GTA 6 on PC May be Coming Sooner than We Thought

AI's Impact on Emulation [00:00:00]

• AI is driving rapid advancements in emulation, code decompilation, and hacking.
• This allows PC gamers to play console-exclusive titles that publishers have not ported.
• The technology might enable playing upcoming games like GTA 6 on PC before official release.

  "AI has supercharged the modding scene, which has resulted in absolutely bonkers quick advancements in emulation, code decompilation, and straight up hacks that might mean us PC gamers might be playing GTA 6 on our gaming rigs well before Rockstar gives us the thumbs up."

Astro Bot on PC [00:01:30]

• Astro Bot, a PS5 exclusive, is being run on PC with impressive results.
• The game is set to 4K and locked at 60 FPS, with a sharp menu display.
• Testing is done on a realistic hardware setup (AMD 9800X3D and 5070 Ti) for relatable expectations.

  "We've set it to 4K. It's locked at 60. There's nothing we can do right now to change that. And this menu looks, wow, really sharp."

Emulation Performance and Forks [00:02:45]

• Initial gameplay shows minor frame drops during loading, but significantly better than previous attempts.
• The PS5 emulator, Kyde, has specialized forks optimized for specific games, like one by JetSku for Astro Bot.
• Over 1000 forks of the Kyde PS5 emulator exist, each tailored for different titles.

  "Each game seems to have a fork of the emulator that it's really optimized for."

Demon's Souls Emulation Challenges [00:07:15]

• Demon's Souls is more demanding than Astro Bot, with frame rates dipping below 60 FPS.
• A specific fork for Demon's Souls includes a "pre-compile shaders" option that took 40 minutes to process.
• Even with pre-compilation, shaders still prepare on each game launch.

  "This took our 9800X 3D 40 minutes to go through all of the work that needed to be done."

AnyPS5: A Different Approach [00:11:00]

• AnyPS5 is a relinker, not a traditional emulator, translating PS5 games to native PC code.
• This approach is compared to translating a book once, versus on-the-fly translation with emulation.
• Currently, only a few 2D games work with AnyPS5, but progress is rapid.

  "Emulation is like you have a book that you don't understand and you're running Google translate to translate every word on the fly. Whereas this relinking is more like getting that book translated once and for all into a language that your PC understands."

Playable Titles and Future Prospects [00:12:30]

• Games like Gran Turismo 7 are playable, and Ghost of Tsushima and Wolverine have been booted but are not playable.
• The community's drive, fueled by hype for GTA 6 and anti-Sony sentiment, is expected to accelerate development.
• Significant RAM usage is noted, with potential memory leaks in hastily developed software.

  "The big question is, is this going to work for GTA 6? And I think that the combined power of GTA 6 hype-ness and the spite people are feeling in their hearts for Sony is going to supercharge the community to make that happen as soon as possible."

God of War 3 Remastered on PC [00:14:30]

• God of War 3 Remastered features a dedicated launcher with graphics and performance controls, and even cheats.
• The game can be run up to 240 FPS, significantly exceeding its original console limitations.
• Despite the high frame rate, there's still room for optimization, as not all GPU/CPU resources are fully utilized.

  "So we've got an engine frame rate limit now of 240 FPS instead of the original 60 and we can bring it up to 4k at the same time."

Bloodborne Emulation and Community Mods [00:17:00]

• Bloodborne, a highly desired PS4 exclusive, is being emulated on PC with unlocked frame rates up to 120 FPS at 4K.
• This performance far exceeds the console's 30 FPS lock, making a potential official remaster seem unnecessary.
• Mods exist that allow Bloodborne to run at 60 FPS on PS4 Pro/PS5, showing Sony's reluctance to update the IP.

  "This makes it really hard to imagine paying for the Bloodborne remaster if it ever comes."