PS5_RetroArch/docs/ACTIVE.md

Active work

Updated: 2026-09-28

Now: v0.5.0-alpha.5 released, the first on RADV; Dolphin's first start next

Released. Build f96bdb0e (release notes docs/releases/v0.5.0-alpha.5.md): the title links ../PS5_Vulkan's RADV release archive by default (PS5_Mesa cedb774, built by ../PS5_Vulkan 5d8f37d), SDK fork 95c08f2, LRPS2 6d14775 with its port patch, the same tree as the fork's main at 9c2eea4 (6x). PS5_VULKAN_DRIVER=ps5vk still builds ps5vk, which v0.4.0-alpha.4 (build 870bd1bb) shipped. On RADV the release battery (every core with a game, the menu, Close Content and a reload, Threaded Video on half) passed three times as the driver changed, and PPSSPP's ten-minute soak once (docs/PHASE_LOG.md, 2026-09-28). PPSSPP's MSAA works, RADV's shader cache is in radv-shader-cache/, and the title heap has an arena for each thread. The console's installed title is still v0.4.0-alpha.4's build.

Dolphin round (after v0.4.0-alpha.4, on ps5vk): the PS5 defaults are 6x, Async (UberShaders), 16x AF and GPU texture decoding (patches/dolphin, e905c4e): RE4, Melee, Wind Waker and Mario Kart Wii at 100% after boot. ../PS5_Vulkan R94 compiles pipelines on six threads at once; R95 writes tiled uploads a run at a time. Rogue Leader still dips (attract 71-87%, gameplay 93-96%): Dolphin's MMU emulation and its threads waiting on each other, not the driver.

Open:

1. Dolphin's first start of a game on RADV, from an empty shader cache: Wind Waker's first two 10 s windows at 83% and 92%, where ps5vk had 86% and 99%. The time is Mesa's NIR optimisation of Dolphin's ubershaders (../PS5_Vulkan/docs/RADV_PHASE.md).
2. Rogue Leader in Dolphin (measured on ps5vk; not yet on RADV): I chose to make Dolphin itself faster on the PS5 -- its MMU slow path, where 16 KiB host pages limit page-table fastmem, and its GPU-thread cost -- rather than underclock the emulated CPU (75% reached 83-100% but changes the game's timing). Queued while the driver's Vulkan 1.4 plan is decided (../PS5_Vulkan/docs/VULKAN_1_4_PLAN.md).
3. The CPU's transfers on the GPU (CP DMA for linear copies, vk_meta for tiled ones), with the golden comparisons updated for the new submission shapes.
4. The 60 Hz fallback on a display that stays at 60 Hz (the tester's trace).
5. LRPS2: the upstream PCSX2 port in ../PS5_LRPS2's working tree, 8x as the PS5 default, the lighting compared with the native picture.

Test runs and core options. RetroArch here uses per-core options (global_core_options = false in my config), so a run's core_options_path is ignored and each core reads config/<core>/<core>.opt. A test that needs its own options sets global_core_options = "true" with its own path; my per-core files are never edited.

Accepted baselines

• Native byte order on driver 8b311e3: I accepted the colours with the red/blue compensation gone (evidence/driver-1.0-native-byte-order/).
• XMB: large-list allocation failures fixed (601e575), crash-free navigation (docs/XMB_LIST_SAFETY.md, evidence/xmb-safe-list-run/).
• Gameplay: Genesis Plus GX colours, sound, controls and transitions accepted; FCEUmm, mGBA, Snes9x and FBNeo evidence in native-core-loading/, mgba-native/, snes9x-native/, fbneo-native/.
• Thumbnail and configuration-reset fixes (patches 0081/0082).
• PPSSPP (God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force at 10x): picture, full speed at 120 Hz, save states, fast-forward, close and reopen.

Named errors and remaining limits

• First frontend snapshot has five intentional missing-core recovery errors and two archive-extraction failures; I identified the content as Sega System 16 & 32, which belongs to FBNeo. No general archive fix is inferred.
• Console verification does not cover every supported system, BIOS/disc/CHD, NTSC and interlace options, SRAM/state round trips, long-run A/V or performance. Zero backend errors is not proof of uninterrupted audio across all workloads.
• Upstream compiler warnings (old zlib prototypes, Tremor's long-to-int abs conversion, an unused blip helper's missing return) are neither suppressed nor treated as acceptance.
• The loader still rejects TLS, legacy init/fini, nonempty preinit and unsupported relocations/dependencies; cores share the frontend process, so a rejected load is safe but an arbitrary core fault is not isolated.
• The withdrawn path has the console history; the native byte order does not yet. A colour regression would show as red and blue exchanged in the menu, in core frames or in thumbnails, and is the first thing to check on the next run.

Preserved platform and file locations

XMB stays default and RGUI selectable. Vulkan remains the presentation route; video_ps5 stays selectable as CPU fallback. Native audio/input/binding, config saving, FTP permissions and directory browsing remain. Deployments preserve live settings/games.

FTP base /data/homebrew/PPSA99169/ corresponds to in-title /app0. Use content/, system/, cores/, config/retroarch.cfg, savefiles/, savestates/. Genesis Plus GX Sega CD BIOS files use system/ root; FBNeo uses system/fbneo/. See docs/DEPLOYMENT.md.

Operating notes

Uploads are authorized; check console idle before deployment. A launch without args.txt needs my intervention. Start klog first, preserve old logs, and capture allocation, frontend and trace logs. Never interrupt another title. No new core or unrelated driver work is assigned by this file.