/m3diaLib-CTR

A C++ library for easier homebrew development for the Nintendo 3DS

Primary LanguageC++GNU General Public License v3.0GPL-3.0

m3diaLib Build Status CodeFactor

A fast, extensive and powerful allround media and game library for the Nintendo 3DS, written in C++.

Click here to get to the installation instructions.

This library is still in beta! If you have any issues or find any bugs, please report them!

Features

The m3diaLib (spelled media-lib) is split into multiple modules, which can then be split into smaller parts:

Core

The core module contains all functionality for interacting with the system. Its features range from running and handling the app itself to displaying errors and running system applets.

Its main features are:

  • A class for running your homebrew app
  • Easy interaction with the system itself
  • Starting and running applets
  • Time measurement
  • Support for the RomFS
  • Multithreading and concurrency

Input

The input module does what its name says: It handles each and every input for interacting with the user.

Its main features are:

  • Handling button input
  • Handling touch input

Graphics

The graphics module is by far the biggest module. It handles anything graphic-wise, from rendering simple shapes to rendering and animating high-quality textures.

Its main features are:

  • Support for the top and bottom screen
  • Support for stereoscopic 3D
  • Easy-to-use interface for fast rendering on both screens
  • Support for transformation of textures and sprites
  • Pre-coded shapes as well as a shape class for easily rendering your own shapes
  • Easy-to-use color system
  • Collision detection

Audio

The audio module can be used for both music and sound effects.

Its main features are:

  • Loading or streaming audio files directly from the file system
  • Support for .wav and .mp3 (more to come!)
  • Two different classes, sound and music, which have features that can be helpful specific in their use case

Utils

The utils module contains all kind of useful utilities. Some of its functionalities are the following:

  • Basic encryption

All features are well documented here. Examples can be viewed here.

How to use it

The barebones of a homebrew app using the m3diaLib would look like this:

#include <m3dia.hpp>

int main() {
    m3d::Applet app;

    while (app.isRunning()) {
        if (m3d::buttons::buttonPressed(m3d::buttons::Button::Start)) {
            app.exit(); // exit if start is pressed
        }
    }
}

Easy, isn't it?

Planned features:

Audio:

  • Microphone support
  • More file formats

Core:

  • Support for all availiable os and system functionality

Graphics:

  • Animation
  • RenderTargets
  • More file formats for textures
  • 3D support

Networking:

This module isn't availiable at the moment. However, it's planned features are:

  • A simple HTTP and WebSocket client and server
  • Socket support
  • A 3DS-download-game alternative (more on that at a later point)

Utils:

  • ZIP compression and decompression
  • JSON and XML parsing
  • Secure random numbers

...and anything that strikes my mind in the future.

Installation

To install the library, download the latest build and then execute the command make install.

If you want to build it from the source, download the latest release and then execute the following commands:

make
make install

Note: Make sure, to have the latest version of the devkitPro-toolchain installed, before building the lib or any examples.

Dependencies

To compile a m3diaLib-app, you need the following dependencies installed (install via devkitPro-pacman):

  • 3dstools
  • picasso
  • libctru
  • citro3d
  • citro2d
  • 3ds-tinyxml2
  • 3ds-zlib
  • 3ds-mpg123
  • 3ds-libpng
  • 3ds-freetype
  • tex3ds (if you want to use spritesheets)

Use this command to automatically install all necessary dependencies:

sudo dkp-pacman -S 3ds-dev 3ds-zlib 3ds-tinyxml2 3ds-mpg123 3ds-libpng

Credits