The One with the Thoughts of Frans

Author Archive

Run Quake 2 RTX with ray tracing on older AMD GPU

18:30 · Filed under Software

Reading some news items like this about RADV ray-tracing support in Mesa 21.3 and newer made me curious as to what it’d look like on my RX 580.

Because this wasn’t immediately obvious to me, since it’s experimental you have to use the RADV_PERFTEST=rt environment variable to enable it, i.e., something like:

RADV_PERFTEST=rt ./q2rtx

That way I can play Quake 2 RTX at over 40 fps in 640 × 480 on Mesa 22.0. Apparently the game doesn’t allow for lower resolutions, even though I believe it once defaulted to 320×200 at 256 colors. Oh well.

PS I actually wrote this draft over a year ago, intending to expand on it. But oh well, my bad. 😉

Comments

KOReader 2023.08 “Lavender”

18:34 · Filed under Software

As one of the maintainers of KOReader, a versatile a document and image viewer, I’m proud to announce the latest release.

koreader-2023-08

Which plant bravely withstood the drought and now the wetness? Lavender of course! You can eat them too.

We’d like to thank all contributors for their efforts. Some highlights since the previous release include:

  • GestureDetector: Make two_finger pans & swipes report the same sort of data than their standard brethren (#10649) @NiLuJe
  • android: update to use NDK 23c (#10610) @benoit-pierre
  • NetworkManager: Enable “before wifi” action support on every hasWifiToggle platform (#10669) @NiLuJe
  • Style tweaks: notification on toggling style tweak with a gesture (#10674) @hius07
  • [PocketBook]Add support for InkPad Color 2 (#10685) @ckilb
  • Font list menu: allow sorting by more recently set (#10662) @poire-z
  • FileChooser: re-add file sort by “last date read” (#10682) @snelg
  • ArchiveViewer: view files (#10683) @hius07
  • NetworkManager: improve clarity for chatty framework user-facing explanation (#10696) @Frenzie
  • NetworkManager: Bypass isOnline on !hasWifiToggle platforms (#10697)
  • bump LunaSVG, crengine: add support for .docm (#10702) @poire-z @pkb
  • DeviceListener:onToggleFrontlight: add notification of “unchanged” (#10727) @hasezoey
  • bump luajit-launcher: more devices (#10732) @pazos
  • Autowarmth: Change strings “set” / “unset” to “turn on” / “turn off” where appropriate (#10733) @hasezoey
  • Kobo: Apply the AW99703 smooth ramp off fix to all affected devices (#10728) @NiLuJe
  • readerview: do not read/save inapplicable doc_settings items (#10710) @hius07
  • Dictionary: fix Fuzzy search setting appearance (#10721) @hius07
  • bump crengine: CSS caption-side, SVG, CSS and table fixes (#10746) @poire-z
  • View HTML: Show matched rules: ignore style & tweaks on long-press (#10746) @poire-z
  • Wikipedia: handle images in changed Wikipedia HTML (#10746) @poire-z
  • [plugin] Wallabag: strip trailing slashes from server URL (#10715) @clach04
  • QuickMenu: add long-press on profile (#10671) @hius07
  • Kobo: Unbreak Aura One support (#10758) @NiLuJe
  • Exporter: fixes (#10765) @hius07
  • ReaderFooter: Don’t reset the initial position marker like a cowboy (#10767) @NiLuJe
  • Kobo: Initial Elipsa 2E support (#10719, #10802) @NiLuJe
  • Kobo: Yet another attempt at working around the hangs on the latest NXP boards (#10771) @NiLuJe
  • Greek keyboard: update to the new keyboard layout (#10734) @ichnilatis-gr
  • Wikipedia EPUBs: re-add ToC in content (#10769) @poire-z
  • ViewHTML: fix content messed up when consecutive nbsp (#10769) @poire-z
  • util.prettifyCSS(): do better with more complex CSS (#10769) @poire-z
  • [chore] replace utf8 bytes with Unicode escape sequence (#10769) @poire-z
  • Statistics: Attempt to prevent rampant replication of null id_books (#10749) @weijiuqiao
  • Statistics: Close the DB handle in the vacuum OTM block (#10775) @NiLuJe
  • [AutoWarmth] use CheckButton for night mode toggle (#10762) @zwim
  • KOSync: Only nag about “Action when Wi-Fi is off” when toggling (#10785) @NiLuJe
  • Exporter: Replace newlines with commas in HTML, Readwise (#10788) @melyux
  • View HTML & CSS: fix minor spacing issues (#10799) @poire-z
  • Translator: explicit wording above each section (#10799) @poire-z
  • FileManager: truncate left in selected files list (#10783) @hius07
  • Profiles: fix New profile with current pdf document settings (#10778) @hius07
  • NetworkManager: Fully tear down WiFi on aborted connection attempts (#10803) @NiLuJe
  • Exporter: fix order for Readwise (#10824) @hius07
  • KOSync: Set sane socket timeouts properly (#10835) @NiLuJe
  • Calibre: Add reading status to the metadata search popups (#10842) @NiLuJe
  • InputText/InputDialog: fix keyboard issue (#10850) @poire-z

