PSSwanStation build 20

A PlayStation (PS1) emulator as a PS5 homebrew title: SwanStation, the libretro fork of DuckStation, with a controller interface of its own, drawing with Vulkan (the RADV driver, linked into the title). It needs a jailbroken console with kstuff running.

Important

Piracy is not condoned. This release contains no games, no BIOS files, no console firmware and no decryption keys, and none will ever be provided or linked to. Use only legally obtained backups of games you own, made yourself from your own discs, and BIOS files dumped from hardware you own. Please don't ask for, or post links to, games, BIOS files, firmware or keys in issues or discussions: they will be removed.

Warning

A work in progress. This build looks right on my console, but not every feature new since build 15 has been tried there one by one, and the USB controllers of this build not at all. "Tested for this release" below says what has been checked where.

What it does

• A library for the controller: games from the title's folder, USB drives and network shares (SMB, NFS or FTP), with covers, descriptions, search, sorting and filters, favourites, and eight views (shelves, a cover grid, a list, and five that stand the covers in space; Aurora layout files work too).
• Thirty-one themes: the interface is drawn by the PS5 homebrew UI kit, each theme with its own colours, panels, type, motion and sounds, and a swan that lives in the corner.
• Every setting of the emulator, for every game or for one game alone, and the title's own: picture presets, scaling filters (sharp bilinear, FSR 1, NIS, CAS), a CRT shader, video signals, colours, film grain, what is beside a 4:3 picture, frame pacing, 120 Hz output with variable refresh rate, frame generation (the title's own, or AMD FSR3's optical flow).
• While playing: save states with pictures, fast forward and rewind (kept in memory), cheats and patches, disc change, memory card manager with backups, button remapping and turbo, up to four players, USB gamepads the console does not take as its own (an experiment), run-ahead, RetroAchievements, netplay for two (an experiment).
• No BIOS needed: the built-in OpenBIOS starts most games; an original BIOS dumped from your own console is more compatible.
• Looks after itself: an updater that fetches a newer release and puts the earlier files back if it is interrupted, a safe start (hold L1 and R1), and your files kept outside the title's folder, on a USB drive or on the network share if you want.

Note

Coming from build 18 or 19? Menu, Update fetches this one. From build 14, 16 or 17, copy this release's PPSA99248 folder over the old one by FTP: their updater stops before installing. Your games, saves, states, covers and settings stay either way.

New in build 20

• A second frame generation: AMD FSR3's optical flow, from AMD's FidelityFX SDK, beside PSSwanStation's own (Settings, Picture, Generation method). It finds how the picture moves without the game's help and keeps what stands still (a score, a map) still. On my test pictures its made frames are about half as far from the true ones as the title's own. It makes one, two or three frames between two of the game's, never ahead. The title's own stays the default.
• USB controllers the console does not take as its own (an experiment): a PS3 pad, a DualShock 3 on a cable, an Xbox 360 pad or another USB gamepad, as the next player or together with player 1. Settings, Controllers, USB controllers; off at first. Only a device that says what it is gets read, and Sony's controllers are left to the console. The boot log's usbpad lines say what the console offers and what the controller sends.
• 120 Hz at every start. It used to come up at 60 Hz at some starts, and with variable refresh rate the About page could say 60 Hz while the screen ran at 120. The graphics driver decided from one look at the screen while it was still changing mode; it now waits for the mode to settle (up to 1.5 s, once, at start) and keeps 120 Hz with variable refresh rate.
• Run-ahead without the hitch. A button pressed with run-ahead slowed the game for a moment, and with variable refresh rate the screen dimmed a little: the change of input makes run-ahead run the frame before again, two frames' work in one refresh. At 120 Hz that work now happens in the refresh between two of the game's frames, with the pads read then, so a press is also taken half a frame sooner.
• The picture's look over the optical flow's frames: film grain, colours, scaling filters, sharpening and the picture tube were left out with it; they are drawn now, as with the title's own frames.
• The boot log says every ten seconds of play how many frames took longer than a refresh and a half, and what each part of the worst one took.

Everything new in builds 15 to 19 is in the build 17, build 18 and build 19 releases.

Tested for this release

Build 20 looks right on my console; NFS and USB controllers I have not tried there. What I have a result for one by one, and the build it was seen with:

What	On the console	Seen with
Starting games from the title's folder and from an SMB share, sound, picture, controller	works	build 9
Library: covers downloaded, search, jumping by letter, menu and start-up sounds	works	build 9
Cheats and patches, games on several discs, save states and continuing, cancelling a load	works	build 9
RetroAchievements	works	build 10
A game's own picture settings, Circle to close, the cheat database fetched	works	build 14
Scaling filters, picture tube, video signals, colours, frame generation, files on the share and USB drive, libretro cheats	works	build 15
Starting, the library, What's new after an update	works	build 17
The updater: Install again downloaded build 17, checked it and put it in place	works	build 18
The new interface: themes, Shelves, the swan, the regrouped menus, film grain, the picture's light	looks right	build 19
AMD FSR3 optical flow frame generation	works	build 20
120 Hz at every start, and with variable refresh rate	works	build 20
Run-ahead (1 frame) at 120 Hz: no slowdown or dimming on a press	works	build 20
USB controllers	not tried yet
NFS shares	not tried yet

On a PC (the same frontend on the same Vulkan code paths): for build 20, both frame generations on test pictures of known movement at four speeds against the true middle frame (the optical flow 33.7 to 50.2 dB, the title's own 29.7 to 48.7 dB), film grain over the optical flow's frames, run-ahead's early rollback giving the same pictures as before frame for frame, and the USB pad decoder's 82 checks; for build 19, every page in five themes and the settings page in all thirty-one. Earlier builds' PC checks are in their notes.

