Bloodborne can be emulated on PC with almost stable 60 fps

Digital Foundry's Thomas Morgan recently put Bloodborne through its paces using the ShadPS4 emulator, analyzing its performance and the impact of community-created enhancements.

For his evaluation, Morgan utilized ShadPS4 build 0.5.1 by diegolix29, a build stemming from raphaelthegreat's custom branch. After testing multiple builds, this version yielded optimal results on his system—an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X CPU and a GeForce RTX 4080 GPU.

To mitigate visual glitches manifesting as distorted or misaligned polygons, Morgan suggests installing the Vertex Explosion Fix mod. While this mod disables pre-game character face customization, it effectively resolves these graphical issues. No other mods are necessary; ShadPS4 incorporates a comprehensive menu for managing various performance enhancements. This includes options for 60fps gameplay, resolutions up to 4K, and chromatic aberration toggles.

While occasional stutters were observed, Bloodborne generally maintained a stable 60fps framerate. Experiments with 1440p and 1800p resolutions resulted in improved visual fidelity but introduced performance dips and frequent crashes. Therefore, Morgan recommends sticking to 1080p (native PS4 resolution) or 1152p for the best balance of performance and visuals.

Morgan concluded that the very feasibility of PS4 emulation with ShadPS4 is a remarkable accomplishment. He praised Bloodborne's impressive performance on the emulator, acknowledging the presence of minor, ongoing technical challenges.