PS4 emulator makes incredible early progress with 3D games running
The PS4 emulator, fpPS4, has entered version 0.01 – and even this early in development, it is showing signs of massive progress.
Emulation is a grey area, with developers coming together worldwide to ensure that the preservation or access to games remains open. Even after consoles and accessibility vanish from the world, it seems that projects like fpPS4 intend to keep the flame alive.
A new video from GAMER RPCS3, a fan of the PlayStation 3 emulator, demonstrates a new launcher and other progress made in version 0.01 by the developers of fpPS4.
The launcher is a separate project, allowing users to easily boot up games for the emulator, while the actual project is made by three individuals on Github.
While the footage appears to make out that a lot of games are broken, this is an incredible showing for something still in its early days. Emulators like RPCS3 and Xenia – an Xbox 360 emulator – have been around far longer, and still require a lot of work for certain titles.
What games can fpPS4 play?
In the video, GAMER RPCS3 takes us through a few smaller titles, both 3D and 2D. The 2D titles, like RetroMania Wrestling, appear to be running smoothly, albeit with a few glitches.
Other titles, like Farming Simulator and World of West, run poorly, but the fact that they are launching and displaying is a massive feat in itself.
The current status of the PS4 emulator
As of right now, the 0.01 update includes support for any X-Input controller (this means Xbox and other PC controllers), as well as fullscreen support.
The games compatibility list is currently 19 pages of nothing, but out of 33 pages of games, it’s still a wildly impressive feat to achieve this early on in development.
A lot of games that are currently listed as loading up and playable also require a ton of work to get going. However, this is currently listed at 31 games that will launch and be playable in some state.
For context, RPCS3 launched back in 2011 and has only just cleared its non-booting compatibility list. While fpPS4 will probably be in a state of flux for years to come, with at least a decade before it, too, hits the same level of compatibility.
The monstrous power that these emulators require is not to be understated. To achieve the performance in the video, the specs on the machine feature an RTX 2070, 32GB of RAM, and an i9-9900K. Although these are older parts, it’s still more overhead than will probably be needed in the long run for 720p gameplay once the PS4 emulator hits its stride.
The Steam Deck has become a lot of people’s staple retro gaming machine at this point, with things like the Raspberry Pi and other single-board computers taking up the vast majority of the market. While you won’t see a Steam Deck play a copy of Bloodborne any time soon, a Steam Deck 3 or 4 could potentially be your portable PS4-locked exclusive machine.
