leolobato/playden-ps5 v0.9.0

Playden for PS5 0.9.0

on GitHub

More Direct3D 12 games start, The Witcher 3 among them, and Unreal Engine 5 games use Direct3D 12 by default. Choose a game's language and version when installing, get its DLC and updates, and move or uninstall installed games from one screen. Frame generation shows up to four times the frames a game draws. New runtime kit 0.17 brings the latest prospero-win: rumble, the PS5 keyboard in games, USB mouse wheel and fixes for games that ran out of memory or file handles.

Downloads

Updating from 0.6.0 or newer: Playden offers the update the next time it starts, or from Settings › Updates › Check now. It updates the app and runtime kit 0.17 (470 MB). Make sure console storage has at least 8 GB free first (PS5 Settings › Storage). Your sign-in, games, saves and Game settings are kept.

Updating from 0.9.0-beta.4: the same way, but only the app downloads (40 MB), as you already have kit 0.17.

After the update: games set up with an earlier kit show "Kit update available" on their page. Play updates their runtime first, then starts the game. Until then they keep running on their old kit from PS5 Home.

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

New install: unzip playden-ps5-0.9.0.zip into a folder of its own and copy the FAKE77031 folder to /data/homebrew/ (see the README). On its first start Playden offers to download the runtime kit; you can sign in while it downloads.

What's new

• More Direct3D 12 games start, such as The Witcher 3 (next-gen) and WheelMates. Unreal Engine 5 games now use Direct3D 12 by default. (#118, #148, #135)
• DLC. DLC you own downloads with the game, and free DLC is claimed for you. A game's page says when new DLC is available. (#175, #251)
• Game updates. A game's page says "Update available" when Steam has a newer build. Only the changed files download.
• Choose the game's language. Set it in Settings › Downloads › Download language, or for one install on the install sheet. (#45)
• Choose the game's version. The install sheet lists the public version and every Steam beta branch without a password. (#161)
• Manage installed games. Settings › Storage › Manage installed games updates, moves or uninstalls several games at once.
• Exact sizes. The install sheet and updates show the real size, not Steam's estimate, which said 8.2 GB for Portal's 4.2 GB install.
• Web access for logs. While Playden is open, a browser on the same network can read its logs at http://<PS5 IP>:7031/. Turn it off in Settings › Web access.
• Rumble strength. Set it in Game settings › Controller tuning › Rumble.
• Frame generation. Game settings › Display › Frame generation shows 2, 3 or 4 times the frames a DXVK, OpenGL or Vulkan game draws, with MihawkGen. (prospero-win #722)
• PhysX for older games. Games that need NVIDIA's PhysX now get it on their first Play, instead of closing at start.
• Run a game's launcher. Game actions › Run a program once starts a program from the game folder, such as a settings launcher, in place of the game. The next Play starts the game. (#52)
• Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City start, past their settings launcher.
• Games without artwork show their own icon, made from their program's icon, on PS5 Home, in the Library and on the Saves tab. (#213)
• Sort and filters has Sort and Filter sections, and shows which sort and filters are on.

New in runtime kits 0.14 to 0.17 (prospero-win)

• Games that keep hundreds of files open no longer stop with "Too many open files" (kit 0.17). A PS5 title can hold only about 256 open files; Wine now parks read-only files it hasn't used lately and opens them again when needed. This was behind imported Unreal Engine 3 games that stopped loading, Dead by Daylight, and Euro Truck Simulator 2 failing to save. (#186, #293, #226)

Kit 0.14 moves Playden's runtime onto the latest prospero-win. These work in every game, with no setting:

