KytyPS5/KytyPS5

Weekly updates — game progress, recent fixes, and ongoing development.

Development on Discord — KytyPS5 development.

KytyPS5 is a free and open-source PlayStation 5 translation layer written in C++ for Windows and Linux, with experimental macOS support. It is based on a heavily modified version of Kyty. The project is in active development, and behavior can change significantly between builds.

KytyPS5 can boot 2D and 3D games, including titles built with Unreal Engine 4/5, Unity, and custom engines. External low-level emulation modules are neither required nor planned.

Development is currently focused on expanding game compatibility and improving boot reliability.

Windows and Linux are the primary target platforms and receive the most testing.

macOS support is experimental. The emulator is built for x86-64 and runs on Apple Silicon under Rosetta 2, with Vulkan provided by MoltenVK. A small number of titles have been verified in-game on Apple Silicon hardware; see Building on macOS.

Community game test results are available in the KytyPS5 Compatibility List.

Compatibility, stability, and performance can vary between versions. You may encounter crashes or graphical glitches, so please include the version you tested when reporting an issue.

Astro Bot	Saros
Neptunia ReVerse	SILENT HILL: The Short Message
Demon's Souls	UFC 6

And many more...

Testing games and submitting detailed bug reports are useful ways to contribute. Search existing issues first, then use the Game Emulation Status Report template and attach the complete log file.

Pull requests for general fixes, architectural changes, or refactoring that do not address a concrete bug or launch problem in a specific game will be automatically closed.

Large, unfocused commits or pull requests that bundle unrelated changes without a clear purpose or game-related benefit will also be automatically closed.

Keep each PR focused. Name the affected game, describe the exact problem, and provide evidence showing what the change fixes.

Windows and Linux are the primary target platforms, so changes to shared code should not introduce regressions on either platform. Changes confined to a platform's own code paths only need to build on that platform. Because KytyPS5 is still evolving quickly, consider opening an issue before starting a large change.

Set up the clang-format hook after cloning.

Install pre-commit using the method appropriate for your platform:

• Arch Linux / CachyOS: sudo pacman -S pre-commit
• Other Linux / macOS / Windows: python -m pip install pre-commit

Then install the Git hook:

python -m pre_commit install --install-hooks

It formats staged .cpp, .h, and .inc files in src.

The PS5 graphics architecture is based on AMD RDNA 2. Use AMD's RDNA 2 Instruction Set Architecture Reference Guide (document 70648) as the primary instruction-encoding reference when working on shader decoding and recompilation.

Important areas of the codebase:

• src/graphics/shader/recompiler — instruction decoding, intermediate representation, control flow, resource tracking, and SPIR-V emission
• src/graphics/guest_gpu — PS5 (Prospero) GPU formats and command processing
• src/graphics/host_gpu — Vulkan host backend and resource management
• tests — focused memory, shader, and resource-tracking regression tests

The renderer targets Vulkan 1.3. Keep shader changes aligned with both the RDNA 2 ISA semantics and the Vulkan/SPIR-V validation rules.

• Windows 10 version 1803, a current Linux distribution, or macOS on Apple Silicon
• A 64-bit x86 processor (on macOS, an Apple Silicon processor with Rosetta 2)
• A Vulkan 1.3-capable GPU with current drivers (on macOS, Vulkan is provided by the bundled MoltenVK)

• Git
• CMake 3.22.1 or newer
• Ninja
• Visual Studio 2022 or Build Tools 2022 with the Desktop development with C++ workload and C++ Clang tools for Windows component
• Qt 6 for MSVC 2022 64-bit, including Concurrent, Network, and Widgets
• glslang (glslang or glslangValidator) on PATH
• Python 3 on PATH; the bundled SPIRV-Tools runs it at configure time

The Microsoft C++ compiler (cl.exe) is not supported; use clang-cl.

Open an x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for Visual Studio 2022 (or the equivalent Developer PowerShell), change to the repository root, and initialize the dependencies:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Configure the project. Replace the Qt path with the version installed on your system:

cmake -S . -B _Build/windows -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang-cl -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang-cl -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="C:/Qt/6.x.x/msvc2022_64"

Build the launcher and stage a runnable installation:

cmake --build _Build/windows --target launcher
cmake --install _Build/windows --prefix _Build/windows/install

The finished application and its runtime dependencies will be placed in _Build/windows/install.

