KB-RPCS3 Alpha 0.1.0

KB-RPCS3 Alpha 0.1.0

KB-RPCS3 runs RPCS3, the open-source PlayStation 3 emulator, as a
native PS5 homebrew title. This is its first public release: the complete source of
the port, the RPCS3 patch series, the PS5 title shell and the build instructions.

This is a source release. There is no downloadable PS5 package yet — a binary that
combines RPCS3's GPL-2.0-only core with GPL-3.0 PS5 components cannot be distributed,
and the current combined executable has not passed final PS5 testing. See
Licensing and LICENSING_STATUS.md in the source.

Unofficial. Not made, endorsed or supported by the RPCS3 project or by Sony
Interactive Entertainment. "PlayStation", "PS3" and "PS5" are trade marks of Sony
Interactive Entertainment Inc.

Downloads

Asset	What it is
KB-RPCS3-0.1.0-Source.tar.gz	The repository at tag v0.1.0-alpha — RPCS3 patch series, PS5 title shell, tools, licences and documentation
SHA256SUMS	SHA-256 checksums for the assets above
PS5 package	Not available. No binary is published, tested or promised

Key features

• RPCS3 on the console — the emulator core built for the PS5, rendering through
  Mesa/RADV Vulkan directly on the hardware.
• Native home screen (title PPSA99303, shown as KB-RPCS3) with Games,
  Install, Settings and System tabs.
• Global and per-game settings, with recommended settings from RPCS3's public
  configuration database when available.
• Installers for PS3 firmware (PS3UPDAT.PUP), PSN packages (.pkg) and licences
  (.rap).
• PS5 home-screen tiles that launch a game directly.
• DualSense controls, vibration, save data and trophy notifications.
• Benchmark tooling that records the effective game speed, so results can be shown
  to have been taken at normal speed.

What works

Everything in the feature list above was working in the development build this release
is based on. The Alpha 0.1.0 source adds speed/timing logging and off-by-default
experimental options on top of that build; that exact source and the new branding have
not yet been run on a console.

Tested games

Verified on one PS5 Slim (firmware 13.60, etaHEN, kstuff lite, ShadowMountPlus) at
normal game speed (Clocks scale 100, Frame limit Auto):

Game	Serial	Result
LIMBO	HPEB00564	Playable — picture, sound and controls.
WWE '12	BLES01439	Playable — menus near 60 FPS; matches slow down during big moves (CPU-limited).
Grand Theft Auto IV	BLES01128	Boots and plays, with substantial performance limitations — roughly 13–27 FPS when driving, occasional audio stutter. Needs "SPU XFloat Accuracy: Accurate" or cars fall through the road.

Every other PS3 game is untested. GTA IV results recorded with Clocks scale 300
(around 20–22 FPS) count as benchmarks only — in that mode the game runs about three
times too fast and they are not normal-speed performance.

Important limitations

• No PS5 binary. Licence conflict; see below.
• Alpha 0.1.0 has not finished console regression testing.
• No performance improvement is claimed — the experimental SPU options are off by
  default and unmeasured at normal speed.
• CPU-limited. Demanding games are bound by emulated SPU performance, not the GPU.
• First-visit stutter while SPU code and shaders compile; both are cached afterwards.
• Native TLS does not work on the PS5 yet — emulated TLS is used.

Installation and build

There is nothing to install from this release on the console. Build it yourself, for
your own use:

port/apply-rpcs3-patches.sh /path/to/rpcs3
SRC_DIR=/path/to/rpcs3 BUILD_DIR=/path/to/rpcs3-build JOBS=8 port/rpcs3-build.sh rpcs3_ps5
APP_DIR=/path/to/app-build-copy RPCS3_BUILD_DIR=/path/to/rpcs3-build tools/vm-build-app.sh

Then deploy dist/PPSA99303/ to the console as described in INSTALL.md. Do not
redistribute a build you make: a combined binary cannot be distributed today. Full
details, dependencies and the toolchain layout are in BUILDING.md.

Requirements

• A jailbroken PS5 (developed on a PS5 Slim, firmware 13.60) with a homebrew
  enabler (etaHEN), kstuff lite and ShadowMountPlus.
• Your own legally obtained PS3 firmware and games.
• A Linux/arm64 build host with the PS5 toolchain for building from source.

KB-RPCS3 includes none of the firmware, games, keys or tools above.

Known issues

See KNOWN_ISSUES.md in the source for the full list, including:

• The build is tied to the development machine's fixed toolchain paths.
• Native TLS is broken on the PS5; do not build with -fno-emulated-tls.
• The console's own screenshot feature captures black while KB-RPCS3 is open; L3 + R3 on
  the home screen saves a screenshot to rpcs3/screenshots/ instead.
• This is an alpha: expect crashes. Keep a known-good build to fall back to
  (ROLLBACK.md).

Credits

KB-RPCS3 is a port and would not exist without RPCS3
by the RPCS3 team and contributors, Mihawk (PS5_Vulkan, the PS5 Vulkan Template and
the PS5 platform layer), BlackBearReloaded (ps5-homebrew-ui), ps5-payload-dev
(the PS5 payload SDK), Sascha Willems (Vulkan example base) and the Mesa/RADV
developers. Full authorship and licence details are in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

Licensing

This release is made of separately licensed parts: the RPCS3 patch series
(port/rpcs3-patches/) under RPCS3's GPL-2.0-only; the PS5 title shell (app/)
under MIT and GPL-3.0-or-later per file. GPL-2.0-only and GPL-3.0 code cannot
be combined in one distributed program, which is why this release is source only.
See LICENSING_STATUS.md, app/LICENSING.md, LICENSES/ and COPYING.

No PS3 or PS5 firmware, games, keys, system files or other Sony content is included.
Use your own legally obtained firmware and games.

Checksums

Asset	SHA-256
KB-RPCS3-0.1.0-Source.tar.gz	36c141c48d727a95015c080a3eb94a7d6c05e9d6715f46a54ed51bc713d8fdb6
SHA256SUMS	contains the hash above

Verify the download with:

sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS