A 2D-array texture whose Depth times the per-slice stride runs past its real allocation fails a slice read partway through the upload loop, and falls through to the single-slice path after already detiling the layers it did read. That fall-through builds the texture with ArrayLayers defaulting to 1, so the presenter caches it under a one-layer key while the next draw looks it up with ArrayLayers = Depth. The two never match, so the texture misses the cache and repeats the whole read-and-detile on every draw, throwing the result away each time. Detiling is per-texel swizzle math, so one such texture retried a few times per frame is expensive: it measured 568-879 ms of every second in Demon's Souls, against a 1.4 second frame. An allocation that is too short stays too short, so remembering the address and not retrying it costs nothing and repairs the cache key as a side effect: with the array upload skipped, arrayUploadLayers is 1, which is exactly what the fall-through texture reports. Tested on Demon's Souls (PPSA01342): 0.7 fps to 3.6-4.1 fps, CPU detile time per second from ~700 ms to 0, and arrayed textures go from missing the cache on every draw to hitting it every time. 28 of the 29 array uploads in that run already succeeded and are unaffected; only the one overrunning texture now falls back to its base slice. 495 tests pass.
SharpEmu
An experimental PlayStation 5 emulator for Windows, Linux and macOS.
Join our Discord for development updates, compatibility discussions, support, and community chat.
Note
SharpEmu supports Windows x64, Linux x64, and macOS x64. Apple Silicon Macs can run the macOS x64 build through Rosetta 2, and Windows on ARM devices (e.g. Snapdragon) can run the Windows x64 build through Windows' built-in x64 emulation.
Warning
SharpEmu is an experimental PS5 emulator developed from scratch in C#. The current focus is on accuracy and infrastructure setup rather than game-specific compatibility.
Info
SharpEmu is an emulator project currently in its early stages of development.
This project is developed purely for research and educational purposes. There are no commercial goals associated with it. We enjoy learning about system architecture and reverse engineering.
SharpEmu focuses exclusively on the PlayStation 5.
Our goal is not to emulate PS4 games, as there is already an excellent emulator dedicated to that platform: ShadPS4.
Games Tested
| Demons Souls Remake | Dreaming Sarah |
|---|---|
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| Void Terrarium | Dead Cells |
|---|---|
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Status
The emulator can currently load the eboot.bin of real games, execute native CPU instructions, and partially handle kernel-related functionality. However, several critical components are still missing.
Current capabilities include:
- Loading
eboot.binand.elffiles - Executing native CPU instructions
- Reading basic game metadata (title, version, etc.)
- Loading system modules (
prx/sys_module) - Partial support for some kernel functions
FiberandAMPRexports- PlayGo scenarios
- Initial loading game files
- Shader/resource submits and AGC initial
- Video outputs in some games
Some games have reached like sceVideoOut and AGC stages.
SharpEmu supports Windows, Linux, and macOS hosts. Video output uses Vulkan on Windows and Linux, and MoltenVK on macOS. Platform support is still experimental, so compatibility and performance vary by game, operating system, and GPU driver.
Using
Download the release archive for your operating system, extract it, and launch
SharpEmu with the path to a legally obtained game's eboot.bin.
Windows PowerShell:
.\SharpEmu.exe "C:\path\to\game\eboot.bin" 2>&1 |
Tee-Object -FilePath "SharpEmu.log"
Linux and macOS:
chmod +x ./SharpEmu
./SharpEmu "/path/to/game/eboot.bin" 2>&1 |
tee SharpEmu.log
A Vulkan-capable GPU and current graphics driver are required. The macOS release includes the MoltenVK Vulkan implementation.
Important
This project does not support or condone piracy.
All games used during development and testing are dumped from consoles that we personally own.
Users are expected to use legally obtained copies of their games.
Build
- Install the .NET SDK version specified in
global.json. - Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/sharpemu/sharpemu.git - Open the solution file (
SharpEmu.slnx) in VSCode. - Build the project:
dotnet buildordotnet publish - Build artifacts will be located in the
artifactsdirectory.
Disclaimer
SharpEmu is an experimental emulator intended for research and educational purposes.
This project does not contain any copyrighted system firmware, game data, or proprietary PlayStation assets.
Special Thanks
The following projects were extremely helpful during development:
-
ShadPS4
Helped with understanding the basic architecture of the PlayStation 4. -
Kyty
One of the few PS5 emulator projects available and very useful for studying native code execution. -
Ryujinx
Provided valuable references for filesystem handling and low-level C# implementation patterns.
License
Contributing
Before opening an issue or pull request, please read our contribution guidelines:
The guide covers:
- Coding style and formatting
- AI-assisted contributions
- Pull request expectations
- Testing guidelines
- Legal and reverse engineering policy




