AnyPS5/docs/dev/BUILD.md

Build

Relinker only

The relinker can be built without initializing submodules or configuring SDL, Vulkan, FFmpeg, FreeType or the shader recompiler. It requires CMake, a C++20 compiler and a build tool. Python 3 enables the Python regression tests.

cmake -S . -B build-relinker -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DANYPS5_RELINKER_ONLY=ON -DBUILD_TESTING=ON
cmake --build build-relinker --parallel
ctest --test-dir build-relinker --output-on-failure

Python must be found during CMake configuration for Python tests to be registered. List registered tests with ctest --test-dir build-relinker -N and look for input_magic, a Python-backed relinker test. If automatic discovery fails, add -DPython3_EXECUTABLE="C:/path/to/python.exe" to the configure command, using the path to your Python interpreter, then list the tests again.

This mode builds the conversion tool and its tests on Linux, Windows and macOS, including Apple Silicon. macOS uses AppleClang from the Xcode command-line tools; Windows uses the MinGW-w64 toolchain below. The executable is build-relinker/core/relinker/relinker (relinker.exe on Windows with Ninja).

The output remains x86-64 Linux ELF or Windows PE. Converted games need system libraries built for the target OS and a compatible x86-64 host. This mode does not build those libraries or provide macOS game execution. Tests inspect both output formats; execution checks run only on their compatible hosts.

Use a separate build directory for the full build.

Full build

git submodule update --init --recursive

Requirements

• x86-64, Git, CMake 3.22.1 or newer, Ninja, C++20.
• Linux display refresh queries require SDL's XRandR support (libxrandr-dev on Debian/Ubuntu; libXrandr-devel on Fedora). Bundled SDL configuration fails without it. Keep SDL_X11_XRANDR enabled.
• Linux: GCC, G++, binutils. SDL's X11 backend requires X11 and Xext development headers (libx11-dev and libxext-dev on Debian/Ubuntu). Audio output needs SDL's PipeWire, PulseAudio or ALSA backend, built from their development files (libpipewire-0.3-dev, libpulse-dev and libasound2-dev on Debian/Ubuntu; pipewire-devel, pulseaudio-libs-devel and alsa-lib-devel on Fedora). SDL loads them at run time. Without any of them SDL keeps only its silent dummy and disk drivers, so configuration fails.
• Fedora: if CMake reports Could NOT find Threads, install glibc-static and libstdc++-static with sudo dnf install glibc-static libstdc++-static, then rerun configuration. The project enables static executable linking, and FFmpeg's thread check needs these libraries.
• Windows: only MinGW-w64 GCC 15.2.0 (WinLibs x86_64-ucrt-posix-seh, release 15.2.0posix-14.0.0-ucrt-r7) is currently supported. Add its mingw64/bin directory to PATH before configuring.
• Windows antivirus software can quarantine the executables that the relinker tests create in the temp directory, which fails optional_plt, empty_tls, windows_address_space and windows_icon. Set TEMP and TMP to a directory the scanner excludes before running ctest.
• FFmpeg binaries are downloaded during configuration unless FFMPEG_PREBUILT_DIR is set. With the WinLibs CMake, the download fails with status 60 (SSL peer certificate or SSH remote key was not OK) unless SSL_CERT_FILE names a CA bundle, for example C:\Program Files\Git\mingw64\etc\ssl\certs\ca-bundle.crt from Git for Windows, as in CI.

Commands

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=gcc -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=g++
cmake --build build --parallel
cmake --build build --target libs --parallel

libs is a custom target: every library under core/libs/prx is built with EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL. With the default BUILD_TESTING=OFF, the default build does not produce them, so the explicit --target libs step is required. With BUILD_TESTING=ON, the default full build also builds libs through the patched_libraries_tests dependency. Titles load the patched .prx files from build/core/libs/libs; running a title after a library change without rebuilding libs therefore tests the previous binaries and can show no effect at all.

Relinker usage and runtime layout.