Known issues

• The new interface has been looked at on my console; how smooth it runs there with every theme (the frosted-glass ones blur the page each frame), how the new sounds feel and the swan's moves have not been measured one by one.
• The pages other than the library keep their layouts, in the kit's themed panels; they are not yet built from the kit's own components.
• Not every feature new since build 15 has been tried on a console one by one. Sleep-safe saving asks the console whether its menu is open over the title, a call no build has made before: if PSSwanStation stops when a game starts, switch it off. The web panel is the first time the title listens on the network for anything but netplay. Compiling a shader preset on the console may take a while and some are too slow at 4K.
• Closing the gaps draws 3D objects' outlines a quarter of a pixel fuller; a polygon edge can still show a single texel of its texture's neighbour where the PlayStation itself shows one.
• A cut detected in a fade shows the fade without made pictures between its steps (nothing moves in a fade, so nothing is lost).
• Frame generation: a thin fringe where something moves across a background that moves another way; at 20 pictures a second the made ones outnumber the game's and errors show most.
• A recording plays back the same only with the same settings, cheats and build.
• A card changed on two consoles before they met keeps the newer one without asking (the other is kept beside it as .conflict-<date>). An FTP server can hold games but not your files.
• Should the screen stay dark after choosing 120 Hz, start PSSwanStation holding L1 and R1, wait ten seconds, close it and start it again.
• Run-ahead at 60 Hz has no refresh between two frames to do its rollback in, so a press there still costs two frames' work in one refresh.
• USB controllers have not been seen to work on a console yet.
• Netplay is an experiment that has only run between two PCs.

Install or update

1. Unpack the ZIP and copy the complete PPSA99248 folder to /data/homebrew/ on the console (FTP), so that /data/homebrew/PPSA99248/eboot.bin exists, and let your homebrew loader register it.
2. Copying over an earlier build keeps your games, saves, states, covers and settings: the ZIP holds only the program's files. From this build on, Menu, "Update" fetches the next one; builds before 18 cannot, so copy this one over by hand.
3. Your own legally obtained backups go in games/ (or on a USB drive, or a network share named in network.cfg, which the title writes with an explanation at its first start). A BIOS dumped from your own console may go in bios/. None is included, and none ever will be.
4. Once, for cheats and patches: Settings, Games and network, "Fetch the newest...

PSSwanStation build 19

PSSwanStation build 19

A PlayStation (PS1) emulator as a PS5 homebrew title: SwanStation, the libretro fork of DuckStation, with a controller interface of its own, drawing with Vulkan (the RADV driver, linked into the title). It needs a jailbroken console with kstuff running.

Important

Piracy is not condoned. This release contains no games, no BIOS files, no console firmware and no decryption keys, and none will ever be provided or linked to. Use only legally obtained backups of games you own, made yourself from your own discs, and BIOS files dumped from hardware you own. Please don't ask for, or post links to, games, BIOS files, firmware or keys in issues or discussions: they will be removed.

Warning

A work in progress. This build looks right on my console, but not every feature new since build 15 has been tried there one by one. "Tested for this release" below says what has been checked where.

What it does

• A library for the controller: games from the title's folder, USB drives and network shares (SMB, NFS or FTP), with covers, descriptions, search, sorting and filters, favourites, and eight views (shelves, a cover grid, a list, and five that stand the covers in space; Aurora layout files work too).
• Thirty-one themes: the interface is drawn by the PS5 homebrew UI kit, each theme with its own colours, panels, type, motion and sounds, and a swan that lives in the corner.
• Every setting of the emulator, for every game or for one game alone, and the title's own: picture presets, scaling filters (sharp bilinear, FSR 1, NIS, CAS), a CRT shader, video signals, colours, film grain, what is beside a 4:3 picture, frame pacing, 120 Hz output, frame generation.
• While playing: save states with pictures, fast forward and rewind (kept in memory), cheats and patches, disc change, memory card manager with backups, button remapping and turbo, up to four players, RetroAchievements, netplay for two (an experiment).
• No BIOS needed: the built-in OpenBIOS starts most games; an original BIOS dumped from your own console is more compatible.
• Looks after itself: an updater that fetches a newer release and puts the earlier files back if it is interrupted, a safe start (hold L1 and R1), and your files kept outside the title's folder, on a USB drive or on the network share if you want.

