Keep RR guides and separate alpha in VRAM

packaging/RELEASE_NOTES.md

@@ -21,11 +21,18 @@
 - Run the signed CUDA-capable 3.10.7 DLSS-Denoiser through the NGX core's feature-13 lifecycle.
   Presets D and E select distinct network weights independently of the Super Resolution preset.
 - Preserve per-frame guide resources, camera matrices, subrects, and stable CUDA texture handles.
-  Support normalized 8-bit albedo guides with the CUDA array-format ABI and stage full guide rows.
+  Support normalized 8-bit albedo guides with the CUDA array-format ABI and preserve full guide rows.
 - Support pre-Init feature discovery through the denoiser's requirements export without initializing
   NGX with a provisional application identity. Initialized capability checks remain authoritative.
-- Keep separate alpha and RGB outputs paired, including padded output subrects; consume alpha
-  readback synchronously before CPU conversion.
+- Keep separate alpha and RGB outputs paired, including padded output subrects and current-frame
+  split presentation. Separate alpha no longer forces the whole feature through host staging.
+  R32F alpha stays in VRAM; half/UNORM alpha uses GPU conversion with hardware-dependent rounding.
+  Raw integer alpha retains its existing host conversion without disabling RGB VRAM interop.
+  Converted alpha can differ from CPU quantization by one destination step.
+  Normals, roughness, albedo, and other compatible RR guides use shared VRAM buffers; BGRA and
+  packed RGB guides convert on the GPU. Raw integer guides retain their host conversion.
+  Add actual-CUDA-array verification, per-frame rendered RGB/alpha comparisons, and source-alpha
+  capture for checking conversion against the exact frame being presented.
 - Bound R8_UINT alpha stores to one byte and balance guide/alpha references when evaluation
   cannot place its frame marker. Publish cached denoiser capabilities as a coherent snapshot.
 - Extend the ZLUDA patch stack for real denoiser PTX, LLVM lowering, half texture/store operations,
@@ -37,6 +44,12 @@
   1920×1080 and 3840×2160 Ultra Performance on gfx1201. The actual overlay reported DLSSD 310.7.0,
   and CUDA feature-13 evaluations completed. The observed ~53 FPS at 1080p and ~20 FPS at 4K are
   snapshots, not comparative benchmarks. Newer DLSS 4.5 RR preset F is not implemented or validated.
+- Rechecked the optimized VRAM guide path in a loaded Cyberpunk 2077 2.31 save with path tracing,
+  RR preset E and 1080p Ultra Performance on gfx1201; the user verified gameplay.
+  All six supplied guide arrays matched the host reference byte-for-byte in diagnostic checks.
+  The tested GE-Proton11-3 setup required native ICU overrides
+  (`icuuc=n,b;icuin=n,b;icudt=n,b`) to avoid Wine's unimplemented `u_setMemoryFunctions_65`.
+  Keep guide/alpha verification off for normal play; it intentionally adds GPU readbacks.
 
 # d4r 0.1.3