⚠️Important Release Candidate Information⚠️

It's been a while since the last major update, and we've been working hard during that time to bring many improvements to the emulator.
In fact, by a decent margin, this is Azahar's largest update ever!

Please take a look at the changelog below to see what we've been working on and learn about the new features which are available.

As previously announced and explained in an announcement on our Discord server, this release increases the minimum Android version from Android 9 to Android 10.

Devices running Android 9 will no longer be able to update beyond Azahar 2123.4.1.

See the announcement post for additional information.

Azahar 2124-rc1 Changelog

All

• Implemented emulated cartridge insertion functionality. | @PabloMK7 #1304
  • This causes the cartridge to appear inserted on the emulated HOME menu, and otherwise act as an inserted cartridge would on real hardware.
• Implemented texture filtering while using the Vulkan renderer. | @jbm11208 #1116, @jbm11208 #1513, @PabloMK7 #1561
• Added support for secondary screen opacity while using the Vulkan renderer. | Briar @OpenSauce04 #1255
• Improved HLE DLP module implementation. | @lannoene #1375
  • This enables multiplayer functionality without use of LLE DLP module in several new games, including Luigi's Mansion, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, and Mario Kart 7.
• Implemented HLE DSP sleep and wakeup functionality. | @PabloMK7 #1529
  • This fixes an issue where games could have bugged sound when opened from the HOME menu.
• Added new SMDH region free patch setting which is enabled by default. | @PabloMK7 #1541
  • This functions similarly to the region free patch from Luma3DS.
• Improved memory mode handling, allowing extended memory games to be launched from the HOME menu. | @PabloMK7 #1534, @PabloMK7 #1560
• Improved plugin memory management, allowing launching applications with plugins from the HOME menu. | @PabloMK7 #1554
• Changed unimplemented GAS mode behaviour, fixing visual issues in the Monster Hunter games when a blur effect is used.
• Fixed garbled HOME menu graphics when suspending an application. | @PabloMK7 #1518
• Various improvements to stereoscopic 3D settings and functionality. | @DavidRGriswold #1212
• Implemented AM:CancelImportProgram, allowing emulated CIA installations to be cancelled mid-way. | @PabloMK7 #1535
• Improved implementation of MemorySystem::GetPhysicalPointer, resulting in a very minor performance improvement. | @PabloMK7 #1587
• Moved the plugin framebuffer address ownership from the plg:ldr service to the memory system, resulting in a very minor performance improvement. | @PabloMK7 #1572
• Fixed a possible crash in the Vulkan renderer caused by malformed geometry shaders. | @PabloMK7 #1585
• Switch to using xxHash instead of CityHash64 and improve ShaderSetup hashing behaviour, resulting in a minor performance improvement. | @PabloMK7 #1592
• Implemented game-specific fixes for broken geometry shaders in the following SEGA 3D Classics titles: Thunder Blade, After Burner, Power Drift.
• The play_time.bin file has now been moved from the log directory to the sysdata directory. | @OpenSauce04 #1310

Android

• Increased minimum Android version to Android 10. | @OpenSauce04 #1368
• Added support for compressing and decompression ROM files. | @ne-kle @PabloMK7 #1458
• Implemented background color, second screen opacity, and audio emulation settings from the desktop build. | marsia @rtiangha @OpenSauce04 #1254
• Fixed an issue where Discord could break secondary screen detection on dual-screen devices. | @DavidRGriswold #1455
• Added "Hide 3DS Images from Android" setting. | marsia @OpenSauce04 #1254
  • This prevents images related to Azahar from showing up in the Android gallery.
• VSync is now disabled by default on Android due to reasons explained here. | @DavidRGriswold #1456
  • This results in a noticeable reduction in input latency with little to no effect on the visual appearance of games.
  • This change applies retroactively to existing configurations; VSync will be automatically disabled after updating if it was previously enabled.
• Fixed an issue where resetting input bindings to their default value wouldn't actually clear the binding. | @DavidRGriswold #1463
• Fixed a bug where the secondary screen opacity setting was being applied in layouts other than the custom layout. | @DavidRGriswold #1496
• Fixed an issue where certain external gamepads would have inverted axis controls. | @DavidRGriswold #1483
  • Affected gamepads will have to be re-bound after updating the emulator.
• The emulator UI's refresh rate is no longer limited 60hz on phones with a higher set refresh rate. | @ne-kle
  • During emulation, the display refresh rate is still limited to 60hz to preserve battery life.
• Fixed the Toggle Controls menu having flickering on the bottom edge and having misaligned list clickboxes on certain Android devices. | @OpenSauce04 #1598
• Fixed a bug where the screen size could be detected incorrectly. | @DavidRGriswold #1495

Desktop

• Implemented batch compression and decompression functionality. | @PabloMK7 #1503
• Improved consistency of capitalization and colon usage in the UI. | @RedBlackAka @OpenSauce04 #1306
• Prevented refreshing game directory while emulation is powered on, avoiding a race condition. | @PabloMK7 #1553

Docker

• Added new Docker image download option to release files. | @OpenSauce04 #1493
  • This docker image contains the azahar-room executable, allowing local multiplayer rooms to be hosted.

Technical

• ARM macOS binaries are now built using macOS 26 runners. | @OpenSauce04 #1412
• Added new game launch stress testing functionality to the desktop build behind the new ENABLE_DEVELOPER_OPTIONS CMake option. | @OpenSauce04 #1442
• Various minor internal improvements to the Android performance overlay. | @OpenSauce04 #1367
• Fixed build failure on unix-like operating systems introduced by Qt 6.10.0. | @OpenSauce04 #1441
• Moved DSP memory ownership to the memory subsystem. | @PabloMK7 #1520
• Updated dynarmic to the latest version. | @PabloMK7 #1569