Note

Coming from build 18? Menu, Update fetches this one. From build 14, 16 or 17, copy this release's PPSA99248 folder over the old one by FTP: their updater stops before installing. Your games, saves, states, covers and settings stay either way.

New in build 19

• A new look. The whole interface is now drawn by BlackBearReloaded's PS5 homebrew UI kit (with mihawk-99's Vulkan backend), in thirty-one themes: PSSwanStation's own and the kit's thirty, from frosted glass to brutalist, neumorphic, pixel art and hand-drawn paper. Settings, Interface, Theme.
• Shelves, the library's new first view, after PSWin's home screen: the game under the cursor large at the top with its cover floating at the right and the cover's colours washing the screen, and shelves under it of what you played lately, your favourites and every game. The grid, the list and the views in space are all still there.
• The swan lives. It looks about, feeds, preens, stretches its wings, drifts on the water and dozes off when nothing is pressed for a while; it turns its head to the game under the cursor, starts when you scroll fast, cheers when a game starts, and a heart rises for a new favourite. It dresses for the theme (a pixel sprite in Pixel, inked in Brutal and Sketch, a wireframe in Blueprint, pastel in Candy) and the season (a scarf in winter, hats at Halloween, Christmas and New Year). Settings, Interface: Swan (lively, calm or still), Swan dresses for the theme, Seasonal touches.
• Sound: sound sets (the theme's, Glass, Paper or PSSwanStation's own), a volume for the menus' sounds, and menu music playlists: the kit's three songs, or your own .ogg, .mp3 and .wav files in music/.
• Beside the picture: "The picture's light" is now the picture itself, blurred wide and soft over the whole screen; and a new choice, "The picture carried on", continues the picture's edges outwards, blurred, so it seems to go on past its frame.
• Film grain (Picture: light, medium, strong): a fine moving grain, strongest in the middle tones.
• Tidier menus. The menu, the in-game menu and every settings page are in groups; settings that were only information are gone (the pad's battery, which the console never gives a title, among them), and the emulator's options that spoke of RetroArch use the title's words.

Everything new in builds 15 to 18 is in the build 17 and build 18 releases.

Tested for this release

Build 19 looks right on my console; NFS I have not tried there. What I have a result for one by one, and the build it was seen with:

What	On the console	Seen with
Starting games from the title's folder and from an SMB share, sound, picture, controller	works	build 9
Library: covers downloaded, search, jumping by letter, menu and start-up sounds	works	build 9
Cheats and patches, games on several discs, save states and continuing, cancelling a load	works	build 9
RetroAchievements	works	build 10
A game's own picture settings, Circle to close, the cheat database fetched	works	build 14
Scaling filters, picture tube, video signals, colours, frame generation, files on the share and USB drive, libretro cheats	works	build 15
Starting, the library, What's new after an update	works	build 17
The updater: Install again downloaded build 17, checked it and put it in place	works	build 18
The new interface: themes, Shelves, the swan, the regrouped menus, film grain, the picture's light	looks right	build 19
NFS shares	not tried yet

On a PC (the same frontend on the same Vulkan code paths): for build 19, every page in five themes (dark, light, Pixel, Sketch, Brutal) and the settings page in all thirty-one, the swan's poses in every theme style and season, the library with invented games and covers, every settings page and both menus walked through, the in-game menu over a test disc, the picture's light, the extension and film grain on a test picture; for build 18, the updater's 2,450 checks and Install again through a whole install of the real build 17 ZIP. Earlier builds' PC checks are in their notes.

Known issues

• The new interface has been looked at on my console; how smooth it runs there with every theme (the frosted-glass ones blur the page each frame), how the new sounds feel and the swan's moves have not been measured one by one.
• The pages other than the library keep their layouts, in the kit's themed panels; they are not yet built from the kit's own components.
• Not every feature new since build 15 has been tried on a console one by one. Sleep-safe saving asks the console whether its menu is open over the title, a call no build has made before: if PSSwanStation stops when a game starts, switch it off. The web panel is the first time the title listens on the network for anything but netplay. Compiling a shader preset on the console may take a while and some are too slow at 4K.
• Closing the gaps draws 3D objects' outlines a quarter of a pixel fuller; a polygon edge can still show a single texel of its texture's neighbour where the PlayStation itself shows one.
• A cut detected in a fade shows the fade without made pictures between its steps (nothing moves in a fade, so nothing is lost).
• Frame generation: a thin fringe where something moves across a background that moves another way; at 20 pictures a second the made ones outnumber the game's and errors show most.
• A recording plays back the same only with the same settings, cheats and build.
• A card changed on two consoles before they met keeps the newer one without asking (the other is kept beside it as .conflict-<date>). An FTP server can hold games but not your files.
• 120 Hz output has not run on a console from this title: if the screen stays dark after choosing it, start PSSwanStation holding L1 and R1, wait ten seconds, close it and start it again.
• Netplay is an experiment that has only run between two PCs.

Install or update

1. Unpack the ZIP and copy the complete PPSA99248 folder to /data/homebrew/ on the console (FTP), so that /data/homebrew/PPSA99248/eboot.bin exists, and let your homebrew loader register it.
2. Copying over an earlier build keeps your games, saves, states, covers and settings: the ZIP holds only the program's files. From this build on, Menu, "Update" fetches the next one; builds before 18 cannot, so copy this one over by hand.
3. Your own legally obtained backups go in games/ (or on a USB drive, or a network share named in network.cfg, which the title writes with an explanation at its first start). A BIOS dumped from your own console may go in bios/. None is included, and none ever will be.
4. Once, for cheats and patches: Settings, Games and network, "Fetch the newest cheat database".
5. Read LEGAL.txt and README.txt in the folder.

Reporting problems

Say what you did, what you saw, which build (top right of the library) and which firmware. logs/ in the title's folder keeps the last two runs: copy them before starting the title again. Never attach game files, BIOS files, firmware or keys, and please leave game titles out: "a 30 fps racing game" is enough.

Source

This ZIP was built from PSSwanStation commit 94a0457e17edf7ddf0ff4eb3f27d93f2a0fb2082, which is this release's tag. The title is distributed under the GNU General Publi...

PSSwanStation build 18

PSSwanStation build 18

A PlayStation (PS1) emulator as a PS5 homebrew title: SwanStation, the libretro fork of DuckStation, with a controller interface of its own, drawing with Vulkan (the RADV driver, linked into the title). It needs a jailbroken console with kstuff running.

Important

Piracy is not condoned. This release contains no games, no BIOS files, no console firmware and no decryption keys, and none will ever be provided or linked to. Use only legally obtained backups of games you own, made yourself from your own discs, and BIOS files dumped from hardware you own. Please don't ask for, or post links to, games, BIOS files, firmware or keys in issues or discussions: they will be removed.

Warning

A work in progress. This build works on my console, but not every feature new since build 15 has been tried there one by one. "Tested for this release" below says what has been checked where.

What it does

• A library for the controller: games from the title's folder, USB drives and network shares (SMB, NFS or FTP), with covers, descriptions, search, sorting and filters, favourites, and seven views (a cover grid, a list, and five that stand the covers in space; Aurora layout files work too).
• Every setting of the emulator, for every game or for one game alone, and the title's own: picture presets, scaling filters (sharp bilinear, FSR 1, NIS, CAS), a CRT shader, video signals, colours, what is beside a 4:3 picture, frame pacing, 120 Hz output, frame generation.
• While playing: save states with pictures, fast forward and rewind (kept in memory), cheats and patches, disc change, memory card manager with backups, button remapping and turbo, up to four players, RetroAchievements, netplay for two (an experiment).
• No BIOS needed: the built-in OpenBIOS starts most games; an original BIOS dumped from your own console is more compatible.
• Looks after itself: an updater that fetches a newer release and puts the earlier files back if it is interrupted, a safe start (hold L1 and R1), and your files kept outside the title's folder, on a USB drive or on the network share if you want.

Note

Coming from build 14, 16 or 17? Copy the folder. The updater in those builds downloads and checks a new build, then stops with "The unpacked update is no longer there" and changes nothing. Copy this release's PPSA99248 folder over the old one by FTP: your games, saves, states, covers and settings stay. From build 18 on, the updater works.

New in build 18

• The updater works on the console. It checked the files it had unpacked in a way the console does not answer, so every update stopped before installing. It now checks them the way the rest of the title checks its files, and still never follows a link.
• Install again (Menu, Update, Square, when you have the newest build): downloads the newest release again and puts it in place, to mend a damaged title folder. Your games, saves and settings stay.

Everything new in builds 15 to 17 is in the build 17 release.

Tested for this release

Build 18 works on my console; NFS I have not tried there. What I have a result for one by one, and the build it was seen with:

What	On the console	Seen with
Starting games from the title's folder and from an SMB share, sound, picture, controller	works	build 9
Library: covers downloaded, search, jumping by letter, menu and start-up sounds	works	build 9
Cheats and patches, games on several discs, save states and continuing, cancelling a load	works	build 9
RetroAchievements	works	build 10
A game's own picture settings, Circle to close, the cheat database fetched	works	build 14
Scaling filters, picture tube, video signals, colours, frame generation, files on the share and USB drive, libretro cheats	works	build 15
Starting, the library, What's new after an update	works	build 17
The updater: Install again downloaded build 17, checked it and put it in place	works	build 18
NFS shares	not tried yet

On a PC (the same frontend on the same Vulkan code paths, with the validation layers silent): for build 18, the updater's 2,450 checks, also with the console's way of answering file checks imitated, and Install again through a whole install of the real build 17 ZIP; for build 17, a test disc of textured meshes counted for gaps and stray texels at 1x, 4x and 8x and with PGXP and smoothing; every scaling filter at three sharpness levels, games drawn at 1x, 4x and 8x, 4K and 1080p screens, measured for sharpness, shift and overshoot against the game's own picture; frame generation against pictures of known movement at 60 and 120 Hz, games of 20, 30 and 60 pictures a second, every quality, ahead, the 60 cap and run-ahead, and on a disc with cuts. For build 16: sleep-safe saving with the title killed during a game; a recording played back to the same memory, byte for byte; a value found, watched, frozen and made a cheat; the speedrun timer; the web panel from a phone-sized browser, a wrong key and paths outside the folder refused; slang presets compiled; the interface test and the module tests.

Known issues

• Not every feature new since build 15 has been tried on a console one by one. Sleep-safe saving asks the console whether its menu is open over the title, a call no build has made before: if PSSwanStation stops when a game starts, switch it off. The web panel is the first time the title listens on the network for anything but netplay. Compiling a shader preset on the console may take a while and some are too slow at 4K.
• Closing the gaps draws 3D objects' outlines a quarter of a pixel fuller; a polygon edge can still show a single texel of its texture's neighbour where the PlayStation itself shows one.
• A cut detected in a fade shows the fade without made pictures between its steps (nothing moves in a fade, so nothing is lost).
• Frame generation: a thin fringe where something moves across a background that moves another way; at 20 pictures a second the made ones outnumber the game's and errors show most.
• A recording plays back the same only with the same settings, cheats and build.
• A card changed on two consoles before they met keeps the newer one without asking (the other is kept beside it as .conflict-<date>). An FTP server can hold games but not your files.
• 120 Hz output has not run on a console from this title: if the screen stays dark after choosing it, start PSSwanStation holding L1 and R1, wait ten seconds, close it and start it again.
• Netplay is an experiment that has only run between two PCs.

Install or update

1. Unpack the ZIP and copy the complete PPSA99248 folder to /data/homebrew/ on the console (FTP), so that /data/homebrew/PPSA99248/eboot.bin exists, and let your homebrew loader register it.
2. Copying over an earlier build keeps your games, saves, states, covers and settings: the ZIP holds only the program's files. From this build on, Menu, "Update" fetches the next one; builds before 18 cannot, so copy this one over by hand.
3. Your own legally obtained backups go in games/ (or on a USB drive, or a network share named in network.cfg, which the title writes with an explanation at its first start). A BIOS dumped from your own console may go in bios/. None is included, and none ever will be.
4. Once, for cheats and patches: Settings, Games and network, "Fetch the newest cheat database".
5. Read LEGAL.txt and README.txt in the folder.

Reporting problems

Say what you did, what you saw, which build (top right of the library) and which firmware. logs/ in the title's folder keeps the last two runs: copy them before starting the title again. Never attach game files, BIOS files, firmware or keys, and please leave game titles out: "a 30 fps racing game" is enough.

Source

This ZIP was built from PSSwanStation commit cf83158d3e9e43d9a3527fc05e6e9f438a527b52, which is this release's tag. The title is distributed under the GNU General Public License, version 3, as a whole. The source of every part at the revision it was built from is attached (SOURCES.txt lists the archives, SHA256SUMS their digests); licenses/ in the title's folder holds each part's licence and licenses/components.json the revisions.

Build

Component	Version
PSSwanStation	cf83158d3e9e43d9a3527fc05e6e9f438a527b52 (SwanStation at libretro dd48056, plus the ps5 folder)
PS5_Vulkan (link recipe, libc.prx)	5b5e4fc2d80f
PS5_PayloadSDK fork (platform layer)	611893fc25ef
RADV, from PS5_Mesa	7b59ef27c1b0 (built against the SDK fork at b83202be73e9)
Dear ImGui	v1.92.9b
libsmb2	fc710a3ebd58
libnfs	761323646431 (libnfs-8.0.0 and four commits)
rcheevos	v12.5.0
Lapy helper	PS5-Lapy-JB-Daemon c3bdfe3a3993, built with the payload SDK v0.42
Game database and libretro cheats	libretro-database bf825e3ec48d
crt-guest-advanced	libretro slang-shaders e1d75632a205
glslang	16.6.0
QR Code generator	Project Nayuki 3c6d0b3
NIS, CAS	NVIDIAImageScaling 35e13ba, FidelityFX-CAS 9fabcc9

SHA-256 of PSSwanStation-PS5-PPSA99248-build18.zip: 4db76cf71720d2d794e2e85977a6815f29637d64e82c97fdf0c4d1aa6911952a

PSSwanStation is an unofficial port. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, the libretro team or the DuckStation project. "PlayStation" and "PS5" are trademarks of Sony Interactive Entertainment. Vulkan is a registered trademark of the Khronos Group; the RADV port in this title is not a conformant product.

PSSwanStation build 17

PSSwanStation build 17

A PlayStation (PS1) emulator as a PS5 homebrew title: SwanStation, the libretro fork of DuckStation, with a controller interface of its own, drawing with Vulkan (the RADV driver, linked into the title). It needs a jailbroken console with kstuff running.

Important

Piracy is not condoned. This release contains no games, no BIOS files, no console firmware and no decryption keys, and none will ever be provided or linked to. Use only legally obtained backups of games you own, made yourself from your own discs, and BIOS files dumped from hardware you own. Please don't ask for, or post links to, games, BIOS files, firmware or keys in issues or discussions: they will be removed.

