Digital Foundry's Thomas Morgan recently put Bloodborne through its paces using the ShadPS4 emulator, analyzing performance and the impact of community-created enhancements.
For his evaluation, Morgan utilized ShadPS4 build 0.5.1 by diegolix29, a build based on raphaelthegreat's custom branch. After testing various builds, this version yielded optimal results on his system (AMD Ryzen 7 5700X CPU and GeForce RTX 4080 GPU).
Morgan suggests installing the Vertex Explosion Fix mod. While this mod disables pre-game character face customization, it effectively eliminates visual glitches manifested as distorted or misplaced polygons. No other mods are strictly necessary; the emulator incorporates several performance enhancements accessible via an in-game menu. These options include 60fps support, resolution scaling up to 4K, and chromatic aberration toggling.
While occasional stuttering was observed, Bloodborne maintained a largely stable 60fps framerate. Experiments with higher resolutions (1440p and 1800p) resulted in improved visuals but came at the cost of performance and increased instability, leading to frequent crashes. Therefore, Morgan recommends sticking to 1080p (native PS4 resolution) or 1152p for the best balance of visual fidelity and stability.
Morgan concluded that the very existence of functional PS4 emulation, particularly for a demanding title like Bloodborne, is a significant accomplishment by the ShadPS4 team. While acknowledging remaining technical imperfections, he deemed the emulator's performance impressive.
