Artic Base, an open source tool for broadcasting games from your Nintendo 3DS to an emulator, has been released! Artic Base allows playing your owned collection of 3DS games, physical or digital, on a compatible emulator without having to dump them first. Furthermore, the tool syncs the save data, so you can resume your progress at any time from the console. Below is the list of features this tool provides, coming from the Artic Base Server github repository.

Features​

• Play games from your console without having to dump them.
• Sync the savedata/extdata of the broadcasted game during the play session.
• Load shared ext data and NCCH archives from your console.
• Remove the need to dump AES keys, as the decryption is done by the console's OS.

Advantages over playing on real console​

• Play your games at higher resolutions.
• Use external controllers that may better fit your playstyle.
• Switch between playing on your PC at home and your console on the go.
• Reduce e-waste by reusing partially broken consoles to broadcast your games to your PC.
• Allow museums or non-profit game preservation organizations to have a centralised database of preserved games, while using an Artic Base Server + a compatible emulator to do research as needed.

As the tool author claims, Artic Base aims to help players enjoy their collection of Nintendo 3DS games with several advantages, such as being able to play at higher resolutions, switch between playing on a 3DS on the go and and a PC at home, and using their preferred external controllers. Furthermore, it helps reducing e-waste by allowing the use of partially broken consoles to act as a server instead of having to toss/replace them. The tool also removes the need of having to deal with classic emulator shenenigans, such as having to dump games or getting cryptographic keys. Keep in mind however that due to the network speed of the 3DS, slower loading times may be experienced.

At the time of writing, the only emulator supporting Artic Base is a forked version of the former 3DS emulator Citra, maintained by PabloMK7.

A demonstration of Artic Base was posted to PabloMK7's YouTube channel a few days ago, showcasing Shovel Knight being broadcasted to a PC.

​

What do you think? Will you do another playthrough of your collected 3DS games using this tool? Leave your thoughts in the replies!

Artic Base Server (3DS application)
PabloMK7's Citra fork with Artic Base support

 

[CMDreamer]

Mad props man, this tool is a technological marvel. I have some quick questions about how it can be used. Do the game specific settings you set on Citra load when you start streaming from the 3DS? And if so, is it possible to install mods or texture packs for a game on Citra and have it load those when streaming the game from the 3DS? I think it would be a very rare to not have the mod installed on both the 3DS and Citra, but the texture packs would be a game changer. (Especially for Majora's Mask 3D)

We're using Citra to play the game, not the 3DS console, so everything game-performance-related lies within Citra's configuration. Of course there should be some specific configuration within Artic that might need improvement so the assets are served properly, just consider that the 3DS has not the best WiFi speed bandwidth, so it might be creating a bottle neck to some extent.

Even using mods and /or texture packs would be Citra's job, as the 3DS only "serves" the original game assets.

Performance has been pretty decent so far, but the audio issues are kinda bad right now. Are there any plans to create an option to cache files on Citra to make load times faster, or use the user's cache files from running the games previously through a dump? (If you already do this, then please ignore my ignorance) Thanks again for making this, and if you need any help testing then let me know. I have a pretty decent library of 3DS games to put through the wringer.

Caching files would completely break Artic's main goal of using a 3DS console to "serve" the game's original assets and it will introduce the undesired N's intervention as you would be using backups, which we all know it's illegal and you already can use Citra without the need of a 3DS console, so it doesn't make sense to even consider it.

But alas, even using the 3DS as an asset server, breaks N's user's agreement, as you're using it in a way it wasn't designed for while taking the assets "out" of the cartridge to serve them to Citra.

So imho, Artic should stick to its main and original goal without adding "unnecessary features" into the formula so it can keep a "low profile" for as long as possible.

 

[mindofone]

We're using Citra to play the game, not the 3DS console, so everything game-performance-related lies within Citra's configuration. Of course there should be some specific configuration within Artic that might need improvement so the assets are served properly, just consider that the 3DS has not the best WiFi speed bandwidth, so it might be creating a bottle neck to some extent.

Even using mods and /or texture packs would be Citra's job, as the 3DS only "serves" the original game assets.


Caching files would completely break Artic's main goal of using a 3DS console to "serve" the game's original assets and it will introduce the undesired N's intervention as you would be using backups, which we all know it's illegal and you already can use Citra without the need of a 3DS console, so it doesn't make sense to even consider it.

But alas, even using the 3DS as an asset server, breaks N's user's agreement, as you're using it in a way it wasn't designed for while taking the assets "out" of the cartridge to serve them to Citra.

So imho, Artic should stick to its main and original goal without adding "unnecessary features" into the formula so it can keep a "low profile" for as long as possible.

Are there any options to configure Artic-based games, or does it go off of the dumped game profile on Citra? That's more the question I was looking to have answered. I already have my collection dumped so it's not a problem for me, but it might be something to consider to have a way to configure artic games. Like leaving a ghost copy of the game in citra after connecting successfully once so you can configure it.

I understand where you're coming from with the idea that Artic should use the 3DS exclusively, but I think that at least using shader caches from dumps should be considered for performance. Using the caches from dumps could free up some bandwidth, and let the 3DS focus on streaming audio and other stuff. You don't have to create caches during artic play sessions, but people who have played their backups on Citra will already have caches on their pc anyway, so it would be a shame to not utilize them. This is just spit balling ideas though, I have no idea if it's actually viable.