Full changelog — closed milestone issues

Installation instructions: Android • Cervantes • ChromeOS • Kindle • Kobo • PocketBook • ReMarkable • Desktop Linux • MacOS

CommentsTags: ,

KOReader 2023.06 “Hydrangea”

9:04 · Filed under Software

As one of the maintainers of KOReader, a versatile a document and image viewer, I’m proud to announce the latest release.

koreader-2023-06-hydrangea-fs8

Hydrangea seems to be the common English name for what I know as the hortensia. They’re quite pretty this month, with bumblebees buzzing all around.

This will be the final release to support Android 4.0 – Android 4.2, after which support for those versions will be removed. The new minimum supported version will be Jelly Bean MR2 (API18/Android 4.3). For more information see #10614.

Image credit: amilo (source)

We’d like to thank all contributors for their efforts. Some highlights since the previous release include:

Full changelog — closed milestone issues

Installation instructions: Android • Cervantes • ChromeOS • Kindle • Kobo • PocketBook • ReMarkable • Desktop Linux • MacOS

CommentsTags: ,

KOReader 2023.05 “Azalea”

22:01 · Filed under Software

As one of the maintainers of KOReader, a versatile a document and image viewer, I’m proud to announce the latest release.

koreader-2023-05-azalea

This is neat. The FSF published an interview with me about KOReader. You can read it here.

Like any human I’m a bag of contradictions. I often studiously upload the correct cover to LibraryThing, yet in KOReader I’m perfectly satisfied with auto-generated covers if the metadata doesn’t specify any. But if you’re not, and you don’t want to edit the file itself, you can now set custom covers right within KOReader (#10329). A custom cover can be added or removed in the program through the book information page, or you can put a cover image in the .sdr folder manually.

Of course there are many other improvements. Enjoy!

Image credit: adapted from Bilder ur Nordens flora.

We’d like to thank all contributors for their efforts. Some highlights since the previous release include:

Full changelog — closed milestone issues

Installation instructions: Android • Cervantes • ChromeOS • Kindle • Kobo • PocketBook • ReMarkable • Desktop Linux • MacOS

CommentsTags: ,

My Interview with the Free Software Foundation

21:27 · Filed under Software

The FSF just published an interview with me about KOReader. Go check it out here! 😉

CommentsTags: ,

KOReader 2023.04 “Solar Panel”

20:53 · Filed under Software

As one of the maintainers of KOReader, a versatile a document and image viewer, I’m proud to announce the latest release.

koreader-2023-04-fs8

It’s been another busy month squashing many bugs. Our Mac users will be happy to hear that I told macOS we’ve supported HiDPI since long before anyone came up with such terminology (#10341), and that the program can now natively build on M1 devices (#10291).

