Vita Dumper Comparison

vita-dumper-comparsion.md

	psvgamesd	NoNpDrm	Vitamin/MaiDumpTool
Dumps physical games	✅	✅	✅
Dumps digital games, DLC, and updates	❌	✅	✅
Compatible with legit DLC & updates	✅	✅	❌
Saves usable on non-hacked Vitas	✅	✅	❌
All original data untouched	✅	❌	❌❌
No problems saving after suspend	✅	✅	❌❌
Format can be converted to work with other tools	✅	❌	❌
Installs physical games as bubbles	❌	✅	✅
Dumps games requiring > 3.60	✅	❌	❌
Works on firmware > 3.60	❌	❌	❌
Plays games requiring > 3.60	❌	❌	❌

Key points:

• STOP using Vitamin/MaiDumpTool. Those tools were hacked together before taiHEN was ready and therefore depends on hacks around the fact that there was no kernel access. Game executable metadata was not preserved and creates lots of compatibility issues including corrupting saves while in suspend mode.
• psvgamesd creates .psv files which will be the standard archival format for Vita games (like .iso or .nds but for Vita). These files are not trimmed or compressed and therefore will take a lot of storage to save. Until trimming/compression features are implemented, a way to use the best of both psvgamesd and NoNpDrm is to save your raw dumps on your computer (for backup) and when needed (like if you lose access to your cart), you can use psvgamesd to mount the image once, then use NoNpDrm to "install" it as a bubble (saving space) and finally delete the original .psv from your Vita.
• psvgamesd allows you to backup your 3.61+ games for use if/once later firmware are hacked.
• psvgamesd currently does not support backing up digital games but the .psv format will eventually be used to archive digital games as well. More information on the format is here.
• When a .psv is mounted with psvgamesd, you can run any other tool (including NoNpDrm and Vitamin) on it, so until existing workflow (such as game translation) is upgraded to not depend on legacy dumps, it is always possible to go from .psv to any other format but not the other way around! You must dump the original cart to create a .psv!

Legal Disclaimer: I helped author the .psv format to help standardize the format for backup and archival but I do not endorse any method to circumvent DRM. This guide is provided for informative purposes only and does not serve to aid any party in circumventing DRM. I have not worked directly or indirectly on any DRM circumvention features.

The comments are from back in 2017, and the article seems to be from that time too.

What's the updates like, what is the current state?