 

[PabloMK7]

Mad props man, this tool is a technological marvel. I have some quick questions about how it can be used. Do the game specific settings you set on Citra load when you start streaming from the 3DS? And if so, is it possible to install mods or texture packs for a game on Citra and have it load those when streaming the game from the 3DS? I think it would be a very rare to not have the mod installed on both the 3DS and Citra, but the texture packs would be a game changer. (Especially for Majora's Mask 3D)

Performance has been pretty decent so far, but the audio issues are kinda bad right now. Are there any plans to create an option to cache files on Citra to make load times faster, or use the user's cache files from running the games previously through a dump? (If you already do this, then please ignore my ignorance) Thanks again for making this, and if you need any help testing then let me know. I have a pretty decent library of 3DS games to put through the wringer.

Game specific settings are loaded per game. Only texture packs can be used, other kind of mods are not supported. Not sure which audio issues are you talking about, I don't have any.

 

[CMDreamer]

[...] Like leaving a ghost copy of the game in citra ...

Like in a game dump.
If as you're stating, you already have game dumps of your games, why would you want another dump (ghost copy as you call it) taken from a 3DS (piracy warning that could directly affect Artic), to build something you already can (a shaders cache) without that "ghost copy"?.

I understand where you're coming from with the idea that Artic should use the 3DS exclusively, but I think that at least using shader caches from dumps should be considered for performance. Using the caches from dumps could free up some bandwidth, and let the 3DS focus on streaming audio and other stuff.

Shaders caches are for enchancing Citra's performance, so they are more Citra's concern and not Artic, those are two diferent things.

Freeing some bandwidth as you mention in the way you pretend, considering that Artic only redirects Citra's asset requests and doesn't modify them directly nor indirectly, (they are served to Citra as they are read from the cartridge on the 3DS), would have little to no real impact on improving the bandwidth unless Artic would request only specific assets from the cartridge (like sounds) and leave the rest to Citra, but that would make mandatory to have a dump of the game on Citra's ROM folder, which, again, doesn't make sense to use a 3DS to serve something Citra has already available on a computer's folder. Its turning all the process into a redundant one, wasting resources (using a 3DS and Artic) for something Citra can already do without them.

You can think of Artic for the 3DS as what Riivolution does for the Wii, with the proper diferences between them. Just keep in mind that Riivolution works completely in the console without requiring a computer.

You don't have to create caches during artic play sessions, but people who have played their backups on Citra will already have caches on their pc anyway, so it would be a shame to not utilize them. This is just spit balling ideas though, I have no idea if it's actually viable.

If people already have dumps on their PC's (and their assets by extension), then why would they want to use Artic to serve them (the assets) to Citra? Again, it would be a redundant process that would waste resources.

All in all, this is just my humble opinion and I might be wrong or maybe not.

 

[mindofone]

Game specific settings are loaded per game. Only texture packs can be used, other kind of mods are not supported. Not sure which audio issues are you talking about, I don't have any.

Good to know, thanks for the reply. As for the audio issue, I’ve been having some major problems with music in various games. Like in Majora’s Mask, sound effects will stream just fine but the songs will constantly be cutting in and out during play. I stayed in one area for a while and it eventually stabilized, but that took like 10 minutes. This happens with other games I’ve tested as well. Also Dragon Quest 8 straight up crashes when entering battles, but I suspect that might be because the game is like 4 gb in size. Might be a little too beefy to stream.

Post automatically merged: Monday at 10:02 PM

Like in a game dump.
If as you're stating, you already have game dumps of your games, why would you want another dump (ghost copy as you call it) taken from a 3DS (piracy warning that could directly affect Artic), to build something you already can (a shaders cache) without that "ghost copy"?.


Shaders caches are for enchancing Citra's performance, so they are more Citra's concern and not Artic, those are two diferent things.

Freeing some bandwidth as you mention in the way you pretend, considering that Artic only redirects Citra's asset requests and doesn't modify them directly nor indirectly, (they are served to Citra as they are read from the cartridge on the 3DS), would have little to no real impact on improving the bandwidth unless Artic would request only specific assets from the cartridge (like sounds) and leave the rest to Citra, but that would make mandatory to have a dump of the game on Citra's ROM folder, which, again, doesn't make sense to use a 3DS to serve something Citra has already available on a computer's folder. Its turning all the process into a redundant one, wasting resources (using a 3DS and Artic) for something Citra can already do without them.

You can think of Artic for the 3DS as what Riivolution does for the Wii, with the proper diferences between them. Just keep in mind that Riivolution works completely in the console without requiring a computer.


If people already have dumps on their PC's (and their assets by extension), then why would they want to use Artic to serve them (the assets) to Citra? Again, it would be a redundant process that would waste resources.

All in all, this is just my humble opinion and I might be wrong or maybe not.

I may have phrased the ”ghost copy” thing wrong, I’m just talking about a way to easily change settings for a game in Citra. Let’s say you have a completely blank Citra installation with no game dumps. You connect to Citra with Artic Base and then stream a game like Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. After you’re done, Citra has an icon of MH4U like if there was a dump of the game except there was no data transferred at all. All it did was create the icon in Citra so you can easily mess with per game settings or load texture packs. And if you already have a dump of MH4U on your pc, then it doesn’t need to create an icon and can just share settings with the dump on Citra. That seems worth looking into, as it would make things easier on the user side. And I imagine the people who would want to use Artic base don’t want to have a dump of the game on their PC just to easily fiddle with game settings through the GUI.

If Artic base can work out the bugs I’ve been having with audio streaming and other crashes, then I agree it’s probably redundant. But if games that have large file sizes prove to be unviable due to the stress on the hardware, then I think this would be worth investing in.