CMake flags

Project switches accept ON or OFF:

Flag	Default	Effect
-DBUILD_TESTING=ON	OFF	Build and register tests.
-DANYPS5_RELINKER_ONLY=ON	OFF	Build only the relinker and its tests, without third-party dependencies.
-DANYPS5_ENABLE_SPIRV_TOOLS=ON	OFF	Enable SPIR-V validation and optimization.
-DANYPS5_ENABLE_ASAN=ON	OFF	Build with AddressSanitizer on Linux and move the guest arena out of ASan's shadow gap.
-DANYPS5_USE_SYSTEM_DEPS=ON	OFF	Resolve SDL2, freetype, Vulkan-Headers, SPIRV-Headers, glslang and SPIRV-Tools from the system instead of the submodules.
-DAPS5_ENABLE_TIMING_LOG=ON	OFF	Compile frame timing logging.
-DAPS5_ENABLE_TRACY=ON	OFF	Build the Tracy profiler client into the agc driver.
-DAPS5_AGC_CREATE_LOG=OFF	ON	Disable successful sceAgcCreateShader logging.
-DAGC_BUILD_VISUAL_TEST=ON	OFF	Build the standalone AGC SPIR-V visual test.

Build configuration parameters:

Flag	Value
-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release	Debug, Release, RelWithDebInfo, or MinSizeRel.
-DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=gcc	C compiler name or absolute path.
-DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=g++	C++ compiler name or absolute path.
-DCMAKE_C_COMPILER_LAUNCHER=ccache	Optional C compiler cache; requires ccache.
-DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_LAUNCHER=ccache	Optional C++ compiler cache; requires ccache.
-DFFMPEG_PREBUILT_DIR=<path>	Unpacked FFmpeg package for the target platform; empty by default.

SDL and FreeType settings forced by the root CMakeLists.txt cannot be overridden with -D.

With ANYPS5_USE_SYSTEM_DEPS=ON those libraries come from the system (on Debian and Ubuntu: libsdl2-dev, libfreetype-dev, libvulkan-dev, spirv-headers, glslang-dev, glslang-tools and spirv-tools). A missing package, Vulkan-Headers older than 1.4.310 (the agc driver uses VK_KHR_maintenance8), or an SDL2 without the HIDAPI joystick driver (sdl2-compat over SDL3, or a build with HIDAPI disabled, which breaks the pad and disk-audio tests), fails the configure with an error and never falls back to the submodule. The forced SDL and FreeType settings from the root CMakeLists.txt do not apply with the flag ON: the system SDL2 comes with whatever its distribution enabled. The prx libraries are shared objects, so SDL2 is linked from the system as a shared library; the default build keeps its own static SDL2. ffmpeg-core, libjpeg-turbo, stb, VulkanMemoryAllocator and LibAtrac9 always stay bundled and still need git submodule update --init.

Write watch tests

The macOS write watch can be built and tested separately, without submodules or the prx libraries:

cmake -S core/libs/tests/write_watch -B build/write-watch -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=x86_64
cmake --build build/write-watch
ctest --test-dir build/write-watch --output-on-failure

With CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=x86_64 Apple silicon runs the tests through Rosetta, which is how relinked titles run; without it they run natively. The full BUILD_TESTING build on macOS also registers them.

Tracy

-DAPS5_ENABLE_TRACY=ON builds the Tracy 0.14.1 client from 3rdparty/tracy as a shared library next to the patched .prx files (libTracyClient.dll, libTracyClient.so.0.14.1 on Linux); copy it with them. Every PerformanceTimer scope of libSceAgcDriver and libSceVideoOut is a zone, every presented flip ends a frame, and the queue workers and the presenter are named threads. Connect the Tracy 0.14.1 profiler to 127.0.0.1: the client listens only on localhost and records only while a profiler is connected. Sampling, system tracing, call stacks, code transfer and Tracy's crash handler are disabled. Without the flag nothing of Tracy is built.

On Windows MinGW frees thread_local objects before their destructors run, so the Tracy client is built without thread_local destructors and never destroys its event queue: a thread that emitted a zone and ended keeps its event blocks (2 MiB each) until the process exits.

