PS5_MihawkOS-v7.0.0-alpha-7

MihawkOS is a passion project, not a piracy project.

It exists so you can play the games you own on the console you own.

• Piracy is not condoned.
• No games, saves, keys, firmware or exploits are included, and they never will be.
• Use only games and programs you have the right to run: your own copies, bought or installed by you.
• Requests for, or links to, games, keys, firmware or exploits are not welcome in this project's issues or discussions.

Games run inside MihawkOS with twice the room. One file to install, and it updates itself. A new main menu.

The seventh alpha of MihawkOS, the homebrew title that runs Windows games on a PS5 from a desktop of their own,
Mihawk OS. It is still experimental.

At a glance

What's new
Big games get twice the room. A 64-bit game now runs inside MihawkOS itself, with a page-table pool of 16,384 instead of 8,192: the limit that made large games crash or close.
One file to install. The Windows runtime ships inside the PPSA99170 folder. No USB drive, no second download: MihawkOS installs and updates its runtime by itself.
A new main menu. A tile grid on a sky, a file browser that starts any program, options for each game, an on-screen keyboard, and ten languages.

In this release

Games inside MihawkOS · Install and updates · The main menu · Games and graphics · Steam · Payloads and logs · Played on the console · Known limits · Installing or updating · Source and credits

Games inside MihawkOS

• Twice the page tables. A 64-bit game runs inside the MihawkOS title instead of in a separate helper, so it gets
  the title's pool of 16,384 page tables instead of the helpers' 8,192. Steam, launchers, installers and web-based
  programs keep running the old way.
• Only real games go inside. A program that draws with DirectX or OpenGL is treated as a game; launchers,
  installers, crash reporters, web-technology games (NW.js, Electron) and .NET tools run the old way.
• A crashed or frozen game returns you to MihawkOS instead of hanging the console. A game that shows no new picture
  for 3 minutes is closed, and the log records what it was waiting for.
• Message boxes are visible. An error or message box from a game inside MihawkOS is shown on screen, and CROSS
  answers it. Before, it was invisible and the game looked frozen.
• Heavy games no longer freeze the whole console: games inside MihawkOS run at a lower CPU priority than the
  console's own work.
• Your choice, per game: press TRIANGLE on a game for its Options, including "run inside MihawkOS" or the old way.

Install and updates

• One folder. The runtime is inside PPSA99170/runtime-pieces. Copy the folder to the console, open MihawkOS, and it
  installs the runtime by itself in about a minute and a half. Leave about 4 GB free.
• Updating is replacing the folder. Put the new PPSA99170 over the old one and open MihawkOS: it sees the older
  runtime and installs the new one. /data/ps5proton (your prefix, games, Steam, saves and settings) is left alone.
  Checked on a PS5 Pro over an older runtime: it wrote only the 18 files that changed (75.8 MB) in 12.9 seconds, and
  all 2,565 runtime files then matched the new package. The final build updated over the one before it the same way.
• Automatic update check. MihawkOS asks GitHub for the list of releases, sends nothing about you or your console,
  and accepts only updates signed with MihawkOS's own key. To turn it off: Settings, Automatic update check.
• Guided setup can't be skipped, and ends with a "Before you play" page (hold CROSS for 10 seconds), then a choice:
  install Steam, or go to the game library.

The main menu

• A Frutiger Aero tile grid on a sky. Mihawk OS and Steam have their own tiles; your games follow page by page
  (L1/R1). Move with the D-pad, or with the hand pointer on the left stick.
• Files. Browse your Windows drive (C:) from the main menu and press CROSS on any program to start it, without
  opening the Mihawk OS desktop. Files only looks: nothing is changed or deleted.
• Options for each game (TRIANGLE): Game Mode, controller, and where it runs.
• On-screen keyboard. Off by default. Turn it on in Settings, Controls, and choose how to open it during a game:
  a two-finger touchpad click, L3 + R3, or OPTIONS + touchpad click. Checked on a PS5 Pro: it opens, and its keys type
  into a game inside MihawkOS and into a program running the old way.
• Ten languages for the main menu and Settings, including the 30 themes. They follow the language you chose in
  setup. Game, file and Steam names are never translated.
• Bubble City by the artist Skeuoss is the new wallpaper, on the Mihawk OS desktop and the PS5 home screen,
  used with their permission.
• The "Your browser companion" tile shows the QR code for the Web UI. Steam has its own icon, Settings has a cog, and
  the button hints are centred.

