– RPCS3 can now boot games directly from supported Blu-Ray drives and use disc dumping tools for decryption.
– Automatic application of recommended database settings at boot simplifies game setup while preserving user preferences.
– New UI features allow reordering of game list columns for easier sorting.
– Major graphical fixes across dozens of games, including reflections, shadows, skyboxes, and lighting.
– Support for decrypted and encrypted ISOs improves game preservation and disc-based emulation.
New Features Hit RPCS3 Emulator
The talented developers behind cross-platform PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 continue to impress with new features and fixes for the emulator, now including the ability to boot games from supported Blu-Ray drives. The same drives can now also be used to decrypt PlayStation 3 games with 13xforever’s disc dumping tool—but more on that below. For now, lets focus on the other new RPCS3 features and fixes.
Boot improvements and UI changes
One major improvement is in game booting itself. Now, RPCS3 will automatically apply recommended RPCS3 database configuration settings on boot, barring game patches, resolution scaling, anisotropic filtering, and debug configurations. Since those are typically unneccessary for getting a game to work properly (and may also boil down to personal preference,) they are left untouched by this update while still making it easier to get games up and running before opening up an RPCS3 Wiki page.
Game list columns and visual fixes
Another major feature addition is the game booting UI, which allows you to reorder game list columns (such as playtime, compatibility, etc), making it easier to sort games within the RPCS3 UI. By far the most important updates are to game effects themselves, though. Reflections, shadows, skyboxes, lighting, and various other effects have been fixed across dozens of games in the RPCS3 library, further improving accuracy and fidelity for the emulator. Weve listed known-impacted titles below.
Preservation and drive support
The full breadth of games with improved emulation is unknown even by the RPCS3 team, but what they’ve shown is fairly impressive for fans of emulation and game preservation alike. On the note of preservation, RPCS3 now supports both decrypted and encrypted ISOs alongside Blu-Ray drives, and the RPCS3 Quickstart page now includes a full list of compatible Blu-Ray drives at the bottom.
Alongside the recent (unrelated) release of OmniDrive firmware, we’re seeing an impressive push on part of developers in the emulation scene to improve support for booting and backing up games from real media without the need for a jailbroken console. Hopefully, these efforts continue making emulation easier without the need to resort to piracy or bloating a perfectly-good SSD with a game you already have on a disc.