ChonkyStation4 Alpha-2 Variant

ChonkyStation4 Alpha-2 has been released, marking progress in the PS4 emulator. It now boots the PS4 system menu and can run simple commercial games. Key updates include improved GPU performance—up to 3 times faster—networking support with TCP/UDP sockets, and initial work on a PSN replacement called “ChonkyNet.” Shader decompiler enhancements enable better handling of compute shaders and branching instructions. Various system libraries are now functional, and a new command line interface has been added. Additional features include memory leak fixes, texture management, and the ability to select GPU devices via command options.

(HEY YOU!! We hope you enjoy! We try not to run ads. So basically, this is a very expensive hobby running this site. Please consider joining us for updates, forums, and more. Network w/ us to make some cash or friends while retro gaming, and you can win some free retro games for posting. Okay, carry on 👍)

ChonkyStation4 Alpha-2 has been released. ChonkyStation4 is an ongoing project aimed at emulating the PlayStation 4 system. Currently, it can boot a few basic commercial games.

ChonkyStation4 Changelog:
Highlights
The PS4 system menu (VSH) can now boot, although it is not yet functional.
Compute shaders: The DispatchDirect PM4 packet is now processed along with async compute queues.
Structured shader control flow: The shader decompiler can now retrieve if/else and loop constructs from shader branches.
Notable GPU performance enhancements: GPU-intensive scenes now run up to 2 to 3 times faster.
Basic networking: TCP and UDP socket support has been implemented. libSceHttp is functioning as well. Initial work on a PSN alternative (“ChonkyNet”) has commenced.
Shader Decompiler
Compute shaders are now supported.
Branch instructions are converted to if/else and loop blocks.
Handling of certain data store (GDS/LDS) instructions has been added.
Various other instructions are now implemented.
Vertex shaders without fetch shaders are handled correctly.
Vulkan Backend
Support for up to 3 frames in flight.
Improvements in buffer/texture cache performance (buffers are now tracked with page granularity).
Correct computation of image size for tiled images.
Stencil fixes.
Resolution of certain validation errors.
Additional performance improvements.
Integration of the NVIDIA Nsight Aftermath SDK for generating GPU crash reports (enable via the ENABLE_NVIDIA_AFTERMATH CMake option).
Implementation of a basic texture garbage collector and fixes for other memory leaks.
Preliminary handling of bindless descriptors.
You can now choose a specific GPU device through a CLI command (–gpu).
OS HLE
Additional HLE functions have been implemented across all libraries.
TLS fixes.
Necessary system libraries for VSH boot have been stubbed or implemented.
sceKernelDlsym and other functions for the runtime loading and usage of sprx libraries are now functioning correctly.
sceNet TCP and UDP sockets are implemented, enabling LLE libSceHttp to operate.
Implementation of sceZlib.
Misc
A new command line interface has been added – run “ChonkyStation4 –help” for details.
User management
Work has begun on a replacement PSN server (“ChonkyNet”), which is not yet public.
An experimental red-zone fix patch has been added (currently only for CUSA00107).