What's new in v0.12.0-beta.8

This beta makes Leaf much lighter while nothing is happening: at the launcher, the
device now keeps under 10 percent of one CPU core busy, down from about 40. Buttons no
longer repeat or arrive late while Leaf is busy, System Update finds a new release in
about a second, Wi-Fi stays on the network you pick, and sound no longer stops for
good after sleep. Fun DraStic opens games with Chinese, Japanese or Korean names, and
Chinese covers more of Leaf and its apps. Everything from beta.7 is included.

Added in beta.8

A quieter device at idle

Sitting at the launcher, Leaf used to wake up many times a second to check the
speaker, the volume, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, often by starting small helper programs,
and it redrew the LEDs 40 times a second. It now mostly waits for something to change. That should help battery life while the
device sits at the menu, though we haven't measured how much yet.

Most of this is invisible. What you might notice:

• LED effects: Breath, Hiccup and Fountain now update 10 times a
  second instead of 40. Breath and Fountain look the same. Hiccup's fastest speeds are
  slightly slower, and some neighboring speeds now share a rhythm.
• Speaker: the speaker turns on just before a sound starts and off again when
  nothing is playing, instead of staying on once anything had played. Wired
  headphones still mute it.

Controls that keep up

Two reports from beta.3 are fixed:

• One press on Font or Font Size now moves one step. Before, a single press could
  skip three or four fonts.
• Display & Sound no longer lags as you move around it.

Both came from the same cause. The pad now reaches the launcher and your games on a
path of its own, so a busy moment elsewhere in Leaf can't delay a button release and
turn one press into a repeat.

Faster update checks

From beta.8 on, System Update looks only for the newest release, so the result
shows in about a second. Before, it read every release in the list first, which could
take a minute or more on slow Wi-Fi. Checking for this beta still uses beta.7's slower
check.

• Releases (X) loads the full list when you open it and shows Loading
  releases... while it works. Press X there to reload it.
• A stalled check or download now stops after 30 seconds without data and shows
  an error. Before, it could stay on checking until you restarted.

Wi-Fi

• The network you pick stays picked. A few seconds after you joined a network,
  Leaf could move back to a stronger saved one at the next scan. It now stays on your
  choice while it's in range, and moves to another saved network only if yours
  disappears.
• Joining an iPhone hotspot no longer drops you back on your previous network with
  a wrong-password message. Some hotspots turn away the first attempt, and Leaf now
  waits for the second.
• Connected with no internet: if the network doesn't hand out an address the first
  time, Leaf keeps asking, 10 seconds later and then less often, up to every 2
  minutes. Before, the device stayed connected without an address until you
  reconnected.
• After you switch networks, connections no longer wait on the old network's DNS
  servers first, which added about 10 seconds to each one.

Sound after sleep

Waking the device while something was playing, like the Test Sound in Display &
Sound, could stop all sound until you restarted. That's fixed, and if the sound
service ever stops anyway, Leaf now restarts it within a few seconds.

In-game Performance

The Performance page of the in-game menu no longer offers Auto. For a running
game, Auto always meant Balanced or Performance, so it only repeated one of them.

• Profile now shows the profile actually in use, including one you set for that
  game or system in its options.
• A choice made here lasts until you quit the game. Reset Override hands the game
  back to your usual setting.
• Auto is still available in Settings > Games > Game Performance and in a
  game's or system's options.

Thanks to AlexL for this one
(Jawaka #121).

Themes under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Pak Rat can install themes shared under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, and the theme's details
page shows that license. Beta.7 and older list these themes but refuse to install
them.

Fun DraStic

• Games with Chinese, Japanese or Korean names no longer open to a white screen
  and exit.
• Saves and save states use the whole ROM name, the same name DraStic uses. Names
  longer than 28 characters used to be cut short, which could leave a game with a
  second, stray save file. The first time you start a game with a longer name, Leaf
  copies its save states, their previews and your cheat choices to the new name, so
  nothing goes missing. The old files stay in Saves/NDS/states/.

Thanks to YinHeng89 for the fixes
(Fun-Drastic-src #1,
Fun-Drastic-standalone #8).

File Explorer

The on-screen keyboard's hints now match its buttons: B deletes a character and
Y cancels. The hints had them the other way round.

Translations

• 中文 now covers 88 percent of Leaf, up from 78, including the Black Frame
  Insertion warnings in the shader menu, thanks to AlexL
  (Jawaka #201).
  Color Temperature is translated too, thanks to
  YinHeng89
  (Jawaka #182).
• Nintendo 64: the standalone emulator's quick menu now follows Leaf's language
  and comes in Chinese. With the Ebony theme, the selected item is readable again.
  Thanks to AlexL
  (N64 #5,
  N64 #6).
• Fugazi and Joe's Calibrage are now fully in Chinese, also thanks to
  AlexL
  (Fugazi #3,
  Joe's Calibrage #1).

Included from 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.

Tester focus

• Battery at the launcher: leave the device at the menu with the screen on and
  tell us how long a charge lasts compared with beta.7.
• Buttons: change Font and Font Size one press at a time, move around
  Display & Sound, and play a game. Tell us about any press that repeats, sticks
  or arrives late, and whether the Menu button, hotkeys and rumble still work.
• Sound and sleep: put the device to sleep mid-game and during the Test Sound,
  then wake it. Sound should come back at once. Plug and unplug wired headphones at
  the launcher and in a game. Listen for a clipped start or a pop when a sound begins
  after a quiet spell.
• Wi-Fi: switch between two networks, including a phone hotspot if you have one.
  Check that Leaf stays on the one you pick and that Pak Rat and System Update
  respond quickly after the switch.
• System Update: check for updates, then open Releases. Tell us how long each
  takes and whether a weak signal ever leaves it stuck.
• Balanced games: tell us if a game on the Balanced profile stutters where it
  didn't in beta.7.
• HDMI at 1080p 120 Hz: the countdown before Leaf switches back from this mode
  now reaches the launcher a different way. If your TV takes 1080p at 120 Hz, choose
  it and check the countdown still shows and switches back.
• Fun DraStic: open a game with a Chinese, Japanese or Korean name, and a game
  with a long name, and check both save and load. If you had save states or cheats
  for a long-named game before, check they're still there.
• From beta.7: play a scrolling 60fps game at 120 Hz without Black Frame
  Insertion and compare it with 60 Hz.

Expected, not faults: Hiccup LED speeds that look the same as their neighbors. No
Auto in the in-game Performance page. The check for beta.8 itself taking as
long as it did on beta.7. 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.

This beta includes everything in stable Leaf v0.11.0 and v0.12.0-beta.1 through beta.7.

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.8.zip to the root of a FAT32
or ext4 SD card and boot with it inserted. Your games, saves, and states are left alone.