Zenonia 3 PS Vita - v01.30 - Externalized Assets & Optimized Default Build

Description

This release brings important changes to how the game's UI assets are loaded to reduce the footprint of the VPK, and establishes the most stable graphical configuration as the default build.

⚠️ Important Installation Change (Action Required)

The UI assets (menu art, title logos, and HELP/ABOUT text) are no longer bundled within the VPK. You must now manually copy these folders from your legally obtained .apk to your PS Vita during the installation process:

1. Extract res/drawable/ from your APK, rename it to drawable, and place it in ux0:data/zenonia3/drawable/
2. Extract assets/html/ from your APK, rename it to html, and place it in ux0:data/zenonia3/html/

Note: Without these files, the game will still run, but menus, titles, and help screens will render completely blank.

What's New

• Optimized Default Build: The project now defaults to the most stable performance settings confirmed on real hardware (RGB565_CONVERT_MODE=NATIVE, OPTIMIZE_NEON_FIXED=OFF, and LOCK_FPS_30=ON). The standard build output is now a clean zenonia_3.vpk instead of a long, heavily tagged filename.
• Developer Workflow Improvements: Added new options in the Python management scripts to quickly upload only the eboot.bin` over FTP, allowing for much faster iterative testing without needing to repack and reinstall the entire VPK.
• New Porting Utilities: Added new developer tools (parse_dump.py and ai_bash_commands.sh) to the repository to assist in parsing PS Vita crash dumps and streamlining the porting workflow.

Why are some previous releases missing a .vpk file?

In earlier stages of this project, a bad practice was inadvertently being followed: distributing .vpk files that had copyrighted game assets (such as UI graphics, title logos, and menus) bundled directly inside them. Distributing copyrighted material without authorization is a violation of copyright laws and could have severely compromised this entire open-source repository, potentially leading to a DMCA takedown.

To protect the repository and ensure the longevity of this port, we have strictly pivoted away from this practice. No copyrighted assets will ever be bundled with our releases moving forward. This is why the loader logic has been updated to completely externalize these assets, requiring users to manually extract and provide them from their own legally obtained copies of the game.

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation in keeping this project safe, legal, and compliant.

Zenonia 3 PS Vita - v01.2.0 — Performance Update: Stable 30 FPS

Highlights

• Stable 30 FPS (up from ~20-24 FPS) via CPU/GPU/bus clock tuning, a fixed I/O logging
  bottleneck, and a manual frame-pacing lock that removes the ~40-60fps stutter that showed up
  once rendering got fast enough to land near the 60Hz vblank boundary.
• Root-caused a hidden I/O bottleneck: fopen/stat/access were logging unconditionally on
  every single call — the same fprintf+fflush-per-line cost already found in GL logging, but this
  time hitting every asset load during actual gameplay, not just the menu.
• New GPU-native texture path (developer opt-in): the software framebuffer can now be uploaded
  to the GPU as RGB565 directly, skipping the CPU-side RGBA8888 conversion entirely.

What changed

• Raised CPU (444MHz) / bus (222MHz) / GPU (222MHz) clocks at boot (previously running at the
  conservative factory defaults).
• Capped the last 3 unbounded log call sites (fopen_hook/stat_hook/access_hook).
• Added a manual 30fps frame cap (2 vblanks, vitaGL's own vsync disabled) to replace its default
  single-vblank pacing.
• Added 3 alternate strategies for the RGB565→RGBA framebuffer conversion (LUT, NEON SIMD, and a
  GPU-native passthrough) plus an independent NEON path for vertex/color/texcoord conversion — all
  exposed as CMake options for anyone who wants to A/B test on their own hardware (see the new
  Performance Tuning section in the README).

Recommended build (this release)

RGB565_CONVERT_MODE=NATIVE + OPTIMIZE_NEON_FIXED=OFF + LOCK_FPS_30=ON — confirmed on real
hardware as the most stable combination.

Known issues (unchanged)

• In-game text and UI text are still invisible (custom font rendering pending).
• The menu still re-reads certain assets from disk on every input event.

Zenonia 3 PS Vita - v1.1.0

Description:

A new update for the Zenonia 3 PS Vita port is here!

🎮 What's New & Improvements:**
- Safe Distribution (Safe VPK): The structure has been redesigned to allow VPK distribution without including copyrighted assets. Required files (androidui and HTML assets) are now safely loaded from ux0:data/zenonia3/.

• Updated Controls: The control mapping and known issues sections in the README have been thoroughly updated for better clarity.
• New Look: Added the official title logo to the repository README.

🛠️ Under the Hood:

• Added a new CMake build target (zenonia_3_safe_dist.vpk) to easily generate clean distribution packages.
• Introduced a new suite of utilities in porting_tools/ including scripts for decompiling, click automation, shader translation, and quick deployment to emulators like Vita3K.
• General cleanup of build scripts and .gitignore.

Installation Instructions:**

1. Install the .vpk file on your PS Vita.
2. Ensure you have copied the required game data files into the ux0:data/zenonia3/ directory on your console before launching the game.

Zenonia 3 PS Vita Port - v1.0.0

Release Description

A new update for the Zenonia 3 PS Vita port is now available!

🎮 Features of this Port

• Full Physical Controls: Perfect mapping for the D-Pad and PS Vita face buttons for a superior gaming experience.
• Native Performance: Runs flawlessly thanks to the wrapper running natively on the console.
• Language Compatibility Mod: Full support for English.
• Adapted Texts: Item names, stats, and descriptions have been carefully adjusted to the game's original memory constraints to prevent crashes.

🆕 What's New

• External Data Support: Added support for loading game assets (androidui and HTML files) from the ux0:data/zenonia3/ folder.

• Documentation Updates: Updated controls, added a title logo, and updated the known issues in the README.

• Under the hood: Updated the manage_vita.py script for better project management.

  📥 Installation Instructions

1. Download the zenonia3.vpk file from the Assets section at the bottom of this release.
2. Download the original apk.
3. Use VitaShell to install the .vpk on your console.
4. Extract zenonia3.apk and copy the zenonia3 folder into your console's ux0:data/ path, so it looks exactly like this:
   ux0:data/zenonia3/
5. Ensure you have the kubridge.skprx plugin and the libshacccg.suprx module installed (standard requirements for Android ports).
6. Launch the game from the LiveArea and enjoy!

🐛 Known Issues

Feel free to report any issues or bugs in the Issues section of this repository.

❤️ Credits & Acknowledgments

To TheFlow and the Rinnegatamante community for the Android wrapper tools.

Enjoy reliving the nostalgia of this classic RPG on the best handheld console!