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What is SwanStationPS5?

SwanStationPS5 is a PlayStation 1 emulator that installs as an app on the PS5 home screen. It started as a fork of PSXS5 by SynoPiia, and it is no longer one. PSXS5 draws its interface on the CPU, with SDL2's software renderer into a canvas that Vulkan only displays; SwanStationPS5 is now 100% Vulkan, the game's picture and the whole interface drawn by the GPU, so the two frontends no longer line up. It runs every game on SwanStation.

Its frontend (the shelf, menus, controls and tools) began as PSXS5's and has been reworked since to be 100% Vulkan. It drives the SwanStation core: SwanStation is the only emulator.

• The emulator is SwanStation (DuckStation's libretro core): accurate, and drawn on the PS5's GPU through Vulkan at up to 16x the PS1's resolution, with PGXP. It runs without a BIOS dump on its built-in OpenBIOS, but SCPH1001.BIN is highly recommended for good emulation.
• You pick a game from a cover-flow shelf with your covers.
• RetroAchievements, cheats for every game, save states and quick resume.

Also on Xbox Series X|S

SwanStation is also available for the Xbox Series X|S as a UWP app: SwanStationUWP. Download it from its releases page. It needs the console in Xbox developer mode. Each release carries the app package (.msix), its signing certificate (.cer) and the Microsoft.VCLibs x64 dependency: trust the certificate, install the dependency, then install the package.

SwanStationUWP is a separate project with its own releases and issues; everything else in this README is about the PS5 app.

Screenshots

Highlights

• The shelf and menus on the GPU too. The interface is drawn through Vulkan, with a floor reflection under every cover. When you start a game, the case's lid opens and the CD spins, with the sound of a disc spinning up.

• Always 4K. The picture is sent to the TV at 4K, and it falls back to 1080p if the TV lacks the mode.

• Up to 16x resolution on the GPU. SwanStation renders through Vulkan: native, 2x, 4x, 8x or 16x (4x by default), at full speed.

• No more wobbly 3D. PGXP (precise geometry) keeps polygons still and textures straight.

• One emulator, nothing to choose. Every game runs on SwanStation. Memory cards are saved per game.

• SwanStation's own options. 104 of its core options (MSAA, texture filter, widescreen hack, PGXP details, controller ports, CPU overclock...) in Settings → Display, Graphics, Controls and System. They are in English and only on the console.

• Five themes. Neon Arcade (the default), Classic, Memory Card (light and dark, a grid of covers) and Record Shelf (spines on a shelf), each with its own colours and fonts. Around a 4:3 picture: black, the current background or a 90s TV, or the game's own artwork frame (off by default).

• Games on a drive, by one name. Games folder on drives (psx by default, typed with an on-screen keyboard) is looked for on /mnt/ext0/, /mnt/ext1/ and /mnt/usb0/ to /mnt/usb7/ at once, so it still works when the console numbers your drives differently.

• Games on an NFS server. Keep your games on a PC or a NAS and play them over the network: add the server in Settings > System > NFS shares. They show on the shelf like a drive's, a background thread reads the disc ahead of the game, and a server that goes away just takes you back to the library. See Games on an NFS server.

• Play your own PS1 discs from a USB CD drive. Put a PS1 disc in a USB CD drive and SwanStationPS5 copies it to your games folder (a .bin and a .cue, with a progress bar and the game's cover), adds it to the shelf and starts it. Once a disc is installed, putting it in again just starts the game. With the disc daemon this works even with the app closed. See Playing from a USB CD drive.

• Discs without opening the app. Send SwanStationPS5-DiscDaemon.elf (a file of the release) once to your console's ELF loader and leave it running: a disc put in the drive is installed with the console's own notifications (name, percentage and time left), and then the game opens by itself.

• Multi-disc games. Change disc from the in-game menu and it happens as soon as you choose; the disc you leave a game on is the one it starts on next time. A .m3u playlist of .chd discs gets its serial (and so its cover and data) from the first disc's name.

• Analog mode on at start. A DualShock starts in analog mode in the games that use the sticks, unless the game's entry says to start in digital mode (the ANALOG button combo still switches it).

• The DualSense as a light gun. Point the controller at the screen in GunCon games (Time Crisis, Point Blank...); R2 fires.

• Adaptive triggers. R2 feels like a gas pedal in racing games, and R2 / L2 can be the gas and brake.

• Profiles. Each person keeps their own memory cards, save states, settings, play time and RetroAchievements sign-in.

• Text guides and manuals. Read a walkthrough .txt or a manual's pages from the in-game menu.

• Game art. Title screens and gameplay pictures in Details, and the game's own artwork around the picture.

• Quick resume. Leave a game and pick it up later: the shelf offers Continue (with a picture of where you were) or Start over.

