ROM Hack How to Convert a .CIA file to a .3DS or .CCI file for use with the Citra 3DS Emulator?

[HaloEffect17]

I have a similar issue to @shipwreck5's recent post, and I have been trying to research (reading past posts on the Temp and elsewhere) regarding this, but I couldn't quite find a definite answer.

My purpose in wanting to convert a .CIA file to a .3DS file is that I want to test a game on on the Citra 3DS emulator. Therefore, I used '3DS To CIA Converter v4.1' and selected the 'Start CIA to 3DS Converter' option. I received an error: "Could not read exheader file!". This leads to me believe that my .CIA file is still encrypted. I read a post that one needs to have Xorpads (keys) to decrypt the .CIA in order to convert it to a .3DS or a .CCI file (files that are read by the Citra 3DS Emulator), although that post was from quite some time ago, and I'm unsure if it is outdated.

I do understand, however, that as of now, Citra can ONLY run decrypted games, or else the program will crash as it has on me . I am also unsure if a 3DS is still required to decrypt games or that people can now simply decrypt them using a program on their computer (this I think is unlikely, but that's what I'm trying to do for the purpose of testing).

As a Plan B, I tried running in cmd, 'makerom3.exe' and convert my .CIA file to a .CCI file from there. It posed the error:

Spoiler: Error from 'makerom3.exe'

[CCI ERROR] Failed to decrypt CIA content: 0x0000000
[RESULT] Failed to build CCI

I am very new and naive to this 3DS stuff, even more so than Wii hacking; so, if I'm saying things here that are blatantly wrong, I apologize. Any help will be greatly appreciated, and thanks in advance.

Edit: An update below.

 

[DSoryu]

You need to retrieve the exHeader of the rom before it was converted to .cia... if you don't have that then you can't.

 

[HaloEffect17]

You need to retrieve the exHeader of the rom before it was converted to .cia... if you don't have that then you can't.

Thanks for your reply. So, I need to have the 'exheader.bin' for the game in the same directory when I run '3DS To CIA Converter v4.1'?

Edit: Wait... I'm researching right now and I'm wondering if an exHeader is basically a Xorpad file. If this is true, then I need the corresponding Xorpad for the game, right?

Edit #2: And, alternatively, I guess I could get a .3DS with its respective Xorpad and decrypt it using '3DS Simple CIA Converter'. Then, once its decrypted as a .CIA file, I can use '3DS To CIA Converter v4.1' to convert it back into a .3DS file (now decrypted) and playable on Citra? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

You need to retrieve the exHeader of the rom before it was converted to .cia... if you don't have that then you can't.

What about eShop exclusives though? How does that work? As they can be converted to .3ds just fine.

 

[HaloEffect17]

Update: So, I tried what I said I would do above in Edit #2: took a .3DS game with its respective Xorpads, and converted it to .CIA. I used '3DS To CIA Converter v4.1' to convert back to a .3DS (now supposedly in a decrypted state for Citra to read). Additionally, I also took the .CIA and used 'makerom3.exe' to convert it to a .CCI file.

Unfortunately, neither of the two files (.3DS or .CCI) worked when I ran Citra. I attached a screenshot of the error that Citra made in its cmd background window. In purple text, it says 'Frontend <Critical>', so I'm not sure if I properly decrypted it.

There was also another error when I used '3DS To CIA Converter v4.1' to turn the .CIA file back into a .3DS file. It said: "This is a retail rom!", but the file was still able to compile.

 

[HaloEffect17]

Thread closed.

 

[zenfrock88]

can anyone send me the process to convert .3ds file into .cci plz send me okay.......

 

[CEEC_2904]

im triying to convert kirbys blowout blast cia to 3ds but it says it could not read exheader file any help would be apriciated