Here is Demon's Souls running at almost full speed on the Playstation 3 emulator, RPCS3

YouTube’s member ‘Unreal’ has shared a video, showing Demon’s Souls running on RPCS3. And from the looks of it, this title will be fully playable in a matter of months. As we can see in this video, the game runs at almost full speed on an Intel i7 6600K (clocked at 4.5Ghz) with an NVIDIA GTX970.

[NerdBurglars]

i am a little skeptical about this one. I always thought that those messages and player ghosts came from the network. Emulating a game is one thing, but being able to gain access to the playstation network via an emulator is a different story

[AcidDvl]

I think you're right. Plus there is zero evidence that this is running on an emulator. For all we know this could be PS3 direct feed.

[Lon3wolf]

Although some of the very first messages that you come across were there as a tutorial and not left by players, these ones appeared whether connected online or not.

[kevnb]

There are messages even when you play offline, which I'm pretty sure is the only way you can still play.

[TWB]

Demons Souls master server is still very much online. Theres just not much of an active player base left. Every year during the Back to the Nexus even you can see a decent amount of traffic, though.

[KaaF]

These are developer massages, they are one the disk, not the network. RPCS3 is a well known open source emulator, you can try it yourself if you have a beefy cpu and maybe support the devs on Patreon:
patreon .com/Nekotekina << Delete the space.

[KTF26]

Developers messages instead of long tutorial they are exist also in Dark Souls 1,2,3 and Bloodborne
and that phantom @ 1:08 also from the developers
you can check every video walkthrough this phantom always appear at the same area

[nitus10]

It's difficult to say if the demo is from the PS3 or the emulator. Still, the player actually beat the gray demon which shows he had experience with playing the game. Of course, he won't survive the next part.

II would be more impressed if the player showed the start of the castle section (you would only have half your life bar at the start) since if you do connect to the PSN servers you would see player ghosts and marks on the ground left by players.

BTW. The Demon's Souls servers are still up although you do need a PSN account (it is free) to connect and people are still playing. I clocked up over 20 hours last week. Now that takes me back. 😊

[cartoonx1]

it's 100% legit emulator footage. RPCS3 is well known emulator for PC.

[PurpHerbison]

People were able to connect to the JP Monster Hunter servers via emulator back in the day.

[Helios86]

The messages in the tutorial area are all developer placed, they are there even if you play offline. You can come across "offline" messages in various parts of the game aswell. This holds true for all games in the soulsborne series.

Why would they even fake it to begin with? It's not like it's hard for you to try it yourself and find out.

[Imalwaysright]

"Stay at home" programmers doing what people around here told me that Sony engineers couldn't do. PC is the ultimate gaming platform.

[ocelot07]

Sony couldn't emulate this 8 year old game on a much weaker system? The CPU used alone is £200+. You can buy a brand new PS4 Slim for less than that.

[Imalwaysright]

Sony engineers know PS3 hardware inside out and could achieve this on a level of efficiency that these "stay at home" programmers could only dream of without requiring similar specs to the ones used by the person that made the video and let me tell you that with more time and optimization you will be able to run this game with lower specs on your PC as well. All I hear from people around here are excuses, excuses and more excuses. Oh well, Sony is in the business of remastering, streaming and remaking games that no one gives a crap about anyway so why should they care about BC?

[KTF26]

Sony have full datasheets of the PS3 and these developers don't have anything

[ocelot07]

@KTF26 Ohhhh I forgot about that. Sony has all the data on the PS3 meaning emulating the software on a completely different architecture must be a breeze right? Look if it was possible am sure Sony would of done so as they would of made money on digital PS3 sales.

Since we are on the topic. Nintendo have the data for the N64 why has there not been any N64 emulated games on the Wii or the Wii U or the Switch? Or how about Sega since they are 3rd party and have all that data. Why have we not seen any Sega Saturn or Dreamcast emulated games on our PS4's or Xbox Ones? Or are you another one of them people like Imalwaysright and speak on behalf of everyone and simply say "but nobody wants those games".