• Rewind and fast forward. Hold the touchpad and press L2 to go back a few seconds, or R2 to speed through cutscenes.

• Save states with pictures. Ten slots per game, each showing a thumbnail and how long ago it was saved.

• Widescreen. SwanStation's widescreen hack (Settings → Graphics) draws the 3D picture in 16:9.

• CRT look. Light or strong scanlines, and the current background or a 90s TV around the picture.

• Shaders for the picture (Settings → Display → Shader): LCD3x (a handheld's LCD) and zfast LCD, four NTSC ones (320px or 256px, S-Video or Composite) that recreate the analog TV signal, and CRT looks: CRT Royale Fast and CRT Royale (detailed, with bloom and a phosphor mask; heavy), CRT Newpixie, CRT Hyllian NTSC, CRT Mattias, CRT Lottes and CRT Pi.

• Generate frames. AMD FSR 3's frame interpolation adds frames between the game's real ones. x2 puts one between each two: a 30 fps game is shown at 60, and with Video output at 120 Hz a 60 fps one at 120. x4 puts three: with Video output at 120 Hz a 30 fps game is shown at 120. At 60 Hz it only doubles. SwanStation tells the app when a picture is a repeat, so it starts from the game's real rate. The shaders run after it, CRT Royale Fast and NTSC included.

• Show FPS that tells the truth. It shows the emulated frames, the game's own rate when the game repeats pictures (60.0 FPS (game 25.0)) and, while frames are generated, the frames you actually see and how many are made for each of the game's (100.0 FPS (game 25.0) | FG x4).

• HD texture packs. The Load HD textures switch turns on SwanStation's texture replacement; put a pack's PNG files in /data/SwanStationPS5/cache/textures/<serial>/ (for example SCUS-94900).

• PS1 homebrew. Homebrew discs boot too: Yume Nikki PS1 and Doki Doki Literature Club PSX are confirmed.

• PSXS5 friendly. It still reads PSXS5's games and BIOS folders (see supported folders), so a PSXS5 library keeps working.

• Close the app from the controller. Hold O for 2 seconds. Menus show the title from the game database, and the game menu has pills with the serial and the folder.

• Up to 4 players. A multitap for the games that support it: each PS5 controller is a player.

• Fan translations. Put a .ppf patch next to a game and SwanStationPS5 applies it when the game starts.

• Memory card manager. See the saves on every game's card with each save's own icon (animated, as on a PS1), export cards for other emulators, import .mcr, .mcd, .srm or .gme cards.

• Achievements list. Every achievement of the game you're playing, with badges, in two tabs: Achievable (closest first) and Achieved.

  • Counted achievements (18/80 dragons) show a progress bar, and a small tracker pops up in game when they move.

• Settings from your phone. Turn it on and scan the QR code: a settings page opens on any phone on the same network.

• Updates from GitHub. SwanStationPS5 finds a new release when it starts and installs it by itself a second after opening (or from Settings → About), into the folder the app is running from: /data/homebrew, or an extended or USB drive. After an update it asks once whether to start from the new version's factory settings (✕ resets, ○ keeps yours).

• Native app. A real home-screen title (PPSA98510) with its own icon and art. Nothing is streamed and no PC is needed while you play.

• A shelf for your games. A cover flow with depth, 3D jewel cases, a reflection under every cover and a soft click as you browse.

  • Covers are matched by the serial read from each disc, so every region gets its own art.
  • Missing covers download on the console.
  • Your own art wins: a cover.png/.jpg in the game's folder, or an image in /data/SwanStationPS5/covers/ named like the game's title, its disc file or its serial (Crash Bandicoot.png, SCUS-94900.jpg).
  • Or pick one by hand: on the shelf press Triangle (Details), then Square, and choose any image from covers/ or the game's folder.

• Plays every common format. .cue/.bin, .chd, .pbp (including multi-disc), .iso, .img, .mdf, .ccd and .m3u playlists for multi-disc games.

• Sharp on a 4K TV.

  • Output: 1080p, 1440p or 4K (Settings → System → SwanStationPS5), changed at once.
  • Internal resolution: native up to 16x with SwanStation.
  • Aspect ratio: auto, 4:3, 16:9, 16:10, 1:1 pixels or stretch, and Crop black edges to hide the black lines at the top and bottom.
  • Manual crop, under Aspect ratio: open the preview with the touchpad, and Left / Right stretch or narrow the picture (always keeping its aspect ratio, which is shown) while Up / Down move it up or down. Square goes back to the original area.
  • Integer scaling and smooth final scaling on or off (sharp pixels by default).

• Built for full speed. 60 fps (50 for PAL games). SwanStation renders on the GPU, and so do the shelf and the menus; everything reaches the TV through Vulkan.

• RetroAchievements. Earn RetroAchievements as you play.

