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[Raploz]

PlayStation 4 Emulator GPCS4 Can Already Boot a Commercial Game

The PlayStation 4 emulator GPCS4 hasn't been in development for long, but it is already making great progress, booting a commercial game

wccftech.com

Github: https://github.com/Inori/GPCS4

According Wccftech:

"GPCS4 is now at a stage where it can boot a commercial game, We Are Doomed. While the game is not an exactly demanding title, the fact that it boots and runs is impressive, given the emulator has been in the works for a short amount of time. Sadly, the game is not exactly playable, as it runs at very low FPS, so it will be a while until we will be able to enjoy PlayStation 4 games on PC."

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There's also another PS4 emulator project called Orbital (currently it doesn't run any game):

GitHub - AlexAltea/orbital: Experimental PlayStation 4 emulator.

Experimental PlayStation 4 emulator. Contribute to AlexAltea/orbital development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Searching for "PS4 emulator" on Google shows up a "Pcsx4" emu, but it seems to be completely fake.

 

[DESTROYA]

Or you can just buy a PS4, it’s not like they are expensive new and can find very good used PS4‘s for around $100 .

 

[Fuz]

Or you can just buy a PS4, it’s not like they are expensive new and can find very good used PS4‘s for around $100 .

 

[DESTROYA]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention the PS5 will be full backwards compatible with PS4 games making this emulator pretty moot.

 

[hunthunt]

Thats crazy, I still remember how PCSX2 started as an almost impossible project loading the title of FFX at something like 5 fps back in 2005 or something, or RSCP3 wich definitively looked fake when it was released 5 years ago. Both are in an incredible stage right now.

 

[MeatSafeMurderer]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention the PS5 will be full backwards compatible with PS4 games making this emulator pretty moot.

 

[NOLA_Gaffer]

Or you can just buy a PS4, it’s not like they are expensive new and can find very good used PS4‘s for around $100 .

I remember when I was young and used to get bitter about emulation. It's okay, you'll get over it someday.

 

[mcz117chief]

Odd, I would think, give the PC architecture, that it would be quite simple to emulate.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Odd, I would think, give the PC architecture, that it would be quite simple to emulate.

The original Xbox has very much proven this line of thinking to be false.

 

[mcz117chief]

The original Xbox has very much proven this line of thinking to be false.

Sure, I'm not an expert, it was just my observation.

 

[DESTROYA]

I remember when I was young and used to get bitter about emulation. It's okay, you'll get over it someday.

Not bitter at all just see it mostly pointless when you can still find PS4 hardware cheap and play it the way it was meant to be played.
On a technical standpoint it would seem it would be easier since it’s based x86 architecture to make this type of emulator.

 

[nowhat]

Odd, I would think, give the PC architecture, that it would be quite simple to emulate.

The Jaguar cores may be puny (well, not may, they are), but there are 6 (6 and a half-ish with later OS iterations) available for games at all times, no exceptions. There's the unusual shared memory architecture. It runs a variant of BSD instead of Windows. The graphics APIs in use may resemble other ones like OpenGL/DX12/Vulkan, but they are proprietary (and behind an NDA). And so on. x86/x64 doesn't mean it's a Windows PC by any means.

 

[MeatSafeMurderer]

Odd, I would think, give the PC architecture, that it would be quite simple to emulate.

The problem is the OS. If you could run the OS natively with proper drivers for your hardware you wouldn't need to emulate, the game would largely run natively without issue. Unfortunately you can't...so you have to emulate the hardware to even get the software to run.

Edit: To be clear the PS4's OS theoretically *can* run on any standard x86_64 "IBM PC compatible" CPU, Sony has just gone to great lengths to make sure you can't.

 

[Raploz]

The problem is the OS. If you could run the OS natively with proper drivers for your hardware you wouldn't need to emulate, the game would largely run natively without issue. Unfortunately you can't...so you have to emulate the hardware to even get the software to run.

Well, PS4 uses FreeBSD. You can run FreeBSD natively on any computer. I'm guessing the only problems would be the drivers and translating/mapping the PS4 hardware to a computer via emulation.


Edit: I posted before your edit.