rac1-native 0.7.0: the Platinum disc, data discs, the 1.02 fixes, Cut Content, water reflections and new options

More discs, the later build's fixes, and a lot of new options

0.7.0 runs from the European Platinum disc (PAL 2.00) too, and lets other releases' discs help as data discs: the Japanese disc for its voices, the later discs for their corrected texts. The later build's own fixes come over as options (1.02 Fixes, 1.02 Gameplay), and the first cut content comes back: Kerwan's citizens and Eudora's Transport Ships. The options are reorganised (Display, Graphics, Language), the water gets reflections (ray traced on Vulkan, if your GPU can), @Anya-Thoughtmane's lighting batches cover every level, the mouse aims directly, pads can vibrate (an experiment, with the DualSense's adaptive triggers), the Vulkan renderer is no longer experimental, and the game builds on macOS on Apple Silicon thanks to a contributor's Metal renderer. Plus a cheaper frame and the fixes from the 0.6.0 reports.

0.4.0 was played through to the end, and 0.7.0 has been playtested on Linux. @Anya-Thoughtmane has tested the development builds of 0.7.0 all along. The modern lighting and the other graphics additions are optional: Options > Graphics > Graphics is Original by default, and on Original the picture is the original's. The Vulkan renderer is no longer experimental: it is an optional renderer, and OpenGL stays the default. The ray-traced Water Reflections need Vulkan on a GPU with ray queries; they are new, and measured on one GPU so far. Vibration and the adaptive triggers are an experiment, our own, and may still change a lot. Expect some bugs and glitches, and please keep the reports coming!

Updating from 0.6.0? Read this first.

• New discs. The European Platinum disc (SCES-50916, version 2.00) is now supported as the game's disc (#64, #127). The North American disc and the PAL disc 1.00 work as before.
• The setup now picks your disc images by itself. Without --iso it looks at every .iso in assets/iso/ (whatever its name), tells each one apart by its boot executable, and picks the game's disc (the one already set up stays the game's disc) and any data discs. The launcher shows the list under Settings > Disc images, where you can add an image where it is (nothing is copied) or remove a data disc; ./setup.sh --discs prints the same list.
• Data discs take some space. If a Japanese disc image is among your images, the setup extracts it for its voices (about 1.7 GB more, in assets/disc-SCPS-15037-1.02/); a PAL disc beside the North American disc gives only the corrected texts (about 11 MB). Nothing changes if you only have one disc. --remove-data-disc forgets one and deletes its folder.
• Keep your disc image where it was. The game's own disc is not extracted again (assets/disc/ stays as it is), but this update regenerates part of the code from your disc, so the setup needs the image once more: the launcher uses the one you chose, and ./setup.sh (setup.cmd) finds it again or asks for it.
• Options moved. Display (resolution, aspect ratio, HUD...) and Graphics are now the machine's settings, kept in your preferences, never in a save; Graphics has one Original / Enhanced switch with a preset. New Game asks for Original or Modern gameplay, then a graphics preset; the old Experimental choice is gone (its saves load as Modern). The text, voice and subtitles languages are on a new Language page.
• The mouse has a new Direct mode, the new default (Options > Controls > Mouse Mode); Stick is the old feel. The default bindings changed too: the right mouse button aims, the wheel cycles the weapons.

Known issues

• With the Japanese voices, the intro movie's sound is out of sync: it is the Japanese disc's movie sound over the North American picture, so later sound is heard early and the sound ends before the picture. Minor, and being fixed.
• On the Platinum disc, the changed functions the port has by hand run the North American port: the 1.02 changes there are the ones the 1.02 Fixes and 1.02 Gameplay rows have ported so far (the generated ones carry the 1.02 behaviour already). Its 50 Hz mode is not supported, like the PAL disc 1.00's.

Thanks

First of all, again, a huge thank you to @Anya-Thoughtmane:

• The lighting batches 1, 2 and 3 and their Test 3 tweaks, merged line by line: metals, lamps and emissive surfaces on every level from Veldin to Veldin's finale, more moby classes lit, Ratchet's own roughness, Al's shop, the ash, rain and fireflies (#102, #120, #121).
• MXAO, their suggestion (#101, #118, #120), and the requests that led to the light editor's new tools.
• The testing and the reports all along the development builds: the long logs (#101, #120), the debug menu's movie that kept playing over the next level and the hoverboard's jump (#101), the material slots that ran out, the mouse wheel's softlock in the Controls menu (#61), the Clank sections' controls (#129), the request that brought back Kerwan's citizens with an animation (#128), and the triage of the new issues.

Thank you so much, Anya.

Thanks also to everyone else who contributed, reported and tested since 0.6.0:

• @mat-f96, for the Metal renderer and the macOS port (#116, #119), and for finding, along the way, a tfrag timing bug that also hit Vulkan.
• @wwwyukix96-cyber, for the long Intel UHD 620 report and tests (#113), which led to two rounds of fixes for Intel GPUs.
• @TriplaDi (#64) and @SoraKazooie24 (#127), whose Platinum discs started the PAL 2.00 work.
• @EidolonEntropy, for the Windows build on a non-NTFS drive that lost clang.exe (#126, #88).
• @B-Nerd, for the build broken by a compiler update on CachyOS (#114).
• @MrFrikki0 (#115) and @AlryFireBlade (#122), for the antivirus false positives on the launcher.
• @Rarder44, for the monitor choice not kept after a restart (#111).
• @Tether1776, whose request (#10) became controller vibration.
• @kg6zvp, for the Fedora FFmpeg package proposal (#125), and @manicblood1993, for the idea of smaller movies (#124).

Highlights

• The Platinum disc (PAL 2.00, a later build) as the game's disc; the setup finds your disc images itself, and the launcher lists them.
• Data discs: the Japanese voices (Options > Language > Voice), and the later discs' Corrected Texts on the North American disc.
• 1.02 Fixes and 1.02 Gameplay (main menu > Options > Advanced, off by default): the later build's own fixes, ported onto the North American code.
• Cut Content (main menu > Options > Advanced, off by default): Kerwan's citizens, with an idle (#128), and Eudora's Transport Ships, ported from the beta build.
• Water Reflections: Low, Medium, and on Vulkan with ray queries Medium (RT) and High (RT).
• @Anya-Thoughtmane's lighting batches on every level, grass, and MXAO.
• Vulkan is no longer experimental: an optional renderer beside OpenGL, the default.
• Controls: a direct mouse, the mouse wheel and Next / Previous Weapon, aiming without the zoom, vibration and the DualSense's adaptive triggers (both experimental), Skip Cutscenes.
• macOS on Apple Silicon, with a Metal renderer.

Discs and setup

• PAL 2.00 (Platinum): its own region table; the build moved the executable's core, which the game loads back at the North American addresses when it starts. A crash on Rilgar's arrival with it was fixed before the release. See Setup.
• Which disc images: every image in assets/iso/ is identified by its boot executable's sha1 and given a role: the game's disc, a data disc, or not used with one line saying why. An image added later is picked up by the next setup; --iso and --data-iso still win. See Setup.
• Data discs (--data-iso, or found in assets/iso/): the Japanese disc (SCPS-15037) for its voices; a PAL disc beside the North American one for the corrected texts. Their own code never runs. See Data discs.

The 1.02 rows and Cut Content

• Corrected Texts: 73 European and English strings the later discs correct (the Italian memory card messages in French, the Spanish map legend in Italian...), shown as the later discs have them. Needs a PAL or Japanese disc as a data disc.
• 1.02 Fixes, a first batch: New Game keeps the sound settings, explosions leave moby slots free, at most 20 Glove of Doom agents, the Thruster-Pack's jump sound, Ratchet's colour pulse in cutscenes, the talk prompt, the pause menu's goals and counter, and more.
• 1.02 Gameplay: the later build's fixes that change how the game plays: the RYNO's targets, the Visibomb's steering, deadly ground in the Hologuise, the hoverboard's ride-off, quicksand in a vehicle, and more.
• Cut Content: Kerwan's citizens "Fred 1 / 2 / 3" stay, stand on the ground, turn to face Ratchet and play an idle (read from your disc) instead of their rest pose (#128); Eudora's Transport Ships fly their path and drop the enemies placed for them, from the beta build's code. See Advanced options.

Options and controls

• Display and Graphics split in two; Graphics has one Original / Enhanced switch (Original, the default, is the original's picture whatever the rows hold; switching keeps every row, so comparing is one press) and a preset (Low, Medium, High). Aspect Ratio and HUD list only the values your display shows differently.
• Language: Text, Voice and Subtitles together, in the main menu and the pause menu; the voice language can differ from the text's.
• New Game in two windows: Original or Modern gameplay, then a graphics preset (Current preselected).
• Mouse: a Direct mode, the new default: the camera turns by an angle proportional to the mouse's movement, with no stick simulation or acceleration (#117). The right button aims, the thumb button and F swing the wrench, the wheel goes through the weapons (#61).
• Next Weapon / Previous Weapon: two new actions, bindable on the pad too.
• Vibration (Advanced: Off, Low, High; experimental: our own pulses, which may still change a lot) for damage, landings, explosions, each weapon's shot, the wrench, bolts and the ship; a DualSense is driven directly, its two sides felt left and right; Adaptive Triggers (with a DualSense; experimental too) give L2 and R2 a resistance by weapon and the light bar your health (#10).
• Skip Cutscenes (Advanced: Original, Always): Start skips every scene and movie, through the game's own skip.
• Aiming: Modern, No Zoom: modern aiming at the normal camera distance, as in Ratchet & Clank 3 (#70).