  • Unlocks and leaderboard results pop up on screen.
  • Optional hardcore mode.
  • See RetroAchievements.

• Cheats for every game, automatically. SwanStationPS5 knows all 1,961 PlayStation cheat files of libretro-database (GameShark, Action Replay...), and DuckStation's cheat database (about 4,500 more files) for games libretro has nothing for.

  • When a game starts it finds that game's file and downloads it: no setup.
  • Toggle codes per game from the in-game menu.

• Save states. 10 slots per game, plus memory cards saved per game.

• DualSense ready.

  • The classic digital pad by default, or the DualShock with analog sticks and rumble (Settings → Controls → Controller).
  • On digital-only games, the left stick drives the D-pad.
  • Cross confirms and Circle goes back in the menus.

• Your BIOS, or none. SwanStation works best with a BIOS dump of your own console for the game's region (scph5500.bin Japan, scph5501.bin USA, scph5502.bin Europe in bios/; the PC tool names them for you). Without one, SwanStation uses its built-in OpenBIOS, which is less compatible.

• Five languages. English, Français, Português (Portugal), Español (Latinoamérica) and 日本語, under Settings → System → Language.

• Quiet interface sounds. Five styles (Soft, Wood, Pop, Chime, Classic), a volume setting, or off.

• A PC tool for your library. tools/SwanStationPS5_sync.py prepares your games on Windows and uploads them over FTP:

  • unpacks archives
  • writes missing .cue sheets and .m3u playlists
  • fetches covers and cheats

• Logs that help. A session log and a crash report (with addresses for the symbol map) stay on the console.

Playing from a USB CD drive

The PS5 has no laser for CDs, so PS1 discs are played from an external USB CD drive. SwanStationPS5 does not read the disc while you play: it installs it first (copies it to .bin and .cue in your games folder, the same as a dump you made yourself) and plays that copy. That way the game runs at full speed and works with every feature (save states, rewind, cheats, RetroAchievements). It only copies discs you own.

The flow, with the disc daemon (the app can be closed)

1. Once per console start, send the payload SwanStationPS5-DiscDaemon.elf (it is attached to every release, next to the zip; it is not inside the zip) to the ELF loader of your console, with the app closed:

   socat -t 99999999 - TCP:<PS5 IP>:9021 < SwanStationPS5-DiscDaemon.elf

   A notification says it is ready. Leave it running; sending a newer copy replaces the old one.
2. Plug in the USB CD drive and put in a PS1 disc. The console's own notifications show Installing <game>: 37% - 5 min 30 s left.... The time left comes from the speed the drive has just had, since a CD reads faster towards its edge.
3. The game starts by itself. When the copy ends, SwanStationPS5 opens, skips its opening animation and starts the game at once, on the disc you put in.
4. Next time, the same disc (or a disc of the games folder) just says Loading <game>... and opens the game: nothing is copied twice. The game stays on your shelf, so you no longer need the disc.

To cancel an installation, take the disc out (what was copied is deleted). If the drive reads nothing for 30 seconds, or the disc has too many bad sectors, the installation stops with a notification that says why. A disc that is not a PS1 game is ignored.

The flow, with the app open

With SwanStationPS5 open, the app looks after the drive itself and the daemon stays out of the way (they never use it at the same time). Put the disc in while you are on the shelf: a card shows Installing <game>... with its cover and a bar, and the game starts when it ends. Hold O to cancel (what was copied is deleted, and the same disc does not start again until you take it out).

Good to know

• Games of several discs go in one folder: install disc 1, then disc 2... and SwanStationPS5 turns them into one game with a .m3u playlist. The game starts on the disc you put in, and you change disc from the game menu.
• The cover is downloaded while the disc is copied. Homebrew discs without a serial are installed too, with no cover.
• Where it goes: /data/SwanStationPS5/games/<Game name> [<serial>]/. Delete a game from its Details (hold Triangle) to free the space.
• The daemon needs the console to be jailbroken, as the app does, and writes its log to /data/SwanStationPS5/logs/disc-daemon.log.
• It is not in the zip because it is not a part of the app: it is a payload you load like any other. Build it yourself with make disc-daemon (dist/SwanStationPS5-DiscDaemon.elf).
• Not every USB CD drive may work. If yours does not, send the logs (SwanStationPS5.log and disc-daemon.log) with your bug report.

