Changes
- Mali-G57 start-up crash fixed (Android).
- Who was affected: Android phones and tablets with a Mali-G57 GPU, such as the Galaxy Tab A9 and other Helio G99 devices.
- What happened: the game closed right after start-up with nothing in the log.
- Cause: the renderer asked for five descriptor sets, but these GPUs allow four, and their driver crashes instead of reporting an error. The renderer now uses four on Vulkan.
- Start-up logging: each graphics start-up step is now named in
game.log(NATIVE_PRESENTATION step=...). If start-up stops, the diagnostics export shows where. - Graphics self-test (Android): a test that runs only the graphics start-up, without the game. It is used to check GPUs we don't have, through Firebase Test Lab's game-loop tests. The game itself does not change.
Validation
- Firebase Test Lab, graphics self-test:
- Before the fix: the Galaxy A15 and Galaxy A16 (Mali-G57) both crashed. The Pixel 8a (Mali-G715) and the Galaxy S24 (Adreno 750) passed.
- After the fix: the Galaxy A16 passes.
- Tests: CTest 141/141.
- Windows package: completed race checks on D3D12 (Frozen Forest) and Vulkan (Dolphin Resort), with isolated saves and the shipped defaults.
- Linux package: passed a Vulkan startup smoke test in WSL.
- Android: the APKs keep the existing signing certificate and 16 KB-compatible libraries.
Downloads
- Windows x64: download and extract the Windows ZIP; run
FreeRidersRecompiled.exe. - Linux x64: download and extract the Linux archive; run
FreeRidersRecompiled. - Android 10 or later: prefer
android10-arm64.apk. - Android 9: use
android-arm64.apk. - Android version code: 23. The companion licence archive applies to both APKs.
- Checksums:
SHA256SUMS.txt.
Use your own game disc image. No game data, private saves or test overrides are included.
Known limitations
- Mali GPUs: the full game has not yet been played on a Mali GPU. Only the graphics start-up was tested there.
- Stall: a rare stall of about two seconds has been reported but not yet found.
- From v0.5.0:
- lighting has not been compared with the Xbox 360;
- split-screen two-player and full Grand Prix progression are not verified with the new runtime;
- no camera motion inference on Linux or Android;
- performance varies by device.