Support NeoGAF

[kingfey]

Thanks to Nekotekina optimising SPU performance, SPU bottlenecks have been reduced across the board allowing for higher RSX (PS3 GPU) utilisation. Metal Gear Solid 4 saw the largest improvement from this change with most users seeing a 25-50% performance uplift! This change gave kd-11 some much-needed headroom to optimise RSX performance even further! And kd-11 has done just that, with a 5-20% performance gain in most RSX heavy games/areas such as outside of towns in Red Dead Redemption.

In fact, kd-11 is already working on another RSX improvement, this time to Zcull performance! Early testing has revealed yet another huge gain in Metal Gear Solid 4, and of course other games as well. Stay tuned. kd-11 also resolved a NVidia specific physics issue affecting Uncharted 1 & 2 due to differences in float calculations.

Meanwhile Vestral managed to get Audio and HDMI Support working with XMB/VSH (The PlayStation 3's OS)! This was a huge undertaking, and HDMI support had to be added in order for RSX Audio to even work. HDMI Support means, you can easily set VSH to 1080p without diving through settings as well! Thank you for your amazing contribution!

 

[Chris_Rivera]

Are these in the latest branch or what? I don’t understand the multiple patreon aspect of this project.

 

[worldwithpyramids]

the progress for this emulator over the last few years or so has been incredible.

 

[solidus12]

Hire them Sony. I want to play my PS3 discs on PS5.

 

[rickybooby87]

Sony should just embrace emulation on PS5. I’m curious if the reason they haven’t done it is because of jailbreak concerns? (Another potential attack vector).

 

[01011001]

if only someone would write a DX12 renderer for it at that point it could be ported to Series X

 

[ACESHIGH]

I'd love for 3D Dot game heroes to have playable status.

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

Sony should just embrace emulation on PS5. I’m curious if the reason they haven’t done it is because of jailbreak concerns? (Another potential attack vector).

They've gotta be thinking about it. Streaming PS3 games off those server blades is an untenable situation and they have to know it.

 

[Dirk Benedict]

Can confirm, the latest update, played Silent Hill Downpour @4K60 FPS, with zero crashes. These people being talented is an understatement.

 

[sachos]

Hire them Sony. I want to play my PS3 discs on PS5.

I think the RPCS3 devs themselves talked about the PS5 CPU not being powerful enough to fully emulate PS3 games, at least not the more demanding ones, im sure MGS4 would be one of them. I think we will have to wait for PS6 level CPU power at this point lol

 

[ElCasual]

Why this emulator cant run in a PS5?

 

[ElCasual]

I think the RPCS3 devs themselves talked about the PS5 CPU not being powerful enough to fully emulate PS3 games, at least not the more demanding ones, im sure MGS4 would be one of them. I think we will have to wait for PS6 level CPU power at this point lol

Thanks.

 

[Greirat]

Does it still have texture pop-in the first time you see a shader?

 

[Filben]

Does it still have texture pop-in the first time you see a shader?

Yes, and this is still the biggest issue for me and a clear indicator that this is, despite all the improvements, still an experimental project. Yes, many if not most games run on it and many rather well performance-wise. It's not there yet to replace original hardware, though, in terms of a consistent game and play experience.

There still heavy pop-ins and missing textures and visuals when shaders are being compiled. Often it still stutters despite the asynchronous compiling.

I tried every settings combination of reducing or even eliminating those stutters for the last few hours and it was only possible to reduce the heaviest stutter, while having pop-ins.

Overall it's still not an enjoyable experience. I wouldn't mind a visual glitch here and there if everything else was consistent. Sadly, it's not. Sometimes I also think the same shaders get compiled over and over again at the same place and time where I've already been and it should run better. It's simple not there for your primary game experience.

I've tried Tomb Raider Legend and Anniversary from the HD Trilogy, however. It might be better or even worse with other games. Pop-ins are most probably a thing in every game because that's how it works. They'll never get rid off the need to compile shaders on the fly and you either take heavy, unplayable stutter, lags and second long freezes and no pop-ins, or the latter with modest, little or sometimes no stutter, depending on the shader being compiled.

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

Yes, and this is still the biggest issue for me and a clear indicator that this is, despite all the improvements, still an experimental project. Yes, many if not most games run on it and many rather well performance-wise. It's not there yet to replace original hardware, though, in terms of a consistent game and play experience.

There still heavy pop-ins and missing textures and visuals when shaders are being compiled. Often it still stutters despite the asynchronous compiling.

I tried every settings combination of reducing or even eliminating those stutters for the last few hours and it was only possible to reduce the heaviest stutter, while having pop-ins.

Overall it's still not an enjoyable experience. I wouldn't mind a visual glitch here and there if everything else was consistent. Sadly, it's not. Sometimes I also think the same shaders get compiled over and over again at the same place and time where I've already been and it should run better. It's simple not there for your primary game experience.

