Homebrew How flexible are TWL_FIRM and AGB_FIRM?

[metroid maniac]

It's my understanding that TWL_FIRM and AGB_FIRM are the two firmware modes responsible for running DS/i software and GBA software on the 3DS.
How much is known about how these modes work? Would they be considered emulation or running natively? I expect the latter but I'm interested in specifics.

Given that, what exactly can be done in these two firmware modes? Would features more consistent with emulation such as button remapping or save stating be physically possible?

 

[Hashtastrophe]

They are running natively. 3Dbrew will have most, if not all, of the information you're interested in. I don't know enough about the system to tell you if save states or remapping buttons is possible. I'm assuming a no unless told differently by someone that knows what they are talking about.

A few links to get you started: http://3dbrew.org/wiki/3DS_Virtual_Consolehttp://3dbrew.org/wiki/FIRM#TWL_FIRM_and_AGB_FIRM
http://3dbrew.org/wiki/FIRM#TWL_FIRM_and_AGB_FIRM
http://3dbrew.org/wiki/3DS_Virtual_Console
http://3dbrew.org/wiki/ARM7_Registers

 

[MRJPGames]

Regular VC titles: an emulator application + VC ROM in the NCCH RomFS(among other things in the RomFS). The emulator build includes support for all supported VC platforms, not specific to just the included ROM platform.

This emulator includes GBA support, however the GBA emulation for this this is somewhat slow. This was presumably implemented before AGB_FIRM was.

Does that mean GW can run the GBA emulator included in VC titles?! And this would be great for pasta so you don't have to reboot it every time. Hopefully it will run near full speed in some games that are less hardware intensive!

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Does that mean GW can run the GBA emulator included in VC titles?! And this would be great for pasta so you don't have to reboot it every time. Hopefully it will run near full speed in some games that are less hardware intensive!

It does work, it just isn't very good.

 

[MRJPGames]

It does work, it just isn't very good.

I would like to try this on a few "lightweight" games, I would love to be able to go back to home while playing GBA games and stuff...

 

[DJPlayer]

I would like to try this on a few "lightweight" games, I would love to be able to go back to home while playing GBA games and stuff...

You CAN get almost every GBA Game running via PastaCFW with fullspeed.
http://gbatemp.net/threads/release-agb_firm-signature-patcher-gba-rom-converter.390313/

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Modding TWL_FIRM and AGB_FIRM to add support for that and things like AR codes should be theoretically possible.
After all, it's not a pure DS/GBA mode, the home button still responds and you can cancel out of that menu without disrupting the game, so there's still something running in the background.

 

[metroid maniac]

Modding TWL_FIRM and AGB_FIRM to add support for that and things like AR codes should be theoretically possible.
After all, it's not a pure DS/GBA mode, the home button still responds and you can cancel out of that menu without disrupting the game, so there's still something running in the background.

But then it depends on the amount of control the background process has on the state of the game running.
If we look at AGB_FIRM and the fact that game execution can't even be paused for sleep mode, then it seems this background process has extremely little control over how the game process can work.
Forgive me if I'm getting this wrong or are speaking stupidly.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

But then it depends on the amount of control the background process has on the state of the game running.
If we look at AGB_FIRM and the fact that game execution can't even be paused for sleep mode, then it seems this background process has extremely little control over how the game process can work.
Forgive me if I'm getting this wrong or are speaking stupidly.

We can mod AGB_FIRM and TWL_FIRM to give the background process full access, or even spawn a new process just for the purpose of adding more features, so that's not really an issue, it's just a matter of figuring things out. It's all theoretical and I certainly won't be the one to do it, but it is possible.