Supported folders for games and BIOS

GAMES: one folder per game, in any of these places

The games are looked for in all of these folders at once. Inside each, one folder per game with every file of the game in it (.cue + .bin, .chd, .pbp, .iso, .m3u...):

Where	Folder
The console (the default)	/data/SwanStationPS5/games/<Game name>/
The console, from PSXS5	/data/PSXS5/games/<Game name>/
A USB drive	/mnt/usb0 to /mnt/usb7, then SwanStationPS5/games/<Game name>/
An extended storage	/mnt/ext0 or /mnt/ext1, then SwanStationPS5/games/<Game name>/
An NFS server	the folder you add in Settings > System > NFS shares, one folder per game (see Games on an NFS server)

On each USB drive and extended storage these four also work (<drive> is /mnt/usb0 to /mnt/usb7, /mnt/ext0 or /mnt/ext1):

• <drive>/SwanStationPS5/games/<Game name>/
• <drive>/SwanStationPS5/<Game name>/ (without games)
• <drive>/PSXS5/games/<Game name>/ (PSXS5's folder)
• <drive>/PSXS5/<Game name>/

Example on a USB drive: /mnt/usb0/SwanStationPS5/games/Crash Bandicoot/Crash Bandicoot.chd.

You can also pick one folder name for drives in Settings > System > SwanStationPS5 > Games folder on drives (psx by default): it is looked for on /mnt/ext0/, /mnt/ext1/ and /mnt/usb0/ to /mnt/usb7/ at once, since the drive's number changes with the ones plugged in. With psx, a game goes in /mnt/usb0/psx/<Game name>/ (or /mnt/usb1/psx/... and so on). Leave the field empty to turn it off.

BIOS: one folder, no subfolders

Priority	Folder
1st	/data/SwanStationPS5/bios/
2nd (only if the first has no .bin)	/data/PSXS5/bios/ (PSXS5's folder)

Put the BIOS files directly in the folder, not in a subfolder, and keep their standard names: SCPH1001.BIN (recommended), scph5500.bin (Japan), scph5501.bin (USA), scph5502.bin (Europe), scph101.bin. A BIOS on a USB drive or extended storage is not read. With no BIOS, SwanStation uses its built-in OpenBIOS. Settings → About shows which one is in use.

On a USB drive or extended storage SwanStationPS5 needs /data unlocked to list the folders (see below). Sandboxed, it only shows the games listed in /data/SwanStationPS5/library.txt.

Games on an NFS server

You can keep your games on a PC or a NAS and play them over your network, with no copy to the console. The console has no NFS client of its own, so SwanStationPS5 carries one (libnfs): only the app sees the share. It is read only, and the BIOS, saves, states and covers stay on the console.

1. Share the games folder from the server

Put one folder per game inside the folder you share (the same as in Supported folders: .cue + .bin, .chd, .pbp, .iso, .m3u...), and export it over NFS to the console's address:

• Windows: run an NFS server such as WinNFSd with the folder and an alias, for example winnfsd.exe D:\psx /psx. The alias (/psx) is the path you type in the app.
• Linux, or a NAS (Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS...): turn NFS on, and export the folder read only to the console. On Linux, in /etc/exports: /srv/psx 192.168.1.0/24(ro,no_subtree_check). If the console is refused, try adding insecure to the options.
• NFS v3 is used by default. A server that only speaks v4 needs ?version=4 at the end of the address.

2. Add it in the app

1. Open Settings > System > NFS shares. The on-screen keyboard opens with an example (nfs://192.168.1.85/psx).
2. Type the address of your server and the exported folder, with nfs:// in front: nfs://<server IP>/<exported folder>. For example, nfs://192.168.1.50/psx. Several shares go separated by ;.
3. Press Apply. The app connects and reloads the library. A notice says NFS share connected. or why it could not, and the games of the share show on the shelf.

Useful options go after a ?: ?version=4 (NFS v4 only), ?nfsport=2049&mountport=1058 (fixed ports, when the server has no portmapper), ?uid=1000&gid=100 (who the server sees). The folder you type can also be inside what the server exports.

Good to know

• Opening the app never waits for the server. The shares mount in the background and the library is scanned again when they are ready.
• Reconnecting. If the server was closed and opened again, or was off when you opened the app, go to Settings > Library > Rescan library: it checks the shares again and mounts the ones that are not. A rescan also takes you back to All games.
• Smooth playing. While a game runs, a background thread reads the disc image ahead of the game and keeps up to 256 MiB of it in memory, so the game does not wait for the network on every read. The memory goes back when you close the game; nothing is written to the console.
• If the connection is lost in the middle of a game (the server is closed or the network goes), the game is left, the library is reloaded and a notice says NFS communication was lost.
• Not connecting? The notice says why: the server did not answer, the connection was refused or closed, the name was not found, the server denies the console, or the folder is not exported (it then lists what the server does export, so you can copy the right path).

Games on an NTFS disk

A USB disk or hard drive formatted as NTFS (the format of most Windows disks) works with no copy to the console. The console cannot mount NTFS, so SwanStationPS5 reads the disk itself, read only; only the app sees it. The reader comes from PS5-NTFS-BROWSER (GPL-3.0-or-later, without its writing part).

