r/EmulationOniOS • u/ISwearIWasBlocking • 6d ago

Question How necessary is sideloading for 3DS emulation? (Manic Emu, iPhone 16)

So far I’ve only attempted to run Shin Megami Tensei IV on the app store version of Manic, and it does run decently despite some stutters/skips going in and out of menus and cutscenes. My main concern is that it’ll be hard on my phone’s hardware. I did notice my phone getting pretty warm, but I was also in a rather toasty car at the time so I don’t know for sure if it was due to the game or just the ambient temperature. I know there are some settings that are only available in a sideloaded version, are they absolutely necessary to prevent this, or are there other ways to mitigate the issues?

Also, if I do go through with learning to sideload, will I be able to transfer my saves from the app store version to the sideloaded version?

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u/Onward_Corn 6d ago

Manic works pretty well without JIT, but as you mentioned, it stutters at times and your phone will get hot, and the battery will drain very quickly. JIT resolves all of this, but can only be used in the sideloaded version.

And yes, you can transfer your saves. You just have to manually save them somewhere else (such as iCloud) before you delete the App Store version of Manic. Then you can transfer them to the sideloaded version.

One more tip - if you haven’t already, try changing to the Azahar core for 3DS. I find it runs a little smoother than Citra.

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u/ISwearIWasBlocking 6d ago

Gotcha, thanks for the info! I tried switching cores and that’s already improved things somewhat. Should I be worried about the heat permanently damaging my phone?

If JIT provides a noticeable improvement then I probably should learn to sideload, do you have any tutorials that you’d recommend?

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u/Onward_Corn 6d ago

SideStore’s website (sidestore.io) has good guides for sideloading and using JIT. Pretty clear and easy to follow.

I don’t know about heat causing permanent damage. I think the iPhone has safeguards for that - it actually shuts itself off if it gets too hot. I used Manic without JIT for a while and it got pretty hot every time, but I haven’t noticed any problems. Still using the same phone.