leolobato/playden-ps5 v0.6.0

Playden for PS5 0.6.0

on GitHub

Import Windows games you already have, from a USB drive or over FTP, and play them next to your Steam library. Games can now run at 120 Hz with kit 0.12. Playden also keeps its data outside the app folder from now on, so store updates and mods can't remove it. The new Queue screen shows every download and game setup.

Downloads

Updating from 0.5.0: Playden offers the update the next time it starts, or from Settings › About › Playden updates › Check now. It updates the app and the kit together (a 469 MB download). Make sure console storage has at least 8 GB free first (PS5 Settings › Storage): the update unpacks the new kit next to the old one, and the PS5 itself needs 5 GB. Your sign-in, games, saves and Game settings are kept. Bottles need no Recreate bottle: prepared games update their runtime the next time you press Play. For a new install, follow the README.

Updating from 0.4.0 or older: update to 0.5.0 by hand first (see its notes), then let Playden update itself to 0.6.0.

What's new

• Import games. Settings › Library › Import games (also on Home when the library is empty, and on the sign-in screen). Put a game's folder in a playden/import folder at the top of a drive, or in /data/playden-import over FTP. Then play it from there, or copy it into Playden. Playden finds the game's program, puts installers and tools last, and prepares the game like a download. Imported games don't need Steam (#22). A game that needs the Steam API gets its app ID from its own steam_appid.txt or from Game settings. See Import Windows games in the README.
• Stay signed in. The sign-in screens have a Stay signed in toggle (on by default). With it off, Playden keeps Steam's sign-in only in memory and asks again at the next start.
• 120 Hz output (kit 0.12). Game settings › 120 Hz output runs DXVK, vkd3d-proton and OpenGL games at 120 Hz on a TV that supports it. Frame limit now offers Off, 120, 60, 40 and 30, and the display paces it. On games set up with an older kit, 120 Hz applies after the game's runtime updates: on its next Play, or with Maintenance > Update runtime.
• 3840×2160 in Game settings › Resolution, for games that can use the TV's 4K size.
• Queue screen. The Downloads tab is now Queue. It lists downloads and game setups. Waiting setups are numbered, with Prepare next to move one up.
• Free games added to your library but never played now show in the Library. Games bought or added on another device show up a few seconds later, without signing in again. The Library's Sort and filters sheet has a Refresh library row.
• Clearer game pages. The main button says what it does (Finish setup, Check again, Finish removing). A short hint says when a game needs you, and setup failures are plain sentences. Setup progress shows its step on two lines.
• Mods and FTP edits stay. Playden no longer refuses or resets game files you add or change over FTP, such as a mod (#73). It checks and fixes its own folders only when it writes to them, so you don't need to chmod anything when you install Playden by hand.

Fixed

• Games that need Microsoft's MFC library stopped at start, Moonlighter for example (its Razer Chroma plugin needs mfc140u.dll). When a game's files need MFC, Play now downloads Microsoft's Visual C++ redistributable once per console (25 MB, plus 14 MB when a 32-bit file needs it) and installs only its MFC files into that game's Windows folder. If the download fails, the game still starts and its page says so; Play again to retry.
• "No Windows version to install" for games whose Steam launch options name other branches (Minecraft Dungeons II, STAR WARS Zero Company, GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE-, RuneScape: Dragonwilds, the Half-Life games). When the download has more than one program, Playden asks which one starts the game (#10, #83, #84).
• Marvel Rivals didn't install ("Steam didn't grant access to part of this game") and showed 168.5 GB. Games whose license grants one of two content copies now install, and sizes count only what your license grants. It still doesn't start: its protection refuses to run on the PS5.
• Uninstall left game files behind when a download was running, or when Playden was closed before the deletion finished. The deletion now runs at once and continues at the next start. If files can't be deleted, Playden says so. A failed PS5 title removal no longer deletes the files of a game whose title still exists.
• "Package staging and destination must support one atomic rename" stopped installs when the app's folders had other permissions than Playden expected, and games could stay on the second preparation step (#43, #70).
• Runtime status in Settings › Storage no longer reads "Unavailable" after signing in on a console with no prepared games.
• Quitting to Home while games were waiting for setup could cut the next setup off. Playden now waits for the queue too. The steps of quitting are logged.

What works

See the compatibility list. New since 0.5.0:

• Works: Moonlighter (#85), Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (with its mods, #73), Return of the Obra Dinn, Stray, TUNIC, What Remains of Edith Finch, South Park: The Stick of Truth, DOOM + DOOM II, Left 4 Dead 2, Euro Truck Simulator 2, Tetris Effect: Connected, Death's Door, Don't Starve Together, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, Trine 2, Bastion, FEZ, GRIS, Dorfromantik, The Rogue Prince of Persia, Mark of the Ninja, Crypt of the NecroDancer, A Story About My Uncle, Selaco, METAL SLUG 3, Cave Story+, Pony Island, Thomas Was Alone, To the Moon, VVVVVV, Victory Heat Rally, Tingus Goose.
• Partial: Braid, The Walking Dead, Phasmophobia, Stick Fight: The Game, Hood Warfare 2 (online play), Valheim (can't save its world).
• Broken: Marvel Rivals (its protection refuses to run on the PS5), Counter-Strike 2 (too many open files), DAVE THE DIVER and Hades II (their integrity checks reject the game's files), Slay the Spire (Java's network-adapter lookup), Darkest Dungeon, Mad Max, The Talos Principle, Black Mesa, LIMBO, Monaco, Dust: An Elysian Tail, Dead Space, Hellblade II: Senua's Saga, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Demo, Wrap House Simulator.
• Refused: OMORI (NW.js).

Test reports are welcome, including for games that work.

Known issues

• Slay the Spire and other libGDX games start only once per bottle. Later starts stop in Java's network-adapter lookup, which the PS5 runtime can't answer yet. Maintenance › Recreate bottle gets you one more start.
• Some games may run too fast at 120 Hz. Set Frame limit to 60 for them.
• Online play doesn't work. Games run with Steam features = Offline emulation, which has no Steam connection. Single player and bots work (#64, #74, #86).
• Games that start through another launcher don't start, such as the EA app or Rockstar's launcher. The runtime can't start a second program yet (#53, #77).
• Some Unreal Engine games say DirectX 12 is not supported, even with Direct3D 12 = vkd3d-proton (#20, #78).
• Games see almost no free disk space. Valheim can't save its world because of this (#76).

Thanks

• @porkchopkilla (#10), @Cevap05 (#22), @CStone6 (#43), @vFxMz (#70), @CortezJ88 (#73), @moeiscool (#83) and @RichEdd (#84) for their reports and ideas.
• @isaacm0880 and @kernelpanicz for setting up the community on Discord.
• @kernelpanicz, @isaacm0880, @MiuKuou, @HackZy01, @Ashkannvafa, @Willhargrave, @porkchopkilla, @lilkidsuave, @pauldrinn, @TodorPenchev, @RichEdd and @crimsondl for their test reports, and everyone else who sent one.