[KTF26]

I didn't say it's a breeze
But Xbox 360 emulated on Xbox One while it's still in very early stages on PC
Xbox One and PS4 has the same CPU with slightly lower clock rate
Xbox 360 also use modified version of PPE (The main core of Cell processor) so at least they can emulate 3rd party games because most of them don't utilize the SPUs (the hard part) very well

Edit:
and about N64
the Wii U can defiantly emulate it
maybe the find it not worth investing because the Wii U didn't sell very well
I remembered I ran Project64 on a Pentium 4 10 years ago or so
Sega are out of the Hardware Market

[ocelot07]

Aright I will give you the PS1 and PS2 emulation. But I still stand by my point. Not only was PS3 hard to code for. Yes I agree Sony probably know how to code for the PS3 blindfolded these days. But what you are asking is for Sony to dive into each game and somehow get that PS3 code working on a completely different architecture. I say it's to hard for them to do it. You seem to think it's possible somehow. Since we both don't work for Sony and am pretty sure you have never developed a game for the PS3 (I certainly have not). Let's just agree to disagree that something is stopping them from doing it. What ever it is I don't think it has anything to do about remastering to sell again.

@KTF26 As for Xbox 360 being emulated on Xbox One. Good job Microsoft they managed to get get some (but not all) 360 games running on an Xbox One. But I still stand by my point that since the PS4 was hard to code for. It must be even harder to get it running on a completely different architecture.

It's the same for Gamecube classics. If Nintendo could of done it for the Wii U then they would of done at least the best of Gamecube titles even if it was just a handful.

[narsaku]

It's not about owning the Sony platform, it's about being able to combine all games on one non-corporate platform where you'll always be able to access your old games without worrying about a cd breaking or Sony dropping their old service.

[KTF26]

Sony just being lazy because they have the market share
you said it PS1 and PS2
PS1 no emulation at all despite it is exist on PS3
and the number of PS2 games supported on PS4 are less than 1/4 of the number of XBox 360 backward compatible on Xbox One

[Liqu1d]

"Intel i7 6600K (clocked at 4.5Ghz) with an NVIDIA GTX970"

I'm sure the shitty Jaguar CPU in the PS4 is capable of emulating the Cell.

[rainslacker]

Sony went with the less powerful CPU because the CPU is becoming less important to games nowadays than it used to be. GPU compute is the new trend, and likely will remain that way barring some change to CPU architecture, which has remained relatively stagnant for years now. GPU's are much more efficient at handling the bulk of the code required for today's games, which is why a stronger GPU is more important. Not just for graphics, but for general performance of the game processes themselves.

[Princess_Pilfer]

Tell that to games like AC unity, Fallout 4, Watchdogs 2 and GTA 5 that bring modern consoles to their knees specifically because the CPU can't handle the complexity of the scene and the number of things it has to keep track of. Not to mention that being a big part of the reason that most games on console won't run at 60FPS (or even a consistent 30) even when the console has the GPU power to handle it.

GPU seems way more important right now because GPU tech advances faster, and because console CPUs are garbage and that is what many developers are targeting. A good CPU is imperitive for an actually good gaming experience in many modern AAA titles, and it would probably be more so if Sony/MS hadn't decided to use a garbage laptop CPU as the heart of their machines.

[ecchiless]

Pretty sure he/liquid was been sarcastic.

[Liqu1d]

I was indeed being sarcastic.

[ocelot07]

Both me and you don't know how easy or difficult it is to reverse engineer a PS3 cell based game and getting it to run on an x86 based PS4. This is what they pretty much have to do when they remaster a game. People like you expect Sony to simply emulate the PS3 cell based games and run on a x86 PS4 system. We all know about the horror stories about the first few years of developers even trying to develop for the cell architecture. Valve couldn't even do it and had to outsource The Orange Box to EA.

I would like to see emulated PS3/Native PS3 support on the PS4. But since am certain it's never going to happen due to the reasons I mentioned above. Am not going to complain about it. Also please stop speaking on behalf of everyone thanks.

[Imalwaysright]

What reasons? Don't compare what Sony engineers could do with hardware they created and know better than anyone to a team that is programming this at their home. A team that nonetheless WILL optimize their code to run this on lower spec PCs compared to the one from this video.

As for those horror stories, they applied to third party devs, not Sony's 1st party and it was only in the 1st half of the generation.

The reason why there isn't PS3 emulation on the PS4 is the same exact reason why there isn't PS1 and PS2 BC or would those be oh so difficult to emulate? As for the Switch it is exactly for the same reason: selling the same games to the same people 1, 2 or 3 times if need be.

[generic-user-name]

What ever you have to tell yourself to help you feel less insecure.

[ocelot07]

Was that aimed at me? If so please enlighten me of what I am suppose to be insecure about? I have a PS3 if I wanted to re-play Demon's Souls again. I didn't have to wait 8 years to play it on PC.

[Imalwaysright]

Says the person that for some reason felt the need to make an useless comment. Do you feel better now?

