14 DAY TRIAL // PPSSPP, the best free, open-source and cross-platform PSP (PlayStation Portable) emulator, has been updated over the weekend to version 1.6, a release that brings many performance improvements across all supported platforms.
The PPSSPP 1.6 release is all about making the PSP emulator even better and faster. To achieve this goal, the development team managed to make the next-generation Vulkan graphics API the default backend on systems that support it, and it also fixed various memory allocation issues and improved its overall performance.
The Vulkan backend also received Shader cache support, and Vulkan support was added for Linux-based operating systems with SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer). Of course, this change puts the OpenGL backend on the back seat, but not without some refinements, which include proper multithread support for a speed boost.
"This time, it's all about speed. The Vulkan backend has improved as is now the default where available, while the OpenGL backend has been properly multithreaded and now runs really fast on dual-core devices," reads the announcement. "The Android release will be rolled out slowly over the next week to catch bugs."
RetroArch is now supported in PPSSPP
Another exciting change that landed in the significant PPSSPP 1.6 release is support for the popular RetroArch open-source frontend for various emulators, game engines, as well as media players. RetroArch is engineered to let you play retro and classic games on modern platforms and operating systems.
Performance improvements were brought to the GPU command interpreter, ARM64 (AArch64) JIT compiler and IR interpreter, the JIT and file browser on Apple's iOS mobile operating system for iPhone and iPad, and to the app switching functionality and widgets support on Google's Android mobile OS.
Compatibility with Apple's macOS operating system was improved as well in this release, which also fixes the ad-hoc multiplayer capabilities, as well as the texture replacement ID, which could make some textures from version 1.5.4 incompatible with version 1.6. PPSSPP 1.6.1 is now the latest version, which fixes a few crashes.
Download PPSSPP 1.6.1 for Linux, as well as Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS.