malisx2 0.2.1

Vulkan driver for the ARMSX2 PlayStation 2 emulator on Android, for devices with an Arm Mali GPU:

• Mali-G615 / G715 — tested on the Anbernic RG 477V.
• Mali-G57, G68, G77, G78, G78AE — tested on the Anbernic RG 476H; needs a reasonably new Mali kernel driver (r40p0 or newer). The other GPUs in this family are untested.
• Mali-G52 / G52 r1 — new in this release, experimental: for trying out, not yet for everyday play. Courtesy of @TheGammaSqueeze

Install: in ARMSX2, Settings → custom GPU driver → install from file, and pick malisx2-0.2.1-7b57547cd1.zip.

• malisx2 0.2.1, commit 7b57547
• Mesa: branch malisx2 of bmdhacks/armsx2-turnip, commit 730a6284cb7a88f6c19a07f1caea35c7a2ae64f2
• malisx2-0.2.1-7b57547cd1.zip sha256 80166d8dc2f1051158966cafdf7d47e0866e13976fcc609e12c2e897695b3ae0
• libvulkan_malisx2.so sha256 8a59410ab65424e1797c88e63e31c9a7a156dd25ebb5a5aec8f56d7ea5574b96

What's new since 0.1.5

• Handhelds with a Mali-G52 now work. That is the graphics chip in many RK3566/RK3568 handhelds; 0.1.5 could not drive them at all. It is new and only lightly tested, so treat it as a preview.
• Nothing changes for the G615 and the G57: same pictures, same speed as 0.1.5 on both of our test devices.

Good to know

• ARMSX2 builds its shader cache once after a driver update; the first moments of the first game may be slower than usual.
• Mali-G52 is experimental. We have not run ARMSX2 on it yet, and one G52 board we tried stopped on a very heavy stress scene. If a game misbehaves there, use the system driver.
• Mali-G57 family: needs a Mali kernel driver at r40p0 or newer; on older kernels the driver does not start and ARMSX2 uses the system driver.
• A few HUD colours can come out slightly brighter than on a real PS2 (for example Gran Turismo 4's speedometer). Other drivers show the same.
• Reporting a problem: take a bug report or a logcat right after it happens, and keep ARMSX2's logs/emulog.txt (it is overwritten when the app starts again).