A major mobile-focused update for ARMSX2
ARMSX2 2.7 is a new release of the ARM64 PlayStation 2 emulator, with improvements aimed especially at Android phones and gaming handhelds. The update adds a rebuilt texture-pack catalog, reduces the storage and memory demands of supported HD packs, expands touch-control customization and brings fixes for graphics, save states, disc swapping and game-specific settings.
ARMSX2 is based on PCSX2 and emulates PlayStation 2 hardware on ARM64 devices, including Android phones and handhelds as well as supported desktop platforms. The emulator requires a BIOS dump from a legitimately owned PlayStation 2 console. This release includes Android packages for different Android and ARM64 device targets, including legacy Android support.
ASTC texture packs use less storage and memory
The online texture-pack catalog now comes from ARMSX2’s own repository, and all 490 catalog packs have been converted to ASTC. This compressed texture format can be read directly by compatible mobile GPUs, while included mipmaps help the renderer use appropriate texture levels at different viewing distances.
The practical result is a much smaller collection of packs that can load faster and consume less memory on supported hardware. The God of War II pack, for example, has been reduced from 4.5 GB to 538 MB. Because ASTC textures remain compressed in GPU memory instead of being unpacked during loading, the change is particularly relevant to phones and handhelds where large HD packs previously placed heavier demands on storage, memory and loading performance.
Texture packs are easier to reach as well. Their controls now appear directly below the resolution setting in the renderer settings and on the Graphics page of the in-game menu. The catalog submission link now directs pack authors to the project’s Discord community. Coalesce Render Passes has also moved from the in-game menu into the full settings interface.
More flexible touch and mixed-input play
The touch system gains an Always visibility mode that keeps on-screen buttons visible instead of hiding them. This is useful when a player wants to use a physical controller while keeping touch buttons available. A new Touch controls play as setting can assign the touchscreen to Player 2, allowing one player to use a controller while another uses the device screen. The game must be restarted after changing this assignment.
Multi-touch input now offers three glide modes. Follow activates whichever control the finger moves over, Hold first keeps the first pressed control held, and Hold all holds every control crossed by the finger. These options let players choose how sliding movements behave across virtual buttons.
The touch layout editor also adds a Half-Screen/Onscreen choice for the left stick. With that option, only the right half of the display becomes the stick area, allowing the left side to retain its on-screen controls. Earlier problems with this mode are fixed: face, shoulder, Start and Select buttons respond again, and dragging a stick thumb across a button no longer activates that button.
Touch gestures now operate only on empty parts of the screen, so enabling gestures no longer prevents multi-touch buttons from responding. The layout editor also keeps its options visible when Half-Screen Sticks is enabled.
Auto-hide and pressure-control fixes
Several fixes make touch controls less likely to disappear at the wrong time. Timed auto-hide now keeps the controls visible while the D-pad or an analog stick is being held, then releases the input cleanly when the controls hide. This prevents a direction from remaining stuck and making a character continue walking without further input.
Auto mode now waits for genuine controller input instead of reacting to noise from a drifting stick or an idle clip-on controller. Phone volume keys bound as buttons no longer cause the touch controls to hide.
Pressure handling is more precise. Each macro can now have its own pressure value, allowing two macros assigned to the same button to send different strengths. The update gives two zoom levels in Metal Gear Solid as an example. The P button’s strength can be adjusted in the touch layout editor, while the global pressure value is located with the rest of the on-screen control settings.
Per-game control over fixes and RetroAchievements
A new Fixes per game panel in the in-game quick menu shows the settings that the game database applies to the current title. Players can override those settings, and individual database entries can be disabled. This makes it easier to inspect automatic compatibility adjustments and take control when a database choice does not suit a particular setup.
RetroAchievements options can now be configured separately for each game from the trophy tab in the in-game RetroAchievements menu. Per-game settings cover whether RetroAchievements is enabled and whether Hardcore mode is active. Players can leave the feature disabled globally, enable it for selected games and restore individual games to the global defaults when needed. Notification size is also adjustable from 50% to 250%.
Other convenience features include support for choosing a personal boot-intro video, along with a Preview button. A GS dump option has been added to the first tab of the in-game quick menu, making graphics-bug reports easier to create. The second screen can now be enabled or disabled from the in-game menu or with a hotkey.
Graphics accuracy and game database changes
ARMSX2 2.7 improves several rendering paths. Character shadows in Jak II and Jak 3 are drawn correctly and more quickly, using dual-source blending where the device supports it and selecting the fast path per device. Upscaled lines now cover the same pixels that the original PlayStation 2 would light instead of relying on thicker or shifted approximations.
Sprite seams at higher resolutions have been removed, addressing gaps created when the edge of one sprite was snapped into the neighboring sprite. Align to Native corrections place a Metal Gear Solid 3 HUD icon, a God of War II overlay and an Onimusha line on the intended pixels. Texture detail is also corrected in games that lower their mipmap bias, after a value was being sign-extended twice. Some screen effects that had been incorrectly treated as texture shuffles now render correctly.
The software renderer has been brought closer to measured PlayStation 2 behavior for color gradients, texture coordinates, fog and mipmap levels. These changes target visual accuracy rather than simply increasing the output resolution.
The game database has been synchronized with PCSX2 again, retaining local fixes that still apply to the current recompiler and renderer. The update specifically mentions titles including Tales of Destiny, Stuntman, Fate/Unlimited Codes, God of War II and Kingdom Hearts II. Older mobile-only entries have been removed because some created problems, including a missing left eye for Jak in Jak 3.
Readback fixes have also been restored for games that can run slowly without them. Listed examples include Hot Shots Golf Fore!, Black, Jak 3, Downhill Domination, Delta Force: Black Hawk Down and Rumble Racing.
Stability improvements and platform behavior
Save states could cause the emulator to hang after several saves. ARMSX2 now pauses the game from its own thread while a state is being written. Disc swapping receives the same style of handling to address hangs during that operation.
Handheld devices now fall back to device vibration by default after losing rumble support. A hotkey assigned to an analog trigger no longer fires twice. Device temperatures receive their own line in the performance overlay, making them easier to distinguish from the other performance information.
All 19 languages now cover the full application, including roughly 14,500 strings that previously appeared in English. The update also corrects several mistranslations and completes help text that had been cut off mid-sentence.
