PS5 emulator finally boots GTA V's menus

KytyPS5, an experimental PlayStation 5 compatibility layer for Windows, can now boot the PS5 version of Grand Theft Auto V far enough to reach its menus and settings, according to screenshots and footage shared by the project. Quake II Remastered has gone further, reaching real-time 3D gameplay through the same emulator.

The developer has not described either result as proof that the games are playable from start to finish. The GTA V milestone applies only to the loading process, the menu screen, and the settings interface. The project's GitHub page also features screenshots of PowerWash Simulator and PAC-MAN WORLD running in-game, both commercial 3D releases. These titles move KytyPS5 beyond the 2D games and startup screens that were the extent of public PS5 emulation just days earlier.

A separate project, SharpEMU, had booted Demon's Souls only as far as its loading screen, while a later build ran Dreaming Sarah, a 2D puzzle platformer. KytyPS5 itself had reached only the loading screen of Silent Hill: The Short Message at that stage. The jump to GTA V's menus and to in-game 3D footage in Quake II and other titles represents the first public sign that KytyPS5 can process a chunk of a modern PS5 executable's loading sequence, including its libraries, video output, and graphical resources.

The developer describes KytyPS5 as a PlayStation 5 compatibility layer that can boot 2D games and some commercial 3D titles built on Unreal Engine 4, Unreal Engine 5, Unity and custom engines, without requiring low-level emulation modules at this stage. Version 0.0.3, the release behind this milestone, improves virtual memory allocation to cut boot times and adds a new shader-binding system, AMPR optimizations, Pthread fixes, new library ABIs and a compatibility database inside the user interface.

Testing has mainly taken place on Nvidia GPUs, so support on AMD and Intel graphics hardware may be less stable. The developer has stated that compatibility and boot stability remain the priority over visual accuracy or frame rate. Quake II Remastered has been reported running at roughly 7FPS on the emulator, with visible graphical errors.