Developer(s) RPCS3 Team Development status Active | Preview release Latest builds Written in C++, C | |
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Original author(s) Initial release May 23, 2011; 5 years ago (2011-05-23) | ||
RPCS3 is a free and open-source in-development video game console emulator and debugger for the Sony PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. It was developed in the C++ programming language and features OpenGL, Vulkan and DirectX 12 as its back-end renderers. The emulator currently runs on both Windows and Linux operating systems, allowing PlayStation 3 games and software to be played and debugged on a PC.
Contents
As of March 19, 2017 the developer's compatibility list marks 107 games as playable and 417 games being able to go in-game.
Development
RPCS3 was initially created on May 23, 2011 by programmers, DH and Hykem. The developers initially hosted the project on Google Code and eventually moved it to GitHub on August 27, 2013. The emulator was first able to successfully run simple homebrew projects in September 2011 and was then later publicly released in June 2012 as v0.0.0.2, followed by v0.0.0.4 in August 2013, v0.0.0.5 in June 2014, v0.0.0.6 in October 2015 and v0.0.0.9 in April 2016.
Requirements
The developers have a set of minimum requirements that must be met for the emulator to function properly. As of March 3, 2017, users are required to be running a 64-bit version of either Windows 7 or later, or a modern distro of Linux. A modern processor in the AMD FX series or Intel Sandy Bridge series or later is required; the processor needs to support SSE3. Any modern GPU that supports OpenGL 4.3 or greater can be used, Vulkan and DirectX 12 are also supported. 8GB of RAM or higher. In order to actually run the emulator, the Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 redistributable, firmware for the PlayStation 3 and games or applications are required. As games and applications can be installed onto the emulated PS3, the storage requirment depends on what is installed.
Notable implementations
On February 9, 2017, RPCS3 received its first implementation of a PPU Thread Scheduler. On February 16, 2017, RPCS3 gained the ability to install official PlayStation 3 firmware directly to its core file system.
Reception
In March 2014, Cinema Blend's William Usher wrote "A lot of gamers originally thought that the complexity of the PlayStation 3's Cell architecture would have prevented it from being emulated". In March 2014, Eurogamer's Elio Cossu wrote "The emulation, even at such an early stage, was a remarkable achievement, considering the complexity of the hardware of the PS3."