B2recomp Linux Test 4

This is the fourth test release of the native Linux version of B2recomp. It is a pre-release: the Windows version is v0.2.6. As always, this download contains no game files: the game is built on your PC from your own dump

New since Linux Test 3

• Missing icons and colors on AMD cards (the fix of Windows v0.2.6). On an AMD RX 6950 XT under Windows, some of the game’s textures came out blank: the tutorial’s combo icons, the letters on the button icons, and the colour of the health bars. When B2recomp creates a texture, it first clears it and then copies the game’s pixels in, and nothing told the graphics driver to keep that order. Mesa’s AMD driver is allowed to run them out of order too, so the Linux version gets the same fix: the two steps are now explicitly ordered. On NVIDIA cards nothing changes on screen.
• Freeze reports that say where the game is stuck. If no picture reaches the window for a second, B2recomp writes a freeze report (build-linux/game_native_freeze.txt, included by Report...). On Linux it used to say only “threads: 0”. Now it lists every thread, what it is waiting for (including which thread holds a lock another one waits on) and its call stack, as the Windows version does. If the game ever freezes for you, wait about five seconds before closing it, then send the report.

Updating from an earlier Linux test release

Unzip B2recomp-linux-builder-0e21575.zip over your old B2recomp folder and start B2recomp. It says that B2recomp was updated; press Build (a short rebuild, about two minutes), then Play. Your settings and saves stay.

New install

1. Unzip B2recomp-linux-builder-0e21575.zip where you want to keep the game, for example ~/Games.
2. Open the folder and start B2recomp: double-click it, or in a terminal run sh ./B2recomp.
3. Choose your dump folder (one folder that holds exefs/ and romfs/ of Bayonetta 2, version 1.2), press Build (5 to 20 minutes, depending on your CPU), then Play.

Known limits of this test release

• The game times its frames with its own 60 Hz clock, not with your monitor’s refresh as the Windows version does. On a screen that is not exactly 60 Hz you may see a slight judder now and then.
• The renderer finds out which textures the game changed by checksumming them (on Windows the system tracks this), which costs a little more CPU per frame.
• The texture fix was tested on Windows with an NVIDIA card; the freeze report was tested in a Linux test environment. Neither has been seen on an AMD card under Linux yet.
• Tested on Arch-based systems (CachyOS) with an NVIDIA RTX 4060 laptop and an AMD RX 560, on KDE and Hyprland (Wayland). Other distributions should work, but are untested.

Reporting problems

Press Report... in the launcher, or run sh scripts/report.sh in the B2recomp folder. It makes b2recomp-report.tar.gz with the logs and your PC’s details, and nothing of the game. Attach it to an issue with a few words on what happened. Never attach game files.

SHA-256 of the zip: d74a8b981be662d6bd9f9e411faa7ede376529ae1c98abaa608c68804696582a