Make the SD card package of the Mass Effect port from your own copy of the Xbox 360 game. Everything runs in this browser tab: your game files never leave your computer.
1 Choose your game
The disc image of the Xbox 360 game. The Russian release has two discs: choose both images (Disc 1 and Disc 2) together, because Feros, Ilos and the ending are complete only across both. It is read in place and never loaded as a whole.
2 Detected edition
3 DLC packages (optional)
If you own the Xbox 360 downloadable content (Bring Down the Sky, Pinnacle Station), add the
package files here (the files with 42-character names from Content/0000000000000000/4D5307E8/00000002/ of an Xbox 360 drive).
They are read in place, checked block by block and installed next to the game; their shaders go into the shader package.
4 Create the package
First install: the full zip with the game files. Update (a new release): only the program, the settings file
and the shaders, to extract over the existing folder. It needs the same disc selected, because the shaders are made from it.
The update overwrites masseffect.toml: keep a copy if you changed it.
Installable NSP (experimental)
One application to install with DBI or Goldleaf, with the game files, shaders and settings inside. It is encrypted with your own
console keys: choose your prod.keys.
The whole game in one package.
Nothing is saved on this computer: the page sends the NSP straight to Sphaira on the console.
A small update for the NSP you installed.
Install with DBI or Goldleaf.
Details
After it finishes
Extract the zip into sdmc:/switch/ on the SD card. You get:
/switch/masseffect-nx/ masseffect-nx.nro masseffect.toml (settings) masseffect_prewarm_list.bin (pipeline prewarm list of your edition) masseffect_shaders.mesp (the game's shaders, made from your disc) masseffect_shaders.mesp.idx (index of the shader file) game_root/ (the files of your disc) masseffect/0000000000000000/ (DLC packages, only if you added any)
Install the NSP with your CFW title installer to launch Mass Effect from the HOME menu. It uses 39-bit application mode and needs the files above on the SD card. You can also launch the NRO with a title override (hold R while starting an installed game).
What Cinnamon optimises
Measured on a console at the stock clocks (CPU 1224 MHz, GPU 460.8 MHz, handheld). The full write-up is in docs/optimisation.md.
| Optimisation | What it fixes | Gain |
|---|---|---|
| No 2x MSAA tiling | The whole scene was replayed once per EDRAM tile | ~3,300 → ~1,500 draws a frame |
| No guest depth prepass | ~430 draws a frame built and parsed, then thrown away | 20-26 → 27-30 fps |
| Inline texture updates | Streaming split frames when turning around | 15 fps bursts gone |
| Shader prewarm loader | Vulkan pipelines compiled mid-cutscene | 8-13 fps → smooth cutscenes |
| 720x400 + FXAA + FSR | GPU budget at 460.8 MHz, without stair steps | 20 % fewer pixels |
| Cheaper shadows, kept | 432² shadow maps for every character | ~⅓ of the shadow pixels |
| Small-object culling | Far rocks and props drawn as specks | fewer outdoor draws |
| Real flare occlusion | Lens flares and halos shining through walls | correct picture |
Gyro aim assist
Hold ZL to aim and move the console or controller: the motion is added to the right stick. The turn follows
the real horizontal axis whichever way you hold the console (the rotation is measured around gravity), small tremors are
filtered out, and the first motion already gets past the game's own stick deadzone. L + R + X /
L + R + Y raise and lower the sensitivity in game; input_gyro = 2 in masseffect.toml
keeps it always on, input_gyro_invert_x / _y flip an axis.
Privacy
The page reads your disc with your browser's own file access, makes the shaders on your computer with WebAssembly and
writes the zip to your disk. The only network traffic is loading this page and downloading the build of your edition
(installed as masseffect-nx.nro), masseffect.toml and the pipeline prewarm list of the edition
(installed as masseffect_prewarm_list.bin) from this site. No game data is uploaded, and there is no tracking.
Nothing from the game is distributed with the port.
Credits & Acknowledgments
- NebadasSwifty — Author of masseffect-nx, the Mass Effect Switch port Cinnamon is built on, and of this installer.
- BioWare & Electronic Arts — Original creators of Mass Effect. This is an unofficial, non-commercial fan project.
- StevensND — Creator of NFSMW-NX, whose pioneering work on running statically recompiled Xbox 360 games on Nintendo Switch and client-side browser shader packaging served as the foundational inspiration for this installer. (Note: StevensND is not affiliated with or responsible for this Mass Effect project.)
- Tom Clay & ReXGlue SDK — The static binary translation framework for Xbox 360 executables.
- hedge-dev — XenosRecomp, the Xbox 360 Xenos shader translator.
- danfromtico & NaGaa95 — mesa-switch: Vulkan/NVK implementation on Horizon OS.
- devkitPro & switchbrew — Nintendo Switch homebrew toolchain and runtime libraries.