• Put one folder per game in a psx folder (or the name set in Settings > System > Games folder on drives) or in SwanStationPS5/games on the disk, as in Supported folders.
• Plug the disk in, and open Settings > Library > Rescan library: the games show on the shelf. Settings > System > NTFS disks turns this off.
• MBR and GPT disks work. Encrypted (EFS, BitLocker) files cannot be read. Compressed NTFS files work but read slower.
• Turn the disk off in Windows properly (not Fast Startup, which leaves it unfinished): otherwise its latest changes may not show.
• If the disk is unplugged in the middle of a game, the game is left and a notice says The NTFS disk was disconnected.

What you need

• A jailbroken PS5 with etaHEN and kstuff loaded. Development happens on firmware 13.60.
• ShadowMountPlus, loaded at every boot. It puts SwanStationPS5 on the home screen from /data/homebrew/PPSA98510/.
• An FTP client, such as etaHEN's FTP server on port 2121 with FileZilla, or the included PC tool.
• Your own games, dumped from discs you own.
• Optional: your own PS1 BIOS, dumped from your own console. Without one, SwanStation uses its built-in OpenBIOS, which is less compatible.

No BIOS files, games, keys or cheats with copyrighted content are included with SwanStationPS5, and none will be provided. You have to supply your own legally made backups.

Getting started

1. Download PPSA98510.zip from the latest release and extract it. Inside is the PPSA98510 folder. The PC tool is in the repository (tools/SwanStationPS5_sync.py).

2. Install the app. Copy the PPSA98510 folder to /data/homebrew/ on the PS5 over FTP. Then set its permissions to 777: in FileZilla, right-click the folder → File permissions → 777, recurse into subdirectories. Without this, the PS5 says "Can't start the game or app" (CE-107750-0). The PC tool does all of this for you:

   python tools/SwanStationPS5_sync.py app --app-dir PPSA98510 --host <PS5 IP>

3. Restart ShadowMountPlus (or the console). SwanStationPS5 appears on the home screen.

4. Start SwanStationPS5 once. It creates its folders in /data/SwanStationPS5/ (see below) and shows an empty shelf that tells you where games go.

5. Add your games to /data/SwanStationPS5/games/, one folder per game, with every file of the game inside it:

   /data/SwanStationPS5/games/Final Fantasy VII/   FF7 Disc 1.cue, FF7 Disc 1.bin, ... (any format above)
   /data/SwanStationPS5/games/Crash Bandicoot/     Crash Bandicoot.chd
   

   Or let the PC tool prepare and upload a whole folder of games (see PC tool).

   Shelf still empty? When etaHEN doesn't unlock /data, SwanStationPS5 can't look into the games folder and only shows the games listed in /data/SwanStationPS5/library.txt, which the PC tool writes when it uploads. For games you copied another way (FileZilla, a file manager, a USB drive), let the tool list them:

   python tools/SwanStationPS5_sync.py index --host <PS5 IP> --fix-cues

   --fix-cues repairs .cue files that point at a .bin that was renamed, for example to BREATH~1.BIN by a FAT32 copy.

6. Optional, but add your BIOS. SCPH1001.BIN is highly recommended for good emulation. Put your own dump directly in /data/SwanStationPS5/bios/, not in a subfolder, and keep its standard name. scph5501.bin (US), scph5500.bin (Japan) and scph5502.bin (Europe) also work, as does scph101.bin. Settings → About shows whether it was found. From a PC: python tools/SwanStationPS5_sync.py bios scph5501.bin --host <PS5 IP>.

7. Restart SwanStationPS5. Covers download the first time, then the shelf opens with your games.

Where do things go? Games: /data/SwanStationPS5/games/<Game name>/. BIOS: /data/SwanStationPS5/bios/. SwanStationPS5 creates both folders the first time it starts; you can also create them yourself over FTP.

Unlocking /data (so SwanStationPS5 can see your games)

A PS5 app can read and write files in /data, but it can't list folders unless something running on the console unlocks it. SwanStationPS5 asks every time it starts. Any one of these answers:

On your console	What to do
LegacyJB	Load it with your payloads at each boot. It unlocks any app.
etaHEN	Turn on Legacy CMD server in the etaHEN toolbox. SwanStationPS5 asks on port 9028.
PS5SX2 Helper (the PS2 emulator's helper)	It only unlocks apps listed in /data/whitelist.txt. Use Settings → System → Allow SwanStationPS5 in PS5SX2 Helper, then reload the helper or restart the console.

The log shows the result: storage: unlocked, or storage: sandboxed (...) with the reason. Sandboxed still works, but SwanStationPS5 then only knows the games in /data/SwanStationPS5/library.txt (written by the PC tool's upload and index commands).

