Homebrew TWPatcher - DS(i) mode screen filters and patches

Sono · Nov 27, 2025

Sarasvati said:
Hi, it seems I’ve found a bug in the TW Patch. I changed the color of NDS games on my 3DS using the Redshift feature. When I launch an NDS game, the color follows the adjustments I made in Redshift. However, when I close and reopen the 3DS lid, the color goes back to the normal setting. It only returns to the Redshift color settings after restarting the game.

I’ve tested this on some of my NDS games, and the results are always the same, whether I boot them through a flashcart or via Twilight Menu++ with nds-bootstrap. I’ve also tried every version of TWL Patch, from the oldest to the latest, and the result remains the same. I even tried deleting the TWL files in the sysmodule, but that didn’t seem to have any effect.

By the way, the Redshift feature works perfectly fine with GBA games, even after closing and reopening the 3DS lid.

My 3DS specs:

Model: Old 3DS

Luma3DS version: v13.3.3

Yup, this is actually a known limitation

There isn't enough space in RAM to store the lookup tables after DS mode is booted, so I cannot reinitialize the color curves.
What I'm shocked by though, is that it DOESN'T crash when you close the lid. It's supposed to.

As for GBA mode, sleep mode is not supported, so closing the lid doesn't turn off the backlight either.

bananazRus · Dec 8, 2025

Hi Sono,

Great tool.

After patching AgbBg.cxi where do I put it?

Does it stay in the luma/sysmodules folder on 3DS?

Also does it allow Virtual Console games to be played in widescreen and if so how?

Thanks for the great project!

PlantedWave5190 · Mar 11, 2026

I have a question. Can TWPatch be used to allow nds-bootstrap to play Tony Hawk's Motion using the 3DS's built-in gyro sensor when launched from within TWiLight Menu++?

RocketRobz · Mar 11, 2026

PlantedWave5190 said:
I have a question. Can TWPatch be used to allow nds-bootstrap to play Tony Hawk's Motion using the 3DS's built-in gyro sensor when launched from within TWiLight Menu++?

Yes, it can. The question is whether nds-bootstrap will support it or not, as it'd involve making the game use RTCom for using gyro.

Moogley · May 23, 2026

So, some people say GPU scaling is a "blurry mess" and I've seen on other forums people saying it's the best option. Why the discrepency? what are the settings that need to be changed for it to look good?

Sono · May 24, 2026

Moogley said:
So, some people say GPU scaling is a "blurry mess" and I've seen on other forums people saying it's the best option. Why the discrepency? what are the settings that need to be changed for it to look good?

It's both.

Some people prefer the higher quality multisample blur that the GPU does, while others get a massive headache from it.

Nakamichi · May 26, 2026

i havent modded a 3DS in a long time, is this what i need to have the best picture in DS/DSI mode:
Link: https://github.com/Alexyo21/twl_firm_patcher

i copied it to sd:/luma/sysmodules/ and enabled loading modules in luma settings
how is the one i linked to different than the one in this thread?

Sono · May 26, 2026

Nakamichi said:
i havent modded a 3DS in a long time, is this what i need to have the best picture in DS/DSI mode:
Link: https://github.com/Alexyo21/twl_firm_patcher

i copied it to sd:/luma/sysmodules/ and enabled loading modules in luma settings
how is the one i linked to different than the one in this thread?

Just looked at the code. The patch is equivalent to "Sono's crisp (original patch)" in TWPatch, which is equivalent to my patch from page 2 of this thread :wacko:

Nakamichi · May 26, 2026

Sono said:
Just looked at the code. The patch is equivalent to "Sono's crisp (original patch)" in TWPatch, which is equivalent to my patch from page 2 of this thread

so the one in this thread is more up to date?
thats the one im using now.

Moogley · May 27, 2026

Nakamichi said:
so the one in this thread is more up to date?
thats the one im using now.

My two cents is this. Linear Sharpen 1 is the only filter that maintains the geometry and shapes of everything, especially 2D hud elements/sprites, to a level that passes my standards. It's also not a "huge" change, but it does sharpen the image a little, which is nice.

Anything else, even Sono's Crisp from that new patch, and you're sacrificing the fidelity of the designs in exchange for clarity, imo.

If we could get Linear Sharpen 1 with a little more crispness/clarity without sacrificing geometry, that would be amazing. But I don't think anyone has that yet.

Edit: I'm using a New 3DS XL. Screen size could matter.