[DigitalRaptor]

- I'm sure this game is using the Cell SPUs just like Naughty Dog, Guerrilla and Insomniac... I'm sure.
- I'm sure that Sony can engineer a backwards compatibility solution to account for absolutely every instance of custom SPU usage... I'm sure.
- And with only 10% of games playable on this emulator, I'm absolutely sure we're getting somewhere enough that if you were to present this to Sony you would not have them laugh in your face.

In seriousness, the fact that only 10% of games are playable from start to finish tells you everything you need to know about the complications and intricacies of emulating the Cell processor, and ways in which games are programmed to use it. By the looks of it the 10% in question mostly comprise of the more simplistic indie games AND (quite ironic to your further points about remasters) HD re-releases from previous gen consoles.

Let's get you on the team... maybe Uncharted 2 and God of War III will be on that list in about 5 years.

[Imalwaysright]

The fact that "stay at home" programmers without the knowledge of the hardware and information that Sony engineers without any doubt have of the PS3 CAN emulate 10% of the PS3 games tells me that its very much possible to emulate the system which I have been told for years that it was impossible to do.

Also what is laughable here is that you're talking about indie games when I just saw one of the most loved and complex games gameplay wise on the system being not only emulated and fully playable but also improved with higher resolutions than the original on the PS3. Even more laughable is that people like you that call themselves Sony "fans", should be the FIRST ones to want Sony's platforms to be the best they can be but for some reason you are the 1st ones to want the system to be worst than it could be and laugh at the idea of their systems being better. You're a poor excuse of a Playstation fan. You're nothing but a fraud that gives a bad rep to the true PS fans.

[spicelicka]

"PC is the ultimate gaming platform."

Not sure why sentences like these are tossed around as if it establishes some kind of point?

You realize games are made on PC's right? so your point is kind of redundant. PC is not a separately identifiable gaming platform simply because all PCs differ from house to house. When you say PS4 or Xbox1 you're talking about a specific platform that's equivalent everywhere. When you say PS1 it's easy to refer to a specific platform with specific power. When you say PC you could be talking about your grandma's PC from 2001 or a $3000 machine. One can't even run minecraft while the other can be used to literally make a game.

[rainslacker]

Firstly, the people who create emulators are much smarter than you. They reverse engineer the code to figure out what process does what, and then go to emulate that through whatever system they are creating their emulator on. having a full data sheet of available processes is not necessary.

Secondly, the full data sheets(as you call them) were leaked long ago. More proper name would be process command reference document. Anyhow, this was leaked back in the PS3 days. On top of that, the CELL itself is fairly straightforward, and uses a PowerPC core, which is readily understood among people who would do this kind of stuff. On top of that, the SPE processing isn't really that complicated. They're highly specialized processors which do one thing, and are easily to replicate through emulation. Having them process at the same speed as the native CELL is quite another matter.

I'm sure if Sony put out a $700-900 console at the start of this gen to compare to the specs required to run this emulator at "full speed" then they wouldn't have had a problem emulating PS3 hardware. But they figured that making a console that people would want to buy....because obviously selling a $500-600 console is not good for business based on last gens criticisms....would be more prudent than supporting a feature which they learned the gen before wasn't important compared to price.

Sony created an emulator for PS2 games on PS4 which they kept to PS2 classic games on PSN, and even PS1 games on the PS3, so it's not a matter of ability. It's a matter that they can't actually emulate PS3 games on the PS4, because the hardware isn't capable. The SPE's on the CELL can process more data than the PS4 can. It's specialized data, but more data none the less.

Your argument would mean something if they were running this emulator on the PS4, or even the PS4P, but they aren't.

@ocelot

What's stopping PS3 emulation on PS4 is that the PS4 simply can not replicate the SPE ability to process specific kinds of data with adequate speed. The Power PC core isn't really an issue I'd imagine. Emulating the RSX could have some quirks, but can likely be overcome. Managing the nature of doing RSX to SPE offloading is just not possible with the power in the PS4 or PS4P. This principal is actually reversed this gen with GPU compute, which is essentially the same concept, but translating that to prevent it can cause all sorts of problems, so with the PC emulation, they're basically brute forcing that offloading with a really strong CPU.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

They said it couldn't be done!!!

[Liqu1d]

No, they said it couldn't be done on PS4 hardware.

[Ju]

That's impressive. Still, I am curious how much SPU utilization is used to play it that way.

[Father__Merrin]

Rubbish. Just buy a PS3