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Provenance 3.4.0 Release Notes

.changelog/release-3.4.0.md

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Provenance 3.4.0 Release Notes

New Features

Skins

  • Per-button haptic patterns — Skin buttons in info.json can declare a haptic block with style (light/medium/heavy/soft/rigid) and intensity (0.0-1.0); falls back to the default feedback generator when absent (#3138, #3154)
  • Animated skin backgrounds — Orientation representations can declare a backgroundAnimation block (type: frames/apng/gif, frames, fps, loops); rendered beneath the game screen and pauses when backgrounded (#3139, #3154)
  • Keyboard overlay rendering — Skins that declare a keyboardOverlay config display a toggleable virtual keyboard during gameplay; supports QWERTY, compact, C64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and Atari ST layouts (#3142, #3154)
  • PDF size-aware skin rendering — PDFs now rasterise at the correct logical size x screen scale for crisp HiDPI output instead of an uncapped 4096 px default (#3137, #3148)
  • Animated button sprites — Skin buttons can declare a states block (Manic EMU format) with normal, pressed, and optional animated image references (#3137, #3148)
  • Multi-theme skin variants — Skins can declare named theme variants; users can select a per-skin theme persisted in UserDefaults (#3145)
  • Skin validator — ZIP-based pre-import validation with a results sheet showing severity-categorised findings and fix suggestions (#3145)
  • Data-driven native resolution registry — Replaced hardcoded Swift enum with a JSON-backed registry so new system resolutions can be added without source changes (#3153)
  • Per-screen native resolution overrides — Optional nativeResolution field in skin info.json screens allows per-screen aspect ratio overrides (#3153)
  • Skin catalog display name cleanup — System badges and filter chips now show proper names like "Game Gear" instead of raw codes (#3100)

JIT Improvements

  • JIT Capability Matrix — Each core declares its JIT requirement via Core.plist; CoreLoader populates a thread-safe registry at startup with no hardcoded identifier list (#3104)
  • Extended JIT Detection — Detects StikDebug, TrollStore, iOS 26 native JIT, jailbreak daemons, and Simulator as JIT sources (#3113)
  • JIT status indicator — In-game HUD pill shows active JIT source (e.g. "JIT - AltStore"); tap for compact status alert with differentiated messaging per core (#3103, #3156)
  • JIT onboarding — "How to Enable JIT" guide accessible from the status indicator when JIT is inactive (#3103, #3159)
  • Azahar / emuThreeDS automatic fallback — Both cores reclassified to .automaticWithFallback; they auto-detect JIT and fall back to interpreter mode so launch is always safe (#3131)

Controller Input

  • Controller player-slot preferences — Three assignment modes per controller: auto, preferred, and always; preferences persist and reapply on reconnect (#2773, #3111)
  • Core deadzone coordination — New CoreDeadzoneCapable protocol with universal deadzone setting (0-50%), per-core coordination modes, and compatibility catalog (#2828)
  • Smart Pak (Memory + Rumble) — Virtual combo pak mode for Mupen64Plus that handles both persistent memory-pak saves and rumble simultaneously (#3110)

OSD and Notifications

  • PVToast in-game overlay — Queue-based toast notification system with retrowave aesthetics, auto-dismiss, persistent toasts, and VoiceOver support (#2802, #3112)
  • Core OSD bridging — PPSSPP, Dolphin, Azahar, Mednafen, DuckStation, Mupen64Plus, melonDS, and VisualBoyAdvance-M OSD messages now surface as native PVToast notifications (#2805, #3151)
  • RetroArch msg_queue bridge — RetroArch msg_queue OSD messages forwarded to PVToast for all 60+ RetroArch-based cores (#3157)
  • Audio mute warning — Toast notification when device audio is muted or volume is zero (#3168)

Spotlight and Siri

  • Per-game Spotlight indexing — Games are indexed immediately on import and re-indexed when metadata or artwork updates, using proper registered Provenance UTIs (#2980, #3160)
  • Siri Suggestions — NSUserActivity.isEligibleForPrediction enables proactive game suggestions in Siri (#2980)

Save States

  • Save state browser — Full-page "Save States" tab grouped by game with expand/collapse, screenshot thumbnails, core version info, and sorting (#2790)
  • Save state version tracking — Save states record the core version and identifier used to create them; version mismatch detection prompts before loading (#2952, #3081)
  • Per-game stacked autosaves — Autosaves are visually grouped behind a single card with "+N" badge and filmstrip timeline on long-press (#2789)
  • Recent Saves deduplication — Shows at most one autosave per game by default; "Show All Auto-Saves" toggle in Settings for power users (#2789, #3107)

Other Features

  • Inline core picker with save counts — Thin wrapper swap in PVCoreFactory with inline core picker showing save state counts per core
  • Cheat code auto-lookup — Bundled cheat database with online lookup from GameHacking.org and GeckoCodes for GC/Wii (#2455, #3073)
  • Cheat code validator — Per-format validation with hints for GameShark, Action Replay, and other formats (#2488)
  • DuckStation cheat support — GameShark cheat codes now work in DuckStation (#2485)
  • mGBA cheat support — Cheat codes wired up for the mGBA core (#2484)
  • Thin libretro frontend — RetroArch-free libretro frontend using only libretro.h; foundation for running libretro buildbot dylibs without the full RetroArch binary (#3080)
  • Netplay build flag — HAVE_NETPLAY enabled in RetroArch build for 60+ cores (#3091)
  • BPS/UPS patcher tests — Comprehensive unit test coverage for ROM patching (#2898, #3106)
  • Configurable CRT shader parameters — User-adjustable CRT shader settings (#2451)

