Convert 3DS custom themes to .cia - Alternative to Howling Theme Tool?

NitroHedgehog · May 12, 2024

Hello.

I was today years old when I discovered that it was possible to install custom themes on a modded 3DS. So I did some research, but in vain... There was a tool named "Howling Theme Tool" for PC that turns custom themes into a single .cia file. HOWEVER, all download links I came across are dead (such as Google Drive, Dropbox or MEGA ; even the thread here on GBATemp only has dead links) and not to mention people complaining the installed themes and their icons are pitch-black PLUS gets deleted when entering the eShop, Badge editors, system settings, or even by removing the SD Card from the console! Is there a WORKING alternative to that "howling theme tool" that converts 3DS Themes into .cia files? I have quite a lot of themes to convert, TBH. Thanks again.

Dave

redunka · May 12, 2024

The link at the very top of HTT's release thread's original post looks pretty alive to me?

If you read the link's description in that same post, you'll see that losing themes after opening eShop hasn't been a problem since that version's release more than 6 years ago.

Black icons only affect some users, apparently, or at least there wasn't enough of them to actually help pinpointing the cause of that issue. There is a potential solution now that might fix it for good, but so far nobody bothered to answer my call for beta testing. So, how about at least trying the tool first to see if you get those black icons yourself, and then helping us with tests if that's the case?

NitroHedgehog · May 13, 2024

Whoops! Didn't clicked on the link at the very top, I feel a bit silly now ^^'

So I have Windows 10, and successfully created a .cia file with the Howling theme Tool, but icons and backgrounds are pitch-black. Then I saw the "Black Icon fix" thing on the thread. Since my PC is 64x, I installed both programs given in the fix-it section. I then created another .cia, and things went slightly better. When I choose a theme (any will do) now I can see the background and hear the BGM (if any, of course) on the 3DS's menu screen, but icons in the Themes section are still black. Is it because I am using a too much recent version of Windows? (Windows 10) Or something done wrong? Well at least themes don't vanish on their own and still work despite the black icon

One more question. Should I create icons in the BMP or the PNG format? 'Cause some themes on the Web either have no icons, or mix BMP and PNG for the icons (as if they uploaded their themes without testing them out.) Many thanks!

redunka · May 13, 2024

NitroHedgehog said:
Is it because I am using a too much recent version of Windows?

No, it's not because of Windows, but seems to be somehow related to graphics drivers, from what I could gather, though don't quote me on that (I'm not the dev of the tool myself, but I'm trying to help him). VC Redistributable helps sometimes, but not always, it looks. Anyway, I'll PM you a beta version soon, and hopefully it'll fix issues for you, and then it could be included in the next version!

NitroHedgehog said:
Should I create icons in the BMP or the PNG format? 'Cause some themes on the Web either have no icons, or mix BMP and PNG for the icons (as if they uploaded their themes without testing them out.)

There's an additional tool included in the release archive that's called "Theme Checker", which will automatically extract icons from "info.smdh" files, but in case if you want to make them manually, they should be PNG.

Convert 3DS custom themes to .cia - Alternative to Howling Theme Tool?

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