Recently got into the homebrew scene for switch. Migrating over from the 3ds. I plan on going the DDL route with jdownloader2 (unless someone has a better idea and can share lol). NSP vs XCI for base game files? What are the pros and cons of each? What do you use? I don’t plan on doing any online play or ever using stock FW ever again if that changes anything. Thanks.
XCIs are basically raw dumps of game cartridges incl. empty areas (like ISOs) and NSPs are all the meaty software bits in a package - similar to a Zip file but without compression. (NSZs are the compressed version.)
XCIs were great with SX OS where you could use them to emulate a cartridge - without having to install them. Nowadays, there’s not much difference in the UX. Both formats need to be installed to the console in order to be able to play them.
I would prefer nsp/nsz since those are eShop dumps and intended to be installed into the system.
Xcis are gamecard dumps and weren’t intended to be installed, so the installer has to modify it in order for the console to pick it up as a digital copy.
Basically, the nsp is just cleaner - you install the game without any modifications, and just register the ticket for it to the system.