ARCHITECTURE.md

Architecture

How a PS5 executable becomes a native Linux or Windows program. Nothing is emulated: the converted executable runs as a normal process and calls native implementations of the system libraries.

Overview

flowchart LR
    subgraph input["PS5 game"]
        elf["input.elf"]
        mods["sce_module/*"]
    end

    subgraph relinker["relinker (core/relinker)"]
        direction TB
        intel["--to-intel:<br/>lower AMD-only instructions<br/>(codegen)"]
        pipeline["RelinkerPipeline:<br/>read imports by NID,<br/>check syscalls, filter unused NIDs,<br/>build SysV dynamic section"]
        guest["GuestModuleBuilder:<br/>convert bundled modules"]
        patcher["LinuxElfPatcher / WindowsPePatcher"]
        intel -.-> pipeline --> guest --> patcher
    end

    subgraph build["build (core/libs)"]
        direction TB
        prx["core/libs/prx/*<br/>shared libraries"]
        nid["nid_patcher:<br/>rename exports to their NIDs"]
        prx --> nid
    end

    subgraph out["Native program"]
        app["app.elf / app.exe"]
        app0["app0/sce_module/*"]
        libs["libs/*.prx"]
    end

    elf --> intel
    mods --> guest
    patcher --> app
    guest --> app0
    nid --> libs
    app -- "OS loader binds imports by NID" --> libs
    app0 -- "OS loader binds imports by NID" --> libs

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• core/relinker/main.cpp runs the steps in this order. --to-intel is optional, see USAGE.md.
• Each library in core/libs/prx builds as a shared library. After the build, nid_patcher (core/libs/nid) renames every export to its NID, computed from the function name. APS5_EXPORT("<nid>", func) sets the NID directly when the name is unknown.

Graphics

flowchart LR
    game["Game:<br/>command buffers"] --> submit["libSceAgcDriver/Submit<br/>DCB / ACB"]
    submit --> pm4["Execution/Pm4:<br/>state, draws,<br/>dispatches"]
    pm4 -- "shader + state" --> cache{"Compiled variant<br/>in memory or<br/>on disk?"}
    cache -- yes --> vk
    cache -- no --> dec

    subgraph recompiler["core/shader/recompiler"]
        dec["RdnaDecoder"] --> cf["ControlFlow:<br/>graph + structurize"]
        cf --> tr["Translation:<br/>RDNA to IR"]
        tr --> opt["Optimization:<br/>SSA, resources,<br/>bindings"]
        opt --> spv["SpirvBackend:<br/>emit SPIR-V"]
    end

    spv --> vk["libSceAgcDriver/Graphics:<br/>Vulkan pipeline"]

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• Recompiler.cpp runs the stages in this order. With ANYPS5_ENABLE_SPIRV_TOOLS, the SPIR-V is also validated and optimized with SPIRV-Tools.
• ShaderRecompiler::Recompile keeps compiled variants in memory, and ShaderDiskCache stores them on disk so later runs reuse them.