Nakamichi · May 27, 2026

Moogley said:
My two cents is this. Linear Sharpen 1 is the only filter that maintains the geometry and shapes of everything, especially 2D hud elements/sprites, to a level that passes my standards. It's also not a "huge" change, but it does sharpen the image a little, which is nice.

Anything else, even Sono's Crisp from that new patch, and you're sacrificing the fidelity of the designs in exchange for clarity, imo.

If we could get Linear Sharpen 1 with a little more crispness/clarity without sacrificing geometry, that would be amazing. But I don't think anyone has that yet.

Edit: I'm using a New 3DS XL. Screen size could matter.

im using a new2ds xl and i tried linear sharpen 1 now and its just not great.
did not enjoy that at all.

Moogley · Thursday at 12:43 AM

Nakamichi said:
im using a new2ds xl and i tried linear sharpen 1 now and its just not great.
did not enjoy that at all.

What about it did you not like? It's barely that different tbh.

Nakamichi · Thursday at 12:56 AM

Moogley said:
What about it did you not like? It's barely that different tbh.

hard to say, but i prefer gpu scaling sonos crisp tweaked more

Sono · Thursday at 4:17 AM

Nakamichi said:
hard to say, but i prefer gpu scaling sonos crisp tweaked more

You can't use any filter with GPU scaling, it clears out the upscale matrix. So it doesn't matter which filter you choose, GPU scaling will override it.

This is a limitation of TWPatch, as combining both GPU scaling and upscaling matrix is very difficult.

Nakamichi · Thursday at 4:56 AM

Sono said:
You can't use any filter with GPU scaling, it clears out the upscale matrix. So it doesn't matter which filter you choose, GPU scaling will override it.

This is a limitation of TWPatch, as combining both GPU scaling and upscaling matrix is very difficult.

i know.
maybe i expressed myself poorly.
i like these better than linear sharpen 1:
- sonos cristp tweaked
- gpu scaling

Moogley · Friday at 11:54 PM

Nakamichi said:
i know.
maybe i expressed myself poorly.
i like these better than linear sharpen 1:
- sonos cristp tweaked
- gpu scaling

I can't tell what's going on with GPU scaling. It just looks blurrier to me than the default. I've heard people say it looks good, so I'm confused by it when I look at it.

Sono's Crisp Tweaked is the second-best filter imo, but if you look closer at the geometries of sprites, it's still not right. Look at the wrench icon in the top right of the test image in TWL Patch, for example.

Linear Sharpen 1 doesn't change it a ton but it doesn't mess anything up.

Nakamichi · Saturday at 12:11 AM

Moogley said:
I can't tell what's going on with GPU scaling. It just looks blurrier to me than the default. I've heard people say it looks good, so I'm confused by it when I look at it.

Sono's Crisp Tweaked is the second-best filter imo, but if you look closer at the geometries of sprites, it's still not right. Look at the wrench icon in the top right of the test image in TWL Patch, for example.

Linear Sharpen 1 doesn't change it a ton but it doesn't mess anything up.

i just think people have very different tastes and i think we're lucky that we have so many options to choose from!
im sure theres an option there for basically anyone... and most are superior to what Nintendo gave us imho

Rhlp · Saturday at 2:58 AM

the only one that on the new3ds nonxl looks good is the sharpen test

Nimbo · Saturday at 9:22 PM

Is there a way to get a 1 to 1 comparison for each? I find the demo mario to be really difficult to compare.

linkenski · Saturday at 9:54 PM

Rhlp said:
the only one that on the new3ds nonxl looks good is the sharpen test

The whole problem is that 3DS is only like 25% larger res than the DS, so you have to distort pixels a lot to stretch it. I find that once you get over how bad it looks initially, the Double Pixel filter has a lot of appeal. I strangely enjoy playing games in 16:10 with that mode, because some of the text looks crisper. Some of the font becomes single-pixel lines, so there's no anti-aliasing at all.

But I prefer Sono's or Tweaked for 4:3. But most of the time, if I'm going 4:3 I just hold SELECT and play it in integer scale.

Homebrew TWPatcher - DS(i) mode screen filters and patches

Are you interested in a complete replacement of TwlBg which includes all patches?

Yes, I don't care how broken it will be!

No, I don't want to use even more broken stuff

Yes, but only in GBA mode, because I play DSi exclusives

No, because I only use DS and DSi mode

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