Nintendo 3DS Releases: Luma3DS 10.0 with Network Time Client, Blue Light Filters and more; 3DS Homebrew Menu 2.1.0 and TWiLightMenu++ 8.5.0 released and 3DS Shell updated to version 4.3.1
Unlike the Nintendo Switch homebrew scene, the 3DS homebrew scene is usually pretty silent but in the past 3 days, a ton of releases landed! These include Luma3DS 10.0, 3DS Homebrew Menu 2.1.0, TWiLightMenu++ 8.50 and 3DShell 4.3.1
Luma3DS 10.0 and 3DS Homebrew Launcher 2.1.0 released
Luma3DS is probably the most popular CFW for the Nintendo 3DS as it not only has a wide range of features, such as removing the region-lock, but also supports a wide range of hacks (NH2, AL9H, Sighax) and console revisions (both the old and new 3DS/2DS). Today, Luma 3DS 10.0 has finally been released after the last official to CFW was done in August of last year.
This pretty major update, pushed by Luma3DS’ co-developer and one of Atmosphere’s developers TuxSH, brings along:
-
An NTP (Network Time Protocol) Client which can be used to set the system’s time through a Network Time server
- The feature can be accessed by navigating to the Miscellaneous menu of Rosalina
- time1.google.com is the server used for this feature and it’s coded in so it can’t be changed without modifying the source code
- Blue light filters, similar to f.lux/Night Shift, have been added thanks to work by @panicbit
- These are also accessed via Rosalina and are in its main menu
- There are 5 levels ranging from a light yellowish hue to a dark red hue
- Thanks to these, you can use your 3DS at night without any light and not have any eye strain if your eyes are somewhat sensitive
- The cheat engine got numerous bug fixes and some improvements including the ability to load more cheats at once and support for most CTRPF-AR code types
- These improvements and bug fixes were done by @piepie62 and @tstambaugh92
- The gdbstub debugger was improved and allows for debugging at the very start of application execution
- Many critical bugs were fixed and the pm sysmodule was reimplemented
- I2C driver and FatFs were upgraded
- Some other bug fixes and minor features such as hiding EmuNAND options when EmuNAND isn’t set up
- Luma3DS now comes bundled with 3DS Homebrew Menu 2.1.0
To get this pretty big update to Luma3DS, check out this link and follow this link for instructions. As of right now, Luma Updater isn’t working so you have to do it manually (it’s a 20 second process!)
Other than Luma3DS, 3DS Homebrew Menu, which lets you execute .3dsx homebrew, also received an update bringing its version number up to 2.1.0. This update brings along:
- Netsender functionality allowing you to send homebrew to other 3DS consoles from the application itself
- Chinese language support and a better Japanese/Korean translation
- Some UI-related improvements such as WiFi strength in the status bar, the fixing up of text rendering of non-JPN/USA/EUR system fonts and the positioning of the HOME button on New 2DS XL systems
- Hidden files and dot files are now hidden
To grab 3DS Homebrew Menu 2.1.0, check out this link or get it from the Luma 3DS 10.0 ZIP as it’s already included there.
More Releases: TWiLight Menu++ 8.5.0 and 3DShell 4.3.1
Other than CFW-related updates, two very popular 3DS homebrew also received updates in the last few days thus bringing more interesting stuff to the normally dormant scene.
TWiLight Menu++ is a homebrew application that lets you run dumped DS/DSi/GBA games and many emulators while also having various other features. The most recent update, version 8.5.0, brings along:
- It starts in
TWL Touch Mode by default which allows some homebrew like DScraft, portalDS and DSx86 to work out of the box
- A new way of checking whether a piece of homebrew is compatible or enhanced for the Nintendo DSi has been added which removes the need to manually enable “Direct Boot” in some homebrew, like DSDoom
- Box art in BMP format is no longer supported and must be in PNG format now
- Direct access support for Acekard 2i cards with the banner of Hello Kitty no Panda Sports Stadium has been added
- The framerate of the rotating cubes in the 3DS theme has been upped to 50 FPS from 24
- Numerous other minor features and bug fixes which can be reviewed in the changelog linked below
To grab TWiLight Menu++ and read its changelog, you can visit its GitHub release page. Alternatively, you can update it on-device by downloading TWiLight Menu++ Updater for the 3DS.
On to the last item in this article; 3DShell, which is the go-to file manager for the Nintendo 3DS that has everything you’ll probably ever need including an FTP sever, has been updated to version 4.3.0 and 4.3.1 shortly after. These updates bring along:
- Failed I/O functions are now handled properly (4.3.0)
- The code for extracting RAR archives has been updated (4.3.0)
- Images in PGM, PPM, PCX and TGA format can now be opened (4.3.0)
- Audio files in IT, MOD, S3M and XM format are now supported and the music player also received some updates including viewing total/current time for all file formats(4.3.0)
- The archive extraction capabilities have been improved allowing 7z, ISO 9660, AR, XAR and all formats supported by libarchive to be extracted (4.3.1)
- The music player and image viewer received some bug fixes (4.3.1)
- Some other minor features which can be examined in the changelog below
To download 3DShell manually and read its changelog, check out this link. However, 3DShell has network updater functionality so if you’re connected to Wi-Fi, you can update in the app itself.
Conclusion
It’s pretty surprising to see so many 3DS releases in a few days but it means that there are still some developers who care about its homebrew scene. As 4 releases are a lot for one article, some have been left out so if you want to check out more stuff, there’s 3DSplit which was released a few days ago and LINE for 3DS which was released in late May but is still pretty interesting nonetheless if you’re into instant messaging on LINE.
Thanks for the heads up. I presume Twilight Menu can also be used on a DSi?
Yes 🙂
This is pretty awesome update to Luma3ds