3DS Homebrew
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This page contains general information for 3DS Homebrew developers.

If you have any questions, you can come to GBAtemp's main homebrew development and help thread. It contains shared sources, examples and libraries.

You can find all known resources (hardware registers, syscalls, utilities) to develop your homebrew on 3dbrew.

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To develop 3DS homebrew you need a development environment consisting of tools, scripts and libraries which will be detailed below. The sources are compiled to binary using GNU GCC-ARM or devkitPro with devkitARM. The available tools and SDK work on Windows 32/64bit and Linux.

The languages used to write homebrew are C, C++ and occasionally ASM. There are various online tutorials and books available to learn these languages.
Alternatively, you can also write homebrew in Lua by using Lua Player Plus.

1Install devkitARM
2Compiling sources
- 2.1Troubleshooting
4Editor setup
63ds/cia homebrew
8Using git

Install devkitARM

Windows

Use the automated-installer. Install in C:devkitPro and it will install all the latest versions of the required programs (you can disable devkitPSP, but be sure to enable libctru in devkitARM menu). It will create the environment variables automatically.

Linux / Mac OSX

1) Open a terminal and execute these commands:

Install libraries

You may want to install various libraries/tools if your project requires them.

Compiling sources

If you simply want to compile a homebrew project without (or after) editing it, you can use the make utility from the command prompt/terminal.

1) Windows: Open a Command Prompt (Run -> cmd); Linux/Mac OSX: Open a Terminal from your applications

2) Navigate to the project directory (change to the correct path)

3) Run make

If you ever want to remove the compiled files, you can use this command:

This is often needed when re-compiling a project.

Troubleshooting

It is possible that sometimes your project will not compile. This can have various causes, for example missing libraries. In order to find out the problem, look into the output for the lines that start with 'error:'; those will tell you what the problem is. You can ignore the warnings, they do not cause the compilation to fail.

If the output is big, you can filter it:

If you can't figure out what's wrong, feel free to make a post on the forums about it. Make sure to post all of the error output.

Windows Tip: To copy from your command prompt, right click and choose Mark. Then select the text to copy and press the Enter key.

Common errors

cannot find 3dsx_crt0.o: No such file or directory: In your makefile, find -mfloat-abi=softfp and change it to -mfloat-abi=hard. You shouldn't ever use softfp for 3DS homebrew.

(name) uses VFP register arguments but (name2) does not: Part of your project or the libraries you use were compiled with -mfloat-abi=softfp while other parts were compiled with -mfloat-abi=hard. Make sure to use -mfloat-abi=hard everywhere. You may have to manually recompile the libraries you use, if needed.

(command) is not recognized as an internal or external command...: Your PATH environment variable is not set up correctly. It should contain the msys folder in your devkitPro installation path (eg. C:devkitPromsys). Edit your PATH environment variable and make sure it includes this directory. If the command is python, make sure the python install directory (eg. C:PythonXX, where XX is the version you installed) is in your PATH as well.

unknown field 'rmdir_r' specified in initializer: Your devkitARM is out of date. Rerun the installer or script.

make[1]: *** No rule to make target `/c/Users/***/path/to'. Stop.: Move the project to a folder with no spaces anywhere in its path

SMDH

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Every homebrew application has an smdh file, containing additional information:

Icon
Name of the application (Short description)
Description of the application (Long description)
Name of the author (Publisher)

This information is used in The Homebrew Launcher (3DSX), and in the home menu (3DS/CIA).

The icon is a simple 48x48px png file. You can place this png in your project folder (the same folder as your Makefile is in) and name it icon.png. If no icon.png is present, a default icon from the ctrulib folder will be used.

The other data can be set in the Makefile directly:

The SMDH file is automatically created when building the project (unless you explicitly set NO_SMDH in the Makefile).

You can also manually build the SMDH using bannertool by steveice10:

Editor setup

This section explains how to set up various editors to edit and compile (existing) homebrew projects. If you want to start a new homebrew project, you should preferably copy an example project and edit the sources.

Note that this section lists only the more advanced editors which have features such as code auto-completion. You can use any text editor to edit the source files and compile as detailed above. You should however use a proper code editor (aka not notepad). Some examples are Notepad++, Sublime Text, vim, and Emacs.

Programmer's Notepad

The Programmer's Notepad is (optionally) installed by the devkitPro installer.

1) File -> New -> Project
Give it a name and save anywhere.

2) Right click the project -> Add Files
Now navigate to the example you want and add the files from that folder (eg. Makefile, readme.md, ...)

3) Right click the project -> Add Magic Folder
Navigate to the example directory again and add the source folder within. Repeat this for any other folders in the example (if any).

4) You can build the project using Tools -> Make
Make sure the project you want to build is the active project (Right click project -> active project)

Visual Studio 2015 (community)

When installing Visual Studio, make sure to install the Visual C++ packages!

1) File -> New -> Project From Existing Code...

2) In the dropdown, choose Visual C++ and click Next

3) Under Project file location, navigate to the folder with all sources. Enter a name for the project and click next.

4) Use external build system, Next

5) Build command line:

Clean command line:

Leave the rest blank. Click Finish.

6) Right click project (in the solution explorer) -> properties

7) Under VC++ directories -> General -> Include directories, add the devkitARM and ctrulib include directories (change if needed):

Make sure not to remove anything already in the box! You can add any other include folder that the project may need as well. In the end it'll read something like:

Click OK

8) (Optional) Right click project -> Add -> Exi

2021.09