DuckStation is an simulator/emulator of the Sony PlayStation(TM) console, focusing on playability, speed, and long-term maintainability. Accuracy is not the main focus of the emulator, but the goal is to be as accurate as possible while maintaining performance suitable for low-end devices. "Hack" options are discouraged, the default configuration should support all playable games with only some of the enhancements having compatibility issues.
A "BIOS" ROM image is required to to start the emulator and to play games. You can use an image from any hardware version or region, although mismatching game regions and BIOS regions may have compatibility issues. A ROM image is not provided with the emulator for legal reasons, you should dump this from your own console using Caetla or other means.
## Features
DuckStation features a fully-featured frontend built using Qt (pictured), as well as a simplified frontend based on SDL and Dear ImGui. An Android version has been started, but is not currently usable.
- A CPU faster than a potato. But it needs to be 64-bit otherwise you won't get a recompiler and it'll be slow. There are no plans to add any 32-bit recompilers.
- For the hardware renderers, a GPU capable of OpenGL 3.0/OpenGL ES 3.0/Direct3D 11 Feature Level 10.0 and above. So, basically anything made in the last 10 years or so.
- SDL-compatible game controller (e.g. XB360/XBOne)
Binaries of DuckStation for 64-bit Windows are available via GitHub Releases and are automatically built with every commit/push.
**Windows 10 is the only supported operating system.** Windows 7/8 may work, but is not supported by the developer. I am aware some users are still using Windows 7, but
it is no longer supported by Microsoft and too much effort to get running on modern hardware. Game bugs are unlikely to be affected by the operating system, however
performance issues should be verified on Windows 10 before reporting.
- Go to https://github.com/stenzek/duckstation/releases/tag/latest, and download the Windows x64 build. This is a 7-Zip archive containing the prebuilt binary.
- Alternatively, direct download link: https://github.com/stenzek/duckstation/releases/download/latest/duckstation-windows-x64-release.7z
- Extract the archive **to a subdirectory**. The archive has no root subdirectory, so extracting to the current directory will drop a bunch of files in your download directory if you do not extract to a subdirectory.
Once downloaded and extracted, you can launch the Qt frontend from `duckstation-qt-x64-ReleaseLTCG.exe`, or the SDL frontend from `duckstation-sdl-x64-ReleaseLTCG.exe`.
1. Either configure the path to a BIOS image in the settings, or copy one or more PlayStation BIOS images to the bios/ subdirectory. On Windows, by default this will be located in `C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\Documents\DuckStation\bios`.
**If you get an error about `vcruntime140_1.dll` being missing, you will need to update your Visual C++ runtime.** You can do that from this page: https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads. Specifically, you want the x64 runtime, which can be downloaded from https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vc_redist.x64.exe.
Prebuilt AppImage binaries for 64-bit Linux distros are also available via GitHub Releases, but should not be considered fully supported at the moment. Linux users are encouraged to build from source when possible.
PlayStation game discs do not contain title information. For game titles, we use the redump.org database cross-referenced with the game's executable code.
This database can be manually downloaded and added as `cache/redump.dat`, or automatically downloaded by going into the `Game List Settings` in the Qt Frontend,
By default, DuckStation will emulate the region check present in the CD-ROM controller of the console. This means that when the region of the console does not match the disc, it will refuse to boot, giving a "Please insert PlayStation CD-ROM" message. DuckStation supports automatic detection disc regions, and if you set the console region to auto-detect as well, this should never be a problem.
If you wish to use auto-detection, you do not need to change the BIOS path each time you switch regions. Simply place the BIOS images for the other regions in the **same directory** as the configured image. This will probably be in the `bios/` subdirectory. Then set the console region to "Auto-Detect", and everything should work fine. The console/log will tell you if you are missing the image for the disc's region.
Some users have been confused by the "BIOS Path" option, the reason it is a path and not a directory is so that an unknown BIOS revision can be used/tested.
Alternatively, the region checking can be disabled in the console options tab. This is the only way to play unlicensed games or homebrew which does not supply a correct region string on the disc, aside from using fastboot which skips the check entirely.
Mismatching the disc and console regions with the check disabled is supported, but may break games if they are patching the BIOS and expecting specific content.
1. Clone the repository. Submodules aren't necessary, there is only one and it is only used for Windows.
2. Create a build directory, either in-tree or elsewhere.
3. Run cmake to configure the build system. Assuming a build subdirectory of `build-release`, `cd build-release && cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -GNinja ..`.
4. Compile the source code. For the example above, run `ninja`.
**NOTE:** macOS is highly experimental and not tested by the developer. Use at your own risk, things may be horribly broken.
Requirements:
- CMake (installed by default? otherwise, `brew install cmake`)
- SDL2 (`brew install sdl2`)
- Qt 5 (`brew install qt5`)
1. Clone the repository. Submodules aren't necessary, there is only one and it is only used for Windows.
2. Create a build directory, either in-tree or elsewhere, e.g. `mkdir build-release`, `cd build-release`.
3. Run cmake to configure the build system: `cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DQt5_DIR=/usr/local/opt/qt/lib/cmake/Qt5 ..`. You may need to tweak `Qt5_DIR` depending on your system.
4. Compile the source code: `make`. Use `make -jN` where `N` is the number of CPU cores in your system for a faster build.
So, if you were using Linux, you would place your BIOS images in `~/.local/share/duckstation/bios`. This directory will be created upon running DuckStation
for the first time.
If you wish to use a "portable" build, where the user directory is the same as where the executable is located, create an empty file named `portable.txt`
in the same directory as the DuckStation executable.
Keyboard bindings in the SDL frontend are currently not customizable in the frontend itself. You should use the Qt frontend to set up your key/controller bindings first.
"PlayStation" and "PSX" are registered trademarks of Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe Limited. This project is not affiliated in any way with Sony Interactive Entertainment.
