Frameropia v0.0.3 (test build)

Frameropia v0.0.3 — Patch Notes

Pokémon Pokopia photo reliability update and new Frameropia identity.

This release is based on v0.0.2 plus the user-validated DMA readback flush from draft PR #17 (merged as 777181dd). It does not include the experimental photo and performance patches rejected during testing.

Technical changes

Pokémon Pokopia: improved photo readback

• After an accelerated Switch 2 DMA image-to-buffer copy succeeds, flush the destination buffer region to guest memory before the operation completes.
• This makes the photo data available to the game's CPU-side image encoding path, preventing many cases where stale pixels or rows were saved.
• Keep the behavior scoped to Switch 2, and retain an opt-out for diagnostic comparison: EDEN_NX2_DMA_READBACK_FLUSH=0.
• Credit: adaptation of notsapinho/Eglantine commit 7dde4f15.

New application branding

• Add a transparent orange-gradient F logo, displayed in the README.
• Replace the Windows executable's embedded application icon and the Qt icon resource with the Frameropia logo.
• Keep the application and command-line executable names frameropia.exe and frameropia-cli.exe.

Documentation and testing

• Redesign the README with clearer download, testing, compatibility and attribution sections.
• Document observed photo results and explicitly list outstanding first-capture issues.
• Preserve the artifact-only Windows CI workflow for isolated graphics experiments.

Validation

The user tested a Windows build containing the DMA fix, with 48 correct pictures out of 50 in the initial series (96% correct). Subsequent testing showed that some photos still fail, especially immediately after starting the emulator. In three independent startup sessions, the first photograph was corrupt in all three; in one session the second photograph was corrupt too. A separate rapid-capture test saw an image shifted vertically with wraparound.

Interpretation: photo reliability has improved greatly, but the bug is not fully fixed. These figures are observations from one tester and should not be treated as universal success rates.

Excluded changes

The following experiments were not merged and are not part of v0.0.3:

Test / PR	Reason for exclusion
#16 — generic buffer readback range clipping	All tested photos became corrupt.
#18 — direct linear texture uploads	No noticeable performance gain in user testing; did not include the photo fix.
#19 — deferred texture uploads	No noticeable performance gain and severe bright-pink sky rendering regression.
#20 — initial photo DMA CPU fallback	All tested photos became corrupt.

No claim is made that this release independently achieves 60 FPS. The steady 60 FPS previously observed on notsapinho's build 24 involved additional changes that have not been validated or integrated into Frameropia.

Known limitations

• Pokémon Pokopia's first photo after a fresh emulator start can be corrupt; occasionally a second photo is affected.
• Rare photo corruption and vertical wraparound can still occur.
• Shader compilation as a contributor to the remaining photo failures is unproven.
• No guarantee of fixes for other game-specific graphical bugs or performance regressions.

Track remaining photo issues in #14.

Plain-English summary

Frameropia has a new orange F logo and takes Pokémon Pokopia photos far more reliably. The most successful test produced 48 good photos out of 50, compared with the much worse behavior seen before the correction. It's a real improvement, but the first photo after opening the game can still be broken.

We've intentionally left out several attempted fixes that caused worse photos or graphical problems. Your old settings and saved games should remain in the same locations.

Download the Windows ZIP from Releases, extract the entire archive, and run frameropia.exe.

Windows

Windows packages are in-place zip files: extract and run frameropia.exe, or frameropia-cli.exe from a terminal.

Build Type	Standard	PGO (Recommended)	Notes
amd64 / x86_64 (MSVC)	MSVC zip		Use if you run into graphical issues on other builds