Games and graphics

• Frames reach the screen sooner. Copying each finished frame to the TV went from about 7.4 ms to under 1 ms, so
  every game has more time for its own work. Checked on a PS5 Pro with The Witcher 3 and with our own test picture.
• DirectX 12 feature level 12_1 (it was 11_1). Games that require 12_0 get past "your GPU does not meet the
  minimum". Games that create shared DirectX 12 resources no longer fail at start.
• Games see the real GPU: "AMD Radeon PlayStation 5 GPU" or "… PlayStation 5 Pro GPU", with the real number of
  compute units and clock speeds, through DirectX and AMD's AGS library.
• More reserved graphics memory pieces: up to 32,768 (it was 4,096), refused only when the console's page tables
  really run low.
• Undertale, Deltarune and other GameMaker games start. A small shared section in their program could not be mapped
  with the PS5's larger memory pages; it now is.
• Deltarune's sound stays clean after switching chapters. A game whose launcher starts a second program now shares
  one sound clock between them.
• Movies shared between DirectX 9 and DirectX 11 work when the game creates its DirectX 11 side first.
• Games installed through Steam carry their Steam app id, so Wine's built-in game workarounds apply and Steamworks
  sees the game as started by Steam.
• A mod's DLL override (for example in the Web UI's environment field) no longer switches off MihawkOS's graphics
  layers.
• A game that loses its controller and gets it back is told so, and finds the controller again.
• A 64-bit game may reserve far more address space (some ask for 16 to 256 GiB at once), which the console used to
  refuse.
• Fewer crashes in games that use XAudio2 sound; OpenGL games that set their pixel format twice no longer fail; a
  start-up deadlock in some programs is fixed; older games' CPU checks no longer trip.
• Games that place graphics memory over their own memory (DirectX 12 "existing heaps", used for example by a
  Forza Horizon 2 PC recompilation) can now do it inside MihawkOS. Checked with our own test program on a PS5 Pro, not
  yet with that game.
• A game can read the program that started it, even when that program runs separately (the Mihawk OS desktop,
  for example), and gets the same answers as on Windows.
• A program can read another program's command line, as on Windows. Launchers and web-technology games that check
  how their own programs were started now get the answer.
• A game that cannot start (for example, a missing DLL) no longer leaves MihawkOS stuck: you're back at the
  launcher, which says "Last session ended: game.exe could not start: X.dll was not found".

Steam

• Big downloads no longer close Steam. A memory-saving feature for Steam's web pages took most of the console's file
  slots, so a download with many files ran out and Steam closed. It is capped now, and open files always come first.
• Over 10,000 files open at once (it was about 8,200), checked on a PS5 Pro: 10,000 files opened, written, read back
  and closed.
• Steam memory warning. Before Steam installs or starts, MihawkOS warns if your PS5 is already using too much memory
  for Steam to work, and lists the steps that fix it. Press CIRCLE to go back, or hold TRIANGLE for 5 seconds to
  continue anyway.
• Steam Cloud tip: if cloud saves never download, check the PS5's own DNS (Settings, Network, Connection Status). A
  DNS server that blocks storage.googleapis.com stops Steam's downloads from Google's storage while the other
  providers keep working.

Payloads and logs

• The payload checklist has a way through. If it doesn't pass, hold TRIANGLE for 5 seconds to continue anyway;
  the next start checks again. It no longer blocks when NanoDNS isn't detected or ShadowMountPlus's version can't be
  read, it recognises payload names the PS5 cuts at 19 characters, and qafutkn_util_mk2 is allowed.
• The payload memory notice appears only when payloads really use too much: 200 MiB or more.
• Logs keep their end. A long session no longer loses its last minutes when a log fills up, so a crash report shows
  what happened just before. A game that prints a lot of debug text is no longer slowed down by it.

Played on the console

This release's build was tested on a PS5 Pro (firmware 10.01).

