Digital Foundry's Thomas Morgan conducted an in-depth analysis of Bloodborne's performance on the ShadPS4 emulator, focusing on the technical enhancements contributed by the modding community. For his evaluation, Morgan utilized the ShadPS4 0.5.1 build developed by diegolix29, which is rooted in a custom branch crafted by raphaelthegreat. This particular build was chosen after testing multiple versions, as it delivered the most optimal performance on a system equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X CPU and a GeForce RTX 4080 GPU.
To enhance the gaming experience and address visual anomalies, Morgan suggested the installation of the Vertex Explosion Fix mod. This mod tackles issues such as stretched or misaligned polygons, although it does disable the character customization feature at the game's outset. Fortunately, the ShadPS4 emulator integrates all necessary enhancements directly, negating the need for additional mods. Users can access a dedicated menu to activate features like 60 fps support, upscale resolution to 4K, or turn off chromatic aberration.
Despite minor instances of stuttering, Morgan observed that Bloodborne maintained a steady 60 fps for the most part. He experimented with higher resolutions, including 1440p and 1800p, which, while enhancing visual clarity, led to performance degradation and increased crash frequency. Consequently, Morgan advises players to stick with a resolution of 1080p or 1152p for a more stable experience on the ShadPS4 emulator.
Morgan praised the ShadPS4 team for their groundbreaking work in PS4 emulation, acknowledging that while Bloodborne performs admirably on the emulator, it is not without its technical challenges.
