rpcs3-PS5

Caution

EXPERIMENTAL. EXPECT CRASHES, FREEZES AND BROKEN GAMES.

This is an early, unofficial port, tested on a single console with a handful of games. It is not supported by the RPCS3 team: do not report problems with it to them.

• Most games are untested; many will crash back to the PS5 home screen or freeze.
• It runs as a homebrew title on a jailbroken console. Jailbreaks, payloads and unsigned titles carry their own risks; you use all of this at your own risk.
• Back up anything on /data/rpcs3/ (saves, settings) that you care about.

Warning

Source only, personal use only. Never share built eboot.bin/title folders, firmware, keys or games. The licenses involved forbid it (below).

Build scripts for running RPCS3 (the PlayStation 3 emulator) as a native title on a jailbroken PS5. RPCS3 renders through Vulkan on PS5_Vulkan's RADV port, plays audio through SceAudioOut and reads DualSense controllers through ScePad. The frontend is RPCS3's own Big Picture Mode.

Source only. This repository holds no binaries, firmware, keys or games, and builds from it must not be redistributed. RPCS3 is GPL-2.0-only, and PS5_Vulkan and PS5_PayloadSDK are GPL-3.0: the combined title cannot be shared under either license. Build it yourself, for your own console.

Tested on a PS5 Pro, firmware 13.60, with the Relapse jailbreak, etaHEN, ftpsrv and ShadowMount+. Need for Speed Carbon (BLUS30016) is fully playable.

Screenshots

Captured over Remote Play on a PS5 Pro (Need for Speed Carbon, BLUS30016).

What you need

• An Arch/CachyOS host (others work if you install the equivalents):

  sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel clang llvm lld make python python-pip git curl \
    unzip tar pkgconf cmake ninja nasm glslang \
    spirv-llvm-translator libclc spirv-headers python-ply

• About 20 GB of disk space. A first build takes about 10 minutes on a 16-core desktop (LLVM and RADV are the slow parts); expect longer on smaller machines.

• On the console: an FTP server on port 2121 (ftpsrv) and ShadowMount+ to register the title.

• Your own PS3 firmware (PS3UPDAT.PUP from playstation.com) and your own game dumps.

Building

git clone https://github.com/lavavex/rpcs3-PS5.git
cd rpcs3-PS5
tools/bootstrap.sh

bootstrap.sh runs these steps in order; each one skips work it has already done, so re-run it after fixing a failure:

Step	Script	Output
Pinned sources	tools/fetch-deps.sh	deps/PS5_*, RPCS3's submodules
PS5 payload SDK fork	tools/install-sdk.sh	deps/sdk-rpcs3
RADV driver, ps5-native-tool, libc.prx	tools/build-driver-chain.sh	deps/PS5_Vulkan/.deps/native/radv-release
LLVM for the recompilers	tools/build-llvm.sh	deps/llvm-ps5
zlib, libiconv, FFmpeg	tools/build-{zlib,libiconv,ffmpeg}.sh	deps/*-ps5
Per-game settings database	tools/update-config-database.sh	deps/config_database.json
RPCS3	tools/build-rpcs3.sh	dist/PPSA99300

After changing RPCS3's code, rebuild with ninja -C build/rpcs3-ps5 rpcs3_ps5.

Installing

Close RPCS3 on the console first (a running title's files cannot be replaced), then:

PS5_HOST=192.168.x.x tools/deploy.sh

This uploads dist/PPSA99300 to /data/homebrew/PPSA99300, and ShadowMount+ adds it to the home screen.

First run

Put these in /data/rpcs3/ on the console over FTP:

• PS3UPDAT.PUP: installed on the next launch, then you can delete it.
• Games: copy disc game folders (each holding PS3_GAME/) to /data/rpcs3/games/, or to a games/ folder on an exFAT USB drive.

RPCS3 opens in Big Picture Mode with your games listed. Players 1–4 are the DualSenses of the signed-in users. Options + touchpad acts as the PS button.

For a custom home-screen background, convert a 16:9 image with deps/PS5_Vulkan/tools/prepare-assets.sh --background <image> --output-directory title/sce_sys and rebuild; pic0.dds/pic1.dds stay out of git.

Settings, logs and caches live in /data/rpcs3/ (log: /data/rpcs3/cache/RPCS3.log). To boot one game straight away, write its path (or a .pkg to install) into /data/rpcs3/boot.txt.

Known issues

• Few games tested. Need for Speed Carbon (BLUS30016) plays at 60 fps. inFAMOUS (BCUS98119) plays, but stutters and runs below full speed in places. Nothing else has been tried yet.
• The first launch of a game is slow. RPCS3 compiles the game's PPU and SPU code and its shaders, and stutters while it does. The caches in /data/rpcs3/cache make later launches faster.
• No video previews. A game's details page in Big Picture Mode shows its icon, not its preview video.
• The CPU usage in RPCS3's log is wrong (a constant 6.3%): the PS5 does not report process CPU time. The performance overlay's PPU/SPU/RSX figures are correct.
• A crash or freeze closes the title without a message. The reason is in /data/rpcs3/cache/RPCS3.log (copy it off before relaunching: each launch replaces it).

Layout

Path	What
src/rpcs3	Submodule: lavavex/rpcs3, branch ps5 (upstream RPCS3 plus the PS5 port; the frontend is rpcs3/ps5/)
cmake/ps5-rpcs3.cmake	CMake toolchain for the title
tools/link-title.sh	Links the title with RADV and signs eboot.bin
title/sce_sys	Title metadata (PPSA99300) and icon
docs/	Notes on the PS5 memory model
PINS.md	Pinned revisions of every dependency, and how to update them (tools/sync-forks.sh)

Credits

• RPCS3 and its contributors.
• mihawk-99 for PS5_Vulkan, PS5_Mesa, PS5_PayloadSDK and PS5_LLVM, and the earlier RPCS3 port notes this one follows.
• Swordpdf's PS5SX2 for the memory model.
• ps5-payload-dev for the SDK.
• blackbearreloaded's ps5-opengl for the shader compiler.

License

The scripts in this repository are GPL-3.0-or-later (LICENSE). RPCS3 and the other dependencies keep their own licenses.