AnyPS5 Hits 100% GPU Shader Coverage For Playing PS5 Games On PC

AnyPS5, the Proton-inspired, open-source translation layer for porting PlayStation 5 games to the PC has developed rapidly in the last couple of weeks since it was initially announced. In fact, the AnyPS5 project has already achieved 100% coverage of the PlayStation 5's GPU shader instructions, meaning they should all work properly when translated to equivalent PC GPU shader instructions, whether on Windows or Linux. That's a major milestone, but simply translating the instructions doesn't mean every game is going to "just work" on the PC.

For one, there's an obvious gap when one looks at the accompanying system libraries data. Not only is AnyPS5's coverage of the PlayStation 5's system libraries incomplete at 84.69%, that number is inconsistent depending on the source. The reason why the AnyPS5 team tracks the PS5 system libraries with an asterisk is because they can only track compatibility with functions they've already discovered, and the total number of system library functions will keep increasing, at least in the short term.

In total, AnyPS5 currently covers 100% of the PlayStation 5's 1166 GPU shader instructions. 2578 (84.69%) of 3044 discovered PlayStation 5 system libraries are also covered, but the totality of PlayStation 5 system functions is currently unknown.

For now, the first full game known to be compatible with AnyPS5 is Dreaming Sarah, a fairly humble 2D indie platformer. However, it also runs at 35 FPS on a basic Intel iGPU (HD Graphics 620) or a full 60 FPS on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti. The whole point of AnyPS5 is to introduce PS5 software compatibility to PC without substantial overhead, so PlayStation 5 software running on entry-level PC hardware at all is already a huge win, even with simple games.

Compatibility-wise, KyTy PS5 is more proven and is capable of running commercial games (including Grand Theft Auto V,) but also requires far more powerful hardware than a PS5 for the job, due to using traditional emulation techniques. For more complex titles to start booting on AnyPS5, further development and likely game-specific troubleshooting will be needed, as with traditional emulation projects. But GPU shader instruction coverage will be absolutely essential for that kind of work, so it's great to see AnyPS5 so far along at this point.