YesterMester/TheSimpsonsGameRecomp v0.0.7.1

The Simpsons Game — Recompiled v0.0.7.1

on GitHub

You need your own copy of The Simpsons Game for Xbox 360. No game content is included; the
launcher installs the game from your own ISO.

Discord: https://discord.gg/Heag4zPJbx

Fixes

• Settings apply again after updating to 0.0.7.0 (#61). The 0.0.7.0 launcher wrote one setting, native_gpu_calls, into simpsons.toml twice every time it started, on Windows and Linux. The game ignores a settings file with a repeated entry, so it started windowed and in the default language, and changes made in the game could not be saved.
  • The launcher now writes each setting once, and repairs an affected file the first time it starts.
  • The game itself reads a file with a repeated entry instead of ignoring it.
  • The game's log now says when the settings file could not be read, instead of "Loaded config".
  • Thanks to Gabry179, who found the same cause and proposed the launcher fix in #60.
• Windows: settings changed in the game are saved safely. The Windows build saved them with the plain rename used on Linux; it now replaces the file with Windows' write-through move, so a crash mid-save cannot leave it half written.
• Windows: frame_pacing_vblank_lock works. The option had no effect in Windows builds.

Performance

The renderer's native graphics calls, and the way the recompiled code handles the game's interrupt switches, are faster. Both changes run the same way on Windows, Linux and Android.

• Less work per draw. The native graphics calls no longer clear several kilobytes of planning data for every draw, and they check guest memory ranges with a table lookup.
• No fences where the console had none. The game turns interrupts off and on around every graphics resource lock. The recompiled code wrapped each of those in two full memory fences and took a global lock just to read the interrupt state. Those fences are gone; the game's own memory barriers are unchanged.
• Measured on a Steam Deck LCD at 2× resolution in Neverquest's village fight, the busiest scene we measured (about 3,700 draws a frame): the game thread needs about 27% less time in its heaviest frames, 9.0 ms instead of 12.4 ms. Behaviour and image are unchanged.

Android

• Built and checked by the release itself. The APK is now a release build, no longer a debuggable one, made by the same workflow as the desktop packages. It is signed with the same key as 0.0.7.0, so the app offers this update by itself.
• Whole-program optimisation (ThinLTO), as the desktop builds already use.
• To install: download TheSimpsonsGame-Recompiled-Android-arm64.apk below on the phone and open it, allowing installs from your browser or file manager when Android asks.

Known issues

• Steam Deck at 2×: in the heaviest moments, such as Neverquest's dragon fight, the GPU runs at its limit even at 60 FPS, and a few frames (about 0.5% there) take longer than 1/60 s. 1× is the smoothest setting on the Deck. On its 60 Hz screen, a frame rate above 60 renders frames that are never shown, so 60 is the best cap there.
• Above 30 FPS some scripted moments can still misbehave; switch to 30 if one does.
• The Windows programs are not code-signed. Defender or Smart App Control can warn about them or block them (#52, #54).
• Wide screens show the original 16:9 picture; full widescreen is still being worked on.
• The debug menu's ragdoll test can freeze the game when the other family member touches the fallen body.
• Android is a preview and has only been tried on a Pixel 9 Pro.

Thanks

• Gabry179 for tracking down the settings bug and proposing the fix in #60, and Diego4C for reporting #61.
• Everyone else who made this possible is in the credits.