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.