I've tried Tomb Raider Legend and Anniversary from the HD Trilogy, however. It might be better or even worse with other games. Pop-ins are most probably a thing in every game because that's how it works. They'll never get rid off the need to compile shaders on the fly and you either take heavy, unplayable stutter, lags and second long freezes and no pop-ins, or the latter with modest, little or sometimes no stutter, depending on the shader being compiled.

Check the game compatibility list before assuming one game's experience represents everything else. I played multiple games there and they performed way better than the originals did. Demon's Souls for example, getting load times of 1 second when you die is a game changer compared to the original. Steady, smooth high frame rates too... perfect. Would be the best way to play it if the remake hadn't come out

 

[Filben]

Check the game compatibility list before assuming one game's experience represents everything else. I played multiple games there and they performed way better than the originals did. Demon's Souls for example, getting load times of 1 second when you die is a game changer compared to the original. Steady, smooth high frame rates too... perfect. Would be the best way to play it if the remake hadn't come out

I have checked it and unfortunately their labeling system doesn't leave much room for nuances, as their highest label is "playable" and the posts regarding compatibility and issues are page long discussions about, e.g., "RSX: wait when emulation is paused (reduces CPU usage)" or "Fix missing GPU in game window title". And the last forum post regarding the game's I've tried are from 2019.

As far as the compatibility list goes, the games I've tested have the same 'rating' as Demon's Souls.

So even with that list there's no indication, when marked as playable, how well a game runs.

 

[GHG]

Hire them Sony. I want to play my PS3 discs on PS5.

Just get a half decent PC/laptop. Rpcs3 doesn't need a monster PC to run well by today's standards.

 

[Duchess]

Why this emulator cant run in a PS5?

PlayStation 3 emulation tested: revisiting Metal Gear Solid 4 at 4K 60fps with RPCS3

There's a wealth of PlayStation 3 exclusive games that remain locked to the system - console-exclusive titles that sold…

www.eurogamer.net

However, the computational effort in emulating the SPUs still means that powering past the performance of the original PlayStation 3 is something that requires some serious CPU power. Many RPCS3 patches are available that boost performance - and key to this is lowering the SPU load, so a lot of these 'optimisations' involve removing SPU tasks, such as GPU post-processing. And there are some titles that barely touched the SPUs, so they already run well - Demon's Souls is the poster child, and Ridge Racer 7 is another. But this is the fundamental challenge facing any official PS3 emulator from Sony, targeting PS5 - emulation of the Cell remains extremely challenging and certainly based on the RPCS3 right now, it's beyond the Zen2 CPU power of the current-gen consoles.

 

[dotnotbot]

I saw someone playing MGS 4 and the performance while compiling shaders was awful. Is it unavoidable and you can only enjoy your games when playing them second time? It sucks.

 

[Rudius]

PlayStation 3 emulation tested: revisiting Metal Gear Solid 4 at 4K 60fps with RPCS3

There's a wealth of PlayStation 3 exclusive games that remain locked to the system - console-exclusive titles that sold…

www.eurogamer.net

That's an exaggeration. Many games run at 60 on old 4 core Intel CPUs.

 

[Greirat]

Check the game compatibility list before assuming one game's experience represents everything else. I played multiple games there and they performed way better than the originals did. Demon's Souls for example, getting load times of 1 second when you die is a game changer compared to the original. Steady, smooth high frame rates too... perfect. Would be the best way to play it if the remake hadn't come out

Demon's Souls has plenty of pop-in and shader compiling hitches the first time you play.

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

Demon's Souls has plenty of pop-in and shader compiling hitches the first time you play.

The shaders compile literally at the first loading, takes a couple seconds on an NVME. Played the game perfectly to completion several times like that with the 60fps mode and all

 

[Greirat]

Maybe it's changed now, but when I last tried it, it would compile shaders every time you saw a new material, not just at first loading. Playing the game several times is irrelevant, of course it's fine the second time because you have the shaders compiled already, it's just that first time experience that is bad.

 

[Guy_who_thinks_hes_cool]

honestly I prefer something simple, an emulator that can emulate them all at 60fps 720p, and least amount of settings tweak

 

[Krathoon]

I just ordered an external Blu-ray drive. I am going to try dumping Siren: Blood Curse and play it in the emulator.
Now, I will get all the Siren games on the PC.

God of War 3 also seems like a good candidate to try. And Heavenly Sword.

 

[ACESHIGH]

FYI vanillaware games and hard corps uprising run like a charm on this emulator on low end HW.

 

[Krathoon]

The Castlevania reboots also seem like good ones to try on it.
I will dig trough my old games.
Does a Dualshock 4 support the six axis stuff or do I need to use an original PS3 controller?

Edit: I looked it up. It has a more precise version of six axis. I assume the emulator uses this.

