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We hope you are all staying in your homes safe and sound. +Today, we are bringing you a report on a few changes from the past month for both the Early Access and regular Mainline versions of yuzu. + + +We have on our plate a couple of bug fixes, some graphical improvements, the first “performance win” for Intel GPUs, a really serious case of serendipity, and some groundwork for amazing improvements that will be coming to you in a “near-ish” future. + +## Bug fixes and improvements + +After some intensive debugging by [Rodrigo](https://github.com/ReinUsesLisp), an OpenGL rendering bug in *ARMS* (that was with us since the game started to boot), was solved by simply updating our buildbot virtual machine from Visual Studio 2017 to the latest 2019 version. +Thanks to [DarkLordZach](https://github.com/DarkLordZach) for the change! + +PSA - Please update to or install the latest [Visual C++ 2019 x64 redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads), or else you won’t be able to open yuzu, as it will complain that the library `VCRUNTIME140.dll` cannot be found. + +{{< single-title-imgs + "Better, right?" + "./03.png" + "./04.png" + >}} + +[perillamint](https://github.com/perillamint) and [bunnei](https://github.com/bunnei) stubbed (this means to send a fake `everything’s OK` signal so the game can continue) some VR related services. +These changes are needed for version 1.6.0 of *The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*, 1.3.0 of *Super Mario Odyssey*, and versions 3.1.0 and above of *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*. + +Commercial games aren't everything. +[Rodrigo](https://github.com/ReinUsesLisp) decided to give homebrew lovers and old-school gamers something to play with by implementing some attributes from the old OpenGL 1.X and 2.X days. +It’s now possible to run `Xash3D`, so you can frag in Counter-Strike, or follow G-Man’s orders in Half-Life! +Currently, this needs to be manually built with newer dependencies, but that should be solved for good in the near future. + +[Margen67](https://github.com/Margen67) and [Morph](https://github.com/Morph1984) wanted to improve the graphics for games and so they added Anisotropic Filtering (AF) to yuzu. +With this feature in place, distant textures now look much sharper, improving game quality even over what the original Switch can produce! +Games like *Pokémon Sword*, *Pokémon Shield*, and *Fire Emblem: Three Houses* benefit a lot from this; however, some other games don’t respond well to this new feature, one example being *Astral Chain*. +Feel free to experiment with it! + +An example in *Pokémon Sword*: + +{{< imgs + "./15.png| AF Off" + "./14.png| AF 16x" + >}} + +And another example in *Fire Emblem: Three Houses*: + +{{< imgs + "./01.png| AF Off" + "./02.png| AF 8x" + >}} + +Shader cache invalidations are something our users don’t like at all. +We don't either, but it’s all part of the process of improving yuzu to achieve better performance and accuracy. +For example, one of our recent invalidations was needed to fix the reflections in *Luigi’s Mansion 3*, making certain parts of the game playable. + +Because the art of dancing is important, [namkazt](https://github.com/namkazt) and [Rodrigo](https://github.com/ReinUsesLisp) have been fighting with the code, allowing us to enjoy 3D graphics in *Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA MEGA39's*, and as collateral, fixed some rendering issues in *Bayonetta 1* and *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*. + +{{< imgs + "./07.png| Miku Miku Dance!" + >}} + +{{< single-title-imgs + "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's menu (Before & After)" + "./08.png" + "./09.png" + >}} + +[Kewlan](https://github.com/Kewlan), a regular in our Discord Server, submitted a small change to our input mapping GUI, changing the position of the shoulder buttons so they no longer make anyone angry. + +{{< imgs + "./11.png| Incorrect." + "./12.png| Much better." + >}} + +We also have a cool improvement by [Tobi](https://github.com/FearlessTobi). +The Switch is a surround sound compatible console and our implementation of downmixing removed any channel that wasn’t left or right. +By keeping the extra channels and mixing them in the left and right stereo outputs, the sound in tons of games, including *Luigi’s Mansion 3*, *Sonic Forces*, and *Bayonetta*, has been improved. + +## A peculiar case of "Even a broken clock is right twice a day!" + +The Nintendo Switch supports `ASTC`, a type of texture format generally used in mobile hardware, such as phones and tablets, in order to reduce bandwidth usage (a limited resource in those devices). +Since it's a heavily compressed format, decoding it via the CPU, like it is normally done on PC, is a time-consuming task. + +To give an example, Astral Chain is a game that uses `ASTC` very extensively and in bizarre ways, as previous fixes and optimizations have shown. +On NVIDIA and AMD graphics hardware, the first scene of a new game typically takes `17` seconds to load. The GPU has to wait for the CPU to decode all the `ASTC` textures, and thus slowing down the whole process. + +Thanks to [Rodrigo's](https://github.com/ReinUsesLisp) research, it was discovered that on any recent Intel GPU this same operation is immediate and occurs with no delay, due to it being the only vendor providing a native `ASTC` decoder in their hardware. +That’s right, the best way to experience Astral Chain in yuzu is with a small, and typically inferior, iGPU (like the ones that come in any desktop or notebook CPU from Intel). + +On the topic of formats, implementing the `RG32` and `RGB32` vertex formats fixed a room that refused to load in The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening in Vulkan. +Great work, [Rodrigo](https://github.com/ReinUsesLisp)! + +{{< imgs + "./13.png| It works!" + >}} + +## Paving the road for even bigger changes + +[Rodrigo](https://github.com/ReinUsesLisp)'s initial work on `Transform Feedback` has concluded and is now partially working. +This has already helped games like POKKÉN Tournament DX, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and Xenoblade Chronicles. + +An optimization by [Blinkhawk](https://github.com/FernandoS27) reduced the use of RAM by 1GB. +When talking about RAM usage, less is best! + +Now, for an important but also astonishing fix; one that nobody expected, not even our project leader [bunnei](https://github.com/bunnei). +While he was working on fixing what seemed to be a simple bug on Final Fantasy VIII, he also accidentally fixed Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fights! +This case of serendipity, is without a doubt, a surprise, but a welcome one. + +Now all users can brawl to their hearts' content thanks to a measly 5-line change in yuzu’s code! +However, keep in mind that any Super Smash Bros. Ultimate update newer than 3.1.0 will work, but will also make the characters T-pose, resulting in hilarious fights and victory screens. +We’re working on resolving this, but for now, stick to update 3.1.0 or older! + +[bunnei](https://github.com/bunnei) fixed audio crackling in various games like Crash Team Racing and Super Mario Odyssey. +We are slowly but surely improving our audio quality. +He also implemented initial support for `32-bit ARM` emulation. +Nothing tangible can be tested yet, but thanks to this, it will be possible in the future to run `32-bit` games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. + +And last but not least, [Blinkhawk](https://github.com/FernandoS27) has been making some serious changes to yuzu's GPU emulation, while also laying the foundation for the recent rework of yuzu's Virtual Memory Manager (codename: Project Epimetheus). + +These, in turn, will help further advance the development of Project Prometheus, one of the super-secret Projects our devs are currently working on to bring some considerable changes to yuzu’s performance and hardware requirements. +Stay tuned to hear more about them in the future! + +That’s all for now folks, see you in the April report. + +  +

+Please consider supporting us on [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/yuzuteam)!
+If you would like to contribute to this project, check out our [GitHub](https://github.com/yuzu-emu/yuzu)! +

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