Is there an easier way to extract games (NSPs in particular)?

[deathblade200]

i would say, romFS access is one of the rare things DBi does not give you access.
but it's great for everything else.

what? it does in "browse installed applications" even without mtp I use it all the time to explore what files can be changed. hell it even lets you compress mods into romfs.bin for better performance

 

[linga]

For me, the easiest way is DBI, you connect via MTP and you can dump NSP of isntalled games, or read the ROMFS of titles easy as copy files from console to PC.

dbi is fine, but like nxdumptool it needs to copy files from console to pc via sd card or usb cable, which wastes more time

 

[impeeza]

dbi is fine, but like nxdumptool it needs to copy files from console to pc via sd card or usb cable, which wastes more time

Nop, you use the MTP connection of DBI, then you "see" the installed games or the RomFS of titles as folders, then you copy that folders to any disk on your PC, no SD involved, just a copy of files.

 

[linga]

Nop, you use the MTP connection of DBI, then you "see" the installed games or the RomFS of titles as folders, then you copy that folders to any disk on your PC, no SD involved, just a copy of files.

I think the usb connection is unstable, you don't want to accidentally disconnect while copying files

 

[linga]

So coming back to this it's starting to become a serious problem. NxFileViewer is good for extracting the base NSP, but it can't handle updates in any meaningful way. Yuzu too seems to extract only the base ROM, not updates. The only way I could figure out to extract stuff with the update before involved using NSCBuilder to repack without a key, but NSCBuilder seems to be abandoned right now and no longer works (in particular it can't update nutdb anymore, so can't get the game keys.) I never successfully managed to extract the game keys the hard way before, so the old hactool method is basically a no-go for newer games now. At this point the only thing that seems to even work at all anymore is indeed installing to the Switch and then extracting on the Switch which is an incredibly tedious (you have to hook up the switch and install or transfer through network which is also slow and install from the card which also takes a while then fire up the dumper and find the game then dump romfs with the update which it does not default to doing,) slow (I have a fairly fast memory card, but it takes at least eight times longer than on my PC,) and resource consuming (it needs twice the space to do it which is a problem on a limited memory card) process. It's just a real mess. There has to be a better way?

I just sent an issue to the author, not sure if it's a bug

 

[impeeza]

I think the usb connection is unstable, you don't want to accidentally disconnect while copying files

I constantly use it for install and for backup and never give me an error but for some people could be unstable, some others change their cable or port and get fixed.

 

[masagrator]

I think the usb connection is unstable, you don't want to accidentally disconnect while copying files

Reading files won't damage files if you accidentally stop reading.

 

[mrgone]

what? it does in "browse installed applications" even without mtp I use it all the time to explore what files can be changed. hell it even lets you compress mods into romfs.bin for better performance

ah crap, i really was blind

 

[Digika]

I love how this thread is 1 old but the question is never solved and is relevant as ever

 

[masagrator]

I love how this thread is 1 old but the question is never solved and is relevant as ever

Answers are literally #4 and #5, you f... dum dum

That you cannot set up emulator properly is issue with you, not with lack of tools. Now it's much easier to set up yuzu than couple of years ago.

README for dum dums
https://github.com/PrincessAkira/road-to-yuzu-without-switch

 

[Nazosan]

Using the emulators is still a bit messy though. I've had a rare few games Yuzu seems to just not be able to handle and for some reason sometimes if I try to install an update it just says "update not installed" (not exactly a very useful error message there!) with an update that works fine in my real Switch and in Ryujinx -- which means I can't extract the updated files in it (thus making it useless if I actually mod something in a file that was changed by the update or if I need something added from the update.) No problem on the games that actually keep stuff in separated files, but sadly this is just not always the case. It's also messy because you have to "install to NAND" with updates but if I'm just using it to extract I don't necessarily keep the game, so eventually I'm going to have to start either resetting the NAND or finding some way to clear orphaned updates. (I generally prefer to use my real Switch and mostly just run the emulators to test mods.)

Surprisingly I think Ryujinx seems to be incapable of extracting the actual updated files entirely unless I'm missing something (when I extract after adding an update it still gives me the original base files without the modifications the update applies.) In my experience it seems to be a lot more stable and reliable than Yuzu, so if I'm missing something there I'd appreciate a tip on whatever it may be. (And yes, I have confirmed the update is properly added and "installed." It will be listed in the game's info and starting the game shows the correct version on games that bother to display one.)


NxFileViewer is still the easiest and most compatible way for extracting without updates though. At least when I don't need an update it really makes the process painless.