melonDualDS v0.7.0.rc4: Final Release Candidate, Vulkan Stability, RetroAchievements Fixes, Custom Adreno Drivers, and DSiWare Improvements

This is the biggest 0.7.0 release candidate so far.

Download: https://github.com/SapphireRhodonite/melonDS-android/releases/tag/0.7.0.rc4

RC4 focuses on fixing the remaining major Vulkan renderer issues, stabilizing RetroAchievements, improving DSi / DSiWare support, and adding custom Adreno Vulkan driver support through AdrenoTools.This release fixes the major reported RetroAchievements problems, including offline unlock syncing, Softcore caching, leaderboard tracking, challenge state reliability, pending ledgers, and stale ROM configuration issues.It also fixes most of the remaining reported Vulkan rendering problems across several games, including Super Mario 64 DS, Etrian Odyssey, Picross 3D, Soma Bringer, Plants vs. Zombies, Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Bros., Sonic Rush, and Disgaea DS.If no major regressions are found in this RC, this build will become the final melonDualDS 0.7.0 release.

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Main Feature:

• Custom Adreno Vulkan driver support

  • Added support for custom Vulkan drivers on Adreno devices using AdrenoTools / libadrenotools.

Recommended driver source:

https://github.com/K11MCH1/AdrenoToolsDrivers/releases/

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Highlights:

• Major Vulkan compatibility pass

• Major RetroAchievements stability pass

• Improved DSi / DSiWare support

• Improved ROM list, layouts, and UX

• Improved RetroArch / librashader support

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Vulkan and Rendering Fixes:

• Super Mario 64 DS

• Etrian Odyssey

• Picross 3D

• Soma Bringer

• Plants vs. Zombies

• Mario Kart DS

• New Super Mario Bros.

• Sonic Rush

• Disgaea DS

• High-resolution Vulkan rendering

• RetroArch / librashader

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RetroAchievements:

This release includes a major RetroAchievements stability pass.

The goal of RC4 is to finally make RetroAchievements reliable across online play, offline Softcore unlocks, pending sync, leaderboards, challenges, savestates, and ROM launch configuration.

• Fixed multiple RetroAchievements unlock reliability issues.

• Improved offline achievement handling.

• Improved savestate reliability with RetroAchievements.

• Improved Softcore achievement caching.

• Improved online/offline sync behavior.

• Added submission offsets for offline unlock replay.

• Added a 14-day expiration policy for newly-created offline ledgers.

• Existing pending ledgers from older builds are left untouched.

• Added clearer UI around pending offline unlocks.

• Added clearer UI around ledger expiration.

• Improved leaderboard tracking indicators.

• Added leaderboard values and timers in-game when available from rc_client.

• Added leaderboard rankings in the in-game achievements menu.

• Added visual feedback for leaderboard and challenge success/failure.

• Added an option to disable RetroAchievements without logging out.

• Refreshed ROM configuration before RetroAchievements launch to avoid stale config behavior.

• Improved challenge startup reliability in supported games.

• Improved behavior when achievements are unlocked while offline and submitted later.

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DSi / DSiWare:

• Fixed DSi BIOS boot when JIT is enabled.

• Fixed DSiWare .nds installation failures.

• Improved DSiWare title entry handling.

• Raised/fixed the DSiWare title entry limit so more installed titles can work correctly.

• Added DSiWare titles to the ROM list through the DSiWare filter.

• Added support for launching installed DSiWare directly from ROM list shortcuts.

• Improved DSiWare metadata handling.

• Improved DSiWare title detection and launch behavior.

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ROM List, Layouts, and UX:

• Added hold-to-fast-forward input support.

• Fixed custom layout background orientation after backup/restore.

• Simplified layout backup and restore behavior.

• Improved ROM configuration refresh before launch.

• Fixed patched Retro Game Challenge 2 ROM detection.

• Fixed 7z compressed ROM scanning crashes caused by memory pressure.

• Improved stability when scanning large ROM libraries.

• Improved behavior after backup/restore scenarios.

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librashader Improvements:

• Improved RetroArch shader folder synchronization.

• Improved librashader output sizing.

• Fixed shader sizing behavior for presets that need native DS source resolution.

• Improved behavior when output needs to match the final display size.

• This should improve compatibility with more .slangp shader presets.

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Final 0.7.0 Candidate:

This RC is intended to be the final release candidate before 0.7.0.

If no major regressions are reported, melonDualDS v0.7.0.rc4 will become the final melonDualDS v0.7.0 release.

Please test Vulkan, RetroAchievements, DSiWare, custom layouts, ROM scanning, shaders, and custom Adreno drivers as much as possible.

Reports are especially useful if they include:

• Device model

• Android version

• GPU

• Vulkan driver used

• Game name

• Renderer used

• Internal resolution

• Steps to reproduce

• Screenshots or videos if possible

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Sneak Peek:

After 0.7.0, the next big feature I want to work on for melonDualDS is something very exciting:

A texture extractor and texture replacement system for Nintendo DS games.

The goal is to make it possible to extract textures from NDS games, replace them, and finally allow the creation of custom texture packs for Nintendo DS games inside melonDualDS.

This will open the door for HD texture packs, UI replacements, game-specific visual improvements, and community-made texture projects.

More details will come after the final 0.7.0 release.

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Support:

This release took a lot of work, testing, debugging, and user reports.

If you want to support melonDualDS development, early builds, testing, and future features like texture extraction and texture replacement, you can support the project on Patreon.

Thank you so much to everyone testing the RC builds, reporting bugs, sending logs, and helping make Vulkan and RetroAchievements better.

- Sapphire 💙