Included in the Jacaranda 2601.0 release we rolled out a new special type of overlay system that, at first glance, may not look like anything fancy…
This overlay system is not tied to any emulator, core, or content. Instead, it operates at the lowest rendering layer itself, allowing us to draw visual elements on top of anything whilst using the device.
This works across most, if not all, SDL and OpenGL ES render paths. If a game can render, an overlay can appear on top of it.
No emulator patches!
No core changes!
No game hacks!
Content is completely unaware the overlay exists. We have tried our best to accommodate all displays and automatically adapt to screen resolution which can sometimes vary by emulator, core, or even individual content like Portmaster games.
There is a new configuration menu option which allows you to change specifics relating to, anchor point, scale, and transparency of which all can be changed to suit your play style.
In addition to these overlays we have also added a low battery notification, which of course can be customised by themes.
Not stopping here… this overlay system has quite the potential for future features such as:
- In-game status indicators
- Performance or debug overlays
- Notifications and system alerts
All of this happens with very minimal overhead and without impacting gameplay stability.
The best developed features tend to disappear into the background quite easily… When something just works it’s easy to take it for granted. But this overlay system fundamentally changes what MustardOS is capable of displaying during gameplay going forward.
You won’t always see it. But many future features will only be possible because it exists.
However we should state that it works for the majority of content and there will be some titles that won’t utilise it unfortunately.