Digital Foundry reviewer Thomas Morgan conducted a thorough evaluation of Bloodborne on the ShadPS4 emulator, focusing on the game's performance and the enhancements introduced by the modding community. For his analysis, Morgan utilized the ShadPS4 0.5.1 build developed by diegolix29, which is based on a custom branch from developer raphaelthegreat. This specific build was selected after testing various versions, as it demonstrated optimal performance on a PC equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X processor and a GeForce RTX 4080 GPU.
Morgan highlighted the necessity of the Vertex Explosion Fix mod, which is crucial for eliminating visual artifacts such as stretched or misplaced polygons. Although this mod disables the option to customize the character's face at the start of the game, it effectively resolves these visual glitches. Fortunately, no other mods are needed as the emulator itself integrates all necessary enhancements. Users can access a special menu within the emulator to toggle various improvements, including 60 fps support, resolution scaling up to 4K, and the option to disable chromatic aberration.
During his testing, Morgan observed that Bloodborne generally maintained a 60 fps frame rate, despite experiencing occasional stutters. He also experimented with higher resolutions, specifically 1440p and 1800p, noting a significant enhancement in image detail. However, these higher resolutions led to performance declines and frequent crashes. Consequently, Morgan advises running Bloodborne on the ShadPS4 emulator at 1080p or 1152p for the best balance of performance and stability.
In his conclusion, Morgan praised the ShadPS4 team for their remarkable achievement in making PS4 emulation possible. He acknowledged that while Bloodborne performs admirably on the emulator, some technical issues remain, yet the overall experience is impressive.
