RPCS3 Tutorial:
RPCS3 is now good enough to emulate some games at full speed, therefore this guide. Remember most games aren’t playable yet always
check the official compatibility list before attempting to emulate something so you don’t waste time.
This is what you need to start playing PS3 Games on your PC now:
Hardware Requirements:
All hardware requirements are mandatory. If you don’t have one of the the requirements do not continue with the guide, the emulator will not work for you.
- x64 Bits OS, RPCS3 doesn’t work on 32 bit systems.
- A CPU that supports SSSE3 (AMD: Bobcat, Bulldozer, Piledriver. Intel: Xeon 5100/5300/3000 Series, Core 2 Duo/Extreme/ Quad, Core i7/i5/i3, Pentium Dual Core, Celeron 4xx Sequence Conroe-L, Celeron Dual Core E1200, Celeron M 500 series, Atom).
- A dedicated Graphic Card that supports OpenGL 4.3 ( Nvidia GeForce 400 Series and newer, ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series and newer, Intel HD Graphics in Intel Haswell processors and newer).
Software Requirements:
- Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2015.
- RPCS3 Latest Build.
- The PS3 Firmware (PS3UPDAT.PUP)
Installation:
- Update Directx and install Visual C++ Redistributable.
- Download RPCS3 Latest build extract it to a folder.
- Open rpcs3.exe go to Tools -> Install FIrmware, find PS3UPDAT.PUP that you downloaded before, let install.
Usage:
- Launch RPCS3 with rpcs3.exe
- To add games, depends on what you have;
- .PKG files get installed by clicking File -> Install PKG.
- If you have a folder that contains all game’s data (PS3_Game, PS3_UPDATE, PS3_DISC.SFB, etc) copy it to \dev_hdd0\game\
- For some games you also need a .RAP file they must be placed on:
\dev_hdd0\home\00000001\exdata\
- Then you can launch the games by double clicking on right click Boot.
CONFIGURATION:
Configuration -> Keyboard: Here configure your keys to your liking.
CPU:
At this stage there aren’t really many settings to tweak. I’ll explain the most important settings here to start go to Configuration -> CPU.
CPU:
PPU/SPU Decoders: We are given 3 options for each here:
- Interpreter (Precise): Slowest but the most accurate emulation, use this if the game crashes.
- Interpreter (Fast): The default setting, games should run faster on it at the expense of compatibility.
- Recompiler (LLVM/ASMJIT): Fastest mode. Can achieve full speed on games where interpreter cannot. Also it takes a lot longer to start the game. It might not work for some games.
Load Libraries:Some games require libraries (LLE Modules) to run. You can leave it in automatic unless otherwise specified, always check rpcs3 forums for updated info. Most games might need libsre, libresc, librtc and libspurs_jq. (thanks Annie).
GPU:
- Render:
Null: Nothing, no video, you don’t want this.
OpelGL: The most compatible of all.
DRD12: DirectX12, currently slowest of all, requires windows 10 and compatible card (AMD / NVIDIA).
Vulkan: Fast but requires a vulkan compatible card.
- Aspect Ratio: Leave default 16×9.
- Resolution: You should always try to run the games at the resolution they run on a real PS3. If unsure use 1280×720.
- Frame Limit: Set on Auto.
- All other options should be disabled, you can enable Vsync but for me it makes no difference since we are already limiting frames.
AUDIO:
Doesn’t matter. Leave default XAudio2 or OpenAL. If sound is bad it’s most likely because emulation is slow, this isn’t fault of the sound plugin at all.
INPUT/OUTPUT:
It enables/Disables peripheral support, since emulation is not good yet most of this are irrelevant now. Controller handler should be set to Keyboard. It might seem like using XInput would allow you to use a gamepad but i was never able to get it to recognize mine. Stick to “Keyboard” or use Xpadder to map the keys to your gamepad buttons.
SYSTEM:
I like to set it to English else the games might show up in Japanese. Some Japanese games might need this setting set to “Japanese” to work (thanks Annie).
NETWORK:
Set to disconnected.