Settings

PC5's Settings hold installing and uninstalling games and the game compatibility list, the settings that apply in every game (the controller's rumble, light bar and triggers, and the overlay), PC5's own system settings (the startup sound, the logs, where covers and backgrounds come from, and updates) and the About screen. Settings that belong to one game (its controller, graphics, cover, background, home screen tile and program) are in that game's menu instead: see Playing games. The row chosen says what it does under its name.

Opening Settings

Press Options in the library. Settings opens on the right.

Settings: its first page. A › means the row opens a page of its own.

Button	In Settings
Up / down	Move between rows
✕	Open the row, or change its value
Left / right	Change the value of a row that has one
○	Back (from a page, to the first page; from the first page, to the library)
Options	Close Settings

Changes are saved at once, in /data/prospero-win/pc5/settings.txt. Settings for games apply from the next time a game starts.

The first page

Row	What it does
Game maintenance ›	Installing and uninstalling games, the game compatibility list and the FTP server. See Game maintenance.
In games ›	Vibration, light bar and adaptive triggers. See In games.
Overlay ›	The overlay shown over every game. See Overlay.
File manager ›	Copy, move, rename and delete files on the console and its drives. See File manager.
System ›	The startup sound, the logs, the picture sources and updates. When a newer PC5 is out, the row says so. See System.
About PC5	The version, where games are kept, the free space on the console, and a QR code for Buy Me a Coffee.

Game maintenance

Settings › Game maintenance.

Row	What it does
Install games from USB	Copies one game, or several in a row, from a USB drive to the console. See Installing games.
Uninstall game	Lists your games to uninstall one, keeping its saves or not, then the saves kept from games uninstalled before, to delete them. See Uninstalling a game.
Game compatibility list	Shows a QR code: scan it with your phone to open the game compatibility list, the games players have tried, how each ran and the settings that helped. Add a game at the top of that page reports one of yours.
FTP server	Off (the default) or On: send games from a PC to PC5's INSTALL folder, while PC5 is open. The row shows the address. See Sending games over FTP.

Game maintenance › Game compatibility list.

In games

Settings › In games, with both trigger effects on. Trigger rumble and Trigger resistance only show while their effect is on.

Row	Values	What it does
Vibration	Off, 25, 50, 75, 100 %	How strongly the controller rumbles with the game. Off: no rumble.
Light bar	Game's colour, Follows the screen, Console's colour	Game's colour: the main colour of the game's cover. Follows the screen: the colour of what is on screen, changing with it. Console's colour: PC5 leaves the light bar as the console has it.
Adaptive triggers	Off, Rumble, Resistance, Rumble + resistance	Rumble: L2 and R2 vibrate with the game's rumble. Resistance: they push back as you press them. Rumble + resistance: they push back, and vibrate instead while the game rumbles (a trigger runs one effect at a time).
Trigger rumble	25, 50, 75, 100 %	How strongly L2 and R2 vibrate. Shows with Rumble or Rumble + resistance.
Trigger resistance	25, 50, 75, 100 %	How firmly L2 and R2 push back. Shows with Resistance or Rumble + resistance.

Defaults are in bold.

These follow the settings in every game, whatever its controller mode. With the DualSense mode, a game that sets its own light bar or trigger effects gets them instead, from the moment it sets them. When a game ends, PC5 gives the controller back as the console had it.

System

Settings › System.

Row	Values	What it does
Startup sound	Off, cheap chinese speaker, and the other sounds by name	The sound on the controller's speaker when you open PC5 from the home screen (not when you come back to it from a game). Choosing a sound plays it. See Startup sound.
Startup sound volume	10 to 100 %, in steps of 10	How loud the startup sound plays. Changing it plays the sound at the new volume. Shows while a startup sound is chosen.
Keep all logs	Off, On	Off: the logs of sessions that went wrong are kept, and each game's newest session. On: every session's log is kept, PC5's own too. Either way, each is one zip, kept for 7 days. See Reporting a problem.
Picture sources ›	the number turned on	Where PC5 looks for covers and backgrounds. See Picture sources.
Check when PC5 opens	On, Off	On: PC5 asks GitHub for a newer release each time you open it, and offers it when there is one. Off: only when you ask.
Check now		Asks GitHub straight away. The answer shows under the row.
Update now		Shows while a newer release is out: downloads it from GitHub, puts it in place of this PC5 and restarts PC5.