Folders on the console

/data/homebrew/PPSA98510/     the app
/data/SwanStationPS5/
├── games/<Game name>/        your games, one folder per game (a cheats.cht here overrides the library)
├── bios/                     optional: your BIOS dump (scph*.bin)
├── covers/                   your own cover images (named like the game, or picked on the shelf);
│                             downloads in default/ and 3d/, picks in custom/
├── cheats/                   the .cht library
├── saves/                    memory cards, one per game
├── states/                   save states, 10 slots per game
├── logs/SwanStationPS5.log            the session log (send this with bug reports)
├── retroachievements.ini     RetroAchievements sign-in (token only)
└── SwanStationPS5.ini                 settings

Covers for games without one

Covers are downloaded by the game's serial. A game that is not found (a homebrew, a translation, a hack) shows a plain title card until you give it a cover.

Copy the image yourself (FTP, USB or the PC tool)

Name the image like the game's disc file, without the extension. For yume_nikki.cue, the cover is yume_nikki.png, and it goes in one of these places:

Where	File name
The game's own folder, next to the .cue	yume_nikki.png, or just cover.png
/data/SwanStationPS5/covers/	yume_nikki.png, the game's title (Yume Nikki.png) or its serial (SLPS-01234.png)

/data/SwanStationPS5/games/Yume Nikki/
├── yume_nikki.cue
├── yume_nikki.bin
└── yume_nikki.png        ← the cover

SwanStationPS5 looks for covers in this order and uses the first it finds:

1. cover or the disc file's name in the game's folder.
2. The game's title, the disc file's name or the serial in covers/.
3. Covers already downloaded (covers/default/, covers/3d/), then a download by serial.

Good to know

• Formats: .png, .jpg and .jpeg, with the extension in lowercase. Other formats (.webp, .bmp, .gif) are not read.
• Large images are scaled down to 640 px tall, so there is no need for more.
• If the new cover does not show up, restart SwanStationPS5 so it scans the library again.

Controls

On the shelf

Button	Does
D-pad or left stick	Browse the games
L1 / R1	Category (All games, Recently played, Favorites...)
Cross	Play
Triangle	Game details (hold Triangle there to delete the game's files)
Square	Settings
R3	Favorite
Touchpad	Memory cards
OPTIONS	Sort order
Circle	Back

In a game

Button	Does
OPTIONS	PS1 START
Touchpad tap	PS1 SELECT
Hold L3 + R3 for 1 second	The SwanStationPS5 menu (Settings → Controls → Game menu combination can change it to the touchpad, or OPTIONS + touchpad)
Hold the touchpad + R2	Fast forward
Hold the touchpad + L2	Rewind (turn on Settings → System → Rewind)
Hold the touchpad + Square	Screenshot (in /data/SwanStationPS5/screenshots)
Hold the touchpad + Triangle / Circle	Start or pause / reset the speedrun timer
R3 (light gun games)	Re-centre the aim
Left stick	Analog stick; on digital-only games it also drives the D-pad (Left stick as D-pad in Settings)

The SwanStationPS5 menu has:

• resume
• save and load state (slots 0–9), and the auto-saves
• disc change, for multi-disc games
• cheats, and Find a code to make your own
• achievements
• the manual and text guides, when the game has them
• settings
• reset
• quit to the shelf

It also shows the time and how long you've been playing.

Text guides: put a walkthrough or FAQ (.txt) in the game's folder, or in a guides folder inside it, and read it from the SwanStationPS5 menu → Guide. Manuals: page images (1.jpg, 2.jpg...) in <game folder>/manual/.

Settings

Section	Settings
Display	Aspect ratio, texture filtering (including MMPX), shader (LCD3x, CRT Royale and Royale Fast, Newpixie, Hyllian NTSC, Mattias, Lottes, Pi, zfast LCD, NTSC), crop black edges, integer scaling, smooth final scaling, scanlines, border, game artwork border, brightness, colours, FPS counter, load HD textures, double frames, and SwanStation's display options
Graphics	Internal resolution (native to 16x), PGXP, true colour, supersampling, and SwanStation's enhancement options (MSAA, PGXP details...)
Controls	Controller (digital or DualShock), left stick as D-pad, vibration, light bar, players (multitap), player order, dead zone, stick response, rumble feel, trigger effects, gas and brake on R2 / L2, light gun, button mapping, and SwanStation's controller port options
Achievements	Account, your profile, unlock pop-ups and their style, progress tracker, hardcore mode
Library	Theme, cover style, download missing covers, sort, your library, memory cards, rescan
System	SwanStationPS5 (start the BIOS, games folder on USB drives, NFS shares), region, PS1 startup intro, fast CD loading, known game fixes, SwanStation's console and advanced options, quick resume, rewind, auto-save, who's playing (profiles), settings from your phone, language, unlocking /data, PS5SX2 Helper whitelist

Video settings apply while you play. Internal resolution, PGXP, region, BIOS, controller and SwanStation's options apply from the next game.

