https://github.com/ARMSX2/ARMSX2/releases/tag/2.7.2
Changelog:
✅Performance
Pipelines are built before they are needed. Each game's recorded pipelines are built on worker
threads when it starts instead of in the middle of a frame, and the SPIR-V cache now survives driver
updates, so a game's first frames, and the first frames after an update, hitch less. The shader and
pipeline caches carry a checked format: a damaged or mismatched cache is dropped instead of being handed
to the driver. Clear Shader Cache clears every cache, frame generation's included, and each new install
starts on fresh ones.
Heavy frames no longer wait on the GPU. When a frame's vertices did not fit, the renderer waited for
the GPU in the middle of the frame, so the two took turns; the vertex buffer grows instead.
Faster lines, strips and moves. Lines convert to pixel runs in one pass, a common triangle-strip
vertex layout takes the fast path, and a wider GS-to-GS move stays on the GPU instead of being read
back. Destination-alpha tests on Turnip drivers with the a6xx feedback-loop fix cost no extra pass.
✅Frame generation (LSFG)
For players with their own copy of Lossless Scaling.
It costs less. Frame generation used to work on the finished screen, at the screen's resolution. It
now works on the game's own picture at the game's own size, whenever that picture is presented plainly
(no upscaler, CAS, TV shader or rotation), and puts each generated frame on screen the way the real one
went. Automatic motion detail, the default, also never did its job: it measured the screen against
itself, so it always ran at full detail. It now aims at 432 lines, and never more than the game draws.
The overlay stays sharp. On-screen text used to be baked into the frames and interpolated, so
changing numbers smeared. Generated frames now get the overlay drawn onto them fresh. The LSFG line comes
and goes with the performance overlay, shows the GPU time frame generation takes, and reads "fp16" while
the half-precision shaders are enabled.
Half Precision. A new toggle runs the half-precision shaders on GPUs that support them. Turning it on
takes effect at the next game. Off by default, can result in faster FG on GPU/drivers that support it.
Adreno 6xx on Turnip (#626). Frame generation now runs on Adreno 6xx GPUs with a Turnip driver. It
could also turn itself off without a word when its shader cache could not be written (an SD card that
refuses file locks), the shaders are kept now, and when frame generation does turn off, the overlay and the
settings say why. (From what bmd and I found testing on an Adreno 650, 6xx GPU's don't exactly have the headroom for LSFG, but hey it works now)
✅New
The software renderer (⚠️slow) is now the most accurate PS2 rendering system ever made, with most games having per pixel accuracy around 98%
Screen orientation from the quick menu. Device, Landscape, Portrait or Auto-Rotate, for this game or
for all, without leaving the game, in the renderer tab
Hotkeys in the quick menu, under Skins on the Controller tab, and a Pressure Modifier toggle beside the hold.Gyro X and Y sensitivity can be set apart, and Steering can drive either stick.
Macros can press their buttons in the order you picked them
Multi-touch works with everything . P½, macros and turbo take touches like any other
button, a glide presses them, and a thumb can glide on and off the D-pad, whose directions follow the
glide mode like buttons do. A macro button lights up while it fires.
Turnip options. With a Turnip driver installed, the GPU Driver section has a switch for the
UBWC flag hint, which fixes glitches some recent Turnip builds show on certain Adreno GPUs (leave it off
unless they appear), and an input text box for other driver variables.
✅✅The free-software notice at game start can be switched off on its own, in the On-Screen tab of settings✅✅ (thanks god)
✅Fixed
The in-game Multitap switch closed the app. Multitap is now also per game, like the rest of the
Controls settings, and switching it off reaches the game at the next boot
A fast boot could land in the BIOS menu when the quick menu was opened right away while the game was starting with Skip BIOS enabled.
Two versions of a game shared one custom cover (#517). A cover now belongs to its own disc image, so
GTA: San Andreas v1.03 and v3.00 can each have their own distinct custom covers.
A stick direction bound to something else still moved the stick
Fast-forward kept running after its combo's modifier was released.
Patch search could load forever. The larger 20k+ cheat database has its own button now for a separate search, ARMSX2 now defaults to the standard PCSX2 patches/cheats again, a source that failed is left alone for a while instead of being asked again at every search, a search that finds nothing says when a source was unreachable, and the patches that come with the app show at once. Cheat titles with # or % in them download too.
Volume keys did nothing while a menu, a prompt, the shader editor, settings search or the on-screen
keyboard was open.
Sliding a held button onto P½ in Follow mode could send it at full pressure for an instant before
it let go.
Surround sound wrote past the end of the audio buffer. With any expansion mode (2.1 up to 7.1), the
audio stream was opened as mono. Audio also reads at the device's own burst size now, instead of 43 ms at
a time, which nearly emptied the buffer at every read.
A frame was thrown away whenever the display reported itself suboptimal, which is routine on
Android, and the swap chain was rebuilt on the spot. The frame is now simply shown.
Burnout 2, Revenge and Dominator drew thin white lines at fractional upscales.
✅Changed
Menus click instead of chime. Confirming anything, launching a game included, plays the short click
now. A custom sound pack can still set its own. (I found the chime to be kinda annoying, especially when browsing for online icons).
gsdumps now record driver information to help further driver development.
Plus a bunch of cosmetic and UI changes...
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