Hacking Misc ROM Hack New to 3DS Modding, where to start?

[Goraiken]

Hello GBAtemp! New to the website, but I've been meaning to find a good place to learn how to mod 3DS games via Luma3DS' LayeredFS patching or by other means of game modding.

So far I got all the basics down, installed Luma3DS, Homebrew launcher and a bit of other stuff when first modding your 3DS. Just recently dumped my copy of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story 3DS using GodMode9 and have the files in my possession to mod in any way I want. But the problem is...

There's no documentation on how to mod the game, or on how to mod ANY game in that matter. After looking around, I've found stuff like HackingToolKit9DS, but I read that it's deprecated, and that it only extracts and pieces files back into a CIA file.

So, to say the least, I'm legitimately lost on what I can possibly do to learn how to mod the games I want to mod.

Any experienced 3DS Game Modder on how I can get started on using the dumped files from the game using GM9 to make mods out of them? (Bonus points if anyone has any idea on how M&L: BiS 3DS is structured)

 

[Kwyjor]

You might have chosen a slightly more descriptive subject line.

Anyway, modding games for the 3DS is just like modding almost every other console: every game is different, what works for one game will probably not work for any other game that's not already extremely similar, nothing can be achieved without a great deal of excruciating reverse-engineering (because the developers can in no way be expected to make anything accessible), and if no one has already created a game-specific utility, you're pretty much out of luck. The only tool that might have some broader applicability is Kuriimu2.

A good rule of thumb is that if something is extremely popular (like the M&L games) and no one has done anything to them before, you should expect there to be extremely high barriers to achieving anything.

 

[Goraiken]

You might have chosen a slightly more descriptive subject line.

Anyway, modding games for the 3DS is just like modding almost every other console: every game is different, what works for one game will probably not work for any other game that's not already extremely similar, nothing can be achieved without a great deal of excruciating reverse-engineering (because the developers can in no way be expected to make anything accessible), and if no one has already created a game-specific utility, you're pretty much out of luck. The only tool that might have some broader applicability is Kuriimu2.

A good rule of thumb is that if something is extremely popular (like the M&L games) and no one has done anything to them before, you should expect there to be extremely high barriers to achieving anything.

Gotcha, makes sense considering how cryptic 3DS games are. I know there's Smash 3DS mods out there that heavily modify them in some way, but I'm unsure if it uses the tools we have nowadays to make the mods.

I guess a better question would be to ask if there's a way to read the assembly in a 3DS game's CXI/CIA file through its' hex code. But then again, there's also the .app files associated with the files I'm looking at right here:

(The files I got from using GodMode9 to extract from game cartridge)

And inside content0.game, there's stuff like romfs that I know for sure is used to make mods out of, but then again, I'm not entirely sure what to do with them.

 

[Kwyjor]

I guess a better question would be to ask if there's a way to read the assembly in a 3DS game's CXI/CIA file through its' hex code. But then again, there's also the .app files associated with the files I'm looking at right here:

If you have to ask, you probably can't, to put it delicately. Do you know anything about ARM assembly?!

 

[Goraiken]

If you have to ask, you probably can't, to put it delicately. Do you know anything about ARM assembly?!

Not at the moment, but I’ve worked with other machine code such as NES and SNES and a little bit of MIPS assembly for Nintendo 64. So I’m pretty certain I can learn to use ARM given the time.