RetroAchievements

SwanStationPS5 never asks for your password on the console. You sign in once from your PC: the tool swaps your password for a login token, and only the token is copied to the PS5.

python tools/SwanStationPS5_sync.py ra-login --host <PS5 IP>

Restart SwanStationPS5 and it signs in by itself. Start a game, and if it has an achievement set, a banner shows how many you have unlocked.

With several profiles (Settings → System → Who's playing), each person signs in for their own profile, using its name as shown on the console:

python tools/SwanStationPS5_sync.py ra-login --host <PS5 IP> --profile "Player 2"

• Your profile (Settings → Achievements) shows your points, the games you've mastered, recent unlocks and the games closest to mastery. Covers show a trophy badge with your progress.

• Hardcore mode (Settings → Achievements) turns off loading states and cheats, as RetroAchievements requires. Turning it on restarts the running game.

• Hardcore mode follows RetroAchievements' hardcore compliance requirements: cheats, save states, quick resume, rewind and autosave are off; turning it on resets the running game; fast-forward is off; there is no slow motion or frame advance. The user agent sent to the server is SwanStationPS5/<version> (PS5) rcheevos/<version>.

• Without a connection, unlocks are kept and sent when the console is back online.

• Games are recognised by the same disc hash RetroArch uses, so the usual RetroAchievements-compatible dumps (Redump) work. When a version isn't in any set (some PlayStation Store or patched images), SwanStationPS5 says so.

Cheats

Nothing to install: when a game starts, SwanStationPS5 finds its file among libretro-database's PlayStation cheats and downloads it (the first time, the list appears a few seconds into the game). Games without a file there have no cheats.

In a game, open the SwanStationPS5 menu → Cheats and switch codes on and off. Cheats tied to one level ("... Stage") can freeze the game when the level ends: turn them off before. Your choice is remembered per game. To use your own codes, put a cheats.cht in the game's folder.

PC tool

tools/SwanStationPS5_sync.py runs on Windows with Python 3 (and 7-Zip for archives).

python tools/SwanStationPS5_sync.py plan    --source "D:\Games\PS1"                 # what it would do, read-only
python tools/SwanStationPS5_sync.py sync    --source "D:\Games\PS1" --host <PS5 IP>  # prepare + upload, one game at a time
python tools/SwanStationPS5_sync.py covers  --host <PS5 IP>                     # covers for your games
python tools/SwanStationPS5_sync.py cheats  --host <PS5 IP>                     # the cheat library
python tools/SwanStationPS5_sync.py bios    scph5501.bin --host <PS5 IP>        # your own BIOS dump
python tools/SwanStationPS5_sync.py ra-login --host <PS5 IP>                    # RetroAchievements
python tools/SwanStationPS5_sync.py app     --app-dir PPSA98510 --host <PS5 IP> # install or update the app

sync handles the whole library, one game at a time:

• unpacks .7z / .rar / .zip archives, including archives inside archives and split archives
• writes missing .cue sheets and .m3u playlists for multi-disc games
• skips duplicates
• uploads to /data/SwanStationPS5/games/
• sets the permissions

It remembers what is already on the console, so you can run it again whenever you add games.

Known limitations

• SwanStation works best with a BIOS for the game's region; without one it uses its built-in OpenBIOS, which is less compatible.
• Sandboxed mode. If etaHEN won't unlock /data, SwanStationPS5 still runs: it reads the game list the PC tool uploads (library.txt) instead of listing the folder.
• Closing from the PS button crashed the console once during testing while /data was unlocked through etaHEN. If it happens to you, set Settings → System → Unlock /data with etaHEN to Off and let us know.
• The PS5's own keyboard and on-screen keyboard aren't used, so text entry (like the RetroAchievements sign-in) happens on the PC.

Building from source

To build the PS5 app on Linux or WSL (Ubuntu 24.04):

sudo apt install clang-18 lld-18 llvm-18 make ninja-build ccache pkg-config python3 python3-venv tar unzip wget
git clone https://github.com/darkxex/SwanStationPS5.git
cd SwanStationPS5
git submodule update --init --recursive third_party/rcheevos
git submodule update --init third_party/swanstation
make            # -> dist/PPSA98510/ and dist/PPSA98510.zip
make disc-daemon                # -> dist/SwanStationPS5-DiscDaemon.elf, the disc daemon payload
python3 tools/make_release.py   # optional: build the payload and the app, and pack PPSA98510.zip

make builds SwanStation (tools/build-swanstation.sh) and rcheevos (tools/build-rcheevos.sh) as static libraries, links the RADV Vulkan driver (tools/fetch-radv.sh), compiles src/ and signs eboot.bin. APP_VULKAN=0 builds without Vulkan and SwanStation.

