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@prollynotzjay prollynotzjay released this 12 Oct 16:55
· 36 commits to mali-dimensity-8400 since this release
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Mali Edition Alpha 1.3 (0.5.8-mali-alpha-1.3)

An alpha build of LibertyRecompAndroid for ARM Mali GPUs. GTA IV (Xbox 360) runs natively through static recompilation, with no emulator, using the phone's own Mali Vulkan driver.

⚠️ Alpha pre-release. Tested on one phone only. Expect bugs, crashes and low
performance. If you have a Snapdragon (Adreno) device, use the
original LibertyRecompAndroid instead.

What's new since Experimental 1

CPU performance boost (Android Performance Hint)

Profiling showed the game is limited by the CPU, yet the phone kept every core at
1.2–1.5 GHz (the Dimensity 8400 can reach 3.25 GHz), because the system did not treat the app as a game. The game now uses Android's Performance Hint API: it reports its frame times and its busiest threads to Android, which raises their clocks when frames run late and lowers them again when the game keeps up. Requires Android 13 or newer; older versions skip it. Turn it off with --android_performance_hint=false in args.txt.

Graphics settings in the launcher

A new Graphics settings card: resolution, FSR 1 upscaling and its quality, anti-aliasing, frame limit, draw distance, population density, shadow quality, motion blur, reflection anti-aliasing and run-ahead frames. Default keeps your args.txt value. Press Save changes, then Play (Play also saves pending changes). Reset to default is there if you want to start over.

Tip: the game is CPU-bound on Mali, so Population density and Draw distance make the biggest difference. Resolution and FSR barely change the frame rate.

Performance overlay

A small box in the top-left corner during gameplay, with a checkbox for each line in the launcher, so you only see what you want:

  • FPS: the game's real frame rate (green / yellow / red)
  • Frame time in milliseconds
  • CPU usage and the fastest core's clock
  • GPU usage (n/a on phones that don't allow apps to read it)
  • Memory used by the game
  • Temperature (battery; -- on phones that don't allow it)

Note: system counters such as Xiaomi's Game Turbo count every frame sent to the screen, including repeated ones, and can show 35–40 FPS while the game actually runs far slower. Use the overlay's FPS counter instead.

Launcher

  • New Mali Edition look under the logo
  • Save changes button with an "Unsaved changes" indicator
  • Links to both the original project and this fork

Fixes

  • Launcher settings are now applied reliably. Before, a setting set in both the launcher and args.txt made the game ignore all settings and fall back to full resolution and high quality.
  • Profile captures (for developers) are saved to the visible Android/data/com.libertyrecomp/files/LibertyRecomp/Diagnostics/ folder and can start after a delay, so they record gameplay instead of loading screens.

Tested on

  • MediaTek Dimensity 8400 (Mali-G720 MC7), Android 16, Mali driver r49p1

Other Mali / Immortalis GPUs are untested. Reports are welcome.

Known issues

  • Performance is still low in the city. Before the performance hint the city ran at about 10 FPS on the Dimensity 8400; how much the hint helps on your phone may vary. Please report your FPS and CPU clock from the overlay.
  • Some reflections or cut-off geometry may look wrong (clip planes are skipped on Mali)
  • Higher memory use, and possible stutter while new textures load
  • Occasional crashes may still happen. Save often.

Requirements

  • An arm64 Android phone with a Mali GPU and Vulkan 1.2, Android 10 or newer (Android 13+ for the performance hint)
  • Your own USA Xbox 360 GTA IV disc image (.iso) and Title Update 8 (0.0.8.5). No game files are included. See the README for setup.
  • About 15 GB free storage during install (about 7 GB afterwards)

Reporting problems

Open an Issue and attach:

  • Android/data/com.libertyrecomp/files/last_launch.txt
  • If the game starts: a log from Play (Debug Log), found in files/debug_logs/
  • A screenshot with the performance overlay on, if it's about performance

Credits

All the hard work of recompiling GTA IV is by the
Liberty Recompiled team and the
ReXGlue SDK. The Android port is by
vaduur. Mali Edition by
prollynotzjay.

Grand Theft Auto IV is a trademark of Take-Two Interactive. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games.

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