0.2.1

• Preserve the original horizontal NPC scan and add the wider scan afterward,
  fixing people, lamps, presents, containers and sanctuary markers disappearing
  when entering the original viewport. Cover both regions and execution paths.
• Extend scripted map cutscenes and the robot ending across widescreen without
  changing the source camera or scene timing. Expand captured prayer apertures
  around their original focus, preserving their shape.
• Add ultrawide capture padding to prevent black edge strips during fractional
  camera interpolation.
• Replace temporary automatic dimming with the recovered SNES Classic brightness
  ramp and PSI/Giygas temporal feedback, processed once per completed game frame.
• Preserve suspended battle PSI state during prayer cutscenes, fixing prolonged
  stalls after battle return and supporting mid-prayer snapshot restoration.
• Save snapshot format 7 with aperture, prayer/filter context and pending NPC
  scans; retain loading compatibility with formats 1–6.
• Rebuild both launcher applications and provide v0.2.1 Linux, Windows and
  combined launcher bundles, notes, version records and integrity metadata.

0.2

Phase Distorter v0.2

Prepared October 4, 2026. Covers changes since the original v0.1 release on
September 27, including the current working-tree fixes packaged for v0.2.

This release improves widescreen presentation, motion, frame pacing, audio
delivery, controllers and debugging in both EarthBound and Mother 2. It also
includes substantial work on independent native engine components and the
organization of the source. The playable desktop application still uses the
compatibility game runtime; the full native engine migration remains in progress.

Widescreen, ultrawide and scene fixes

• Expanded world rendering now uses published actor descriptors, including
  sprite parts clipped out of the original hardware object list. Nearby NPC,
  enemy and prop artwork is prepared separately from gameplay activation.
• Fixed streetlights, decorations and other prepared sprites being cut off
  inside the original viewport or disappearing with widescreen disabled.
• Reduced activation pop-in for presents, trash containers and the sparkling
  Your Sanctuary boss markers. Newly created props retain their artwork until
  the source publishes their first pose; opened, defeated and hidden states
  still follow the game's conditions.
• Corrected source/prepared NPC ownership during map loading and cutscenes,
  removing duplicate bodies and noninteractive previews. Newly created Saturn
  Valley actors retain their initial artwork through their first source draw.
• Lumine Hall's scrolling message stays within its authored 30-column wall
  patch, including direct scene rendering. The game's boss/story condition
  still controls when the message appears.
• Forest borders and the black void around caves and rooms extend naturally
  without pulling the presentation camera away from the player. Short road
  tunnels to Threed/Fourside and desert traffic retain their boundaries.
• Fixed the pyramid demo's scenery and party drifting outside its circular
  aperture at wide and ultrawide aspects.
• Preserved authored cutscene stages, prayer apertures and fixed black borders
  during direct rendering. Post-Giygas robot corpses keep their original
  centered framing, and departing souls travel beyond the full wide display
  before their source sprites are released.
• PSI animations use the wider battle canvas while targeted effects stay
  anchored to their enemy. Battle backgrounds remain visible through exit fades.
• The War Against Giygas still card uses its centered 4:3 composition. Animated
  Giygas static extends across wide margins; Mother 2's logo background extends
  while the original logo and copyright remain centered.
• Fixed repeated widescreen texture uploads turning black on the NVIDIA path.
• Added README screenshot pairs at 16:9, 21:9 and 32:9, showing identical
  gameplay frames with CRT effects off and on.

Motion, performance and audio

• Added saved Native, 90–300 FPS and Uncapped presentation choices, with game
  logic and generated audio retaining their native cadence.
• Added direct overworld scene rendering with smooth camera/actor positions
  between game frames. Unsupported raster effects and battles retain completed
  game pictures; optional motion interpolation provides intermediate pictures.
• Added interpolation controls, scene-cut/history resets and an exact completed
  frame opt-out. Image-based interpolation adds one game frame of visual latency
  and can produce blending artifacts.
• Reduced original overworld slowdown with a bounded extra entity-update CPU
  budget. Hardware arithmetic, transfers and frame waits retain their timing;
  --original-timing preserves the original comparison path.
• Added host-owned overworld sprite allocation, custom/overlay artwork and
  active-actor edge retention. The experimental widening of source gameplay
  activation was disabled after reproducing sprite-pool exhaustion in the
  attract demo and Twoson; visual preparation supplies the wider view.
• Improved fixed-refresh pacing and matched playback audio to its cadence.
  Optional saved VRR pacing is available in Display settings and through
  --vrr / --no-vrr; driver/monitor VRR still needs its own configuration.
• Fixed short Windows waits rounding to roughly 16 ms and limiting high-FPS
  presentation. The updated wait path supports the requested higher caps.
• Bounded catch-up presentation starvation during sustained host load so new
  pictures continue to appear without dropping simulation or audio ticks.
• Reduced rendering cost by skipping disabled background layers and decoding
  tile rows once per scanline, preserving palette/scroll/transfer behavior.
• Added a 64 ms playback jitter reserve and audio underrun recovery. These
  improve delivery under delayed callbacks without changing generated PCM.
• Warm enabled CRT shaders before timed playback; Linux requests a foreground
  scheduling improvement when the existing account permits it.

