DreamShell v4.0.0 Release

[SWAT]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieP1EV4lOiI
http://www.dc-swat.ru/blog/dreamshell/1141.html

Probably no one expected this to happen, but you understood everything correctly - this is the main release of DreamShell v4.0.
Exactly 20 years ago, on this day, the first version of DreamShell appeared. I wrote a short story about this on it 10th anniversary here, so I won’t repeat myself now.
But I can say with confidence that DreamShell has become the project of my life to some extent, since 20 years is a significant period of time and it is not easy to repeat this. And it doesn’t matter that there was a long pause with releases, a constant request from the community does not allow me to leave this matter. I hope this continues to be the case.
In fact, this long pause has its advantages. During this time, additional experience and knowledge was accumulated, which allowed me to solve any issues of version 4 and achieve the release. Yes, not everything that should have been done has been done here, simply because the amount of work is limitless, because it is an operating system. But this is the biggest release in DreamShell history, without exaggeration.
Development of the 4th version began in 2008 and on the 5th anniversary of DreamShell (02/02/2009) the first beta version was released.
Thus, it turns out that the development of DreamShell v4.0.0 lasted for 15 years. There were 4 beta and 4 release candidate versions.
To prepare for the release, public testing under the guise of RC5 went on for more than a year, but this version was not planned to be released as a replacement for the latest RC4. This was used for development and testing purposes only. Those who participated in testing were very helpful, thank you very much!
What has changed since the last release? Let's start with the fact that the repository on GitHub has exceeded 500 commits, which take their toll from versions RC2/RC3, and even then not completely, since the full DreamShell code was only pushed since the RC4 version.
But this, of course, doesn’t say much; if someone wants to learn more about all the changes, they can do it themselves on GitHub.
In this post I will talk about the main differences between the release version and the last released RC4.

DreamShell Core:
- Most known UI and console related issues have been fixed.
- Most of the early programming errors and flaws have been fixed.
- Performance and stability have been greatly improved.
- The build system for the entire project has been improved.
- Fixed and improved network support via BBA and Modem.
- Improved FATFS performance and stability on all devices.
- Fixed and improved surfaces in the GUI and XML library. Support for 32-bit.
- Changed behavior of hotkeys for the FileManager widget.
- Fixed and improved events for video and input.
- Hardware rendered cursor and support for hardware rendered layers on top of SDL.
- Improved and updated KallisiOS to the latest version.
- Used modern GCC compilers version 13.2 with accelerated memory functions in Newblib 4.3.0.
- Updated old and added new modules and console commands.

In addition to the system core, a lot of work was done in the ISO Loader system, therefore, the list of changes in it is the longest.
A lot of time and effort was spent on some of these items. In particular, CDDA emulation, file system and syscalls.

The ISO Loader system:
- Syscalls emulation have been completely rewritten. Better compatibility.
- Improved perfomance for SD driver.
- Completely new IDE driver.
- Improved FATFS for SD and IDE. Pre-reading, continuous reading, asynchronous reading.
- Dynamic memory (heap) with selectable location.
- Improved CDDA emulation for all devices. New modes, auto adjusting buffer size from 32KB to 8KB, and restoring playback in case of conflicts with game code.
- IRQ hooking for better performance and new features.
- VMU emulation for 200 and 1800 blocks (SD and IDE).
- Creating high-quality lossless in game screenshots (SD and IDE).
- Loading from a second executable file (for example, widescreen patched).
- Low-level system call emulation mode (as version 0.7, only IDE with limited functions).
- Automatic disc change for multi-disc games without the ability to save before changing disc (only special GDI images).
- Built-in support for the updated the Bleem! emulator for launching PlayStation games from special GDI images (SD and IDE).
- Division into several types of loaders binary (in addition to the device) with a different set of features.
- Fixed all known issues in the application.
- Improved application UI and hotkey behavior.
- Play CDDA tracks when selecting an image in the application.

I also did not ignore other applications. And even added a couple of new ones.

DreamEye:
- New application.
- Exporting photos from internal storage to any supported device fs.
- Webcam mode with preview at resolutions of 160x120 and 320x240.
- Scanning QR codes in real time.
- Run DSC and LUA scripts from QR codes.

Network:
- New application.
- Supports connection via BBA and modem.
- FTP server (single connection only, fast download, slow upload yet).
- HTTP server (download only).

Main(desktop):
- The size of application icons has been increased to 64x64 and their highlighting has been fixed.
- The first page is for applications only. Scripts (for example, shortcuts) start from the second page.
- Bottom bar as island. New icon.
- Improved layout for icons.

VMU Manager:
- Fixed and improved UI. New icon and showing DreamEye on maple port.
- Fixed memory leaks.
- Fixed scanning of maple devices.
- Support for 1 MB dumps with 1800 blocks.

File Manager:
- Improved UI and new icon.
- Support for paths with spaces when working through console commands.
- Support for wav module for playing raw and wav tracks (in addition to other formats).

Settings:
- Improved UI and new icon.
- Fixed time setting.
- Time synchronization via NTP.

Speedtest:
- Improved UI and new icon.
- Added IO speed test for IDE in DMA mode and SD.

GD Ripper:
- Fixed UI and new icon.
- Fixed memory leaks and improved stability.

GD Play:
- Fixed UI and new icon.
- Fixed memory leaks and improved stability.

BIOS Flasher:
- Minor improvements for UI.

Region Changer:
- New icon and logo.


Download: https://github.com/DC-SWAT/DreamShell/releases


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