Mikage Developer Edition

Build instructions

CMake and Conan 2 are required to build Mikage.

• mkdir build
• cd build
• conan install .. -of . --build=missing (add -s build_type=Debug for Debug builds)
• cmake .. -G Ninja --toolchain conan_toolchain.cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
• ninja && sudo ninja install

NOTE: On Linux, Vulkan libraries are also required and will NOT be built by Conan.

Some dependencies may be provided by system packages instead of building them via Conan. To enable this behavior, add the following to your Conan profile (~/.conan2/profiles/default):

[platform_requires]
boost/1.80.0
cryptopp/8.5.0
sdl/2.0.20
range-v3/0.11.0
catch2/2.13.7
libunwind/1.8.0

GCC 15 and newer

Due to a change in default compilation flags in GCC 15, the conan step above may fail. If this happens, append the following two lines to your Conan profile (~/.conan2/profiles/default) and try again:

[conf]
tools.build:cflags=["-std=gnu17"]

Usage

For the first launch, three things must be set up:

1. a complete aes_keys.txt must be placed in the build folder
2. a virtual NAND must be bootstrapped from a game update partition
3. the 3DS initial system setup must be run

Given any game with an update partition, steps 2 and 3 can be done by running:

cd build && source conanrun.sh && ./source/mikage game.cci --bootstrap_nand --launch_menu

NOTE: Currently, this probably requires a game of the EU region. Patching SecureInfo_A by hand after bootstrapping may work, too.

Once set up, it's sufficient to run ./source/mikage game.cci or ./source/mikage --launch_menu. You'll need to source conanrun.sh to set up library directories.

Key bindings

• Arrow →: A
• Arrow ↓: B
• Arrow ↑: X
• Arrow ←: Y
• WASD keys: Circle pad
• Backspace: HOME (press twice to power down)
• Q key: L
• E key: R
• IJKL keys: D-pad
• Enter key: START
• Shift key: SELECT

Debugging

Individual processes may be debugged through an embedded GDB remote server over network port 12345. To enable it, pass --debug and --attach_to_process <pid> when launching Mikage. After startup, connect via gdb using tar ext :12345, wait until Mikage prints a message about waiting for the debugger attach, then type attach <PID> in the gdb shell. Note that a gdb build for ARM targets may be necessary to do this. Debuggers other than gdb may work but are untested.

Processes running in the emulated kernel can be introspected through a simple debug console available via telnet on port 12347.

Profiling

Mikage uses Tracy for profiling. To enable it, pass -o enable_profiler=True to conan install and rebuild Mikage. Get your Tracy server (often available from the system package manager) up and running and start listening for clients. Then launch Mikage and your server will start recording. Each emulator frame will be captured containing the Tracy Zones that have been defined throughout Mikage's code.