Azahar 2120 Release Candidate 1

[OpenSauce04]

⚠️Important Release Candidate Information⚠️

This is a release candidate. Please expand this drop-down to read more about what this means before installing.

As a release candidate, this build is not yet considered a stable release, but is instead a build which could be promoted to a stable release if it is sufficiently tested with no major issues being discovered. Ideally, the release candidate period will last for 7 days, however if major issues are discovered, this will be extended to allow for additional testing with a corrected release candidate.

Despite its status as a pre-release build, users are encouraged to test this version to help us catch any newly introduced issues before the build is promoted to a full release. If you do observe such issues, please report them to us on GitHub so we can evaluate them.

If you are unwilling to tolerate potential minor issues, you may be better off waiting until a release candidate is promoted to a full release.

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This changelog treats the merge of PabloMK7's fork and Lime3DS as a base upon which all of the changes listed here are applied. The changes added in Lime3DS and PabloMK7's fork during 2024, alongside the changes introduced in Azahar, will be discussed in more detail as part of our first progress report. Additionally, this changelog will not refer to any branding changes.

It is also worth keeping in mind that this first release doesn't primarily focus on adding new features, instead working to create a strong base we can build upon in subsequent releases.

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Azahar 2120-rc1 Changelog

All:

• The method of acquiring the 3DS system files has been completely overhauled, now requiring the use of a real 3DS and the new Artic Setup Tool. | @PabloMK7
  • The old method of acquiring system files has been removed
  • Read more about the reasons behind this change in our related blog post: https://azahar-emu.org/blog/game-loading-changes
• If 3DS system files have been installed, games owned by your eShop account can now be downloaded directly from the 3DS eShop application | @PabloMK7
• Fixed various issues relating to save states | @PabloMK7 Various savestate bugfixes #656
• Added a new performance hack option named "Disable Right Eye Rendering" | @PabloMK7 758ded7
  • The 3DS renders for both the left and right eye, even when 3D is not being used. This hack disables rendering one of the eyes, which can result in performance improvements of up to 50% for some games
  • Certain games may experience graphical issues when using this hack. Try it everywhere and see what works!
  • You can use the stereoscopic side by side mode to check if the image for the right eye is being disabled, to verify the compatibility of the game
• Added a new option which enables all LLE modules required for online functionality | @PabloMK7 d5745ca
• Support for encrypted applications has been dropped. Applications must now be dumped in a decrypted format to be used. | @PabloMK7
  • Read more about the reasons behind this change in our related blog post: https://azahar-emu.org/blog/game-loading-changes
• For historical reasons related to the origin of the extension, support for the .3ds file extension has been dropped
  • Azahar now makes use of the .cci extension, which is the true name of the format used by .3ds files
  • You can still make use of ROMs with the .3ds file extension by simply renaming the file to use the .cci extension.
  • Read more about the reasons behind this change in our related blog post: https://azahar-emu.org/blog/game-loading-changes
• The virtual 3DS now has a randomly generated MAC address | @PabloMK7
  • This can be set based on the MAC address of your real 3DS or regenerated at any time via the settings menu
• microprofile is now disabled by default at compile time, saving a small amount of RAM | @PabloMK7 Add cmake option to enable microprofile #651

Desktop:

• If the system is set to dark mode and the default Azahar theme is being used, white icons will now be used instead of the previous hard-to-see black-on-grey icons | @kleidis citra_qt: Use stylesheet with light colored icons if dark mode is used by the system #623, @rtiangha citra_qt.cpp: Make isDarkMode() compliant with QT 6.4 and older #668

Windows:

• Fixed an issue where the Windows build would occasionally be unable to generate file paths | @PabloMK7 Fix CreateFullPath not working with windows paths #588

Android:

• Fixed a bug which could sometimes cause renaming files to fail | @PabloMK7 d5745ca
• Fixed issues relating to configuration data not being saved correctly | @PabloMK7 d5745ca
• Made AM title scanning asynchronous, resulting in significantly faster game boot times under most circumstances | @PabloMK7 d5745ca
• Made certain AM functions asynchronous, which helps to prevent some unnecessary stuttering while games are running | @PabloMK7 d5745ca
• Fixed an issue relating to the SOC service which could cause crashes | @PabloMK7 d5745ca

Technical:

• The CMake option previously known as ENABLE_DEDICATED_ROOM has been renamed to ENABLE_ROOM | @OpenSauce04 56e96de
• A new CMake option, ENABLE_NATIVE_OPTIMIZATION, has been added which enables -march=native for the C and C++ compilers if supported | @OpenSauce04 c024933
  • See here for more information on what that means: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GCC_optimization#cpu-type
• A new CMake option, ENABLE_MICROPROFILE, has been added which enables the now-disabled-by-default microprofile
• Various external dependencies have been updated | @OpenSauce04 externals: Update all submodules to latest release/commit #615 android: Updated AGP to 8.8.1 and Gradle to 8.10.2 #616

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This discussion was created from the release Azahar 2120 Release Candidate 1.