KytyPS5

KytyPS5 is a free and open-source PlayStation 5 emulator 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 an early stage of development, so compatibility is limited and behavior may change significantly between builds.

Important

KytyPS5 is not affiliated with Sony Interactive Entertainment or PlayStation. The project does not distribute games or copyrighted system software. Use only game files that you have obtained legally.

Current Status

KytyPS5 can boot 2D games and a selection of 3D games, including titles built with Unreal Engine 4/5, Unity, and custom engines. No external low-level emulation modules are currently required.

Development is focused on compatibility and boot reliability.

Windows is the primary platform and receives the most testing. Linux builds and runs; see Building on Linux.

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.

Bugs and Issues

The project is in an early stage, so please be mindful when opening new issues. Expect crashes, graphical glitches, low compatibility, and poor performance.

Screenshots

Disgaea 6	Dreaming Sarah
Neptunia ReVerse	SILENT HILL: The Short Message
Hellboy	Paleo Pines

And many more...

Contributing

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

Code contributions should be focused, build successfully on the platforms they touch, and include relevant tests where practical. Windows is the primary target, so a change that alters shared code should not regress it; changes confined to a platform's own code paths only need to build there. Because KytyPS5 is still evolving quickly, consider opening an issue before starting a large change.

Formatting

Set up the clang-format hook after cloning:

python -m pip install pre-commit
python -m pre_commit install --install-hooks

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

Developer Information

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.

Building

System requirements

• 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)

Build requirements (Windows)

• Git
• CMake 3.12 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

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 src -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.

Building on Linux

Install the toolchain and the libraries the bundled SDL2 needs. Without the audio, Wayland and udev development packages SDL2 quietly configures itself without those backends, and the resulting build has no working sound and no gamepad hotplug:

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

Qt 6 (Concurrent, Network, Widgets) is also required — either the distribution packages (qt6-base-dev) or an official Qt installation.

git submodule update --init --recursive

cmake -S src -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.

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

Note that the CMake source root is src, not the repository root.

Building on macOS

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
• Qt 6 (Concurrent, Network, 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 src -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.

Vulkan comes from MoltenVK. Download MoltenVK-macos.tar from the MoltenVK releases, then copy MoltenVK/dynamic/dylib/macOS/libMoltenVK.dylib next to kyty_emulator and ad-hoc sign it:

codesign --force --sign - _Build/macos/install/libMoltenVK.dylib

Release archives already include a signed libMoltenVK.dylib.

Visual Studio Code

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.

Running

Update your graphics driver before reporting rendering problems.

To use the graphical launcher:

.\_Build\windows\install\launcher.exe

./_Build/linux/install/launcher

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. Select a detected game and run it from the game list.

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

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

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

On macOS, point SDL at the MoltenVK library explicitly; the hardened runtime prevents it from being picked up from the executable's directory:

cd _Build/macos/install
SDL_VULKAN_LIBRARY="$PWD/libMoltenVK.dylib" ./kyty_emulator --game "/games/ExampleGame"

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

AI Use

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.

License

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.

Special Thanks

• InoriRus/Kyty — KytyPS5 is based on a heavily modified version of the original Kyty project.
• shadps4-emu/shadPS4 — reference for memory-model understanding and the AVPlayer implementation.