Over the past few days, we have seen a huge number of console-exclusive games getting PC ports, complete with additional features, including the GameCube classic Super Smash Bros. Melee. As such, it was only a matter of time before one of the most requested PC ports of the past few generations, FromSoftware‘s Bloodborne, would receive its unofficialport.
“bbport runs the original PlayStation 4 executable of Bloodborne (CUSA03173, game version 1.09) directly on an x86-64 Linux PC. It is not a general emulator,” reads the port’s description on GitHub, where it can be downloaded (although the original game files are required). “The game’s own x86-64 code executes natively; a small runtime written for this one game replaces the PS4 system libraries; the GPU work is translated to Vulkan by a renderer derived from shadPS4 and heavily extended for this game, including temporal upscaling with AMD FSR 3.1, FSR 4 and FSR 4.1.1.”
As Bloodborne is among the best emulated PlayStation 4 games on PC, some may not see the point of a native PC port, especially since its renderer and shader recompiler form the basis of the port’s graphics side. However, there are advantages to running the game natively, including reduced CPU overhead from emulation and some additions implemented in the game itself. These include an in-game menu that lets you switch upscalers, graphics presets, output resolution, and turn off effects such as depth of field, motion blur, SSAO, and more without having to modify configuration files manually.
To better highlight the differences between running Bloodborne natively on Linux andt important ones in the table below
| Feature | shadPS4 | bbport |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | General PS4 emulator, many games | One game: Bloodborne v1.09 |
| Loading | Its own ELF loader and kernel emulation at run time | The eboot is converted offline (scripts/) into an image with PS4 libc/Fios2 linked in; a C loader maps it and jumps into the game (loader and runtime: ~5k lines) |
| System libraries | Broad HLE of the PS4 OS | A small runtime (src/runtime_*.c) that implements exactly what Bloodborne calls: memory, threads, sync, files, audio (incl. ATRAC9), pad, saves, AppContent |
| GPU | shadPS4 video core and shader recompiler | The same core (vendored, GPL) with ~200 marked changes (bbport:) plus new modules: two-stage draw pipeline, render-state and texture-set memoization, render-scale proxies, motion vectors, FSR 3.1/4/4.1.1, frame capture and GPU profiler |
| GPU thread | One thread processes the whole command stream (the bottleneck in Bloodborne) | Decode and draw recording run on separate threads; the work scales with the hardware threads (Steam Deck included) |
| Upscaling | — | Temporal (FSR 3.1, FSR 4, FSR 4.1.1) with the game’s own motion vectors and jitter |
| Game patches | Patch files applied by the emulator | The same community patches, compiled at start (scripts/patches.py); render resolution, effects and FPS from the launcher |
As the Bloodborne native PC port has yet to be completed from beginning to end, there could be issues in later parts of the game yet to be solved. Still, this is an exciting development, as now even those who do not want to mess with emulation can enjoy one of the most unique games developed by FromSoftware, one of the many that highlighted how uncompromising Hidetaka Miyazaki and his studio are in terms of game design.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack.
After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi “Suda51” Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA’s president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3.
When he’s not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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