AC-Recomp v0.1.0 (macOS)

AC-Recomp v0.1.0 (macOS)

An early preview of AC-Recomp, a native static recompilation of Astral Chain for macOS on Apple silicon.

This release contains no game code, data, shaders or fonts. You need your own legally dumped Astral Chain 1.0.0
(NSP) and your console's keys. tools/acr_build.py imports your dump and recompiles the game on your own Mac.

Download

• AC-Recomp-v0.1.0-macos.dmg (recommended): open it and run AC-Recomp Setup, which checks the prerequisites,
  asks for your NSP and keys and builds AC-Recomp.app on your Mac. SHA-256: e71aa3922b8d96453c52606fa78f7ecfabaaee47d6b924dc8866b92b90a8884d
• AC-Recomp-v0.1.0-macos.zip: the same build kit for the command line (python3 tools/acr_build.py ...).
  SHA-256: 891337ae4621fa544f04eb1a26cea8fac936d29deeb63428221aee4a46fb6942

The setup app is not notarized. On macOS 15 and later, try to open it once, then choose System Settings >
Privacy & Security > Open Anyway. On macOS 13 and 14, right-click it and choose Open.

Getting started

1. Open the DMG and run AC-Recomp Setup (or drag it to Applications first).
2. Follow the steps: it checks Xcode's command-line tools, Homebrew packages, Python 3.11+ and the .NET 10 SDK and
   offers the install command for anything missing; then pick your Astral Chain 1.0.0 NSP and your keys.
3. Press Build (about 5 to 10 minutes on an M-series Mac). When it finishes, open AC-Recomp or move it to
   Applications. Your saves live in the build folder (~/AC-Recomp/build/data/user), not inside the app.

Prefer the command line? See docs/BUILDING.md (python3 tools/acr_build.py --nsp ... --keys ... --out ...).

What works

Observed on the developer's Mac with the development build:

• Boots through the opening sequence and character creation (with the firmware's shared fonts).
• The File 01 motorcycle chase runs at a stable 30 fps on an Apple M5 Pro.
• Audio.
• A launcher (start screen) with a controller-style remapping screen for gamepad and keyboard, save profiles
  (pick or create one when you press Play; existing saves are "Default"), and settings: performance HUD,
  upscaling (Bilinear / FSR 1), frame rate (30 / 60, experimental), fullscreen, window size (labelled against the
  native 1600x900) and mute.
• A performance HUD, switched on in the launcher's Settings (or NX_PERF_HUD=1): Apple's Metal Performance HUD on macOS, MangoHud on Linux when installed, and a built-in HUD otherwise (F3 toggles MangoHud and the built-in HUD).

With a build made by tools/acr_build.py from the developer's own dump:

• The whole pipeline (import, control metadata, lift, shader translation, all runtime patches, build, data root,
  app) completes. The lifted code and all 1,332 translated shaders are byte-identical to the development build's.
• A 60-second headless run of the built app (with mouse touch) reaches the start screen ("ZL + ZR") with steady frame output and no fatal error.

Also included:

• FSR 1 upscaling (AMD FidelityFX, MIT): choose "Upscaling: FSR 1" in the launcher's Settings (or
  NX_UPSCALE=fsr); the picture keeps its 16:9 shape.
• Touch: the game's touch screen follows the mouse (hold the left button).
• A one-click setup app (in the DMG) that guides you through prerequisites, file selection and the build.

Experimental

Both options below patch a private copy of your main before the lift. Every original instruction is checked first,
and only Astral Chain 1.0.0 is accepted. They can be combined. Changing either one relifts main and reruns the
later build stages.

• --render-res WxH makes the game render docked at WxH instead of 1600x900 (for example 2560x1440). The
  graphics memory budget scales automatically (--graphics-memory-mib overrides it). Tested headless at 1920x1080
  and 2560x1440 through the opening only. Dynamic resolution is turned off. See docs/ASTRAL_RENDER_RES.md.
• 60 fps is an in-app setting: the launcher's Settings > Frame rate, 30 or 60 (experimental), saved as
  fps in settings.ini. The build makes both binaries by default (astral and astral-60fps, sharing all but two
  recompiled files); --fps 30 or --fps 60 builds one only. See docs/ASTRAL_60FPS.md. Briefly smoke-tested on the developer's Mac: the game switched itself to 60 fps and held a steady 60.0 fps through the opening for 60 s, and the opening cutscene kept normal speed (same scene at the same wall time as a 30 fps run). Battle, gameplay timing and audio sync are not yet checked.

Known issues

• The game is not complete or playable end to end. Expect crashes and rendering bugs.
• Saving and reloading are untested.
• Only Astral Chain 1.0.0 (base game, no update) is supported; other versions are refused when the data root is
  laid out.
• macOS on Apple silicon only in this release. Linux (x86-64, NVIDIA) boots through character creation in headless tests (not part of this release); Windows (x64, NVIDIA) boots through the opening cutscene in headless tests (not part of this release); iOS builds are in progress.
• Without your firmware's shared fonts, open-licensed replacement fonts (Noto Sans) are installed and
  format-checked, but their in-game appearance is not yet verified. Button icons and Chinese, Japanese and Korean
  text do not display with them.
• The first boot cutscene cannot be skipped and lasts about five minutes.
• The first build takes a while. It runs at low priority, sizes its parallel compiles from your performance cores
  and available memory, and backs off automatically under memory pressure; --jobs 4 is a safe explicit choice.

Pins

• SuperMarioWonderRecomp 010ed7a596a621c15d3a8dfa5795ca8c3668b066 (runtime, importer, recompiler, shader harness)
• Shader translator (see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md) a82350bb774f70fcbd41c9987bf67a3775409963
• Recompiler packages: capstone 5.0.6, lz4 4.4.4, zstandard 0.24.0
• Runtime patches: runtime/patches/series.macos, 27 patches
• Replacement font: Noto Sans Regular from notofonts commit 28b15b4b43b7bed62b5cf6e6b0b5ff5846270535,
  downloaded at build time

Legal

Not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Nintendo or PlatinumGames. Do not post game files, keys,
firmware, generated code or translated shaders in issues.