Release Notes for CycloDS Evolution Firmware v1.3 BETA
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Introduction
------------

This release marks the introduction of the RealTime Save feature into CycloDS Evolution.
In order to implement this feature a lot of internal changes were made to our software,
so we have decided to release this initially as a public BETA and as such, we advise that
the software may (and probably will) contain bugs. Please backup your MicroSD card before
using and if you don't want any risk at all, please wait for the stable release. We have
tested this quite thoroughly ourselves but as a small team our capacity for testing is
rather limited, so we would appreciate any help in identifying any remaining problems. If
you come across a bug, please report this in the bugs section of our forum and we will do
our best to fix it quickly.

How to use RealTime Save
------------------------

RealTime Save is disabled by default, and must first be enabled through the settings menu
by setting "RTS BETA" to "Enabled". Before you can use RealTime Save with each individual
game, a .RTS file must be created. These files are not created automatically due to their
large size of 4.7MB. To create a RTS file for a game, hold down SELECT whilst you launch
that game and the file will be created. You must hold SELECT before the loading screen
appears and only release after you see "Loading (RTS Initialise)". You only need to do 
this once per game; subsequent launches of the same game will detect the presence of the
RTS file so you don't need to hold down SELECT. Please note that this is a temporary
solution - we are planning a GUI re-design soon that will include a per-game context menu
system where such options may be toggled.

If RealTime Save is enabled in the settings menu and a RTS file has previously been created,
the menu items relating to RealTime Save in the ingame menu will be available. Usage is
quite self-explanatory - select "RealTime Save" to save the current state of the game and
then "RealTime Load" to load that state. We're quite please with the speed of these
operations, as our tests with a Toshiba 4GB MicroSD show saving taking about 6 seconds
and loading taking about 2.5 seconds.

Known Problems
--------------

There are currently some known problems with RealTime save which are related to the fact
that currently its not possible to save and load 100% of the NDS hardware (more on this
below). Some of the known issues are:

- After loading, the sound will become crackly with some games. To avoid this, we suggest
  pausing the game before you save as this will help in many cases.
- If you save during gameplay and then attempt to load from the game's main menu, this can
  lead to graphical problems with some games. To avoid this, we suggest loading during
  gameplay and not from the main menu.

RealTime Save Technical Details
-------------------------------

Currently it is not possible for our software to obtain a complete capture of 100% of the
NDS hardware. This means that when a state is loaded, small parts of the hardware will be
"out of sync" - this is what can lead so graphical or sound problems. For example, its
currently not possible to capture the full state of the 3d graphics engine which means that
you need to wait for the game code to properly configure the 3d graphics hardware itself 
before loading a state which relies on the operation of this hardware. Often games have not
configured the 3d graphics hardware at the main menu and wait until entering gameplay to do
this - meaning if you load a gameplay state from the main menu, the 3d graphics hardware
will not have been setup correctly resulting in graphical problems.

The reason for these problems is that a great deal of the hardware registers on the NDS
are write only - you can not read the values which the game has written to them, meaning
you can not include dumps of these registers in the saved state. We are currently working
on some special "register trap" code which will allow us to obtain a complete capture of
all the hardware and this make it possible to save and load from anywhere. This would also
make it possible to load a saved state directly from the CycloDS Evolution main menu so
you would not need to wait until the game starts and then load from the ingame menu!


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Well, that's all for now - hope you all enjoy!

Regards,
Team Cyclops
