Digital Foundry's Thomas Morgan recently put Bloodborne through its paces using the ShadPS4 emulator, analyzing its performance and the impact of community-created enhancements.
For his evaluation, Morgan utilized ShadPS4 build 0.5.1 by diegolix29, a build stemming from raphaelthegreat's custom branch. After testing various builds, this version yielded optimal results on his system—an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X CPU and a GeForce RTX 4080 GPU.
Morgan suggests installing the Vertex Explosion Fix mod to mitigate graphical glitches manifesting as distorted or misplaced polygons. While this mod disables pre-game character face customization, it effectively resolves these visual bugs. No other mods are necessary; the emulator incorporates a dedicated menu for managing performance enhancements, including 60fps support, resolutions up to 4K, and chromatic aberration toggling.
While occasional stuttering was observed, Bloodborne generally maintained a stable 60fps frame rate. Experiments with higher resolutions (1440p and 1800p) resulted in improved visual fidelity but came at the cost of performance and increased instability, leading to frequent crashes. Therefore, Morgan recommends sticking to 1080p (matching the PS4's native resolution) or 1152p for the best balance of visuals and stability.
Morgan concluded that the very feasibility of PS4 emulation for Bloodborne is a remarkable accomplishment by the ShadPS4 team. He highlighted the emulator's impressive performance while acknowledging the presence of ongoing technical refinements.
