shadPS4 is a PlayStation 4 emulator for Windows, Linux, and macOS, written in C++20. It emulates the PS4's AMD GCN GPU via a custom shader recompiler that translates GCN instructions to SPIR-V, and implements high-level emulation (HLE) of PS4 system libraries (kernel, libc, networking, audio, video, input, etc.). The architecture is monolithic with modular subsystems: a Vulkan renderer with texture/buffer caches, a shader recompiler with IR optimization passes, a file system abstraction supporting host files and ZArchive, and an ImGui-based debug UI. While many library functions are stubbed or partially implemented, the core GPU and CPU emulation is functional enough to run several commercial games. The codebase demonstrates strong engineering practices with reusable common utilities (bitfields, slot containers, thread-safe queues) and a well-structured shader compilation pipeline. It is a hybrid project, combining software application development with significant reverse-engineering and data analysis of PS4 firmware and GPU architecture.
This repository implements a dual-console emulator targeting PlayStation 3 (RPCS3) and PlayStation 4 (RPCSX/Orbis). The codebase is a large C++ project with a modular architecture: kernel emulation layers for both consoles (syscalls, threads, memory management), CPU emulation (PPU/SPU for PS3, GCN for PS4), GPU emulation (RSX for PS3 with OpenGL/Vulkan backends, GCN shader compiler for PS4), audio backends (Cubeb, FAudio, ALSA), input handlers (DS3, DS4, XInput, PS Move, etc.), network emulation (RPCN, UPnP), and a custom overlay UI system. The project is under active development with frequent commits, though many PS3 firmware modules remain as stubs or placeholders. The architecture separates PS3 and PS4 emulation into distinct directories (`rpcs3/` and `rpcsx/`), sharing a common utility library (`rx/`) that provides synchronization primitives, memory management, and debugging tools. The GPU emulation is particularly sophisticated, featuring a custom shader intermediate representation (IR) for AMD GCN instructions with optimization passes and SPIR-V/GLSL backends. The codebase also includes a comprehensive serialization framework for savestates, a YAML-based configuration system, and a texture cache predictor for GPU performance. Key entry points include the main emulator executables (built from `rpcs3/` and `rpcsx/`), the kernel syscall handlers in `kernel/orbis/` and `kernel/cellos/`, the GPU renderers in `rpcs3/Emu/RSX/` and `rpcsx/gpu/`, and the PS3 firmware HLE modules in `ps3fw/`. External dependencies include Vulkan, OpenGL, FFmpeg, WolfSSL, SDL2, libusb, and several audio libraries. The project is primarily a software application for console emulation, with significant reverse-engineering and research components.