CRT and reduced flashing

• Added a saved, flat CRT filter based on CRT-Lottes Fast, with scanlines,
  aperture-grille shading and softness, preserving black and fractional motion.
  It uses no temporal blending.
• Matched direct-rendered and completed-frame CRT softness in both axes,
  including verification at multiple scales on Mesa and NVIDIA.
• Replaced selective effect suppression with automatic whole-picture dimming.
  The default-off Photosensitivity filter checks every completed frame for
  luminance, palette and pattern changes, immediately dims repeated flashing,
  and gradually recovers after a quiet period.
• Detection includes wide margins and the original center independently, so
  dark ultrawide borders cannot dilute a central flash. High-FPS direct redraws
  respect dimming, and catch-up frames advance detection exactly once each.
• Improved detection of small repeated SNES palette steps in Kraken, Starman
  and Giygas backgrounds. Added asset-backed PSI/background/status probes and
  fixtures for lightning, white-burst and warp-flash mechanisms.
• The filter is an independent implementation, with its scope and parameters
  documented. Exact Wii U/SNES Mini/Switch equivalence and medical safety have
  not been established.

Controllers, Settings and debugging

• Corrected SNES Nintendo Switch Online A/B/X/Y labels and Linux USB/Bluetooth
  mappings, including shoulders, Start/Select and the D-pad.
• Added a Controller settings tab with connected-device information, live
  inputs, remapping of all 12 SNES buttons, stick deadzone and Restore defaults.
  Mappings persist beside display settings and honor --config / --no-config.
• Fullscreen hides the gameplay bar until the pointer reaches the top edge,
  then overlays it without resizing the game picture.
• Added Debug controls for infinite HP/PP at 999/999, noclip, enemy avoidance
  and playable-party selection. Story-triggered battles remain available.
• Added Player does max damage: successful damaging player attacks use
  the source damage routine's 65,535 maximum while retaining its immunity,
  zero-damage and enemy/ally rules.
• Added a searchable teleport catalog covering 385 named areas and all
  scripted warps/door landings, totaling 1,472 choices. Debug teleports fade
  fully to black before map loading and use the original arrival fade-in.
• Added named persistent save-state snapshots in Debug, with per-game lists,
  dates/frame numbers, save/load, refresh and confirmed deletion. Loads validate
  format, game content and checksum before replacing play; failed loads leave
  the running session intact. Snapshot restoration also restores debug switches
  and resets host presentation/audio history.
• Added --replay-only for deterministic desktop input replay without physical
  gameplay-button interference, while retaining window and Settings controls.

Gameplay corrections

• Fixed the crash after Paula's party-join jingle by accepting the source's
  hidden sprite initialization marker until a visible frame is selected.
• Restored Threed/Threek's Investigator after Master Belch and kept the Ghost
  Enthusiast available afterward, preserving original placement, sprites and
  dialogue in both games. The Investigator's post-Belch condition follows an
  inference about the unused original appearance flag. Existing imports and
  normal saves need no conversion or reimport.

Native engine and source work

• Introduced named source-derived C++ gameplay continuations for 808 US and
  783 Japanese dialogue, cutscene, entity, NPC and enemy routines, preserving
  instruction retirement and the original imported content.
• Split simulation, scene capture/rendering, presentation scheduling, desktop
  window/input, CLI/preferences, replay, storage and audio delivery into explicit
  owners. GameSession can be built and tested without SDL/frontend dependencies.
• Built independent native world modules for maps, terrain/collision, area
  palettes, map animation/streaming, actors and lifecycle, action programs,
  appearance resources, overlays, camera focus, pathfinding, enemy activation,
  contact and encounter-effect preparation.
• Built independent native party/story modules for formation, inventory, HP/PP
  rolling, RNG, dialogue control flow and substitutions, regional fonts, text
  windows, prompts/menus, Talk/Check, gifts, character growth and credits.
• Added native battle components for roster/admission, enemy/background artwork,
  startup, dead-player checks, names/grammar, shields/palette effects, PSI,
  targeting, initiative and turn scheduling. These are component-level migration
  results; the complete battle, startup and world-return flow is still open.
• Added a native save codec and Continue-prefix restoration work, plus source
  comparisons for input/control modes, walking, retained camera/actor identity
  and map...

0.1.1

Fixed title screen and photo-sensitivity modes

Photosensitivity filtering targets identified flashing effects, including battle effects and Franklin Badge lightning.
“The War Against Giygas” displays at 4:3.
Mother 2’s logo background supports widescreen, keeping the logo centered.

0.1

First release