Warning

A work in progress. This build works on my console, but not every feature new since build 15 has been tried there one by one. "Tested for this release" below says what has been checked where.

What it does

• A library for the controller: games from the title's folder, USB drives and network shares (SMB, NFS or FTP), with covers, descriptions, search, sorting and filters, favourites, and seven views (a cover grid, a list, and five that stand the covers in space; Aurora layout files work too).
• Every setting of the emulator, for every game or for one game alone, and the title's own: picture presets, scaling filters (sharp bilinear, FSR 1, NIS, CAS), a CRT shader, video signals, colours, what is beside a 4:3 picture, frame pacing, 120 Hz output, frame generation.
• While playing: save states with pictures, fast forward and rewind (kept in memory), cheats and patches, disc change, memory card manager with backups, button remapping and turbo, up to four players, RetroAchievements, netplay for two (an experiment).
• No BIOS needed: the built-in OpenBIOS starts most games; an original BIOS dumped from your own console is more compatible.
• Looks after itself: an updater that fetches a newer release and puts the earlier files back if it is interrupted, a safe start (hold L1 and R1), and your files kept outside the title's folder, on a USB drive or on the network share if you want.

New since build 14

Builds 15 and 16 were not published; this release carries everything since build 14.

Build 17

• What's new, after an update. The first start of a newer build lists what was added, changed and fixed since the build the console had, with a count of each at the top; it scrolls with the d-pad, the sticks, L1 and R1. Settings, About shows every build's. The release notes on the Update page scroll too, instead of being cut off.
• Your files on the NAS, shared between consoles. Covers on the network share now go both ways, so a cover set on one console is there for the others; memory card backups are sent to the share, in a folder of each console's own (card backups/<console>/).
• A manual: ps5/MANUAL.md in the repository, every screen and setting, and how to fill in network.cfg.
• Sparkles along polygon edges. Above 1x, where a game's polygons meet unevenly, hairlines of the background showed through and flickered as the camera moved. Each solid polygon is now drawn a quarter of a pixel larger to cover them (on my test disc at 8x: 855 such pixels down to 5; not yet seen in a game on the console); 2D pictures and see-through polygons are left as they are. Settings, Enhancement, "Close Gaps Between Polygons", on at first; the Speedrun preset switches it off.
• A game drawn larger than the screen (8x on a 1080p screen) is made smaller with each pixel the average of all that was drawn under it, instead of a bilinear sample of a few.
• CAS and FSR 1 at large enlargements. CAS now sharpens before a large enlargement, where it did almost nothing after it; FSR 1 enlarges twice and the rest smoothly, where it drew thin crossed lines between diagonal pixels.
• Frame generation leaves cuts alone: when the camera jumps to another scene, no picture is made between the two (it was the old scene smeared into the new), and it starts again after a state is loaded.

Build 16

• Sleep-safe saving. With it on, a game's resume state is saved every five minutes of play and whenever the console's own menu opens over it, quietly and without a pause. If the console closes PSSwanStation (rest mode, or closing it from that menu), the next start offers to continue.
• Speedrun timer. Game time or real time over the game, splits by hand (OPTIONS with Cross) or by themselves when a value in the game's memory changes, a start by itself the same way, and the best run and best splits kept for each game. A run with fast forward, rewind or a state load counts as practice.
• Find in memory. The classic cheat search: a value, or one that went up, down, changed or stayed, narrowed down while you play. What is left can be watched over the game, set, frozen, or made a cheat in the game's own file.
• Phone and web control. Scan the code in Settings with a phone (port 3311): start and close games, save and load states, run the speedrun timer, change some settings, and put discs and covers in or take saves out from a computer. The address carries a key; nothing is given out without it.
• Shader presets from a USB drive. A libretro slang preset (.slangp) in PSSwanStation/shaders/ is compiled on the console and becomes one of the picture tube's choices.
• Debug settings. Recordings of what each player presses, played back frame for frame from where they began; verbose logging with a line about speed, sound and memory every ten seconds.
• Picture preset Speedrun: the picture as the PlayStation drew it, with nothing added (no PGXP, frame generation, picture tube or hacks).
• Easier to read: the interface up to 140%, high contrast, and colour-blind safe colours.
• Texture packs on USB are now read from PSSwanStation/textures/<serial>/ on the drive (the old place still works).
• Under the hood: SwanStation's newest upstream (a video playback fix, fuzzing fixes, a check that a save state belongs to the disc), glslang 16.6.0 added.

Build 15

• The picture's look. A scaling filter of its own: smooth, square pixels, sharp bilinear (crisp, even pixels at any size), FSR 1, NIS (NVIDIA Image Scaling), CAS (AMD Contrast Adaptive Sharpening), with one sharpening setting. The picture tube adds crt-guest-advanced (guest(r)'s shader from the libretro collection) in five kinds: home television, studio monitor, arcade monitor, soft, and the author's own. Video signal: dither smoothed (the PlayStation's checkered dither undone, edges kept), S-Video and composite. Brightness, contrast, colour and gamma. Every one can be a game's own.
• Frame generation, more of it. Quality (Performance, Balanced, and Quality, which checks each movement from both frames' side), pictures ahead of the game's instead of between them (no waiting for the next), up to 60 a second at 120 Hz, videos left alone if you want, one frame of run-ahead to take back its delay, a view of the movement it found, and any rate with frame pacing by the clock (each refresh shows where the game is at that moment). Games that never swap their picture are now counted by whether they drew, and uneven cadences are evened out. The frame counter shows the game's pictures and the screen's ("30 -> 60"). It works on the game's own picture, before the look, so every filter works with it.
• NFS shares (versions 3 and 4) beside SMB and FTP: path = nfs://server/export/games.
• Your files on the network share. Memory cards kept in the share's "memory cards" folder too and brought up to date both ways, so several consoles at home play on the same cards (a card changed on two keeps the newer one and saves the other beside it); covers read from the share; or the whole PSSwanStation folder kept on the share, or on a USB drive.
• Cheats for more games: the libretro database's PlayStation cheats (CC BY-SA 4.0, carried in the ZIP) are used for a game the chtdb collection has no codes for. Each says where it came from and that it may not fit your version.
• Under the hood: SwanStation's newest upstream (save-state checks, out-of-bounds fixes, its own threads and atomics), libsmb2 fc710a3, libnfs added.

Tested for this release

Build 17 works on my console; NFS I have not tried there. What I have a result for one by one, and the build it was seen with:

What	On the console	Seen with
Starting games from the title's folder and from an SMB share, sound, picture, controller	works	build 9
Library: covers downloaded, search, jumping by letter, menu and start-up sounds	works	build 9
Cheats and patches, games on several discs, save states and continuing, cancelling a load	works	build 9
RetroAchievements	works	build 10
A game's own picture settings, Circle to close, the cheat database fetched	works	build 14
Scaling filters, picture tube, video signals, colours, frame generation, files on the share and USB drive, libretro cheats	works	build 15
Starting, the library, What's new after an update	works	build 17
NFS shares	not tried yet

On a PC (the same frontend on the same Vulkan code paths, with the validation layers silent): for build 17, a test disc of textured meshes counted for gaps and stray texels at 1x, 4x and 8x and with PGXP and smoothing; every scaling filter at three sharpness levels, games drawn at 1x, 4x and 8x, 4K and 1080p screens, measured for sharpness, shift and overshoot against the game's own picture; frame generation against pictures of known movement at 60 and 120 Hz, games of 20, 30 and 60 pictures a second, every quality, ahead, the 60 cap and run-ahead, and on a disc with cuts. For build 16: sleep-safe saving with the title killed during a game; a recording played ba...

PSSwanStation build 14

PSSwanStation build 14

A PlayStation (PS1) emulator as a PS5 homebrew title: SwanStation, the libretro fork of DuckStation, with a controller interface of its own, drawing with Vulkan (the RADV driver, linked into the title). It needs a jailbroken console with kstuff running.

Important

Piracy is not condoned. This release contains no games, no BIOS files, no console firmware and no decryption keys, and none will ever be provided or linked to. Use only legally obtained backups of games you own, made yourself from your own discs, and BIOS files dumped from hardware you own. Please don't ask for, or post links to, games, BIOS files, firmware or keys in issues or discussions: they will be removed.

Warning

A work in progress. This build has run on my console, but not every part of it has been checked there one by one. "Tested for this release" below says which.

What it does

• A library for the controller: games from the title's folder, USB drives and a network share (SMB or FTP), with covers, descriptions, search, sorting and filters, favourites, and seven views (a cover grid, a list, and five that stand the covers in space; Aurora layout files work too).
• Every setting of the emulator, for every game or for one game alone, and the title's own: picture presets, FSR 1 scaling, picture-tube lines, what is beside a 4:3 picture, frame pacing, 120 Hz output, frame generation.
• While playing: save states with pictures, fast forward and rewind (kept in memory), cheats and patches, disc change, memory card manager with backups, button remapping and turbo, up to four players, RetroAchievements, netplay for two (an experiment).
• No BIOS needed: the built-in OpenBIOS starts most games; an original BIOS dumped from your own console is more compatible.
• Looks after itself: an updater that fetches a newer release and puts the earlier files back if it is interrupted, a safe start (hold L1 and R1), and your files kept outside the title's folder if you want.

