Ring Out 1.6.6

A speed release: fights run about 21% faster on a slow Windows laptop, all four discs need about 8% less CPU on Linux, Linux players on the new clang 23 get the full speed profile back, and Windows now starts on Vulkan.

• Faster on Windows. Three build fixes. The module setup builds on your PC now uses the clang version the speed profiles were trained with: the bundled one had been quietly ignoring them. The runtime is now built with link-time optimisation and a speed profile. Measured on a 2-core AMD laptop, same disc, save, scripted fight and renderer (Vulkan) for both versions: 21% faster in the fight (median of 4 runs each; every 1.6.6 run beat every 1.6.5 run).
• Vulkan by default on Windows, wherever a Vulkan GPU works, with Direct3D 11 as the fallback. On that laptop Vulkan used about a third less CPU than Direct3D 11, mostly by compiling shaders far more cheaply on first play.
• Choose the renderer in the menu. VIDEO → Renderer lists what the build has: Direct3D 11, Direct3D 12, OpenGL and Vulkan on Windows; Vulkan only on Linux and the Steam Deck. The choice applies at the next launch. A choice that cannot start (no Vulkan driver, say) falls back instead of locking you out.
• Direct3D was missing from every Windows build since 1.6. Asking for it silently gave OpenGL. It is back.
• Less CPU on Linux and the Steam Deck. Leaner code for floating-point checks and paired-single loads, the condition register kept in locals inside the fast code copies, and a runtime built with link-time optimisation and a speed profile trained in windowed Vulkan play. Measured against 1.6.5 over the same 16,000 frames on a Linux desktop: US 7.8% less CPU, Japanese 7.7%, SC2 Plus 8.2%, European 7.7%, before a final dispatch-loop trim worth about 0.5% more.
• Full speed again with clang 23. Arch, CachyOS and other rolling distros moved to clang 23 this week, and clang 23 could only apply about a third of the speed profile that ships for each disc. The rest of the game code was built unoptimised, with no warning. 1.6.6 ships a second set of profiles trained on clang 23, and setup picks the one that matches your compiler. Setup now also checks that the profile really fits after building, and tells you to run setup.sh --pgo if it does not. On a Steam Deck, with the module built on a clang-23 desktop: 181% of full speed (median, whole arcade run, uncapped) instead of 159%.
• Steam Deck holds full speed throughout. Measured over the whole arcade run on the same day with the same compiler, 1.6.5 dipped below full speed (as low as 53 fps); 1.6.6 never did (lowest 69 fps with the clang-23 profile).
• Faster first launch on Linux. Setup now starts the game once to build its shader cache. On a 2-core laptop the first launch went from about 2.5 minutes of black window to about 23 seconds. On a desktop the extra setup step takes a few seconds.
• setup.sh --pgo repairs a stale hot list. If the shipped list of hot entry points no longer matches your build, training now notices, refreshes the list and trains again.
• Windows fixes. The game window shows the game's own icon instead of a warning triangle. Running setup.ps1 in a second copy of Ring Out no longer re-points the installed game's shortcuts at that copy.

Game behaviour is unchanged. Every disc produces frame-for-frame identical game state to 1.6.5, on Windows and Linux alike.

Re-run setup to get the speedup. Most of it is in the module setup builds on your machine. Unzip fresh and point setup at your disc as before.

Netplay needs both players on 1.6.6, as with every release.