Compute pipeline replay

Build agc_compute_pipeline_replay in the full build with -DANYPS5_ENABLE_SPIRV_TOOLS=ON; replay validates the captured module before calling Vulkan. Set APS5_DUMP_COMPUTE_PIPELINES to a dedicated empty directory before starting a title to save each uncached compute pipeline's final SPIR-V, descriptor layouts, push constant ranges, specialization values, subgroup size and creation flags before compilation. Files are named compute-<identity>/capture.aps5cp; identical records are deduplicated. Capture stops with an error at 128 records, 256 MiB total or 36 MiB per record (at most 8,388,608 SPIR-V words, or 32 MiB of shader code). Capture files contain shader code and device metadata, but no guest buffers or textures; review them before sharing.

Set APS5_DUMP_COMPUTE_MIN_WORDS to capture only modules at or above that SPIR-V word count, for example 100000 when investigating large NVIDIA compilations. The default is 0 (all modules); values outside 0 through 8388608 fail. The filter applies only when capture is enabled.

cmake --build build --target agc_compute_pipeline_replay
build/core/libs/prx/libSceAgcDriver/agc_compute_pipeline_replay capture.aps5cp --cache-out pipeline.cache --output fresh.json
build/core/libs/prx/libSceAgcDriver/agc_compute_pipeline_replay capture.aps5cp --cache-in pipeline.cache --output imported.json

On Windows use agc_compute_pipeline_replay.exe and prepend build/core/libs/libs/unpatched to the process PATH. ANYPS5_GPU selects a device by name as for the driver. The tool uses the driver's compute pipeline creation path, without recording commands, dispatching work or importing guest memory. Compile-only devices also enable supported partially-bound, variable-count and runtime-array descriptor features to replay captured layouts; ordinary runtime devices are unchanged. Binding flags are preserved independently of update-after-bind. Replay accepts the unconditional Vulkan 1.0 capabilities listed in the pinned Vulkan registry; other capabilities must be enabled by the device target. Non-Vulkan capabilities such as Kernel and unknown capabilities fail before pipeline creation. Unsupported features, non-highest variable bindings and counts exceeding layout support fail explicitly. Unsupported inputs and mismatched cache vendor, device or UUID fail explicitly. Output files must not already exist.

Each invocation creates one pipeline. With no --cache-in, its application pipeline cache starts empty; --cache-in imports a raw cache previously written by --cache-out (at most 64 MiB), and --cache-out exports the resulting cache. The title's wrapped vk-pipelines-*.bin format is not accepted. It does not load or save the title's usual pipeline cache. NVIDIA and other driver caches remain uncontrolled: a fresh application cache is not a cold driver cache. JSON reports the capture identity, GPU/driver identifiers, word count, cache policy and separate wall times for shader module, layouts, pipeline creation and cache work. Device initialization is outside these timings. Pipeline statistics captures and APS5_PIPELINE_STATS are refused because they change compilation cost.

--fixture compiles a tiny synthetic compute shader with specialization, sparse descriptor binding and push constant metadata; --write-fixture DIRECTORY saves it without opening Vulkan. It performs no GPU work and does not reproduce a title's compile workload. With BUILD_TESTING=ON, agc_compute_pipeline_capture checks serialization and rejected inputs. With SPIRV-Tools also enabled, agc_compute_pipeline_replay compiles the fixture with fresh and imported application caches, verifies cache rejection, and checks required subgroup support. agc_compute_pipeline_capture_run verifies the existing branch-past-endpgm compute fixture's output with capture disabled and enabled, then replays the captured pipelines and checks their identities and metadata. Each test has a 30-second timeout. Runtime tests skip when Vulkan is absent; set ANYPS5_REQUIRE_VULKAN=1 to require execution. There is no performance pass threshold.

