Dusklight PortMaster v0.1.0-alpha13 - bmdhacks Renderer Integration

This test release supersedes the alpha11 public package and rebases the PortMaster work on the bmdhacks Dusklight/Aurora renderer integration.

Changes

• Uses the bmdhacks renderer pipeline and Aurora fork as the new integration base.
• Uses the bmdhacks SDL3 sdl2-backend shim with an SDL2-owned EGL surface.
• Enables strict SDL2-shim presentation synchronization to prevent intermittent full-scene flicker.
• Caches repeated Aurora native draw pipeline setup.
• Restores GCC 10 / older-system compatibility and targets GLIBC 2.30, GLIBCXX 3.4.26, and CXXABI 1.3.9.
• Ships a stripped release package with duplicate SDL libraries and template placeholders removed.

Installation

Install through PortMaster or extract the archive into the firmware's ports location. Place your own supported Twilight Princess .iso, .gcm, or .rvz image in dusklight/assets/. Game data is not included.

Controls

Gameplay uses SDL gamepad input. Guide/Home opens the Dusklight menu when exposed by the firmware; Start + R is the alternate menu chord. The launcher also starts PortMaster's emergency quit helper when available.

Caveats

• This remains an experimental test release.
• Verified primarily on RG35XX H with muOS and Mali-G31.
• ArkOS, Knulli, PowerVR, and other firmware/device combinations have not been revalidated on this renderer integration and may still have EGL, presentation, depth, menu-cropping, or controller issues.
• Heavy scenes may still run below full speed.

SHA-256: 5d424b072f95c8aefb4cde70fc5234f8158e8a23b1fcdfa075509680e862d199

Dusklight PortMaster v0.1.0-alpha11

• Performance is still rough. Heavy areas can run below real time.
• This is verified mainly on RG35XX H / muOS / Mali-G31.
• Knulli / TrimUI Smart Pro / PowerVR testers may see z-buffer-looking corruption and strange or cropped Dusklight menu behavior.
• Other ArkOS devices may still show audio with no video, surface errors, or controller quirks.

Dusklight PortMaster v0.1.0-alpha10

attempt to fix video issue with knulli and arkos
also merge a few relevant upstream performance from dusklight 1.4.1. but it did not improve much.

Dusklight-aarch64-portmaster-fbdev-present-test.
Expected tradeoff: this may be slower, but it directly tests whether bypassing broken KMSDRM/GBM page-flip and writing to /dev/fb0 fixes the black-screen devices

Dusklight PortMaster v0.1.0-alpha9

egl surface fix

alpha10 uses the configured swapchain size instead of calling eglquerysurface()

Dusklight PortMaster v0.1.0-alpha8

native SDL2 shim surface

Dusklight PortMaster v0.1.0-alpha7

Another test release. Should work with other non-muos devices. but at the cost of performance.

Dusklight PortMaster v0.1.0-alpha6

This is still a rough tester build. It includes the SDL2-shim swap/present experiment intended to fix devices that have audio/input but no visible video. Known issue: the PortMaster quit combo is still unreliable, so testers may need to use their firmware kill-game menu, SSH pkill -x dusklight.aarch64, or a hard exit/reboot if the device gets stuck.

Dusklight PortMaster v0.1.0-alpha5

fix start+select to quit out the game, using gptokeyb

Dusklight PortMaster v0.1.0-alpha4

This is still a rough compatibility test build. Performance remains low on heavy scenes, but this build switches the default graphics path to the bmdhacks SDL2-shim EGL path and avoids the older fbdev sentinel presenter by default. Testers should send back dusklight/log.txt if launch fails.

v0.1.0-alpha3

Dusklight PortMaster v0.1.0-alpha3

This is a rough PortMaster alpha for aarch64 handhelds. It is intended for testing, not a polished release.

Release summary

• This build continues the PortMaster/OpenGLES compatibility work for aarch64 handhelds, including the Mali-friendly vertex texture path used when vertex shader storage buffers are unavailable or unusable.
• The package includes the current GX optimization path: triangle-strip/quad batching, batch reuse cache, and low-spec rendering defaults to reduce draw/upload pressure.
• The default render resolution is 320x240. In-game PortMaster render resolution choices are available for 640x480, 480x360, 320x240, 256x192, and 160x120.
• The package is built with an Ubuntu 20.04/focal aarch64 toolchain for better compatibility with older PortMaster firmware stacks.
• Release diagnostics are quiet by default (DUSKLIGHT_PORTMASTER_GX_STATS=0).
• Diagnostic global draw skip is disabled by default (DUSKLIGHT_PORTMASTER_DRAW_SKIP=0) to avoid blanking/artifact behavior.
• Conservative low-spec defaults are enabled for grass, shadow, weather, bloom, depth of field, reverb, HRTF, and texture replacement overhead.

Known issues

• Performance is still low in heavy outdoor/village scenes. Expect uneven pacing and low FPS on weaker handhelds.
• Startup to the first visible screen can still be slow, though improved from earlier builds.
• Some older devices may fail to create an EGL/OpenGLES adapter depending on firmware, GPU driver, and PortMaster runtime setup.
• This package does not include game data. Put your own supported .iso, .gcm, or .rvz file in dusklight/assets/.

Install

• Extract the zip into your PortMaster ports location.
• Place the game dump in dusklight/assets/.
• Launch dusklight.sh from the Ports menu.
• Logs are written to dusklight/log.txt.

Controls

• Uses the packaged SDL controller mapping and dusklight.gptk.
• On tested muOS/RG35XX H mapping, the Dusklight menu is available through the mapped guide/menu control.
• If controls are wrong on another firmware/device, capture the button mapping in Dusklight's controller configuration and report the detected button names.