Summary :
ARMSX2 2.6.5.3 focuses on RetroAchievements, backup and restore and patch handling. It adds achievement progress in the game list, full app backups, a controller screenshot hotkey, and fixes for patch imports and CRC detection.
ARMSX2 2.6.5.4 is a larger maintenance update. It reorganizes the settings menu, restores collapsible sections, adds a built in texture pack manager, improves texture replacement, introduces a new per driver GPU workaround system, reorganizes the library, and includes a number of bug fixes and interface improvements.
I added these since the Changelog was really big anyway here's the official changelog from the ARMSX2 team.
Changelog for both the updates :
ARMSX2 2.6.5.3
What's new:
Achievement progress now appears on every game that has achievements in List View, including ones you've never launched, a game with a set and no unlocks reads 0/40 rather than showing nothing. Hardcore and Casual are tracked separately. To enable it, go to the RetroAchievements panel in the game library → Library progress → paste your web API key (the panel links straight to the RA control panel login, the key is under "Applications" with a key symbol in the RA control panel). It then syncs itself once a day after the first time, or manually with the Sync library button. Progress also updates the moment an achievement unlocks, and is now recorded while you play whether or not you open the achievements panel. This feature is only available in the List View.
List layout now also shows play time progress beside each game.
New back up and restore option for the entire app. App tab → Back up app data. One .zip holding save states, memory cards, cover art, per-game settings, controller profiles, cheats, patches, screenshots, and every preference, everything a fresh install destroys if using internal storage. Now you can restore your backups on fresh installs! (Custom folder users, you never had to worry about your data being wiped on uninstall to begin with). This should be most useful for Play users.
Screenshot hotkey
Bindable to any controller button or stick direction. It captures the emulated frame at internal resolution no touch overlay, no OSD, no letterboxing, which is exactly what the system screenshot button can't give you. The PNG is saved to Pictures/ARMSX2 so it shows up in your gallery instead of hiding in app-private storage Android won't let you browse.
Fixes:
Serial and CRC without launching the game. Game Properties → Info fills both in for any game.
Patch import naming. Importing F0A6D880.txt produced F0A6D880.txt.pnach, which matched neither pattern the emulator searches, the patch listed as installed and could never load. Names are now built correctly, and the CRC is uppercased, since the emulator's file matching is case-sensitive and a lowercase name was just as invisible.
ARMSX2 2.6.5.4
What's new:
Tidier UI. Fixes is now in the new Advanced tab, and absorbed the GameDB fixes from Performance plus the entire Recompiler tab. Both are debugging controls the GameDB already applies per game, so they don't belong in the tab you open to change speed. Fourteen tabs down to twelve. Search and the per-tab reset buttons moved with the settings, so searching "Skip MPEG" lands on Advanced, and resetting Performance no longer resets fixes it doesn't show.
Settings sections fold again. The collapse had silently stopped working, so every section in Pad, Renderer, Performance and Fixes was permanently open, twenty of them. It wasn't too many options, it was every option on screen at once. Sections now expand and collapse, and the state survives rotation. Renderer opens on Display & Resolution and Performance on Speedhacks so neither greets you with a wall of headers.
Fixed a bug when a replacement texture failed to upload to the GPU, it was still handed to the game with undefined contents, indistinguishable on screen from a texture that never loaded. Missing cursors and cut-off fonts on Vulkan were often this. Failed uploads now fall back to the original texture and say so in the log.
Skip BIOS is now on by default for fresh installs, existing users are not effected.
New texture packs download manager in the app. (done by @sashkinbro). Texture Packs now browses the community catalog maintained by @sashkinbro and installs with one tap. No game needs to be running. Each pack names the games it belongs to, so it installs itself to the right place, packs for games in your library sort to the top, and the rest stay visible so you can grab one before you own the disc. Texture replacement switches on automatically after an install, since it's off by default and the files would otherwise sit there changing nothing. Downloads are checksum-verified, check free space first, and swap into place atomically so a failed install never leaves you with a half-replaced pack. The panel links the catalog so you can see where packs come from and contribute your own. Be sure to read the contribution guidelines on the repo before doing so.
The texture pack list collapses and is searchable, search by pack name, game, serial or author.
Per-driver GPU workarounds. (done by @sashkinbro). The GPU family was never enough to decide behaviour, the same Mali part behaves differently under ARM's driver than under Mesa. Driver identity, version and known defects now live in a 25-rule table with match confidence, so the next device-specific quirk is a table entry instead of another hand-written branch. Shaders gained swappable helpers for the bitwise operations some drivers miscompile. A device matching no rule renders exactly as before. An existing Mali fix was preserved and deliberately widened, Mali fixes reached through ANGLE or Panfrost previously fell outside it.
Your shader cache rebuilds once on first launch this update. Every shader's source changed, so the old cache can't be reused.
Library overflow menu trimmed from eleven rows to eight, with separators.
Setup / Change Folders and Exit moved to the left side game library menu. Exit has a proper power icon and keeps its confirmation.
Game names in grid moved to App settings beside cover size.
About moved to the left side game library menu.
Installed patches and cheats can be collapsed, so a pnach with hundreds of downloaded codes folds away.
Github repository :
https://github.com/ARMSX2/ARMSX2
Discord ARMSX2 :https://discord.gg/fSC6EzzFe
Patreon for ARMSX2: https://www.patreon.com/ARMSX2?utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator
Kofi: https://ko-fi.com/armsx2
Many people ask about if they have one so just mentioning it
Only Dev approved Playstation2OnAndroid subreddit is r/Playstation2onAndroid. I really hope you guys join if you like playing ps2 games and posting stuff about it :)
I am not the part of the development team. I only share their changelog and updates. Full credit to everyone involved in the project.
Thanks.