Path	What
src/main.c	screens and main loop
src/core/host.c	libretro host for the built-in cores
src/core/swanstation_options.c	SwanStation's core options, made by tools/gen_swanstation_options.py
src/ra/	RetroAchievements
src/ui/	cover flow, text, sounds
src/platform/	PS5 video output, input, heap, scaling filters
tools/SwanStationPS5_sync.py	the PC tool
payload/discd.c	the disc daemon payload, built by make disc-daemon into dist/SwanStationPS5-DiscDaemon.elf
tools/make_release.py	builds the payload and the app, packs PPSA98510.zip (with --ip, also uploads the app to the console)
tools/make_dds.py	converts the two backgrounds to the BC7 pic0.dds / pic1.dds
tools/make_art.py	generates the icon and the home-screen art
docs/boilerplate/	documentation of the PS5 app boilerplate SwanStationPS5 is built on

Credits

SwanStationPS5 started as a fork of PSXS5 by SynoPiia and is built on the work of a lot of people. Thank you all.

• The SwanStation and DuckStation contributors, for SwanStation, the emulator SwanStationPS5 runs.
• Mihawk-99, for the PS5 port of Mesa's RADV Vulkan driver.
• BlackBearReloaded, for ps5-native-app-boilerplate, the build pipeline, runtime and deploy tooling that turn SwanStationPS5 into a home-screen app.
• John Törnblom, for the ps5-payload-dev SDK, and PacBrew's SDL2 and libcurl ports.
• SvenGDK, for SharpProspero, whose ELF converter and FSELF writer sign eboot.bin.
• The etaHEN team, for etaHEN: the HEN, its FTP server and ELF loader, and the on-demand jailbreak SwanStationPS5 asks for to reach /data. Thanks also to the kstuff authors and maintainers.
• drakmor, for ShadowMountPlus, which puts SwanStationPS5 on the home screen, and VoidWhisper, for ShadowMount, which it's based on.
• ArkSama / Team PHU and mpereiraesaa, for PS5-Lapy-JB-Daemon, the fallback sandbox elevation.
• RetroAchievements, for the achievements, the community that makes the sets, and its rcheevos library.
• xlenore/psx-covers, for the covers the shelf downloads.
• sodaraptor (@sodaraptor_dev), for the PSX jewel case model and textures the shelf's 3D cases are built from: Hypnagogia 無限の夢 Boundless Dreams Jewel Case (CC-BY 4.0), with each game's own cover in place of its art.
• The libretro-database contributors, for the PlayStation cheat library.
• Swordpdf, for PS5SX2. Its shelf and project page inspired SwanStationPS5's, and studying it and the other PS5 emulator ports showed how a native emulator title runs on the console.
• Ronnie Sahlberg, for libnfs (LGPL-2.1-or-later), the NFS client behind Games on an NFS server, and tutifrutas, for the SwanStationPS5 fork whose console configuration of it is used here.
• Swordpdf and AMD, for the frame interpolation behind Generate frames: PS5SX2's port of AMD FSR 3 (FidelityFX SDK), as first integrated in PSXS5 by SynoPiia.
• Al-Azif, for ps-disc-detect (GPL-3.0): the disc installation follows its way of reaching the drive through the CAM pass-through and of dumping a CD to .bin and .cue with READ CD. And Swordpdf, for PS5SX2's disc code and its rule that a command only counts as done when the drive handed over every byte.
• crashGG (github.com/crashGG), for MMPX 3.0 and MMPX 3.2, the texture filters of the same names, and Morgan McGuire and Mara Gagiu, for MMPX, the pixel art filter they are built on (MMPX Basic).
• Hans-Kristian Arntzen (Themaister), for the NTSC shaders, TroggleMonkey and Hyllian for CRT Royale and CRT Royale Fast, Hyllian for CRT Hyllian NTSC, Mattias Gustavsson and hunterk for CRT Newpixie, Mattias for CRT Mattias, Timothy Lottes, davej and Greg Hogan for the CRT Lottes, CRT Pi and zfast LCD shaders, and Gigaherz for LCD3x.
• Sam Lantinga and the SDL contributors for SDL2, Daniel Stenberg for curl, Sean Barrett for stb, Rasmus Andersson for the Inter font, Google and Adobe for Noto Sans JP (the Japanese text), and Doug Lea for dlmalloc.
• Microsoft's DirectXTex, Pillow and 7-Zip, for the art pipeline and the PC tool.
• Developed with the help of Claude Code.

Licences for everything above are in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

Legal

Privacy policy · Third-party notices and shipped cores

SwanStationPS5 is free software under the GPL-3.0-or-later. SwanStation is GPL-3.0.

SwanStationPS5 is not affiliated with or endorsed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. "PlayStation" is a registered trademark of Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. It is used here only to describe what the emulator does.

SwanStationPS5 doesn't include and won't provide BIOS files, games or keys. Only use dumps of discs and consoles you own.