What's new in v0.12.0-beta.7

This beta makes 60fps games scroll evenly at 120 Hz without Black Frame Insertion, so
120 Hz looks as smooth as 60 Hz. Games on the Auto performance profile now run in
Performance at 100 and 120 Hz, which also clears up the occasional flash with Black
Frame Insertion. Pak Rat can install themes shared under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Everything
from beta.6 is included.

Added in beta.7

Smooth 120 Hz

At 120 Hz with Black Frame Insertion off, a 60fps game now shows every frame for
exactly two refreshes. Before, frames landed one, three or four refreshes apart, which
looked like judder in scrolling games. 50fps (PAL) games at 100 Hz get the same even
spacing.

• Each frame has half the time. At 120 Hz a frame has to be ready within one
  refresh, about 8 ms instead of 16. Light systems have plenty of room. If a
  demanding game runs at full speed at 60 Hz but slows down at 120, play it at 60.
• Black Frame Insertion always inserts a black frame, whatever RetroArch's own
  Dark Frames setting says.
• Leaf now sets two RetroArch settings on every launch: Swap Interval (Auto)
  and Dark Frames (1). Changing them in RetroArch's menu only lasts for that
  session, the same as refresh rate and Black Frame Insertion.

Performance at 100 and 120 Hz

With Game Performance on Auto, every game now runs in Performance while
the screen is at 100 or 120 Hz. Balanced sometimes raised the speed too late for a
frame to be ready in time, and with Black Frame Insertion that showed as a brief white
or black flash every few seconds.

• Your own choice still wins. Balanced, Battery Saver or Custom picked for a game,
  a system or everything is kept at any refresh rate.
• 60 Hz is unchanged.
• Expect more battery use at 120 Hz on light systems that used to run Balanced.

Themes under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Pak Rat can install themes shared under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, and the theme's details
page shows that license. Beta.6 and older refuse these themes.

Included from beta.6

Update your Paks

If you have DSperate or RAOfflineProxy installed, open Pak Rat and update
them. This beta is made for DSperate 2.1.1 and RAOfflineProxy 0.1.1. The older
versions keep working, but DSperate 2.0.0 doesn't use your Leaf account, and
RAOfflineProxy 0.1.0 can't serve standalone Flycast's achievements while you are
offline.

Both Paks stay optional. Without them, Leaf works as before: games sign in to
RetroAchievements directly, and Nintendo DS games use DraStic. If you remove DSperate
while it is your Nintendo DS choice, games open in DraStic and DSperate comes back as
your choice when you reinstall it.

One RetroAchievements account for every emulator

Save your account once in Settings > Games > Accounts > RetroAchievements, and
standalone Flycast and DSperate 2.1.1 now sign in with it too, alongside RetroArch.

• Change your password in Leaf and each emulator picks it up the next time it
  starts. Sign out in Leaf and they sign out too.
• Your password only ever goes to RetroAchievements itself. The emulators check it
  there directly, then keep a sign-in token, the same way their own login would.
• If sign-in fails, for example with no Wi-Fi or a changed password, the emulator
  tells you on screen, and the game still plays. Flycast says Achievements
  unavailable before the game starts.
• Your own emulator logins are left alone until you save an account in Leaf.

Flycast v2.7

Standalone Flycast is updated from v2.6 to v2.7. Your save states from v2.6 still load,
and Naomi and Atomiswave games run as before. Quitting a game doesn't wait on a slow or
unreachable RetroAchievements server.

Offline achievements for Flycast

With RAOfflineProxy 0.1.1 installed and running, casual Flycast games now go through
it just like RetroArch: achievement data is prepared while you are online, and anything
you unlock offline is sent once when you reconnect.

• Hardcore always plays online, directly. RAOfflineProxy never handles Hardcore.
• No RAOfflineProxy, or it is stopped or turned off? RetroArch and Flycast start
  straight away and sign in directly. There is no wait and no prompt.
• When RAOfflineProxy is on but not responding, the prompt now has Retry. The
  button that used to say Play without achievements now says Play directly,
  because direct play still earns achievements online. It just can't queue them for
  offline play.

