Digital Foundry's Thomas Morgan recently put Bloodborne through its paces using the ShadPS4 emulator, analyzing performance and the impact of community-created enhancements.
Morgan's tests utilized ShadPS4 build 0.5.1 by diegolix29, a build stemming from raphaelthegreat's custom branch. After experimenting with various builds, this version delivered optimal results on his system (AMD Ryzen 7 5700X CPU and GeForce RTX 4080 GPU).
He strongly suggests installing the Vertex Explosion Fix mod. While this mod disables pre-game character face customization, it effectively eliminates distracting visual glitches manifested as distorted or misplaced polygons. No other mods are strictly necessary; ShadPS4 incorporates a built-in menu for managing enhancements such as 60fps support, resolution scaling (up to 4K), and chromatic aberration toggling.
While occasional stutters were present, Morgan observed a largely stable 60fps framerate. Experiments with 1440p and 1800p resolutions yielded sharper visuals, but at the cost of performance and increased instability, leading to frequent crashes. Therefore, he recommends sticking to 1080p (native PS4 resolution) or 1152p for the best balance.
Morgan concluded that the very feasibility of PS4 emulation for Bloodborne is a remarkable feat by the ShadPS4 team. While acknowledging remaining technical imperfections, he deemed the emulator's performance impressive.