Install the toolchain and the libraries the bundled SDL3 needs. Without the audio, Wayland, and udev development packages, SDL3 quietly configures itself without those backends, and the resulting build has no working audio or gamepad hotplug support:

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends \
  clang lld ninja-build cmake git glslang-tools python3 pkg-config \
  libgl1-mesa-dev libx11-dev libxcursor-dev libxext-dev libxfixes-dev \
  libxi-dev libxrandr-dev libxss-dev libxtst-dev libxkbcommon-dev \
  libasound2-dev libpulse-dev libudev-dev libdbus-1-dev libwayland-dev wayland-protocols

Qt 6 (Concurrent, Network, and Widgets) is required for the launcher. Use your distribution's packages (qt6-base-dev) or an official Qt installation.

git submodule update --init --recursive

cmake -S . -B _Build/linux -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++ \
  -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$Qt6_DIR"

cmake --build _Build/linux --target launcher --parallel
cmake --install _Build/linux --prefix _Build/linux/install

The install step copies the Qt libraries and plugins next to the binaries, so _Build/linux/install runs without a matching system Qt installation. FFmpeg is linked statically from the pinned KytyPS5 FFmpeg core release, including VP9 and WebM support. System FFmpeg packages are not required.

To build kyty_emulator and the kyty_tests target without Qt, use a separate build directory:

git submodule update --init --recursive

cmake -S . -B _Build/linux-no-qt -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++ \
  -DKYTY_BUILD_LAUNCHER=OFF

cmake --build _Build/linux-no-qt --target kyty_emulator kyty_tests --parallel

As on Windows, the MSVC compiler is not used; Clang is required. cl.exe is rejected at configure time.

The CMake source root is the repository root.

A development shell provides Clang, CMake, Ninja, Qt 6, the Vulkan headers, and the SDL3 backend libraries. Enter it and configure exactly as on other Linux distributions; the shell exports CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH and QT_PLUGIN_PATH, so the -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$Qt6_DIR" argument is not needed:

nix-shell # or: nix develop
git submodule update --init --recursive

cmake -S . -B _Build/linux -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++

cmake --build _Build/linux --target launcher --parallel
cmake --install _Build/linux --prefix _Build/linux/install

The configure step downloads the FFmpeg prebuilts and the xbyak, zydis, zstd, and ZArchive sources, so it needs network access; a fully sandboxed nix build would require vendoring those inputs. A Vulkan 1.3 driver must be available at runtime (on NixOS, hardware.graphics.enable = true).

On regular Fedora, install dependencies on the host. On Fedora Atomic variants such as Bazzite, Bluefin and Silverblue, use Distrobox and run the install and build steps inside the container. Keep the checkout in your home directory so it is shared with the container. Add --nvidia to the create command for hosts using the proprietary NVIDIA driver:

distrobox create --name kyty-build --image registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora:latest
distrobox enter kyty-build

Install the toolchain, Qt 6 and SDL3 dependencies:

sudo dnf install -y \
  clang lld ninja-build cmake git glslang python3 pkgconf-pkg-config \
  mesa-libGL-devel libX11-devel libXcursor-devel libXext-devel libXfixes-devel \
  libXi-devel libXrandr-devel libXScrnSaver-devel libXtst-devel libxkbcommon-devel \
  alsa-lib-devel pulseaudio-libs-devel systemd-devel dbus-devel \
  wayland-devel wayland-protocols-devel qt6-qtbase-devel

From the repository root, follow the launcher configure, build and install steps in Building on Linux, omitting -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$Qt6_DIR"; CMake finds Fedora's packaged Qt 6 automatically.

Run ./_Build/linux/install/launcher on regular Fedora or inside the container. To launch a container build from the host, leave the container with exit, then run from the repository root:

distrobox enter kyty-build -- ./_Build/linux/install/launcher

Qt libraries and plugins are bundled. You can also launch directly on a Fedora Atomic host if its other system libraries are compatible with the container build.

macOS builds target x86-64 and run under Rosetta 2 on Apple Silicon, so the PS5's x86-64 game code executes through the same translation layer as the emulator itself. Prebuilt archives are attached to releases; the steps below are for building from source.

Requirements:

• An Apple Silicon Mac with Rosetta 2 installed (softwareupdate --install-rosetta)
• Xcode (or the Command Line Tools)
• Homebrew packages: brew install cmake ninja glslang python
• Qt 6 (Concurrent, Network, and Widgets) with x86-64 support. The official Qt installation is universal and works; Homebrew's Qt is arm64-only and will not link

git submodule update --init --recursive

cmake -S . -B _Build/macos -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=x86_64 \
  -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++ \
  -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="$Qt6_DIR"

cmake --build _Build/macos --target launcher --parallel
cmake --install _Build/macos --prefix _Build/macos/install

The build re-signs kyty_emulator with the JIT entitlements it needs to execute translated guest code; no manual signing step is required. When the launcher is built, the installation also produces _Build/macos/install/KytyPS5.app — double-click to launch the GUI. A flat kyty_emulator is kept for CLI usage.