New in build 14

• Picture settings can be a game's own. Scaling (FSR 1 too) and its sharpening, smooth scaling, the picture preset, the picture tube, what is beside the picture, frame pacing, black frame insertion and frame generation: set them in a game's details (Options) or, while it runs, in the menu under Game settings, Picture. They are remembered for that game; other games keep the general ones. Display output (60 or 120 Hz) stays one setting for every game, because the console reads it when the title starts.
• Circle in the library asks whether to close PSSwanStation. The menu's "Close PSSwanStation" is still there.
• Frame generation smears far less than the first attempt did (build 13's change, first released here). The title now counts the pictures a game really draws (30, 20 or 60 a second) and fills only the gaps between them; a game that draws 60 at 60 Hz is left alone. A made picture is taken from the nearer of the two game pictures, not mixed from both. On my test scene, where the true picture between two is known, the made pictures are 26.4 dB from the true ones; the first attempt's were 21.5, and showing the nearer game picture twice is 15.9. Off, On, or "On, lighter".
• The cheat and patch database is fetched, not carried. Its entries belong to their authors and the chtdb project gives no licence to pass them on, so the release does not hold it: Settings, Games and network, "Fetch the newest cheat database" gets it from that project's own releases, once.
• The Lapy helper is the newer one (the fix for firmware 13.60 that ProsperoEden carries), for leaving the sandbox when USB drives or files outside the title's folder are wanted.

Tested for this release

Build 14, the build in this ZIP, has run on my console (a jailbroken PS5 with kstuff). What I have a result for one by one, and the build it was seen with:

What	On the console	Seen with
Starting games from the title's folder and from an SMB share, sound, picture, controller	works	build 9
Library: covers downloaded, search, jumping by letter, menu and start-up sounds	works	build 9
Cheats and patches (from the database carried then), games on several discs, save states and continuing, cancelling a load	works	build 9
RetroAchievements	works	build 10
Frame generation	ran, and smeared; reworked in build 13	build 12

No separate result on a console yet for: 120 Hz output, black frame insertion and the variable refresh rate, USB drives, FTP, a second controller and the multitap, netplay, keeping files outside the title's folder, the updater (this is the first release it can find), and speed at 8x internal resolution. Frame rates were not measured.

On a PC (the same frontend on the same Vulkan code paths, with the validation layers silent): the interface test, the module tests (updater, memory cards, RetroAchievements against a stand-in server, netplay between two processes), a game's own picture settings kept and brought back, fetching the cheat database from its project, and frame generation against pictures of known movement.

Known issues

• Frame generation: a thin fringe where something moves across a background that moves another way; stripes and other even patterns can break; a game that draws straight into the shown picture cannot be counted and gains nothing unless it draws 60. At 20 pictures a second the made ones outnumber the game's two to one, and errors show most.
• 120 Hz output has not run on a console from this title: if the screen stays dark after choosing it, start PSSwanStation holding L1 and R1, wait ten seconds, close it and start it again.
• Netplay is an experiment that has only run between two PCs.
• A controller's charge is not shown: I know of no call a title can make that gives it.

Install or update

1. Unpack the ZIP and copy the complete PPSA99248 folder to /data/homebrew/ on the console (FTP), so that /data/homebrew/PPSA99248/eboot.bin exists, and let your homebrew loader register it.
2. Copying over an earlier build keeps your games, saves, states, covers and settings: the ZIP holds only the program's files. From this build on, Menu, "Update" can fetch the next one.
3. Your own legally obtained backups go in games/ (or on a USB drive, or a network share named in network.cfg, which the title writes with an explanation at its first start). A BIOS dumped from your own console may go in bios/. None is included, and none ever will be.
4. Once, for cheats and patches: Settings, Games and network, "Fetch the newest cheat database".
5. Read LEGAL.txt and README.txt in the folder.

Reporting problems

Say what you did, what you saw, which build (top right of the library) and which firmware. logs/ in the title's folder keeps the last two runs: copy them before starting the title again. Never attach game files, BIOS files, firmware or keys, and please leave game titles out: "a 30 fps racing game" is enough.

Source

This ZIP was built from PSSwanStation commit 40cece454eb679d088b5e447f50bc69b090b5896, which is this release's tag. The title is distributed under the GNU General Public License, version 3, as a whole. The source of every part at the revision it was built from is attached (SOURCES.txt lists the archives, SHA256SUMS their digests); licenses/ in the title's folder holds each part's licence and licenses/components.json the revisions.

Build

Component	Version
PSSwanStation	40cece454eb679d088b5e447f50bc69b090b5896 (SwanStation at libretro b6c30a7, plus the ps5 folder)
PS5_Vulkan (link recipe, libc.prx)	5b5e4fc2d80f
PS5_PayloadSDK fork (platform layer)	611893fc25ef
RADV, from PS5_Mesa	7b59ef27c1b0 (built against the SDK fork at b83202be73e9)
Dear ImGui	v1.92.9b
libsmb2	7e4ff97cf00e
rcheevos	v12.5.0
Lapy helper	PS5-Lapy-JB-Daemon c3bdfe3a3993, built with the payload SDK v0.42
Game database	libretro-database fbeefcb46c2e

SHA-256 of PSSwanStation-PS5-PPSA99248-build14.zip: 9dd90c2cf7f6e4388ae52b7893e7662270decf1263aeea85939bd8d32688aa56

PSSwanStation is an unofficial port. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, the libretro team or the DuckStation project. "PlayStation" and "PS5" are trademarks of Sony Interactive Entertainment. Vulkan is a registered trademark of the Khronos Group; the RADV port in this title is not a conformant product.