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Frequently asked questions

What is SharpEmu?

An experimental PlayStation 5 emulator written from scratch in C#, with PlayStation 4 support now in development, developed purely for research and educational purposes. We enjoy learning about system architecture and reverse engineering; there are no commercial goals.

Can it play my games?

Not yet. SharpEmu is in early development — the current focus is accuracy and infrastructure, not game-specific fixes. The furthest games reach their first frames of video output; check the compatibility database for the honest per-game picture, and the exact build each report was made on.

Is there a desktop app, or is it command line only?

Both, in one binary. Running SharpEmu with no arguments opens the desktop app: a game library you point at your dump folders, plus settings, a log console, Discord Rich Presence, a built-in updater and 15 languages. Passing a game's eboot.bin as an argument runs it from the terminal instead — handy for capturing logs. Get it here.

Is emulation legal?

Emulators themselves are legal software. What is not legal is downloading games, firmware or system files you don't own. SharpEmu contains no code from Sony, ships no game content, and only runs dumps you make from your own console and your own discs or purchases. Piracy is not supported and compatibility reports based on pirated dumps are removed.

Where do I get games?

From your own PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 4 — you dump the games you legally own. We do not provide games, firmware, keys, or instructions for obtaining copyrighted content, and we won't help with pirated copies.

Which platforms are supported?

Windows, Linux and macOS. Windows is the primary development target, and Windows and Linux builds render through Vulkan. macOS has its own edition, sharpemu-mac, which tracks the main project and renders natively with Metal (no MoltenVK). It needs macOS 15 or later and runs under Rosetta 2 on Apple Silicon. Grab builds for each on the downloads page.

Why C#?

Because we like it, and it makes iteration fast. The project exists to learn — the language choice is part of the experiment: how far can a managed runtime take console emulation?

Isn't there already shadPS4?

shadPS4 remains the dedicated, mature PS4 emulator, and it's the project to look at if PS4 is what you're after. SharpEmu started as a PS5-only project; PS4 support is now in development, and PS4 games are tracked in their own compatibility list. It's early, experimental work and not a replacement for shadPS4.

How can I help?