ps3base v2

A generic static-recompilation runtime for PS3 titles.

The game's PowerPC code is translated to C++ ahead of time and compiled for x86-64. The PS3 system libraries the title calls are lifted from the user's own firmware or reimplemented, and the RSX command stream is drawn with Vulkan. It is not an emulator: no CPU emulator runs at play time.

It knows no game. The runtime contains no title identity, no disc serial, no hardcoded path. What a title needs beyond the generic machine arrives through a game profile (runtime/include/runtime/game_profile.h); a build with no profile gets the generic machine alone, which is the supported way to measure a foreign disc.

This is a hobby project. It is not affiliated with Sony Interactive Entertainment, and it contains no game code or data. You need your own copies.

What runs on it

Measured, not claimed. Each title was lifted from its own disc and played on this same runtime with no title-specific code except an optional profile:

Title	Disc	Reached
Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition	BLES01976	menus, world creation, gameplay, world generation; 99.9% of SPU code compiled ahead of time
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas	BLES02219	title screen, intro cutscene, in game at Grove Street with a full HUD

Neither is finished. Their status lives in their own projects; docs/progress.md here records what each one taught the runtime.

The port this tree was forked from (God of War: Ascension) still selects its layer through profile_gowa, kept as the reference profile and as the regression that Phase 0.4 checks.

Status

docs/progress.md is the record: one section per milestone, each with the command and the output that proves it. What it currently says:

• Phase 0 -- the fork. A build with no game-derived inputs stops at once and names the missing step. The runtime contains no title identity: grep -rn 'BCES01741' runtime/ returns 0. A title with no profile starts, runs and presents frames.
• Phase 1 -- what the old tree kept. The LV2 syscall table is generated from the specification and reports its own coverage: lv2: 451 listed, 180 implemented (39.9%). An unimplemented number returns 0x8001003F with its name rather than a fabricated success.
• The memory map, tested: memory: 22 checks passed (0 failed).

The full build currently also carries a WebAssembly milestone track; see docs/PORT-WEB-PROMPT.md.

Setup

ps3base compiles nothing by itself. The code it runs is generated from your own copy of a disc and of the firmware. None of that material is tracked.

python3 tools/extract_keys.py <rpcs3>/rpcs3/Crypto/key_vault.cpp keys/self_keys.json
python3 tools/decrypt_all.py bin                 # your SELF payloads -> plain ELF
python3 tools/setup.py --steps ppu --elf bin/<title>/EBOOT.elf
python3 tools/setup.py --steps spu --elf bin/<title>/EBOOT.elf

bin/, fw/, keys/ and out/ are git-ignored. docs/setup.md has the full sequence, including how the decryption works and why the KLIC is never stored.

To lift a second title without touching the first, point the generated-code and build directories somewhere else:

python3 tools/setup.py --steps ppu --images recomp/images-<title>.json \
    --elf bin/<title>/EBOOT.elf --out-root out-<title>
cmake -S . -B build-<title> -G Ninja \\
      -DPS3BASE_GENERATED_DIR=$PWD/out-<title>/ppu \\
      -DGOWA_SPU_GENERATED_DIR=$PWD/out-<title>/spu

Building

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja \
      -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo \\
      -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++
cmake --build build -j 8 --target ps3base

clang only, RelWithDebInfo only, and -j 8 at most: this machine is shared, and higher values make it unusable for anything else.

Known defects

• The LV2 surface is about 40% implemented. Everything else refuses explicitly rather than pretending.
• f_0064c044 crashes Minecraft's (4J) Server on long sessions: a corrupted linked-list pointer read as if it were a node. The writer is unidentified.
• Loading an existing Minecraft world returns -2 from the file callback after THUMB.

Documentation

File	What it answers
docs/progress.md	what each milestone proved, with the command and its output
docs/decisions.md	why the structure is this way (D-001 to D-006), and the abandon criterion
docs/RUN.md	the exact command that launches a run, and how to judge one
docs/setup.md	discs, firmware and key material -> liftable sources
docs/FIRMWARE.md	where the firmware lives, how to extract it, and why a missing module looks like a black screen
docs/REFERENCES.md	where a fact comes from: the file that answers a question
docs/forcings.md	every active forcing, as a debt to be replaced
docs/PLAY.md, docs/recon/	the Minecraft and GTA San Andreas tracks
docs/PORTING.md, docs/RECIPE.md	what porting a title taught, and the recipe for the next one

Licence

MIT, see LICENSE. It covers the code in this repository only, not any game. Third-party components keep their own licenses, see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.txt. God of War, Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto are trademarks of their respective owners; none of their code or data is included here.