Retroarch PS4 Standalone/Bundle Progress

[ih8god]

Thought I would share a little progress made on being able to do standalone or bundled Retroarch packages for PS4. Still a good bit to go on things but the thing to note right now is the unique title ID and the rom running from /app0/. Cores are still going to have to run from somewhere in /self/ and will need to have a folder created in /data/TITLEID/ for each "bundle" to deal with its saves, remaps and other writable data. It's at least working at this point so I am pleased so far. I'll share updates as they are made, if anyone is interested.

Cheers!
- D0ng3r

 

[ih8god]

Sooooo....I have got isolated assets and everything under the unique title ID working. This means an existing install of the homebrew Retroarch (Title ID SSNE10000) can exist and additional installs won't muck with any of the config files and whatnot.

The purpose of this being to give the ability to make single or multi game bundles. Ideally it would be single games but letting you have a dedicated icon for the specific game and all that jazz. Basically like the Retroarch PS2 on PS4 by Markus95 but not using PS2 and using the current version of the homebrew Retroarch app.

So far, in my thoughts, it might make the most sense to go with some sort of rule where if the core already exists in the /self/retroarch/cores/ directory, then it would be used but if it is not in there it would be copied over. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to be having directories created for a bunch of the same cores and wasting storage all for the same use.

Post automatically merged: Aug 17, 2026

Here is the first proof of concept pkg build if anyone wants to check it out. I will surely be looking to slimdown the bundled assets and file compression and whatnot but the main point has been accomplished.

This basically primes the writeable directories in /data/ with a retroarch.cfg and daisy-chains into a modified RetroArch_R4 binary which points to the title ID for the new pkg. The config file a mapped out for saves, remaps and configs to go into the /data/ storage and the rom, shaders, assets and whatever else is ran from /app0/.

The core is included within /app0/ as well and there is check to see if it exists already in /self/retroarch/cores/ on boot. If it is already in there, it use it. If not, it copies it over to that location.

Menus will still need to be figured out for which works best for quick access and ease I guess still. The next major part in this little project is building out the front-end aspect for easy custom builds. The usual stuff like applying icon, pic1/0, choose your own game rom(s) and based on the core it would pack all of the recommended files like bios, overlays and the like for RetroArch and then put it all in a nice little package to install.

Anyway, here is the first pkg which demonstrates the functionality. I have only tested it on 9.00 by the way so if anyone finds it goes whacky let me know I guess. Feedback is also certainly welcomed.

PoC-RA-SoloPKG-RETR09913_00-RETR09913000TEST.pkg

oh and some pics if needed too.

I will keep y'all updated with any progress made on the full-on tool for this jobby too.

Cheers!
- D0ng3r

 

[jason-backup]

https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/actions/workflows/PS4-ORBIS.yml

Does Vulkan in RetroArch on PS4 look doable?

 

[ih8god]

https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/actions/workflows/PS4-ORBIS.yml

Does Vulkan in RetroArch on PS4 look doable?

Think you need to go the Linux route for that one but I am not an expert so could very well be wrong. Think with Orbis the closest is GNM and Piglet maybe.

Post automatically merged: Aug 31, 2026

So today, I am pretty sure I have reached the point of actual success on this little project. Just thought I would share some additional screens of a package running with its own title ID and individualized asset files for the specific app itself. I made a few points to show the major areas for file access and locations as well as some screens for how the packing tool is looking while noting some of the functionality.

Excited to release soon. Just really want to do some additional testing first. Soon though.

Hit me up if you want to help with and testing or have any questions about this thing.

 

[ih8god]

The remote-play recording doesn't do it any justice. It actually plays pretty good normally. Still thought it was a nice example for this. Working through most of the cores and trying to apply configs as a default per core on every build to avoid crashes where I can. Will likely leave the stripping down and any edits to the menu UI until last.