Solar panel credit: https://openclipart.org/detail/294030/solar-energy by gnokii

We’d like to thank all contributors for their efforts. Some highlights since the previous release include:

Full changelog — closed milestone issues

Installation instructions: Android • Cervantes • ChromeOS • Kindle • Kobo • PocketBook • ReMarkable • Desktop Linux • MacOS

CommentsTags: ,

A fantasy creature called a JavaScript lounging on a bed being stroked by an Icelander in a romantic ominous painting style

19:21 · Filed under Drawing

Myrkraverk inspired me to prompt DALL-E for “A fantasy creature called a JavaScript lounging on a bed being stroked by an Icelander in a romantic ominous painting style.” The results are quite decent.




CommentsTags: ,

KOReader 2023.03 “Cherry Blossom”

17:37 · Filed under Software

As one of the maintainers of KOReader, a versatile a document and image viewer, I’m proud to announce the latest release.


koreader-logo-2023-03

Android users on aarch64 are advised not to use the built-in updater until after installing this release (#10068). On systems supporting both 32-bit and 64-bit the 32-bit version will be installed; on systems only supporting 64-bit the upgrade should normally refuse to install.

For advanced users, there’s a new patch manager to easily enable or disable patches (#9970). See here for more information about how to set it up. Be cautious and don’t play with it if you’re not prepared to have to intervene from outside to fix things.

A big under the hood change is partial rerendering (#10124), which enables seeing the results of changed display settings much more quickly:

With EPUB documents (having multiple fragments), text appearance adjustments can be made quicker by only rendering the current chapter.
After such partial renderings, the book and KOReader are in a degraded state: you can turn pages, but some info and features may be broken or disabled (ie. footer info, ToC, statistics…).
To get back to a sane state, a full rendering will happen in the background, get cached, and the document will be seamlessly reloaded after a brief period of inactivity.
An icon in the top left (that you will soon be ignoring) indicates at what step this process is:
Document is partially rendered. Page count, footer info and many things are innacurate. Reading statistics accounting is disabled. You can turn pages, jump links, notice how the new settings look, change settings again…
A full rendering is happening in the background. You can still turn pages, jump links, change settings…
The full rendering is done, but not yet applied: KOReader is waiting for you to be idle to reload. You can still turn pages, jump links, change settings…
You’ve been idle, KOReader is blocked and reloading the document, which should be quick.
When these icons are gone, you are again in a fully sane and working state.
This feature can be disabled per book with tap, or globally with long-press, on Gear > Document > [x] Enable partial renderings.

Cherry blossom credit: https://openclipart.org/detail/254453/cherry-blossoms

We’d like to thank all contributors for their efforts. Some highlights since the previous release include:

Full changelog — closed milestone issues

Installation instructions: Android • Cervantes • ChromeOS • Kindle • Kobo • PocketBook • ReMarkable • Desktop Linux • MacOS

CommentsTags: ,

KOReader 2023.01 “Winter Ivy”

22:55 · Filed under Software

As one of the maintainers of KOReader, a versatile a document and image viewer, I’m proud to announce the latest release.


koreader-logo-2023-01-fs8

A slightly belated happy new year everyone! It’s a pretty big release, see the technical changelog underneath for details.

A big thanks to @offset-torque for updating the user guide once again, available here. Full changes here.

Ivy from https://www.openclipart.org/detail/307775/ivy-leaves-frame-5

We’d like to thank all contributors for their efforts. Some highlights since the previous release include:

Full changelog — closed milestone issues

Installation instructions: Android • Cervantes • ChromeOS • Kindle • Kobo • PocketBook • ReMarkable • Desktop Linux • MacOS

CommentsTags: ,

KOReader 2022.11 “Froggy”

22:11 · Filed under Software

As one of the maintainers of KOReader, a versatile a document and image viewer, I’m proud to announce the latest release.


koreader-froggy-fs8

I’m filling in last minute for our regular artist. Everything’s well, not to worry. On Android our build system now supports AArch64, but they’re not officially part of the release yet.

We’d like to thank all contributors for their efforts. Some highlights since the previous release include:

Full changelog — closed milestone issues

Installation instructions: Android • Cervantes • ChromeOS • Kindle • Kobo • PocketBook • ReMarkable • Desktop Linux • MacOS

CommentsTags: ,

Older Entries »