Passwords RetroArch can read back

A RetroAchievements password with quotes or backslashes used to reach RetroArch
changed, so sign-in failed. RetroArch now gets it exactly. The one kind its settings
file can't hold at all, a double quote together with a space, # or a non-English
letter, is still saved: the standalone emulators use it, RetroArch plays without
signing in, and Leaf says Saved - RetroArch can't use this password.

Color Temperature

Settings > Display & Sound > Color Temperature, just under Brightness, warms or
cools the screen from 4000 K to 10000 K. Neutral (6500 K) leaves the screen as it
is. The panel already looks a little warm at Neutral, so try going higher if you want
it cooler. The setting covers everything on the built-in screen, games included, and
stays after a restart.

With HDMI connected, the row reads Panel only. The TV is not corrected, and your
setting comes back on the built-in screen when you unplug. Thanks to
Thiago Araújo Silva for this one
(Jawaka #158).

FlyCast Fast UMRK

A new, optional RetroArch core for Dreamcast, Naomi and Atomiswave, tuned for this
handheld. Press X on a game or system, choose Core, then FlyCast Fast UMRK.
Standalone Flycast stays the default. Its settings are kept apart from the other
Flycast cores and start from a speed-first setup on the first launch.

Dreamcast, Naomi and Atomiswave games now always run in Performance mode, whichever
Flycast you use. This replaces the Game Performance choice for those systems, so
Naomi and Atomiswave no longer default to Balanced.

SD card repair

• A check that finds errors now leads to the fix. The warning says Your SD card
  needs repair and offers Repair SD card, instead of asking you to restart and
  check again. This resolves the known issue from beta.5.
• Repair on battery. With 30 percent battery or more, you can repair without
  plugging in, after confirming Repair on battery. Below that, Leaf asks you to
  charge first.
• You can see it working. Checking and repairing a card at startup now shows a
  screen instead of up to a minute of black.

Shutdown no longer stalls

Restarting or powering off could stop on the shutdown pause screen for two reasons,
both fixed:

• after the display restarted (quitting standalone Flycast, or changing the refresh
  rate or HDMI) and Leaf was then updated or restaged
• after the launcher recovered from a crash, when its LED effects kept running

Translations

• Français is almost complete, now 97 percent, thanks to RobinC from our
  Discord, brought in by Eric Reinsmidt
  (Jawaka #177).
  Typos and spacing are fixed, and Pak Rat no longer shows a raw status label.
• 中文 gains Home Screen, Hotkeys and the SD card protection messages, thanks to
  YinHeng89
  (Jawaka #172).

Some new messages, including Color Temperature and the RAOfflineProxy prompt, are
English in every language for now.

Tester focus

• 120 Hz without Black Frame Insertion: set Refresh Rate to 120, play a
  scrolling 60fps game, and compare it with 60 Hz. Listen for crackle or dropouts in
  the music. If you play PAL games, try one at 100 Hz.
• Black Frame Insertion at 120 Hz: with Game Performance on Auto, tell us if
  you still see white or black flashes, and in which game.
• Battery and heat at 120 Hz: tell us how long a charge lasts compared with 60 Hz.
• A demanding game at 120 Hz: tell us if one slows down at 120 Hz but not at 60.
• Themes: if a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 theme appears in Pak Rat, install it and check its
  details page names the license.
• From beta.6: update DSperate and RAOfflineProxy in Pak Rat, then start a game in
  standalone Flycast, DSperate and RetroArch and check each one says you are signed in.

Expected, not faults: more battery use at 100 and 120 Hz on the Auto profile. Swap
Interval and Dark Frames going back to Leaf's values on the next launch after you
change them in RetroArch. A game that is too demanding for 120 Hz running slower there
than at 60 Hz. DSperate 2.0.0 not using your Leaf account until you update it.
Hardcore sessions never going through RAOfflineProxy. Panel only on the Color
Temperature row with HDMI connected.

This beta includes everything in stable Leaf v0.11.0 and v0.12.0-beta.1 through beta.6.

Already running a compatible Leaf install? Open System Update, set Update Channel
to Beta, then check for and install the update.

For a fresh install, extract leaf-mlp1-sd-v0.12.0-beta.7.zip to the root of a FAT32
or ext4 SD card and boot with it inserted. Your games, saves, and states are left alone.