• PS5 Pro, firmware 10.01, the full test battery of 118 cases: 116 passed and 2 were skipped by a test-network
  setting (alpha7-gate2-pro-2026-11-01). The two window-composition cases judge their screenshots with fast copy off:
  fast copy's screenshot reads blended frames wrongly, while the screen itself is correct.
• Deltarune starts and plays inside MihawkOS, and its sound stays clean across a chapter switch.
• The Witcher 3 (DirectX 12) starts from Files or the library and plays inside MihawkOS at 1080p, at up to about 60 frames a
  second (its own VSync limit) once it is past loading.
• Our own checks on the console: DirectX 12 feature level 12_1; DirectX 9 ↔ 11 movie sharing (DirectX 11 side
  first); 6,000 reserved graphics memory pieces; 10,000 open files; the GPU's real name and model reported to games.

Known limits

• Tested on a PS5 Pro (firmware 10.01) only. No standard PS5 was run with this build.
• Resident Evil Requiem's demo does not start yet: it crashes about three seconds after loading, inside its own
  render setup. Work continues.
• The Witcher 3 reaches about 60 frames a second at 1080p on a PS5 Pro, with drops while it loads; it has not been
  measured on a standard PS5.
• The Witcher 3 started from the Mihawk OS desktop closes itself at once. Start it from the library or Files.
• Forza Horizon 4 and Elden Ring have not been confirmed to reach gameplay. Please send logs.
• Only one game at a time runs inside MihawkOS. A second game, and 32-bit games, run the old way.
• A game inside MihawkOS that shows no new picture for 3 minutes (for example, minimized) is closed.
  A game that freezes on its loading screen may not be closed by itself yet: close MihawkOS from the PS button menu
  (a fix comes in the first update).
• DirectX 9 ↔ 11 movie sharing works only when the game creates its DirectX 11 side first.
• Translations still need a native speaker's review, including Chinese and Japanese on screen. The Mihawk 11 desktop
  stays in English.
• Restart the PS5 now and then. Pipe memory runs out after very many program starts; MihawkOS says Restart the
  PS5 when that happens.
• The per-boot setup is yours: your payloads after every cold boot. Never use rest mode with payloads loaded.
• Not supported: DRM such as Denuvo, and anti-cheat such as Easy Anti-Cheat or BattlEye.

Installing or updating

Before you start: load the official payload set listed in Alpha 5's checklist, and close any other payload.

New install: copy PPSA99170 to /data/homebrew/, wait about 45 seconds, and open MihawkOS from the home screen.
It installs its runtime by itself, then the guided setup starts. The README
has every step.

Updating from Alpha 6 (or an Alpha 7 test build):

1. Back up your saves, for example from the WebUI's Saves page, or over FTP from
   /data/ps5proton/prefixes/mihawk/drive_c/users/Mihawk/.
2. Replace the PPSA99170 folder in /data/homebrew/ with the new one. Leave /data/ps5proton as it is.
3. Open MihawkOS from its own icon. It sees that the runtime is older and installs the new one by itself. No USB
   drive is needed any more.

Your prefix, your games in C:\Games, Steam and your settings are kept.

No games, saves, keys or firmware are supplied. Use only games and programs you have the right to run.

Source, licences and credits

Changes since v6.0.0-alpha-6. Release source: the
complete corresponding source is the repository at that tag, with every patch MihawkOS applies to an upstream project
and the build scripts that pin every other input by revision or SHA-256. MihawkOS's graphics patches now live in their
own repositories, PS5_Vulkan and PS5_Mesa,
pinned by commit. MihawkOS is free software under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later; each component keeps
its own licence, listed with its pin in NOTICE.md, and every licence text ships with the binaries.

Thank you to the testers who sent their logs, which found the Steam download crash, the Forza Horizon 4 limits, the
Deltarune sound and The Witcher 3's early exit; to everyone reporting games on the compatibility list; to Skeuoss for
the Bubble City wallpaper; to bornaradusin for PC5, whose fixes we studied and re-implemented; to
mpereiraesaa for prospero-win and the Lapy daemon's port, with Arksama / Team PHU; to drakmor for
ShadowMountPlus; to the Wine, Proton, GE-Proton, DXVK, VKD3D-Proton and Mesa developers; and to
the PS5 homebrew scene.

MihawkOS is an independent hobby project, not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Sony Interactive
Entertainment, Microsoft, Valve, AMD, Capcom, CD PROJEKT RED or any game publisher. PlayStation, PS5 and DualSense are
trademarks of Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.; Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation; Steam and Proton are
trademarks of Valve Corporation; Radeon is a trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. You are responsible for having the
right to the programs you run, and for whether modifying your console is lawful where you live (LEGAL.md).

Ready to get started? Available releases · Installation guide · Source and credits