When a newer PC5 is out, PC5 asks when it opens whether to update now or later. PC5 never updates without asking. See Updating PC5.

Startup sound

Settings › System › Startup sound chooses the sound PC5 plays on the controller's speaker when you open it, or Off. Choosing a sound with ✕ or left and right plays it, so you can hear it. Startup sound volume, under it, sets how loud the sound plays, from 10 to 100 %; changing it plays the sound at the new volume. PC5 sets this volume itself: the console's own Controller Speaker Volume doesn't change it.

PC5 comes with Beeper - Push, Cha-Ching, cheap chinese speaker (the default), fahh, funny message tone, rizz and System Activated.

To add your own:

1. On the console, make a folder /data/prospero-win/sounds/ if there isn't one.
2. Put a .wav file in it. Its name, without .wav, is how it shows in the list: Chime.wav shows as Chime. A sound of yours with the name of one of PC5's takes its place.
3. Open Settings again: the sound is in the list.

The file can be mono or stereo, 8, 16 or 24-bit or 32-bit float, at any sample rate; PC5 plays the first 30 seconds. The controller's speaker is small, so a short, loud sound works best. If the sound chosen is deleted, PC5 plays cheap chinese speaker.

Overlay

The overlay is a small box over every game, updated every second. Each line can be turned on or off.

Settings › Overlay, with every line turned on.

Row	Shows
Show FPS	Frames shown each second. On its own, it is a large counter.
Frame time	How long a frame takes, on average, in milliseconds
CPU usage	How much of the console's CPU the game uses
CPU temperature	The CPU's temperature, in degrees Celsius
SoC temperature	The console chip's temperature, in degrees Celsius
Memory	The memory the game uses, of what it has, in GB
Corner	Where the overlay sits: Top left, Top right, Bottom left or Bottom right
Size	Normal: every line at once, in small text. Large (from 1.9.2): twice the size, readable from the sofa, two lines at a time, the next two every 3 seconds when more are on. The memory then shows the GB in use. Extra large (from 1.9.5): every line at once, as Normal, shown at twice the size by the console (its overlay image magnified by the display), at no cost to the game; nothing takes turns. If the console refuses that, the overlay stays at Normal's size and the game's log says PC5 overlay magnified=1 rc=….

All lines are Off by default. A line the console can't read is left out. With frame generation on, the FPS counts every frame shown, the made ones too.

Picture sources

Settings › System › Picture sources turns each place PC5 looks for covers and backgrounds on or off. All are On by default, and none needs an account or a key.

Settings › System › Picture sources.

Source	What PC5 takes from it
Steam	Its store's cover and library background for the game
SteamGridDB	Covers and backgrounds its members made. Only with your own key: see Covers › SteamGridDB. Without one the row says No key
GOG	Its catalogue's cover and background
PCGamingWiki	The cover on the game's page, and the background of the Steam game the page names
Wikidata	Steam's cover and background for a game Steam's own search doesn't find by that name

A source turned off isn't asked when PC5 installs a game, looks for its background, or when you choose a cover or background by hand. Pictures already kept stay. See Covers.

About PC5

Shows the PC5 version and title ID (PPSA11018), what PC5 runs games with, where games are kept (/data/prospero-win) and the free space on the console. If you like PC5, scan the QR code with your phone: it opens PC5's Buy Me a Coffee page. Press ○ to close it.

About PC5. Give this version when you report a problem.