PS5_RetroArch/docs/ACTIVE.md

Active work

Updated: 2026-09-23

Now: 120 Hz by default, on the current driver

RetroArch presents at 119.88 Hz where the display allows it, and at 59.94 Hz where it does not, with cores at their own speed either way. The title declares high-frame-rate output (sce_sys/param.json attribute3 0x80040), so ../PS5_Vulkan offers a 3840x2160 119.88 Hz mode first, and only when the console has accepted it (jobs/r53-output-retention: the output is configured when the modes are listed, so a refusal leaves 59.94 Hz as the only mode and RetroArch never believes 119.88). Patch 0084 makes the display context pick the largest mode and then the highest refresh (upstream ignored refresh, or rejected any mode more than 1 Hz from a saved 59.94); 0085 makes video_refresh_rate follow the mode it got and turns a saved swap interval of 1 into automatic above 100 Hz, so a 60 FPS core presents each frame for two vblanks. The seed config ships video_refresh_rate 119.88 and video_swap_interval 0 for fresh installs; an existing config is corrected at run time. Evidence: evidence/output-120hz (FCEUmm, 1,800 frames in ~30 s at 1,199 presents per 10 s) and evidence/output-60hz-fallback (same build without the metadata: 59.94 Hz, 600 presents per 10 s, same speed).

The title now links the current driver, hundreds of driver commits past 8b311e3: the mapped-only target flush, the bounded marker spin, parallel blits, the NIR cache, the per-build shader cache and the output-mode selection. Every shipped core was rechecked on it at 119.88 Hz (evidence/core-recheck-current-driver): FCEUmm, Snes9x, mGBA (GBA from .7z, and GB), FBNeo, Genesis Plus GX (Mega Drive, Master System, Game Gear); 1,200 frames each, colours checked on the exit screenshot, audio closed with no errors or discards, clean exit.

No black screen between menu, game and content changes. RetroArch recreates its swapchain (and on content changes its whole Vulkan context) when the menu opens or closes, content closes or loads, and a video setting needs a reinit. The driver used to close VideoOut each time, switching the output back to 60 Hz and up again. main.cpp now retains VideoOut (ps5vk_display_retain): the previous image stays on screen and the mode never changes (evidence/display-retention: menu 6-7 ms, close content 280 ms, run from History 437 ms, 0 black presents; released, the same events took 297-760 ms with a mode switch each). Quitting releases it and restores the default mode. /app0/ps5vk-no-retain.txt gives the old behaviour for a comparison run.

FBNeo's screenshot no longer crashes (patch 0086): the scaler allocated ~97 MB of frames a same-size conversion never reads, the allocation failed beside FBNeo's 170 MB core, and the screenshot called an unset converter.

Test aids. /app0/pad-script.txt presses buttons on a timeline (src/input_ps5.cpp), so a run can open menus and load content without a person at the pad. A fatal signal appends its rip, rsp, return address and stack words to trace.txt (src/crash_report.cpp; the console's mcontext has rip at word 26 and rsp at 29, not where the SDK header puts them), and the core loader's "ready" line carries the core's base, so build/title.map symbolises a crash.

args.txt can launch content. -L core and a path in /app0/args.txt now start a game directly (main.cpp drops --menu, which RetroArch refuses beside content), which is how a run measures a core without a pad.

Rebuilds take seconds (docs/PHASE_LOG.md): a no-change rebuild 269 s -> 2.2 s, a port-file or driver change ~2.4 s; deployment uploads only changed files (tools/deploy-title.py --all for everything).

Next

1. PPSSPP from scratch (the current core crashes on its first frame, parked below).
2. Simplify the port without losing behaviour.
3. Content changes still hold the previous image for 0.3-0.5 s while RetroArch rebuilds its Vulkan context; keeping the context (not only VideoOut) would shorten that.

PPSSPP Track A: parked

Plan: PPSSPP_Implementation_Plan.md; platform analysis: PPSSPP_Core_Plan.md. The core builds from pinned f293b10, is ABI-checked, linked and loaded on the console (evidence/ppsspp-native/), and crashes on its first frame: a SIGSEGV on a worker thread during ThreadManager::Init, inside libkernel.sprx (pthread_get_specificarray_np+0x3b from pthread_create_name_np).

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).

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.