PM4 submission replay

Set APS5_DUMP_SUBMITS to a directory before starting a title to save every submission the AGC driver accepts, as it enters the driver. index.txt gets one line per submission: ordinal, queue, graphics or compute, serial, microseconds on the clock of the APS5_TRACE_GPU lines, dword count, kind, file name, the dword offsets of the waits whose value passed their compare when the submission entered the driver (held, which the driver then does not wait for) and the COND_EXEC and predicated indirect buffer ranges as start:end dword offsets (- for none). submission_<ordinal>.bin holds the dwords the driver copied, with indirect buffers inlined. A REWIND tail is listed as rewind with the serial of its submission, a suspend point as suspend without a file. The index is truncated on the first submission. A failed write puts the driver in its failed state: the call that made the submission throws after the submission was queued, and every later driver call throws the same error. Unset, the switch costs one test per submission; set, one copy of the commands per submission before the driver lock, the ordinal, time and held waits under it without allocating, and the files written after it. A capture holds command buffers only, no guest memory. An index written before the held and conditional columns (column line ordinal queue type serial time_us dwords kind file) is still read, with both unknown.

agc_pm4_replay <directory> [--full] decodes the capture offline with the driver's packet decoder, validator and store decode (Pm4::DecodeStores) and reports each WAIT_REG_MEM, WAIT_REG_MEM_64 and REWIND as released, unreleased or unknown. It does not model cross-queue timing: a wait is released only when the capture alone proves that the driver releases it, and unknown, with the reason, whenever its outcome depends on when the stores of another queue run, since a store of another queue can run before, between or after the stores of the waiting queue whatever order the submissions entered the driver in. A memory wait is released when its compare always passes; when it was held at submit; when the last store to the awaited bytes before it on its queue (in that submission or an earlier one) covers them with a value the compare accepts, is not conditional, and no other queue stores to any of those bytes anywhere in the capture (current value); or when a RELEASE_MEM or WRITE_DATA label earlier in the waiting submission, one the driver keeps in its label history (4-byte aligned, at most 64 bytes, not conditional), stores a value the compare accepts and fewer than 4 other stores to the awaited bytes can run between it and the wait (label history). The driver keeps the last 4 label stores per dword over all queues (LabelHistory.cpp) and finds one there only if it ran after the waiting submission entered the driver, which the capture proves only for a store earlier in that submission. The stores counted against the history are those between the label and the wait on the waiting queue and every store of another queue to the awaited bytes, whatever its submit order; stores later on the waiting queue run after the wait. A REWIND is released when its tail is in the capture. One that was valid at submit without a tail in the capture is unknown, because the driver reads the valid bit again when the queue reaches the REWIND. A memory wait is unreleased when it was not held at submit and no store in the capture that can run before it may write a value the compare accepts (a store of part of the awaited bytes or of a value known only at run time may): the GPU does not release it, but a CPU store could, and so could a shader store, since the capture holds neither. A REWIND without a tail that was not valid at submit is unreleased. Every other wait is unknown: unknown: depends on cross-queue timing (stores on queue X at #...) when another queue stores to the awaited bytes; otherwise when the last store before it on its queue is conditional (COND_WRITE, inside a COND_EXEC range or a predicated packet), stores a value known only at run time or only part of the awaited bytes, or overwrites an accepted store that the capture does not prove is still in the label history (one in an earlier submission, one the history does not keep, or one with 4 or more stores after it). When the index has no held column, a wait that would be unreleased is unknown, since its value may have passed the compare at submit; without the conditional column every packet after a COND_EXEC or predicated INDIRECT_BUFFER is conditional to the end of its submission. The report counts the waits per outcome and route and the unknown waits that depend on cross-queue timing, says when the index lacks the columns, lists up to 32 unreleased and then unknown waits, newest first, each with the packets around it and the stores to the awaited bytes that decide it (for another queue, the 4 nearest the waiting submission in submit order), then the last submissions of each queue. --full lists every wait and prints every packet. A packet the driver rejects means the capture is corrupt and fails the analysis. The exit code is 1 when a wait is unreleased and 2 on errors.

