ first, and an existing profile is never overwritten (REPLACE=1 to do so). LIST=1 only shows what is in the file. UDATA=<folder> installs elsewhere, for example the Mac app's folder. For the Switch, import on a computer and copy the new folder to the SD card.

An imported profile keeps its owner's settings, controller layout included. If driving or nitrous sit on the wrong buttons, pick the default layout in the game's controller options.

The PS2 release of the same game (SLUS-21029) stores its profiles in its own layout, about a third smaller than the Xbox's and with most fields elsewhere. make import-save reads PS2 saves and says which version they are. Saves made by this port won't load on a real Xbox.

• we're currently at v0.3.0, expect crashes and latency
• driving on the Nintendo Switch runs at 18-25 frames per second.
• a race can occasionally hang (the screen stops, the game does not crash)
• rain introduces quite some latency during racing

Several settings can be configured for the runtime environment. These settings are KEY=VALUE pairs and can be configured by defining them in a text file and saving the file as sdmc:/switch/mcdub3-nx/mcdub3_env.txt on the Switch, one setting per line, with # starting a comment and excluding the setting from execution.

The full list, with every setting explained and commented out at its default, is switch/mcdub3_env.example.txt. The following settings are likely convenient to configure:

Some settings undo a fix, for comparison only: MC3_FENCE_FIX, MC3_FLIP_PACE, MC3_TRAP_HOOK, RECOMP_TIMER_BATCH. Others are required and set by the game itself: RECOMP_VBLANK, RECOMP_PB_EXEC, RECOMP_USB, RECOMP_AC97_READY, RECOMP_NET_LINK, RECOMP_FLIP_VBLANK and RECOMP_APU_DSP_ACK. Leave both groups alone. The developer traces are described in the example file and in the source.

The project's own code is under the MIT license (LICENSE). The vendored toolkit in xboxrecomp/ keeps its own license (xboxrecomp/LICENSE, third-party parts in xboxrecomp/LICENSES/). No game code or data is part of this repository.

Midnight Club is a trademark of Take-Two Interactive / Rockstar Games. This is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by them, Microsoft or Nintendo.