Vulkan comes from MoltenVK. Download MoltenVK-macos.tar from the MoltenVK releases, then copy MoltenVK/dynamic/dylib/macOS/libMoltenVK.dylib next to the flat kyty_emulator (and, for the bundle, into KytyPS5.app/Contents/Frameworks/) and sign it with an ad hoc signature:

codesign --force --sign - _Build/macos/install/libMoltenVK.dylib
# For the bundle (if present):
codesign --force --sign - _Build/macos/install/KytyPS5.app/Contents/Frameworks/libMoltenVK.dylib
codesign --force --sign - _Build/macos/install/KytyPS5.app

Release archives already include a signed libMoltenVK.dylib (both flat and inside the bundle).

Build every regression executable and run the registered tests with:

cmake --build _Build/windows --target kyty_tests
ctest --test-dir _Build/windows --output-on-failure

Use _Build/linux instead of _Build/windows for a Linux build.

A ready-made Visual Studio Code setup is included in .vscode. It configures CMake Tools to build the project with Ninja and clang-cl and provides launch profiles for both launcher.exe and kyty_emulator.exe. It is Windows-only: VS Code settings cannot select a compiler per platform, so on Linux configure from the command line as shown above.

Before using it:

1. Install the CMake Tools and C/C++ extensions in Visual Studio Code.
2. Update CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH in .vscode/settings.json to point to your Qt 6 MSVC installation.
3. Update the --game path in .vscode/launch.json for the Debug kyty_emulator profile.
4. Open the repository in an x64 Visual Studio developer environment, configure the CMake project, and select a launch profile from Run and Debug.

Update your graphics driver before reporting rendering problems.

To use the graphical launcher:

.\_Build\windows\install\launcher.exe

./_Build/linux/install/launcher

open _Build/macos/install/KytyPS5.app  # or double-click in Finder

On first launch, add one or more game folders in the global settings. The launcher searches those folders recursively for game directories containing eboot.bin and ZArchive (.zar) game dumps whose archive root contains eboot.bin. Select a detected game and run it from the game list. ZArchive dumps are mounted read-only and streamed directly; they do not need to be extracted first.

Official release builds include a built-in updater. Leave Check for updates on startup enabled, or click Check for updates, then choose Install Update. The launcher downloads the package for your platform from GitHub, checks its SHA-256 checksum, and restarts after installation. Close any running games first. Settings, saves, patches, and other files outside the release package are preserved; replacement failures restore the previous files. The installation folder must be writable. If a package cannot be installed automatically, the updater offers the GitHub release page. Source builds and builds from forks do not replace themselves with official releases.

The emulator can also be started directly with a legally obtained game directory, ELF file, or ZArchive dump:

.\_Build\windows\install\kyty_emulator.exe --game "D:\Games\ExampleGame"
.\_Build\windows\install\kyty_emulator.exe --game "D:\Games\ExampleGame.zar"

./_Build/linux/install/kyty_emulator --game "/games/ExampleGame"
./_Build/linux/install/kyty_emulator --game "/games/ExampleGame.zar"

On macOS, the adjacent flat or app-bundled libMoltenVK.dylib is found automatically; no environment variable is required:

./_Build/macos/install/kyty_emulator --game "/games/ExampleGame"

To override the Vulkan loader, set SDL_VULKAN_LIBRARY:

SDL_VULKAN_LIBRARY=/path/to/libMoltenVK.dylib ./kyty_emulator --game "/games/ExampleGame"

Run kyty_emulator --help to see the available graphics, logging, validation, profiling, and debugging options.

AI tools may be used for research, reverse engineering, and development assistance. Contributors must fully understand, review, and test all code they submit and remain responsible for its correctness. Repository communication, including pull-request descriptions, code comments, and issue comments, must come from the human contributor rather than an autonomous AI agent.

Pull requests that include AI-assisted or AI-generated work should disclose the scope of the AI involvement and describe the human review and testing performed before submission. Unverified or untested generated changes may be closed without review.

KytyPS5 is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPL-2.0-only).

This project is based on the original Kyty, which was released under the MIT License. Kyty's original copyright and license notice are preserved in LICENSES/Kyty-MIT.txt. Third-party components remain subject to the licenses included with those components.

• InoriRus/Kyty — KytyPS5 is based on a heavily modified version of the original Kyty project.
• shadps4-emu/shadPS4 — reference for understanding PS4 memory behavior, GPU resource aliasing, cache coherency, and the AVPlayer implementation.