Azahar 2122 Alpha 1

[OpenSauce04]

⚠️Important Alpha Information⚠️

As an alpha release, this build is not yet considered a stable release. It is an early release of the upcoming 2122 update which isn't yet feature-complete.

This release is intended to help test upcoming features to ensure that they are stable.
Early adopters are encouraged to help test out the changes in this build to catch any issues before they make it into a stable release.

If you are unwilling to tolerate potential issues, you may be better off waiting for the stable release.

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This update is notable for having a high number of improvements to game performance and compatibility. Please read the change notes.

Additionally, for x86_64 devices (most desktop computers), this update requires a CPU which has SSE4.2 instructions, and it is likely that all future releases will also have this requirement.
This feature is available in all modern CPUs released in 2011 or later.
The few users who have hardware which doesn't support this instruction set can compile the emulator from source with the ENABLE_SSE42 CMake option disabled.

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Azahar 2122-alpha1 Changelog

All

• SIMD operations have been used to optimize a commonly used function, reducing GPU processing time for all applications. | @PabloMK7 video_core: Use SIMD on RasterizerAccelerated::AnalyzeVertexArray #1086
  • This change breaks compatibility with x86_64 CPUs which don't have SSE4.2 instructions (primarily CPUs released before 2011).
  • The few users who have hardware which doesn't support this instruction set can compile the emulator from source with the ENABLE_SSE42 CMake option disabled.
    • Disabling this CMake option also disables the optimization which requires the SSE4.2 instruction.
• Improved SVC handling timings by simulating the passage of time more accurately. | @PabloMK7 kernel: Improve SVC handling timings #1093
  • This results in significant performance improvements for several games, including but not limited to Luigi's Mansion 2, Star Fox 64 3D, and The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.
• Refactored state tracking in the video core, reducing the amount of needed syncs and uploads to the GPU. | @PabloMK7, anonymous contributor video_core: Refactor state tracking #1059
  • This improves performance in all applications.
• Allow SPIR-V when using Shadow2D texture mapping. | @PabloMK7, anonymous contributor Allow SPIR-V when using Shadow2D texture mapping #1057
  • This greatly reduces stuttering in some games. Games known to be affected by this include Luigi's Mansion 2 and Resident Evil: Revelations, but other games may also see improvements.
• GLSL -> SPIRV optimizations have been disabled by default, with a new setting added to re-enable them. | @PabloMK7 Add toggle to disable SPIRV optimization pass #1080, Fix disable spirv optimizer option not saving #1084
  • Disabling these optimizations has minimal impact on performance while greatly improving stuttering in all applications.
• Fixed the start index parameter for the geometry shader config being set incorrectly. | @PabloMK7, anonymous contributor Fix incorrect geo shader config start index parameter bit length #1056
  • This fixes an issue in Kid Icarus: Uprising where grind rails would appear to be invisible.
• Replaced a problematic assert in AccelerateTextureCopy with a logged error. | @PabloMK7 video_core: Remove assert in AccelerateTextureCopy #1092
  • This fixes an issue which caused The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth to immediately crash when starting a run.

Android

• Additional options have been added during shortcut creation, allowing the icon and name of the shortcut to be customized. | Kleidis android: Enhance shortcut customization with a custom dialog #824
• The performance overlay has been enhanced with new settings and statistics available to be toggled from the Layout settings. | Kleidis android: Improve performance stats overlay settings and functionality #808
  • By default, only the current FPS is shown. Other statistics can be toggled on in the aforementioned settings menu.
• Added an aspect ratio setting which affects the single-screen layout. | @icy-briar android: Add aspect ratio setting for single screen layout mode #913
• Added an option which allows disabling JIT shader compilation. | @PabloMK7 android: Add missing shader JIT option #1085
• Reorganized the setup process to reduce the unnecessarily high number of pages. | Kleidis, @OpenSauce04 android: Reorganize setup process to use multiple buttons per-page #820
• Added rotate screen upright toggle. | Kleidis android: Add rotate screen upright toggle to UI #819

Desktop

• Added an option which allows advanced frame time information to be displayed at the bottom of the window. | @PabloMK7 Add more advanced frame time information #1083
• Fixed an issue where a custom-set background colour wouldn't be used while using the Vulkan renderer when an application was initially booted. | @icy-briar renderer_vulkan: Actually initialize background colors on start #896

Room

• Private room hosts are now automatically given moderator privileges. | Kleidis Room moderation functionality adjustments #822
• The --enable_citra_mods option has been removed. | Kleidis Room moderation functionality adjustments #822

Technical

• Refactored Android switch setting code to only store values as booleans. | Kleidis android: Make SwitchSetting only allow Boolean setting types & move all Int settings used for switches to Boolean settings #821
• Updated some outdated Vulkan dependencies on Windows (MSVC) and Android to match the Vulkan SDK 1.4.304.1 used elsewhere. | @OpenSauce04 Updated outdated Vulkan dependencies to SDK 1.4.304.1 #1094

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This discussion was created from the release Azahar 2122 Alpha 1.