Homebrew whats the point of .3ds files when we have .cia files? can anyone explain?

The Catboy

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ok you guys a brilliant thanks for explaining so i have a better understanding.

so for my .3ds files are useless as i dont have a flashcard. im installing from the sd card via the .cia in fbi app.
If you can only find a .3DS, they are useful for converting a CIA and install to your system. But it's really rare to find games that are only .3DS
 

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Well most advantages of the .3DS format were made obsolete over time. .3DS was essentially a complete unpacked version of a game, and I believe the format is interchangebale with .CCIs, also the .3DS format was the only one that could be decrypted (this is obsolete now.) whereas CIA were just Importable Archives. The CIA format was made popular after Palantine (old shitty closed-source 4.5 only CFW) came onto the scene with sig patches, forcing Gateway to include sig patches in their next update a week later. But that's enough background.

Some direct advantages I could see with the .3DS format was the fact that most Japanese games that were dumped are also not available on the freeshop. But these could easily be converted to .3DS. Also people who are dumping these obscure titles can just dump to .CIA directly with Decrypt9.
.3DS is the format flashcards use, and it alleviates loading time by a lot.
 

proflayton123

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Well most advantages of the .3DS format were made obsolete over time. .3DS was essentially a complete unpacked version of a game, and I believe the format is interchangebale with .CCIs, also the .3DS format was the only one that could be decrypted (this is obsolete now.) whereas CIA were just Importable Archives. The CIA format was made popular after Palantine (old shitty closed-source 4.5 only CFW) came onto the scene with sig patches, forcing Gateway to include sig patches in their next update a week later. But that's enough background.

Some direct advantages I could see with the .3DS format was the fact that most Japanese games that were dumped are also not available on the freeshop. But these could easily be converted to .3DS. Also people who are dumping these obscure titles can just dump to .CIA directly with Decrypt9.
.3DS is the format flashcards use, and it alleviates loading time by a lot.

I see the mention of Palatine, somehow derived from supposed closed source code which was stolen from other devs.. off topic I know but I wanted to say
 

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Key diffrence now is .3ds is used for flashcards, such as gateway or sky3ds.
.cias are the files you install to the home menu.

.cias are free, you need to pay for a flashcard to use .3ds/.3dz

Back then, differences were way more pronounced (in terms of cfw, .3ds came first) but now there practically the same, except for above
 
Last edited by Sketchy1,

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That is a lie. It may very well be possible to patch it. You cannot say for sure that it cannot be patched. Whether they will bother or not, that is different.
Except...They can say for sure Nintendo can't patch it. It relies on a vulnerability early in the boot process - as long as you're running A9LH and Luma/another FIRM0/FIRM1 protecting CFW, Nintendo can't safely patch it out without shrecking everyone else too, hacked and unhacked, and might not even be able to do that.
 

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Except...They can say for sure Nintendo can't patch it. It relies on a vulnerability early in the boot process - as long as you're running A9LH and Luma/another FIRM0/FIRM1 protecting CFW, Nintendo can't safely patch it out without shrecking everyone else too, hacked and unhacked, and might not even be able to do that.
Except, they cannot say that for sure. It can most certainly be patched. Now, is it worth their time, or will they bother? Doubt it.
This is a vulnerability. Nintendo have full access to both the code of the 3DS' firmware and A9LH. They *could* make systems running A9LH unable to use an hypothetical update that prevented A9LH systems from running it. Also, if the community found a vulnerability in their system with the limited resources they have, a company such as Nintendo could perhaps find a vulnerability in A9LH with their resources. I'm not saying it is likely, or even realistic. But, they most certainly can, theoretically anyway, patch it.
 
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Except, they cannot say that for sure. It can most certainly be patched. Now, is it worth their time, or will they bother? Doubt it.
This is a vulnerability. Nintendo have full access to both the code of the 3DS' firmware and A9LH. They *could* make systems running A9LH unable to use an hypothetical update that prevented A9LH systems from running it. Also, if the community found a vulnerability in their system with the limited resources they have, a company such as Nintendo could perhaps find a vulnerability in A9LH with their resources. I'm not saying it is likely, or even realistic. But, they most certainly can, theoretically anyway, patch it.
I honestly am starting to doubt we'll even get an 11.3.
 
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I honestly am starting to doubt we'll even get an 11.3.
Meh, I think we'll get a 11.3/12.0 update just to finish things and that'll be it.

Unless they do like Sony and release a useless update that doesn't really change anything 3 years later aka 6.61.
 

