shadPS4 is an early PlayStation 4 emulator for Windows, Linux and macOS written in C++.
If you encounter problems or have doubts, do not hesitate to look at the Quickstart.
To verify that a game works, you can look at shadPS4 Game Compatibility.
To discuss shadPS4 development, suggest ideas or to ask for help, join our Discord server.
To get the latest news, go to our X (Twitter) or our website.
For those who'd like to donate to the project, we now have a Kofi page!
Important
shadPS4 is early in development, don't expect a flawless experience.
Currently, the emulator can successfully run games like Bloodborne, Dark Souls Remastered, Red Dead Redemption and many other games.
This project began as a fun project. Given our limited free time, it may take some time before shadPS4 can run more complex games, but we're committed to making small, regular updates.
Check the build instructions for Windows.
Check the build instructions for Linux.
Check the build instructions for macOS.
Important
macOS users need at least macOS 15 on Apple Silicon-based Mac devices and at least macOS 14 on Intel-based Mac devices.
For more information on how to test, debug and report issues with the emulator or games, read the Debugging documentation.
| Button | Function |
|---|---|
| F10 | FPS Counter |
| Ctrl+F10 | Video Debug Info |
| F11 | Fullscreen |
| F12 | Trigger RenderDoc Capture |
Note
Xbox and DualShock controllers work out of the box.
| Controller button | Keyboard equivelant | Mac alternative |
|---|---|---|
| LEFT AXIS UP | W | |
| LEFT AXIS DOWN | S | |
| LEFT AXIS LEFT | A | |
| LEFT AXIS RIGHT | D | |
| RIGHT AXIS UP | I | |
| RIGHT AXIS DOWN | K | |
| RIGHT AXIS LEFT | J | |
| RIGHT AXIS RIGHT | L | |
| TRIANGLE | Numpad 8 | C |
| CIRCLE | Numpad 6 | B |
| CROSS | Numpad 2 | N |
| SQUARE | Numpad 4 | V |
| PAD UP | UP | |
| PAD DOWN | DOWN | |
| PAD LEFT | LEFT | |
| PAD RIGHT | RIGHT | |
| OPTIONS | RETURN | |
| BACK BUTTON / TOUCH PAD | SPACE | |
| L1 | Q | |
| R1 | U | |
| L2 | E | |
| R2 | O | |
| L3 | X | |
| R3 | M |
Logo is done by Xphalnos
If you want to contribute, please look the CONTRIBUTING.md file.
Open a PR and we'll check it :)
A few noteworthy teams/projects who've helped us along the way are:
-
Panda3DS: A multiplatform 3DS emulator from our co-author wheremyfoodat. They have been incredibly helpful in understanding and solving problems that came up from natively executing the x64 code of PS4 binaries
-
fpPS4: The fpPS4 team has assisted massively with understanding some of the more complex parts of the PS4 operating system and libraries, by helping with reverse engineering work and research.
-
yuzu: Our shader compiler has been designed with yuzu's Hades compiler as a blueprint. This allowed us to focus on the challenges of emulating a modern AMD GPU while having a high-quality optimizing shader compiler implementation as a base.
-
hydra: A multisystem, multiplatform emulator (chip-8, GB, NES, N64) from Paris.