 

[01011001]

I tested Motorstorm 2 a few days ago with the new version and it now runs up to 80fps, when before it hung around 60fps max.
it still drops below 60fps some times for me but this is a huge stability improvement

 

[Aesius]

honestly I prefer something simple, an emulator that can emulate them all at 60fps 720p, and least amount of settings tweak

It can do that. You don't have to increase the internal resolution, and not all games require patches.

 

[Krathoon]

Yeah. Siren: Blood Curse runs great even on a lower end video card.


Finding a disc of it on eBay is a little pricey, but it is region free. I think I got a UK copy. For some dumb reason, they never put it on disc in the US.
I am pretty impressed with how fast the emulation is. PC hardware is getting pretty powerful.

 

[damiank]

I just ordered an external Blu-ray drive. I am going to try dumping Siren: Blood Curse and play it in the emulator.
Now, I will get all the Siren games on the PC.

God of War 3 also seems like a good candidate to try. And Heavenly Sword.

Lol, good luck. PS3 discs are encrypted and only handful of drives (PS3 included) can read them.

IMO if Sony want to create bc with PS3 it should be Microsoft way with focus on games that weren't rereleased on PS4/PS5 like Rayman Origins, Mortal Kombat, MotorStorm or MGS to complete those sets of games. There's no point in wasting time for Uncharted, TLoU, Tomb Raider or Resident Evil games if those already there.

 

[Generic]

Can it run Diagaea D2?

 

[amigastar]

I'm running Skate 1,2 and 3 on this emulator so i don't have to start my Xbox360 for the games. Too bad Skate 2 support is kinda broken.

 

[Ev1L AuRoN]

Great news, I'm currently trying to finish persona 5 on it and while the game is already running pretty decent as is, there are some areas that drop sharply the performance, specially in the school halls and places with higher density of characters. (I'm running on a 3600XT so I understand if a lot of you guys aren't facing that problem with beefier CPU's.).

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

just add it to retroarch and run on Xbox. would be hilarious.

 

[Ev1L AuRoN]

just add it to retroarch and run on Xbox. would be hilarious.

Hilarious indeed, maybe even prompt Sony to do something about it, after all if the Series X could run PS3 games, Sony wouldn't have any excuse to not having the games running on their machine as well.

 

[Holammer]

Can it run Diagaea D2?

I tried it for fun and the answer is yes. If you get garbled graphics, set the 'Default Resolution' to 1920x1080 (you can still set resolution scale to 1440p/4k).

 

[Krathoon]

I guess this is probably the more convenient way to play original Demon Souls with a live server.

 

[SantaC]

The Castlevania reboots also seem like good ones to try on it.
I will dig trough my old games.
Does a Dualshock 4 support the six axis stuff or do I need to use an original PS3 controller?

Edit: I looked it up. It has a more precise version of six axis. I assume the emulator uses this.

Castlevania reboots are on PC

 

[Krathoon]

Castlevania reboots are on PC

Oh. Are they? I will have to look them up.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

I can't wait to play wipeout HD on PC at 60+ fps!

 

[Krathoon]

It is a good thing they have the patches for the games. I was wondering about that.

 

[spoonztt]

Oh. Are they? I will have to look them up.

They're usually pretty cheap too. The ports are great.

 

[01011001]

Oh. Are they? I will have to look them up.

way better than the console versions. the only issue really is that the Antialiasing is pretty bad and the first game at least completely freaks out when you run with super sampling (not sure why)

 

[Krathoon]

Finding the game patches is kind of a pain in the butt.

 

[Krathoon]

The PS3 version of Alone in the Dark is the best version. They fixed it up. Not certain if the fixes got into the PC version.

 

[spons]

Finding the game patches is kind of a pain in the butt.

You can download them directly from Sony's servers on PC. There are tools to do so AFAIK.

 

[Codiox]

I'd love for 3D Dot game heroes to have playable status.

what?

this game runs at least since 2 years flawless

 

[Drew1440]

Lol, good luck. PS3 discs are encrypted and only handful of drives (PS3 included) can read them.

IMO if Sony want to create bc with PS3 it should be Microsoft way with focus on games that weren't rereleased on PS4/PS5 like Rayman Origins, Mortal Kombat, MotorStorm or MGS to complete those sets of games. There's no point in wasting time for Uncharted, TLoU, Tomb Raider or Resident Evil games if those already there.

Ran into the same issue, none of my modern Asus or Pioneer drives would read my PS3 discs, the only one that did was a Blu-Ray ROM drive from a Dell XPS L502X from 2012.
You might be able to rip them from a jailbroken PS3 though.

 

[01011001]

The PS3 version of Alone in the Dark is the best version. They fixed it up. Not certain if the fixes got into the PC version.

they didn't really fix much. the biggest difference is the camera being more modern. but the game all in all is still very buggy. it launched only a few months after the 360 version, not much time to actually change much.
I think the car handling is also slightly better.