Orbital: A PlayStation 4 Emulator That Is Emulating The PS4's AMD GPU Using Vulkan

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Orbital: A PlayStation 4 Emulator That Is Emulating The PS4's AMD GPU Using Vulkan

Orbital is an open-source project providing a virtualization-based PlayStation 4 emulator that is still in its early stages but what interests us is its technical details including the use of Vulkan/SPIR-V...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Orbital-Vulkan-Emulator

[skeevy420]

That's great news.

[dh04000]

I'm all for emulation, but it seems wrong to emulate a console still in production and selling product.

If emulation hurt active consoles, then they stop being made simple as that. I dont want BOTW, to be my last Zelda.

[skeevy420]

I'm all for emulation, but it seems wrong to emulate a console still in production and selling product.

If emulation hurt active consoles, then they stop being made simple as that. I dont want BOTW, to be my last Zelda.

I've bought PS3 and PSX games for emulation and I'd buy (more) PS4 games if I could do local multiplayer between my PC and PS4. More games really need to be cross platform...I realize that isn't the norm, but not all of us just download games. I'll buy them if they're still new and on the market.

I'd be more worried that this would effect the PS5 more than the PS4. With the hardware and software that powers the Sony consoles, x86 APUs and BSD, it's not like the PS5 will be that much different than the PS4...pretty much a PS4 Pro Pro.

Also, it's probably a safe assumption that the XBO and PS4 share the same AMDGPU driver that Windows and Linux use which means that, probably with some DXVK magic, the XBO will be emulated sooner than later and possibly share a common codebase with PS4 emulation.

[Aeder]

I'm all for emulation, but it seems wrong to emulate a console still in production and selling product.

If emulation hurt active consoles, then they stop being made simple as that. I dont want BOTW, to be my last Zelda.

By the time this starts playing any/most commercial games, the PS4 will no longer be selling anymore.

[cybertraveler]

According to their roadmap, they've already got as far as surviving hammer_time. I'd say they're making good progress.

[skeevy420]

According to their roadmap, they've already got as far as surviving hammer_time. I'd say they're making good progress.

oh-oh oh oh oh-oh-oh

[schmidtbag]

I'm impressed someone has already got an emulator for a modern console working, though seeing as it's mostly just tweaked PC hardware running BSD, I'm a little surprised it hasn't happened sooner.

I'm all for emulation, but it seems wrong to emulate a console still in production and selling product.

If emulation hurt active consoles, then they stop being made simple as that. I dont want BOTW, to be my last Zelda.

You're focusing too much on the implications of older systems, where they're cheap and easy to emulate, and used special mediums that basically required piracy (I'm mostly referring to Nintendo hardware here).
PS4 is way too demanding and complex for just anyone to emulate; you need a beefy PC. Its EOL is in sight too, and as long as games can still be legally purchased, their ecosystem won't be hurt. I'm pretty sure the consoles themselves are not a big source of profit for Sony, so, I don't think there's any problem with any of this.

[cb88]

I'm all for emulation, but it seems wrong to emulate a console still in production and selling product.

If emulation hurt active consoles, then they stop being made simple as that. I dont want BOTW, to be my last Zelda.

Console makers don't actually make money off the consoles (very little if any, PS3 was sold at a loss for a long time), as long as you only play games that you have bought and paid for you are still supporting the developers and console ecosystem.

[Dukenukemx]

I'm all for emulation, but it seems wrong to emulate a console still in production and selling product.

If emulation hurt active consoles, then they stop being made simple as that. I dont want BOTW, to be my last Zelda.

Consoles are an anti consumer business practice that forces you to buy their hardware. Hardware that is essentially a PC with a locked ecosystem. PC gaming is an open market where anyone can freely sell games. If publishers didn't want their games emulated on PC then they should port their games to PC, just like publishers who didn't want their Windows games virtually running in Linux should have ported their games to Linux. I played Breath of the Wild on PC from start to finish at higher quality than on a Switch. If Nintendo stops making console games they'll likely move to phones. Don't you all have a phone?