Graphics (optional; with Graphics on Original the picture is unchanged)

• Water Reflections: Low (cube maps from fixed probes: the sky and the far scenery), Medium (the scene mirrored about the water at half resolution, Ratchet included), and with the Vulkan renderer on a GPU with ray queries Medium (RT) (the reflection ray traced through the level's static world) and High (RT) (the moving objects traced too). They replace the old screen-space mirror, which broke as soon as anything moved. The RT values are measured on one GPU so far. See Rendering.
• The water itself: no Water row any more, Surface Detail's water kept: held still, no flicker at Rilgar and Pokitaru, no clear patches around Pokitaru's islands, and Novalis's river, stream and waterfall tagged.
• Grass (Low, High) on the ground tagged as grass, bending with the wind and away from Ratchet; seeded on Veldin, Novalis and Kerwan.
• MXAO and MXAO 1/2: soft creases instead of jagged lines on low-poly shrubs and terrain; the preset High uses it.

Lighting (optional)

• @Anya-Thoughtmane's lighting batches 1 to 3 (#102, #120): metal for the vendor, the bolts and the OmniWrench everywhere; lamps, metals and emissive surfaces level by level, Veldin to Veldin's finale; Ratchet's own roughness; particles retuned (Orxon's ash and embers, Hoven's white ash, rain on Oltanis...).
• Aimed lights (spots), and materials that can glow too.
• Clank's eye lights on Novalis shine forward, and lights on a moby's joint follow that joint (Clank's eyes, the Kerwan dogs').
• A level takes 254 emissive surfaces and materials (was 30, then 126): no more lines dropped on busy levels such as Gemlik.

Platforms

• macOS on Apple Silicon (#116, #119): a Metal renderer that runs the Vulkan renderer's code on a Metal layer, its shaders made from the Vulkan ones at build time, NEON for the vector units' SIMD (checked bit for bit against SSE), the movies with Homebrew's FFmpeg. The game state over a five-level run is the same as on Linux. Built from the source, no launcher. See Metal.

Launcher and setup

• The launcher asks before it updates itself, checks the new launcher against the SHA-256 the release lists, and each release has a .sha256 file beside each launcher. The Windows launcher's file properties name its company and product. The launcher says how to check the file and how to report an antivirus false positive (#115).
• Settings > Disc images (see above).

Performance

• The world's opaque draws skip the alpha test's second pass: the world's GPU time a fifth to a third less.
• The MRP's chain reader about twice as fast, the world's preparation cheaper, the levels' palette blend about three times cheaper, and the generated game code about 5 % less time a frame. The game's state stays the same.
• MXAO lighter: about a quarter less GPU time at 5120 x 1440.

Fixes

• Intel GPUs (#113): the objects, foliage and Ratchet no longer vanish or turn into floating pieces on an Intel UHD 620 under Windows (OpenGL); with Vulkan the terrain is made on the CPU on older Intel GPUs, or when the GPU is measured too slow; a level no longer draws black where a driver allows only 128 bytes of push constants; Vulkan checks every feature it needs at start and falls back to OpenGL, naming what is missing.
• Windows: a game folder on a drive that is not NTFS (exFAT, FAT32) no longer loses clang.exe (#126, #88).
• Setup: a build folder made with a compiler that a system update replaced is configured again, so an update no longer needs a new game folder (#114).
• Options > Display > Monitor: two monitors with the same name are told apart (#111).
• Water: no white or dark flashes of the near water on OpenGL; Novalis's water keeps its material after a load; Pokitaru's far sea no longer flashes; Surface Detail's water put back on Rilgar, Novalis and Hoven.
• Materials: a polished metal no longer shows a sharp, jumping mirror, and a metal's mirror is dimmed in shadow (#102).
• Debug menu: changing level during a movie stops the movie; the free hoverboard's jump plays once (#101).

Debug tools (--debug-tools)

• An Enhancements tab: every graphics addition switched live, with its cost, and "Save as my settings".
• The levels' seas can be picked and given a material; the ambient particles have a tab of their own.

Work in progress

• The 1.02 fixes: more of the later build's fixes to come, one by one.
• Cut content: more of what the game carries but never shows.
• Ray tracing: the RT reflections are new and measured on one GPU so far; reports from other GPUs are welcome.
• Vibration and the adaptive triggers: an experiment, to be tuned.
• The Japanese disc as the game's disc, and the Japanese text, are not supported yet; the PAL 50 Hz mode is still to do.
• Mods (planned): a mods/ folder in front of the extracted disc files, and a Mods menu.
• Vulkan is no longer experimental, and it may become the default in a later release, once it has been tried on more GPUs; reports are welcome.
• ARM64 and Android: the groundwork goes on in the port/android branch (#78), not on main yet.

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Installing or updating:

• With the launcher (Windows and Linux): download rac1-launcher.exe or rac1-launcher-linux-x64 from this release's assets, open it, click Install and choose your disc image. It keeps the game, and itself, up to date. Each launcher has a .sha256 file beside it to check the download.
• From the source: git clone https://github.com/RAC-Native/rac1-native-game.git, then ./setup.sh --iso /path/to/your/ratchet.iso (setup.cmd on Windows; on macOS python3 tools/setup.py, see Metal). To update a clone: git pull, then ./setup.sh (or setup.cmd), or Update now from the in-game notice. See Setup.

Source only, as always: the game is built from your own disc (NTSC-U SCUS-97199, or PAL SCES-50916 version 1.00 or 2.00), and no release contains the game. Full list of changes: CHANGELOG.md.