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You can think again, the 3DS is said to be updated and things till 2018 iirc.
Doesn't mean they will update the firmware, they may just leave it. Either way, even if we do, it probably won't patch anything major (except maybe soundhax).
 
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gamesquest1

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.3ds are good for archival dumps that projects like no-intro catalogue (although they are cataloging clean CIA files too), and for sky3ds users clean .3ds dumps are essential, gateway and cfw on the other hand can use tools to swap between .3ds and .cia and still use the resulting file

But threads like this (there has been a few over the past few days) are like saying "why does dialup exist when we have broadband". ........obviously things change, progression happens and things become out dated, that doesn't mean they should all just be wiped from existence because something better in 99% of scenarios came along, if you don't use it, don't use it, if someone refuses to move on and would prefer to stick to their old dialup leave them to it :P
 
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TimX24968B

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.3ds are good for archival dumps that projects like no-intro catalogue (although they are cataloging clean CIA files too), and for sky3ds users clean .3ds dumps are essential, gateway and cfw on the other hand can use tools to swap between .3ds and .cia and still use the resulting file

But threads like this (there has been a few over the past few days) are like saying "why does dialup exist when we have broadband". ........obviously things change, progression happens and things become out dated, that doesn't mean they should all just be wiped from existence because something better in 99% of scenarios came along, if you don't use it, don't use it, if someone refuses to move on and would prefer to stick to their old dialup leave them to it :P
exactly. This is why I say if you have an emunand-rxtools setup and you do not plan on using the extras that would come with luma/a9lh, there isn't much wrong with it given its purpose to the user. It may not be optimal, but it is definitely still functional, and THAT is what matters. People forget the user's intentions here quite a bit and just tend to shove the same thing down everyone's throat; "A9LH/LUMA" regardless of the setup currently on the user's 3ds, who may not even benefit from A9LH/luma for their purposes.

"if someone is using windows 95, it sure isn't optimal, but if all they use it for is word processing, they practically gain no benefit from upgrading, given their usage scenario, something that needs to be kept in mind."
 

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exactly. This is why I say if you have an emunand-rxtools setup and you do not plan on using the extras that would come with luma/a9lh, there isn't much wrong with it given its purpose to the user. It may not be optimal, but it is definitely still functional, and THAT is what matters. People forget the user's intentions here quite a bit and just tend to shove the same thing down everyone's throat; "A9LH/LUMA" regardless of the setup currently on the user's 3ds, who may not even benefit from A9LH/luma for their purposes.

"if someone is using windows 95, it sure isn't optimal, but if all they use it for is word processing, they practically gain no benefit from upgrading, given their usage scenario, something that needs to be kept in mind."
That is something else entirely, as there's stuff that simply DOES NOT work properly in RXTools. Word works fine on W95, though.
 

TimX24968B

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That is something else entirely, as there's stuff that simply DOES NOT work properly in RXTools. Word works fine on W95, though.
yes, but if you do not plan on using the stuff that does not work properly in rxtools, and only use the stuff that works properly, then you gain little benefit from changing over. you kind of missed my point.
 

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yes, but if you do not plan on using the stuff that does not work properly in rxtools, and only use the stuff that works properly, then you gain little benefit from changing over. you kind of missed my point.
I didn't miss your point at all. However, Windows 95 works just fine at what it does. RXTools does not. Not to mention, certain games don't work with RXTools (the latest Animal Crossing update iirc, for exemple), and updating to Luma (even if you use MenuHax) takes literally one minute.
 

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see here I can see both arguments, luma is pretty easy to update to, even if you refuse to update to using a9lh, but then if everything he wants works on rxtools and he isn't making threads demanding fixes for problems in rxtools then whatever it's upto him I guess
 
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TimX24968B

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I didn't miss your point at all. However, Windows 95 works just fine at what it does. RXTools does not. Not to mention, certain games don't work with RXTools (the latest Animal Crossing update iirc, for exemple), and updating to Luma (even if you use MenuHax) takes literally one minute.
True, but what i mean is more along the lines of how my friend's 3ds still turns on with it and plays the games he needs it to, and thats all he wants out of it. He wouldnt gain much benefit updating that setup unless a new feature came out which it didnt support, such as a future update and wanting online playability
 

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True, but what i mean is more along the lines of how my friend's 3ds still turns on with it and plays the games he needs it to, and thats all he wants out of it. He wouldnt gain much benefit updating that setup unless a new feature came out which it didnt support, such as a future update and wanting online playability
When an issue arises, though, good luck troubleshooting it without being told to switch.
 

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