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Sony PlayStation 3

Overview

Game Path Supported Extensions
roms/ps3 .ps3 .psn

Emulator/Core

Name Documentation
RPCS3 rpcs3.net/quickstart

Instructions

1. Firmware Setup

RPCS3 requires official PS3 firmware to be installed through RPCS3's GUI before you can run games. Its recommended to have a mouse/keyboard plugged in for these steps to make it easier to navigate RPCS3's GUI.

  1. Download the latest official PS3 firmware from Sony's PS3 System Software page. (The downloaded file will be named PS3UPDAT.PUP)
  2. Transfer the PS3UPDAT.PUP file to /roms/temp. If the temp folder does not exist then please create it (you will delete this file after you have installed it).
  3. Navigate to the Tools system and then select Start RPCS3. This will open the RPCS3 GUI where you will install the firmware you downloaded above.
  4. Select File > Install Firmware.
  5. Navigate to ~/roms/temp, select PS3UPDAT.PUP and press Open

The firmware will be installed and then a window will open to process the needed files; please let this process complete. Once complete you can close out RPCS3 and return to EmulationStation. You can also delete PS3UPDAT.PUP from /roms/temp to free up space.

2. Game Setup

PS3 games are available in two formats: Disc-Based Games and Digital PSN Packages. The steps for setting up a given game differ depending on its source format.

Disc-Based Games

RPCS3 works with decrypted ISO files stored in a folder format so you will need to convert your discs to this format before they can be read by the emulator.

Steps:
  1. Follow these instructions from RPCS3's wiki to dump and decrypt your PS3 disc (recommended: follow the instructions for using ps3-disc-dumper).
  2. Add a .ps3 extension to the end of the folder name that was generated by ps3-disc-dumper.
  3. Upload that folder (with the .ps3 extension) to roms/ps3
    Example Folder Structure
    /roms/ps3/
        └─ Game name.ps3/
            ├─ PS3_GAME/
              ├─ LICDIR/
              ├─ TROPDIR/ (trophy data)
              ├─ USRDIR/ (the main game data)
              ├─ ICON0.PNG
              ├─ PARAM.SFO
              ├─ PIC0.PNG
              ├─ PS3LOGO.DAT
              └─ (various other metadata files)
            ├─ PS3_UPDATE/ (built-in firmware update, if applicable)
            └─ PS3_DISC.SFB
    
  4. Refresh EmulationStation by pressing START to open the Main Menu then select Game Settings > Update Gamelists.

Once complete you should now see your game in the PS3 gamelist.

Digital PSN Packages

Digital PSN Packages will only work in dev at this time. Please do not try them if you are running a main release.

RPCS3 requires Digial PSN Packages to be installed through the emulator GUI before they can be played. If you have questions regarding which files are necessary to install PSN games, please check out the RPCS3 wiki. The following notes will focus only on the steps needed once you have the needed files.

RPCS3 Steps:
  1. Upload the needed files for you PSN game to ~/roms/temp (you will delete these files after installation)
  2. Navigate to the Tools system and then select Start RPCS3. This will open the RPCS3 GUI where you will install your PSN game.
  3. Select File > Install Packages/Raps/Edats
  4. Navigate to ~/roms/temp, select the files for your PSN game and press Open
  5. After install please note down the value that is displayed in the Serial column in RPCS3's game list for the game you just installed (you will use this in the next set of steps)

Once complete you can close out RPCS3 and return to EmulationStation. You can also delete your PSN game files from /roms/temp to free up space.

As a side note your installed games can be found in ~/roms/bios/RPCS3/dev_hdd0/games (this may be useful if you ever run into storage limitaions and want to free up space)

EmulationStation Steps:

In order for your newly installed game to show up in EmulationStation you need to create one more thing... a .psn file to represent your installed game.

  1. Create a file in ~/roms/ps3 called [Game Name].psn where [Game Name] is a readable name for your game (this will help with scraping)
  2. Edit that file and on the first line paste the Serial of the game that you noted down from the steps above
    Example File Setup
    /roms/ps3/
        └─ Afterburner Climax (USA).psn
            └─ NPUB30151
    
  3. Save the file
  4. Refresh EmulationStation by pressing START to open the Main Menu then select Game Settings > Update Gamelists.

Once done you should be able to launch your PSN game directly from the EmulationStation gamelist.

3. Running a Game

On the first boot of a game, RPCS3 will compile its PPU modules. This can take a long time so please have patience as its required to run the game. Allowing RPCS3 to do this will also make all future launches of the game much quicker.

To exit a game and return to EmulationStation you can either (1) press the GUIDE button on your controller to open up RPCS3's menu and select Exit or (2) Press L1 + SELECT + START