Nearly ten years after the console's launch, the RPCS3 team has started development on a PS4 emulator. It's not the first of its kind, but it's the most promising so far. The GPCS4 isn't intended to emulate commercial games and the Orbital has only had one comment on its GitHub page since 2021--with the team behind the biggest PS3 emulator on the job, this software could become the definitive way to emulate PS4 games on PC.

The RPCSX PS4 emulator was spotted over the weekend by Read Only Memo (as reported by Games Radar), who spoke to DH in length about how the project began and how things are going with its development; "I did some things just after the [PS4's] release," they said, adding that they held off until the PS5 launched. "It's quite easy to do at least for Linux [...] The main problem is HW device emulation... but it is not really different than with PS3 emulation.

“Any emulator is supposed to be able to run your games. Imagine that your favourite game is removed from PSN (e.g. PT), or you just haven’t access to your ps4 with TV just now, but you have PC and you just want to play a game that you already have [bought]. Of course you will think about an emulator. We cannot estimate anything just because every team member has work/family/hobbies and it is not full time work. We do it because it’s interesting for us.”

While some long-time RPCS3 developers are back to help with the PS4 emulator, it's still in the early stages and open to anyone who wants to lend a hand--you can contribute on its GitHub page if you have any technical know-how.

It was a challenge as is to get PS3 emulation up and running, and given the leap from PS3 to PS4, it's understandable to have reservations about whether this is a realistic project. According to DH, "It is almost the same as PC", and is actually proving to be "simpler" than building a PS3 emulator. That bodes well for the project. "Shaders are the hard part... At least we have public documentation and do not need to do reverse-engineering like for Nvidia cards for RPCS3."

Emulation is often conflated with piracy, but as entire storefronts close down and digital exclusives become lost to time, and as physical copies for retro consoles skyrocket in price as games end up trapped on older hardware, it becomes a necessity for preservation. As DH points out, this will help to keep games like PT available, and if games are ever removed from the PS4 storefront--or if the store itself closes--you'll still be able to access all of your favourites, or any of those gems you missed out on.

Posted: Jul 06, 2023 8:41 pm
Related Forum: PlayStation Forum

Source: https://www.thegamer.com/ps4-emulator-development-rpcs3-team/