droogie/bbhost

bbhost is a translation layer that runs Bloodborne on Windows and Linux. The game's own 1.09 executable runs unmodified on the PC's x86-64 CPU; bbhost answers its calls into the PS4's system libraries with PC implementations, and recompiles its GPU work, GCN shaders and the engine's draw calls, for Vulkan. The aim is a definitive PC version of the game - the original, intact, with what a PC release would add: any resolution and aspect ratio, 60 fps and beyond, keyboard and mouse, proper settings, mods and online play.

bbhost contains no game code or data. You need your own copy of the game: a dump with the 1.09 update and its decrypted executable.

The PS4 has an x86-64 CPU, so the game's code does not need to be translated to run on a PC - it needs a place to live. bbhost provides that place:

• The CPU side runs natively. bbhost loads the game's ELF executable, relocates it, links its imports to its own implementations and starts it. The game's code runs at full speed on the host CPU, with no interpreter or recompiler involved.
• The PS4's system libraries are reimplemented for the PC: files and saves, threads and memory, input, audio, movies, networking and the PlayStation Network calls the online features use - every one of the 660 named functions the game imports.
• Graphics are being moved from emulation to native code. The game's renderer was written for the PS4's GPU: it builds command buffers for an AMD GCN GPU and ships GCN shader programs. bbhost hooks FromSoftware's own graphics layer instead, so draws are built directly from the engine's objects, and decompiles the shaders to typed, structured SPIR-V. The status table below shows what is native today and what still goes through the emulated GPU command processor.
• Game functions are being rewritten as source, one at a time, each checked against the original, so the game can be fixed and extended where a patch would not reach.

	Any resolution, ultrawide included. 21:9 and 32:9 with a wider field of view and the HUD where it belongs, and the resolution can be changed while playing. FSR 1 upscaling for slower GPUs.
	Settings in the game's own menus. The System menu gains PC Settings, PC Graphics, PC Effects, PC Controls, PC Camera and Key Bindings, drawn in the game's style: anti-aliasing, ambient occlusion, shadow distance, fog, motion blur, field of view, frame cap and more.

• 60 fps, with the game's timing corrected so physics, animation and cutscenes run at the right speed. Higher frame caps keep the game's logic at 60.
• Keyboard and mouse: mouse camera, a pointer in every menu, rebindable keys, and button prompts that show the keys.
• PC enhancements that can be switched off for the game as it shipped: the Hunter's Dream mirror opens the character appearance editor (a feature cut from the release), "Rebirth in the Nightmare" at the Altar of Despair lets you redistribute your levels, and the late areas allow two invaders, as the chalice dungeons do.
• Online play through a private server: co-op, invasions, messages, bloodstains and summon signs between bbhost players.
• Mods without touching the game files: replacement files, param tables edited by field name, byte patches as data, and native plugins - a randomizer (items, shops and enemies), a boss rush, gameplay mutators and the developers' own debug menu ship with it.
• A setup window that finds and checks your game files, and the Steam Deck as a supported device.

The game is playable on Windows and Linux: the world, its bosses and online sessions. What runs on native code and what is still emulated:

Known issues:

• Compute work still goes through the emulated command processor, and the game's GPU-visible memory (about 5 GB) stays imported into Vulkan, because some shaders still read it through page-table walks.
• A new GPU particle system's counter can start uninitialized; bbhost clamps such a dispatch to nothing rather than hang.
• Slow poison runs twice as fast at 60 fps.
• A new area compiles its pipelines on first sight, which can cause short hitches the first time it is visited.
• About one in four first summons fail and have to be repeated.
• The cause of a GPU hang reported on an AMD RX 580 (Polaris) under Windows is not yet known.

See docs/rendering.md for the graphics in detail and docs/decomp.md for which game functions have been rewritten.

1. Get the game files: a dump of Bloodborne with the 1.09 update copied over it (or kept beside it as CUSA00900-UPDATE, the way shadPS4 keeps it), and the 1.09 eboot.bin decrypted to an ELF (SHA-256 941f887a562aae054fac35af8cc8f27cf075f3d4cc2e029fb5ae2a663aaa5ae7).
2. Download a release for Windows or Linux, or build bbhost yourself.
3. Start bbhost. The setup window asks for the two paths, checks them and saves them; press Play.

docs/running.md covers the configuration, the controls, saves, logs and troubleshooting.

cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
cmake --build build -j
./build/bbhost

Linux builds natively with GCC or Clang; the Windows executable is cross-compiled from Linux with Clang and mingw-w64 (MSVC cannot express the calling conventions involved). Dependencies, the Windows build, tests and packaging are in docs/building.md.

• Running - configuration, controls, saves, troubleshooting, the debug menu
• Building - Linux, Windows, tests, packages
• Rendering - how the graphics work, and what is native
• Decompilation - game functions rewritten as source
• Modding - replacement files, params, patches
• Plugins - the plugin API and the official plugins
• Online - the private server and peer-to-peer play

src/
  main.cpp       start-up and the main loop
  core/          ELF loading, relocation and import binding, TLS, configuration
  hle/           the PS4 system libraries: kernel, files, threads, audio, video,
                 network, NP, Gnm and the GPU command processor
  host/          the PC side: window, input, audio, Vulkan renderer, textures,
                 menus, overlay, plugins, update check
  gcn/           GCN shader decoding, translation and lifting to SPIR-V
  engine/        named engine structures and the features built on them:
                 frame rate, live resolution, menus, params, event flags,
                 PC enhancements
  decomp/        game functions rewritten as source
  net/           the private server's session service, accounts, STUN
  replay/        draw capture comparison
include/         the plugin API and the engine SDK (layouts, params, symbols)
plugins/         the official plugins (randomizer, boss rush, mutators) and an example
patches/         byte patches as data
res/             the Windows exe's icon and version details
tests/           unit tests (ctest)
tools/           shader tools, format tools, test drivers and packaging scripts
third_party/     LibAtrac9, Dear ImGui, Monocypher

• Graphics, native throughout: compute dispatches, clears and copies built from the engine's objects like the draws, so the PM4 command processor can be retired; resources identified by the engine's own objects rather than guest addresses; compute shaders lifted too; the lifted SPIR-V emitted as HLSL and compiled with DXC.
• Decompilation: more of the engine rewritten as source, starting with the systems mods and fixes need most.
• Performance: a steady 60 fps everywhere on mid-range hardware, and headroom above it.
• PC features: more settings, better keyboard and mouse handling in every screen, and more restored content.

bbhost is free software, licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later (see LICENSE). The third-party code in third_party/ and src/host/shaders/fsr1/ keeps its own licenses. The debug menu's glyphs (plugins/debug_menu/font14.bin) come from the X11 fonts k14 and 7x14, which are in the public domain.

Bloodborne is a trademark of Sony Interactive Entertainment. bbhost is not affiliated with or endorsed by Sony or FromSoftware, and contains none of the game's code or data.

• Community work bbhost builds on: illusion's Skip Intro, Lance McDonald's Restore Debug Camera and Kyo's The Old Hunters patch (shipped as patch files), and Kyo's 60 FPS++ timing list (built into the frame-rate code).
• shadPS4, a reference for the PS4's system behaviour and a working run to compare against.
• SDL3, Vulkan, FFmpeg, SPIRV-Tools, LibAtrac9, Dear ImGui, Monocypher and AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 1.
• Thanks to the many contributors and testers, incomplete and in no particular order: Metr1k, Kyo, Schorched Knight, ancat, Nox-, Astrelle, BlitzWOLF, CrunchyCheese, foxyhooligans, gkberk, sen, Ultra, droogie