Bug Fixes

  • Save state crashes — Fixed FBNeo, MAME, and other RetroArch core save state crashes (#1d33338)
  • Cheats crash — Fixed Realm thread-safety crashes in pause menu cheats and save states views (#3162)
  • Cheats crash on toggle — Fixed crash when toggling cheats from the pause menu (#0afafa4)
  • Skin button transparency — GameGear and legacy handheld skin screen fill now uses correct aspect ratios instead of leaving black bars (#3134, #3149)
  • Screen filter JSON decoding — CRT, scanline, sepia, and blur filters from skin info.json now apply at runtime instead of always being nil (#3135, #3150)
  • Skin download visibility — Skin catalog install deep link and unofficial label fixes (#3098)
  • Boot performance — Core plist scan results cached to disk; core scanner made non-blocking; skin scan deferred to first use; Mach-O fast-path probe for libretro metadata (#3015, #3109, da9fef2, d5a0e61, 265ef4e, d00841d)
  • Hatari TOS validation — Multiple fixes for TOS boot: correct directory paths, byte-swap repair, ACSI boot option, per-core options file (#3112, #3127, #3144, #3152)
  • Mupen64Plus rumble — Removed stray register(nil) call; added Taptic Engine fallback for touchscreen players (#3110)
  • Mupen64Plus bootup hang — Fixed pause, rumble pak default, and bootup hang (#9bd8ee3)
  • On-screen controller touch routing — Fixed PassThroughView absorbing all touches and overlay blocking game button input (#3117, #3124, #3126, 7bf3f39)
  • Pause menu button layout stability — CORE tab and save-state buttons now rendered at fixed positions; unsupported items dimmed instead of removed (#2969, #3101)
  • VecX hardware rendering — Fixed blank square in hardware rendering mode by returning correct HW render dimensions for screenRect (#2984, #3123, #3116)
  • Spotlight content types — Removed invalid contentType strings that caused Spotlight to reject game entries (#2980, #3105)
  • Save state double prompt — Prevented double version-mismatch prompt on launch (#949ab0c)
  • Save state load failure — "Reset Game" option offered when save state load fails (#3082)
  • HUD overlay positioning — Moved HUD controls to top strip so they never overlap skin buttons (#859579, 7f6ce09)
  • PrBoom button mapping — Corrected Doom button mapping and shoulder button order (#fe0e0d6)
  • tvOS launch crash — Added missing BGTaskSchedulerPermittedIdentifiers to tvOS Info.plist (#2489)
  • CrabEMU resolution — Fixed bad resolution when nil at boot (#6f2f3f4)
  • Save state Realm crash — Fixed freeze() inside uncommitted write transaction; moved serialization after commit (#3181, #3193)
  • Audio loop on pause — Flush ring buffer when pausing to prevent stale audio looping (#3183, #3195)
  • HomeView flickering — Replaced 5 @ObservedResults with background ViewModel to stop cascading re-renders (#3184, #3196)
  • Atari800 joystick crash — Fixed infinite recursion in didRelease: and didMoveJoystick: (#3182, #3194)
  • Shoulder button order — L2/R2 now on outer edge matching real controller layout (#3180, #3192)
  • JIT indicator — Moved to bottom edge with auto-hide; only shows for cores that need JIT (#3186, #3198)
  • Skin catalog install status — Downloaded skins now show as installed in catalog browser (#3188)
  • Skin activation — "Set as Active Skin" now activates directly instead of navigating to browser (#3189, #3200)
  • Shader parameters in pause menu — CRT shader parameters adjustable from the filter picker (#3185, #3197)
  • Save & Quit crash — Prevented setPauseEmulation during core teardown (#3200)
  • Save state browser — Added Realm refresh so newly created states appear immediately
  • CI submodule fixes — Fixed ZipArchive, desmume2015, NP2kai submodule checkout failures
  • Companion Controller framework — iOS companion device overlay infrastructure (#2697, #3190)

Core Updates

  • RetroArch msg_queue OSD bridge — All RetroArch-based cores now surface OSD messages as native PVToast notifications (#3157)
  • Atari ST comprehensive improvements — Video, mouse input, ST keyboard layout, TOS version handling, and boot reliability across multiple PRs (#3094, #3112, #3127, #3144, #3152)
  • DosBox keyboard and mouse mapping — Keyboard and mouse input support for DosBox core (#2457)
  • Cheat system short name audit — Complete audit of cheat DB system mappings with forward-looking mappings for future systems (#3068, #3108)
  • Save state core version propagation — Mock driver and full propagation chain for createdWithCoreVersion (#3102)

UX Improvements

  • Inline core picker with save counts — Core selection now shows save state counts per core for informed switching
  • Contentless core setup guides — Setup guidance for cores that need BIOS or other files before use
  • Beta builds install guide — Sideload feed and installation guidance for beta testers (#b94e2248)
  • Pause menu SKINS tab redesign — Reorganized with scope picker, always-visible skin selectors, and immediate application on pick (#3121)
  • RetroMenuView button styling — Improved visual hierarchy in the retro-style pause menu (#2969, #3121)
  • Sub-task progress display — Boot sequence now shows sub-task progress with fix for Realm timeout scope (#546d3ee)
  • Screenshot browser — New screenshot browser in pause menu with save-state UX improvements (#5d6ac25)

CI / Infrastructure

  • Copilot + Claude review loop — Agent context and auto-fix triggers for PR reviews (#b94e2248)
  • CI optimization — Concurrency groups, alpha releases, agent PR smoke builds (#7ca84d3, #95801f8)
  • SPM validation script — Agent validation CI for standalone module builds (#dcedb27)
  • CPDI bootstrap system — Refactored app startup into structured bootstrap with Firebase Crashlytics config fix (#2463)
  • PVFeatureFlags remote fetching — Remote feature flag fetching with retry, caching, and fallback (#2454)