• Rumble. Games now vibrate the DualSense when they rumble, L2 and R2 included. (#695, #712)
• The PS5 keyboard in games. A two-finger touchpad click opens the PS5's on-screen keyboard over the game; what you type reaches the game as key presses, with Enter at the end. Good for chat lines, save names and console commands. (#726)
• Touchpad Back and Guide. In XInput mode a touchpad click on the left half is Back (Select), on the right half Guide, so Back no longer needs Create, which also opens the PS5's capture menu. Clicks land on the right half more reliably, too. (#721, #724)
• Closing a game takes a 3-second Options+Create hold, so games that use Start and Select together (emulated PS1 games among them) no longer close by accident. (#720)
• USB mouse wheel. A USB mouse's scroll wheel now reaches the game. (#715)
• Less memory for threads. Thread and fiber stacks take the memory Windows gives them instead of all of it up front. Games that make thousands of fibers (Assetto Corsa EVO used about 2.7 GB for them) no longer run out of memory at start. (#727)
• Room for the graphics driver. Wine's own memory now leaves headroom in the PS5's direct memory, so heavy games at high resolutions don't starve the GPU of it. (#470)
• .NET games that scan big folders, such as Stardew Valley's SMAPI going through its Mods folder, no longer fail at the first subfolder or with "Too many open files". (#696, #697)
• Emulators and other programs that recompile code see writes to the pages they protect, so they no longer jump into stale code (DuckStation showed a black screen). (#718) In kit 0.16, the part that reports frequent writes next to a protected page is off by default, because it closed .NET games: if an emulator shows stale code again, add PW_SUBPAGE_REPORT=1 in Game settings › Environment variables.
• Stuck "Closing" screen. A game on a Vulkan display could leave the console on the PS5's "Closing" screen when it quit, until a reboot. The title now waits for the last frames first. (#698)
• Up-to-date root certificates for games' HTTPS connections. (#728)

Fixed

• Unreal games started their launcher and failed, such as Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor, or said the Visual C++ redistributable was missing. Playden now starts the game's real program in Binaries/Win64, also for imported games. (#252, #294)
• Older Unity 5 games stopped with "Failed to initialize player". Playden passed -force-d3d9 to every Unity game built before 2017.2; Unity 5 games now get -force-d3d11. (#202)
• Games whose graphics library isn't in their files couldn't draw, such as Alan Wake: they got Wine's own Direct3D, which has no OpenGL on the PS5. New setups get DXVK. (#250)
• A dedicated server was picked as the game's program. Cry of Fear started hlds.exe, the Half-Life server, instead of the game. Servers and relays now rank last. Cry of Fear itself still doesn't start for everyone (#282). (#318)
• Cloud saves refused some games with "A save location is not supported yet": Cat Quest, whose Steam Cloud setup also lists a macOS location, and Fallout 4, The Witcher 3, Black Mesa and Hexcells, whose save folder starts with a slash. (#170)
• Cloud save downloads that fail at once now say why when the PS5's DNS blocks Steam Cloud's storage host: "The PS5 couldn't reach Steam Cloud's storage. Check its DNS settings, then try again." (#215, #150)
• A SteamStub program Playden can't unpack is now named, with the reason, in the install log and in Game settings › Program, instead of being skipped in silence. The Saboteur still doesn't start. (#320)
• Family-shared games were missing from the Library, with about one more showing up per refresh. Playden now fetches their details the way the Steam client does, in the background: a refresh no longer waits for them, and each game shows up as soon as it is named.
• Games that need C:\ProgramData or a Temp folder crashed, such as Dead by Daylight ("Fatal error!"). New bottles have them, and Repair adds them to games already set up. (#253)
• A game Playden couldn't prepare couldn't be removed from the Queue. Its Queue actions now offer Uninstall (Remove from library for imported games). (#184)
• Older 32-bit files could overwrite a 64-bit install. When a game has both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows depots, only the 64-bit ones are installed.
• Downloads resumed at start used the default settings (automatic server, 4 pieces at a time) instead of your download server, slow-network setting and game language.
• Queue: sizes and speeds use decimal units like the rest of Playden (a game no longer reads 4.0 GB on its page and 3.7 GB in the Queue), and Back from a game opened from the Queue returns to the same row.

Games to test

These games should work now, or better than before. Please try them and say how it goes on the linked issue, or open a test report if there is none. Reports that a game works are just as welcome. A game you set up before this update keeps its old program and graphics: use Maintenance › Recreate bottle, or install it again.

