eidos 0.2.4

What's new in 0.2.4

eidos now runs on the Switch and Vita, draws with each platform's native renderer, and brings improvements to the Remaster option along with many bug fixes.

Engine & Performance

• Native Renderer: Settings > Display > Renderer > Native draws with Direct3D 12 on Windows, Metal on Mac and iPhone and Vulkan on Linux and Android, through SDL3's GPU API; OpenGL stays the default and takes over when the native renderer cannot start.
• VSync: Settings > Display > VSync (on by default): on a 60 Hz display, or 120 or 240 Hz, the game runs at the display's own rate and every frame waits for the screen, so each frame shows for the same time instead of one now and then showing twice. Fast forward and other rates (50, 75, 144 Hz) pace by the clock as before.
• Benchmark: --bench FILE writes each frame's timing and a summary (percentiles, late and dropped frames, the system and renderer); tools/bench.py runs the standard field and battle scenes.
• Nintendo Switch and PlayStation Vita (early): First homebrew builds for consoles with custom firmware: the Switch as an .nro (OpenGL, the one-screen layout), the Vita as a .vpk (OpenGL through vitaGL when the console's shader compiler is extracted, else SDL's renderer). Both have run only in emulators so far: expect rough edges, and reports are welcome.
• Native 2D: With the native renderer, the DS's 2D layers are drawn on the GPU as well (Settings > Display > GPU drawing), as OpenGL already did: the same picture, pixel for pixel, with less work on the CPU.

One-Screen Interface

• Key Item Showcase: Receiving a key item (the Xtransceiver, the C-Gear and the others) plays its moment in the one-screen layout again, in the interface's style: a flash, the item spinning up out of the light in the middle of the screen with a burst of stars during the jingle, then settling into its card as the message opens. Before, the screen froze through the jingle.
• Badges: Receiving a Gym Badge plays the key item's moment with the badge, as the Trainer Card's badge case draws it, then its card over the game's message; before, the badge spun over a zoomed copy of the DS screen (#24).
• Field Moves: Cut, Strength, Surf and the other field moves show their cut-in across the whole window: a flash, then a band with the Pokémon crossing it, over the field; before, the band was the DS screen's width with mismatched sides (#24).
• Teaching a TM: The list that teaches a TM (and the one for an evolution stone) is one-screen, with each Pokémon's ABLE, UNABLE or LEARNED in place of its HP; before, it switched to the DS screens (#24).
• Status Conditions: The battle HP plates show poison, paralysis, sleep, burn and freeze, at the moment the game's own gauge shows them (#24).
• Double Battles: Both opposing Pokémon have their HP plates; before, only one showed (#24).
• VS Screens: The VS banner before a story battle (the first one with your rival included) shows in the one-screen layout again, across the whole window, over the room around it; before, the screen froze and the banner never appeared. Other cut-ins the game draws over its screen show the same way.
• Team Size: Before a trainer battle and when a Pokémon is sent out, each side's six balls show its team (able, with a status, fainted or empty), as the game shows them; before, they never appeared (#24).
• Rotation Battles: The move screen with its Rotate left and Rotate right buttons is one-screen, and all three Pokémon of each side have their HP plates; before, choosing a move switched to the DS screens and only the front Pokémon had a plate (#24).
• Double Battle Plates: Your Pokémon's plates keep the field's order; before, they traded places every turn, so an attack on one could seem to take the other's HP (#24).
• TMs: The Bag names a TM's move ("TM35 Flamethrower") with its type, power, accuracy and PP, and the question "Teach Flamethrower to a Pokémon?" shows with YES and NO; before, it showed USE and CANCEL without the question (#24).
• Move Order: In a Pokémon's summary, dragging a move onto another swaps them, with the mouse or a finger, as on the DS's touch screen (#24).
• 3D Scenes: The Nimbasa City Ferris wheel, the Royal Unova and the game's other 3D scenes show in the one-screen layout; before, they switched to the DS screens (#24).

Bug Fixes

• Crash After 15 Minutes: Fixed the game stopping with "no fiber left" after about 15 minutes in battle or the field; with the radio on and the relay out of reach, each try to join it kept a thread (#23).
• French Black: Fixed the crash when using the Bag (a Potion, switching Pokémon) on the French Black cartridge (#25).
• Item Card: The item card no longer stays on screen for a moment after its message box closes.
• Trainers' School Blackboard: Closing the blackboard's list of topics with B (Cancel) no longer closes the game (#24).
• Move Relearner: Fixed the Move Reminder locking the game: picking a move past the first four kept the cursor pressing down, and B's "Give up?" question never showed, so the screen could not be left (#24).
• Interface Translations: A mod's ui_text file now also translates the labels built from values (PWR %d ACC %d, Lv. %d, Received %s and about 40 more), the settings' key names and the multiplayer and timer lines; a translation whose % codes do not match the English is ignored. The template lists every label the interface draws, the Settings page and the multiplayer messages included, and the multiplayer pause screen draws its text in the game's font, so a translation's own letters show there too. "Lv." in the party lists and a long translation of it in battle now come through too (#21).
• GPU Drawing Setting: Settings > Display > GPU drawing shows On and Off like the other switches, not "on" and "off".
• Move Names: The modern English move names (Hi Jump Kick to High Jump Kick and the others) now replace only the English cartridge's names; before, they replaced the move names of every language and of mods (#21).

Mods & Launcher

• Mods Page: Opening the Mods tab again no longer downloads the catalog again or empties the list for a moment; the catalog loads once a launcher run, and the refresh button loads it again.
• GitHub Outages: When GitHub's download service fails (it answered 504 for every mod for a while), the launcher fetches the file through GitHub's API instead, for versions and mods alike, and only while enough of the hour's API requests remain. Each mod's details are kept once read, so the Mods page shows them without asking GitHub again until a mod has a new release.

Download

File
eidos-launcher-windows-setup.exe	Windows: the launcher. It installs and updates eidos and keeps your profiles and mods. Start here.
eidos-launcher-macos.dmg	macOS (Apple silicon): the launcher. Not signed by Apple: open READ ME FIRST.txt inside it for the one Terminal line it needs.
eidos-launcher-linux-x86_64.AppImage	Linux: the launcher. Make it executable and run it.
eidos-android.apk	Android (64-bit ARM, Android 8 or later): install it from the file (allow installs from this source when Android asks).
eidos-ios.ipa	iPhone and iPad (iOS 15 or later): not signed. Install it with a sideloading tool (AltStore, Sideloadly) and your own Apple ID.

eidos without the launcher (Windows, macOS, Linux)

File
eidos-0.2.4-windows.zip	Windows: eidos on its own. Unzip it anywhere and run eidos.exe.
eidos-0.2.4-macos.zip	macOS (Apple silicon): eidos on its own. Not signed by Apple: README.txt inside it has the one Terminal line it needs.
eidos-0.2.4-linux-x86_64.AppImage	Linux: eidos on its own. Make it executable and run it.
eidos-0.2.4-switch.zip	Nintendo Switch (homebrew, custom firmware): unzip it to the SD card's root, copy the extract folder eidos made on a PC from your ROM to switch/eidos/extract/, and start it from the Homebrew Menu over a game (hold R) for the full memory. Extracting a .nds on the console itself does not work yet. Early: tested in an emulator only.
eidos-0.2.4-vita.vpk	PlayStation Vita (homebrew, HENkaku/Ensō): install it with VitaShell and copy the extract folder eidos made on a PC from your ROM to ux0:data/eidos/extract/. The fast renderer needs libshacccg.suprx extracted from your own Vita (ur0:data/). Early: tested in an emulator only.

On the first start, eidos asks for your own Pokemon Black or White ROM. SHA256SUMS lists the checksum of each file; latest.json and the .app.tar.gz are for the launcher's own updates.

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_{eidos is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo, Game Freak, Creatures Inc. or The Pokemon Company. It contains no game data: you need your own copy of Pokemon Black or White. Pokemon and Nintendo DS are trademarks of their respective owners.}