Popular emulator, RPCS3 announced through an expansive blog post that the emulator has now added native arm64 support across all computer platforms. This includes Windows, macOS, and Linux — including some handhelds.
Arm64-based systems are the backbone of most retro handhelds. Support for the architecture means that we should be able to see games eventually run on the strongest bunch of these handhelds once the processing power is more up to beat.
As it stands now, running these games requires more than most handhelds are able to offer. Users have shown examples of games running on their Retroid Pocket 5s via ROCKNIX, but the speeds you can obtain are often lower than 10FPS since Vulkan support has yet to be added. When showing footage of the emulator running on the Raspberry Pi 5 users can expect to hit a peak of 30FPS when scaled down to 272p.
However, this advancement is about more than bringing support to the platform, but to showcase where the future of emulation is heading. PS3 emulation — even on the strongest of computers — runs poorly in comparison to other emulators mostly due to the architecture of the PS3 itself. Here, being able to achieve any sort of compatibility with games and usable emulation is a feat many would have cast off as impossible just a few short years ago.
Of note, the RPCS3 team has avoided publishing any sort of mobile app or support for any mobile platform. The developers cite toxicity within the mobile gaming space, but also an abundance of fraudulent apps attempting to establish themselves as the original. This comes three months after the development team had shared a warning to its users via Twitter in September.
Quick History of arm64Â RPCS3
The company started working on arm64 support in 2021, shortly after Apple had announced its M1 chip and featured it in the then-new 13-inch MacBook Pro.
By December of that year, Nekotekina had managed to create a working build, but it would not yet run any games. Fellow team developer kd-11 helped build a version that supported PSX. Later, Jeff Guo, a contributor, would help by submitting patches that improved support on macOS systems. Since then, development has been towards yesterday’s announcement.
The future of emulation is on the horizon, and we now have a glimmer of what it may look like. For the past handful of years, retro handhelds have been marked by their ability to play PS2 and GameCube games. Now, with chipsets getting stronger, and emulation making major strides like this, we’re witnessing the beginning of an eventual transitional phase where PS3 emulation may be the bar to reach.
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