On October 30, 2024, it was announced that Lime3DS and the PabloMK7 fork of Citra were ceasing development in favor of a merged project between the two development teams.
Today, that joint project has a name: Azahar. Azahar translated to “orange blossom” in Spanish and is meant to signify the growth and evolution of the original Citra on which both apps were based. Citra, as may be assumed by its name and icon, is named after citrus, but more directly, oranges.
Citra was an app made by the same development team behind Yuzu. When Yuzu was sued by Nintendo, they immediately resolved their legal issues by agreeing to cease development and pay Nintendo $2.4 million USD. Ceasing development on Yuzu carried over to Citra as well.
Use Separate Windows for 3DS Emulation in Citra
Since Citra was an open-source project, many forks of the original project began to sprout one of those is the PabloMK7 fork. Its naming is based on its main developer, but also because the fork was initially made to address compatibility with Mario Kart 7 mods. Both Lime3DS and Citra were released due to the loss of active mainline Citra development.
Lime3DS and Citra exist as the two main applications people recommend for 3DS emulation across multiple platforms, including Android. The apps featured their own list of features, tweaks, and settings, but also had their own set of quirks that made their usage noticeably different from the other.
For example, managing custom layouts between the two apps is handled almost entirely differently. Citra relies more on the user using a touchscreen to drag and configure the size of each screen; afterward, they can edit a config file to alter sizes. However, Lime3DS relies more on configuring the X and Y positioning of the screens solely using resolution.
The new app will solidify one singular way of editing features like the above, but will also have the side benefit of having more eyes and heads on a team making it easier to find a happy medium.
There isn’t much information shared about when or how the app will be available, but all guesses are pegged that it won’t be distributed differently than the previous apps were — on GitHub.
If you want to directly find more information about the project and its status, joining the official Discord is the best option. They have also created a website where information, downloads, and an eventual FAQ will be found
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