• Dead by Daylight: should reach its title screen without renaming any .pak file or turning off the GeForce NOW library. Its login needs online play, which doesn't work yet (#115). (#226, #253)
• Euro Truck Simulator 2: creating a profile and saving should work. (#293)
• Imported Unreal Engine 3 games: should keep loading past the first couple of hundred packages. (#186)
• Satisfactory (imported from Epic): worth a new try on kit 0.17: the last report, on kit 0.15, stopped with "Failed to open descriptor file". Keep -EpicPortal in Extra arguments. (#325)
• Disney Dreamlight Valley: should start without the GfnRuntimeSdk=d override. Remove it and use Maintenance › Repair. (#209, #253)
• WheelMates and Hellblade II: Senua's Saga: should get past "DirectX 12 is not supported" on Direct3D 12. (#135, #78, #118)
• I Can't Believe It's Not Gambling: should reach its menu, with no more "Failed to initialize player". (#196, #202)
• Alan Wake: should draw with no changed settings, now that it gets DXVK by default. (#198, #250)
• Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor and other Unreal games with a root launcher: on a new install or import, the real program should start without setting Program by hand. A game imported earlier keeps its program. (#252, #294)
• CHAOS;HEAD NOAH: should start without copying chara_dlc.cpk by hand, now that its free DLC downloads. (#212, #251)
• Monster Hunter: World: Iceborne and its add-ons should be unlocked. (#295)
• HoloCure: a two-finger touchpad click should open the PS5 keyboard on the name screen. (#312)
• Cat Quest, Fallout 4, The Witcher 3 and Hexcells: Cloud saves should sync. (#170)
• Stardew Valley with SMAPI: should get through its Mods folder (prospero-win #696, #697).

Known issues

• Online play doesn't work. Games find no servers or say Steam is offline (#115).
• Some games start only once. The first start works, then later ones fail until the PS5 restarts: Buckshot Roulette, Hatred, The Binding of Isaac: Repentance+ and Half-Life among them (#300).
• Games that start another program don't start, such as launchers, pre-launchers and games whose interface is drawn by a helper program (#52). A settings launcher can run on its own with Game actions › Run a program once, but it can't start the game: press Play afterwards. Until Playden opens again, the game's Home tile starts that program too.
• Project Zomboid still stops at start with "Too many open files": it keeps a handle open for every folder of its media, which kit 0.17 doesn't cover yet. Its recipe gets it past its earlier stops (#194).
• Some Direct3D 12 games still don't run (#118):
  • Subnautica 2 stalls at start (#20).
  • CONTROL Resonant draws no 3D geometry (#201).
  • Order of the Sinking Star plays its tutorial, then the next map never loads (#211).
  • Assetto Corsa EVO finds no suitable graphics adapter (#199).
• Some games stop at start before drawing a frame (#117), or because of unaligned shared sections in their program (#116).
• VRR at 120 Hz: for 120 Hz output, turn off the PS5's VRR › Apply to Unsupported Games (#98).

Thanks

• @mpereiraesaa for prospero-win and most of what kits 0.14 to 0.17 bring, @mihawk-99 for MihawkGen, and @jonnylitten, @7tg, @ozcho, @Portablelle and @larryliu985 for their prospero-win changes.
• @ozcho for choosing the game's language (#169) and @earthonion for preferring 64-bit depots (#233).
• @dann1k for the download language request (#45), @jonatsoto for the DLC request (#175), @jmed2 for The Witcher 3 report (#148), @franusidev for finding the Direct3D 12 feature level setting (#118), @onedawns for the WheelMates report (#135), @MondoBoricua, @paradoxx1-real and @EnriqueWood for the open-file reports (#186, #293, #226), @Ulyssezz for the DLC report (#295), @kh-mitya for the Cat Quest Cloud saves report (#170), @nithjino and @manuelly5 for the Cloud download reports (#215, #150), @heterostasis for the icon request (#213) and @danyfight01 for the Project Zomboid report (#194).
• @evoluketion for eight test reports, @SailorJill and @heterostasis for four each, @houseofkeb for three, @TodorPenchev and @Ax4LMods for two each, and @jmed2, @mrcrew2016, @TheGoonGoblin, @pl69100, @dragonscales123, @Blitz-rgg, @snyperstyle, @brosahay, @isaacm0880, @sfn31, @powky, @hackcr1258, @formationbiz-hue, @shayblaban, @kernelpanicz and @zeldafan3421 for theirs.
• On Discord: Isaac for seven test reports, Xensavage for six, Anon Fleetway Super Sonic and thesitch for four each, Isr, Aphro and JackOfSomeTrades for three each, Yefpia and 💀Cubones💀 for two each, and Tom, kernel_ </3, Optmst and mason for theirs.