cmake --build build --target agc_pm4_replay
build/core/libs/prx/libSceAgcDriver/agc_pm4_replay submits

On Windows use agc_pm4_replay.exe and prepend build/core/libs/libs/unpatched to the process PATH. With BUILD_TESTING=ON, agc_driver_pm4_replay captures submissions made with the libSceAgc command builders through the driver and checks the index, the held waits, the conditional ranges, the dwords, the decode and the outcome of each wait, then checks hand-made captures: each release route; a store of another queue to the awaited bytes that entered before or after the store of the waiting queue (unknown); the label history limit, with the stores after the label on the waiting queue or on another queue; a fill the history does not keep; a store in an earlier submission overwritten later; later stores, rejected values and a missing rewind tail (unreleased); the six captures of the reviews (a two-queue deadlock, a store of 0 behind a released wait on another queue, with and without that wait held at submit, and labels pushed out of the history by stores of another queue), none of whose waits may be released except the one held at submit; five groups of waits in eight submission orders with identical outcomes; an index without the held and conditional columns; corrupt captures; then a failed write. agc_driver_pm4_replay_tool runs the tool on the driver capture and checks its exit codes and report.

Pipeline statistics

Set APS5_PIPELINE_STATS=1 to capture and print driver statistics for each newly created graphics or compute pipeline. This requires VK_KHR_pipeline_executable_properties and pipelineExecutableInfo; an unsupported device fails with an error. Statistic names and units are driver-specific. Capturing statistics can increase pipeline compilation cost. The setting is disabled by default.

Worker sampler

Set APS5_SAMPLE_WORKER=<file> to sample queue worker 0 every millisecond (in practice every timer tick). Every 20 s and at exit it writes <file>, one module offset self inclusive line per sampled address, and <file stem>.collapsed.txt, the worker's whole stacks in the collapsed format that speedscope.app and flamegraph.pl read: one frame;...;frame count line per distinct stack, root first, each frame as module+0xRVA. A walk that ends before the thread's root starts with [truncated]. The # lines give the samples, the walk depth (64 frames), the truncated walks, the mean and longest time the worker was suspended, and the size and PE timestamp of each module, to check the binary a file is symbolized against. A frame with .pdata is stepped by RtlVirtualUnwind; any other frame by its DWARF record in .ehfram, the unwind data the libraries are built with. Those steps read only inside the worker's stack, and a module is indexed after the worker resumes, the first time a walk meets it.

APS5_SAMPLE_THREADS=<file> samples every thread of the process every 2 ms and writes the 40 hottest addresses of each busy thread to <file>, 12 frames deep and through .pdata only. Both samplers exist only on Windows; the addresses are symbolized offline, for example with nm on the .prx.

Performance trace

Set APS5_TRACE_FRAMES=<start>:<count> to record <count> presents from present <start> (counted from 0), or APS5_TRACE_SECONDS=<start>:<length> to record from the first present at least <start> seconds after the first present until the first present <length> seconds later. Both values are whole numbers and the length is above 0; a malformed value, or both switches together, fails the first present. The window opens and closes at presents.

Inside the window the queue workers and the presenter record every PerformanceTimer scope and stage as a complete event named after its frame timing key: Driver.WorkerWait, Driver.Packet, Driver.Packet.draw, Graphics.Draw, Driver.Present, Driver.Present.inflight_wait, Vulkan.Retire and so on. A slice shorter than 20 us is only counted: its time is in the thread's counter <thread> folded (milliseconds per present) and in the summary. A thread writes a present's counter sample at its first slice after the next present, so the last present of the window has no sample; its time is still in the summary. Each thread allocates a buffer for 262,144 events when it starts; a full buffer stops that thread's recording and sets trace_dropped. When the window closes, the presenter formats the trace once and a ProfileOutput writer thread writes aps5-trace-<commit>-<pid>.json.gz (Chrome trace-event JSON, opened by ui.perfetto.dev or chrome://tracing) and appends one line to aps5-summary.jsonl, both in APS5_TRACE_DIR or the working directory. A window that is still open when the title exits writes nothing.

The summary line has commit and dirty of the build, env (every APS5_* variable; a value containing / or \ is written as <path>), gpu, driver, os, resolution (the video output's), window, presents, frame_ms (p50, p90, p99 and max of the intervals between presents), gpu_busy_ms_per_present (the batch timestamps behind [present]), worker_busy_pct (share of the window each queue worker spends in Driver.Packet, Driver.Suspend, Driver.EndSubmission, Driver.Rewind and Driver.Completion), top_phases_ms_per_frame (the eight largest scopes and stages, without Driver.WorkerWait), trace_dropped and trace. A trace holds timings, scope names, counts and thread names; no guest memory, paths or strings of the title.

The shader preparation threads are traced as well, shader prepare, with a buffer for 32,768 events each. A wait for the GPU mutex on a traced thread is a GpuMutex.wait.<site> slice (dispatch, draw, present, flush and so on, as on the [lock] line).

The gpu track holds one batch slice per recorder batch, from the batch's timestamp pair. With APS5_PROFILE_GPU=1 it also holds a slice per command class range, under the class names of the [gputime] line (draw, copy, fill, present-blit, ...); program ranges are left out. The track keeps up to 262,144 ranges; more set trace_dropped. The GPU clock is mapped onto the CPU clock with calibrated timestamps (VK_KHR_calibrated_timestamps or the EXT version, enabled only when a trace switch is set) taken when the window opens and when it closes, so the two clocks are matched at both ends of the window. A batch is added when the driver reads its timestamps, after its fence signals, so the batches of the last frames of the window, which complete after it closes, are missing. Without calibrated timestamps the trace has no gpu track, and the [trace] line says so.

With either switch set, the recorder writes a timestamp pair per batch for the whole run, as with APS5_PROFILE_DRAW. Without them, a PerformanceTimer, a GPU mutex acquisition and a read of batch timestamps each cost one more predictable branch.

Driver thread priority

Set APS5_THREAD_PRIORITY=high to raise the AGC driver's queue workers and the video output presenter above the title's threads. On Linux the threads get nice APS5_THREAD_NICE (default -10) through rtkit; on Windows they get THREAD_PRIORITY_HIGHEST. APS5_THREAD_PRIORITY=rt asks rtkit for real-time priority APS5_THREAD_RT (default 10, at most rtkit's MaxRealtimePriority) under rtkit's policy, SCHED_RR by default; on Windows it sets THREAD_PRIORITY_TIME_CRITICAL. rtkit only grants it when the process's hard RLIMIT_RTTIME is at most its RTTimeUSecMax (200000 us by default), so a hard limit above APS5_THREAD_RTTIME_US (default 200000, capped at RTTimeUSecMax) is lowered to it and the soft limit to at most half of it. The hard limit cannot be raised again and stays lowered for the whole process even if rtkit then refuses; see technical debt. There is no fallback between the modes: when rtkit or SetThreadPriority refuses, a queue worker reports the refusal as a driver failure, which the next submission, wait or shutdown rethrows, and the presenter's start throws it. Each raised thread logs its priority once as [thread-priority]. The setting is off by default; a value other than off, high or rt is reported the same way as a refusal.

Shader recompiler

The shader recompilation logic in core/shader/recompiler is isolated from the rest of the project and is a pure function of its input data, designed for integration into any other project. The current CMake target also includes cache support and links a supplied runtime target, glslang, and optionally SPIRV-Tools.

Register context tests

The x86-64 register capture and restore tests can be built separately on Linux and macOS, without submodules or the prx libraries. On macOS:

cmake -S core/libs/tests/register_context -B build/register-context -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=x86_64
cmake --build build/register-context
ctest --test-dir build/register-context --output-on-failure

On Linux x86-64, omit CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES; the full BUILD_TESTING build also registers these tests. Apple silicon runs the x86-64 tests through Rosetta. They cover the unwinder's register transfer, not the complete macOS runtime or guest exception handling.