FAQs

The requirements for running Vita3K are still not fully known and may change during its current development stage. The absolute minimum requirements for running the program are:

See the Quickstart for more information.

Vita3K is an open-source experimental Sony PlayStation Vita emulator for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android written in C++. It is currently capable of booting and playing commercial games.

Please check the Compatibility List. The source code for Vita3K is hosted on GitHub. You can grab the latest compiled revisions from the downloads page.

Yes. Development on the emulator is admittedly not the fastest, but is steady. We currently boast over 50% of tested games being marked as playable. Not every title is supported though, so don't expect a flawless experience. Most (but not all) exclusives are ingame or fully playable.

More games will be supported in time. It all depends on the amount of developers working on this project, their skills, and free time, etc. Ignore any estimates and guesses you find out there.

Playing commercial games online with real PlayStation Vita systems would require the user to connect to PlayStation Network which isn't very feasible due to obvious technical and legal limitations.

That said, multiplayer networking is partly implemented. Ad-Hoc is supported on some commercial games with ZeroTier/Tailscale/etc

For homebrew, get them through VitaDB.

For commercial games, you should read the quickstart guide.

First you have to install them. Once you do, just run the emulator and it will display a Game Select screen.

Windows, Linux, macOS, and Android

Games can be installed directly through the emulator with File > Install Package (.pkg) or File > Install Archive (.zip / .vpk / .vci). You can also supply them as a command-line argument to the executable or install them manually by unzipping the .vpk into Vita3K's home directory.

Vitamin is, or rather was, software for dumping PS Vita games from cartridge or internal storage. Those dumps generally use the .vpk extension. They are not supported because the data inside is not properly ripped.

According to the developers of Vitamin, it should not be used because it contains bugs that can sometimes corrupt game data or save files. The recommended dumping method is to use NoNpDrm or FAGDec with VitaShell. See the Quickstart guide.

Keyboard and mouse are supported, and SDL3-compliant devices can be used. DualShock 4 and DualSense are usually recommended. The rear touchpad is realized with right click.

Go to Help -> Welcome -> Download Firmware. This will decrypt the modules only.

If you also need all firmware files, like fonts, go to Help -> Welcome -> Download Firmware Font Package.

Using Vita3K on Steam Deck:

1. Switch to Desktop Mode from the power menu.
2. Download the AppImage Nightlies.
3. Open the downloaded .AppImage file

See the Blog or the project's social media accounts. For more cutting-edge progress, see the GitHub pull requests and the #development channel on the Discord server.

Vita3K is a completely hobby-driven project. Developers work on what they want to do, when they want to do it. Reports of problems are welcome.

Portable mode is a configuration where EVERY file of the emulator is in the same place (or very close to) as the emulator executable itself

To use it you must:

1. Create a folder named portable next to the executable/.app/AppImage
2. Open the emulator and close it to generate the folders inside portable
3. Once the folders are generated, place your config.yml inside portable, overwriting it
4. Move your vitafs to the fs folder inside portable, you should have something like this: portable/fs/ux0
5. Move your patches/configs also inside portable these folders are self explanatory so no need to go over each one

This is usually called "Vita FS", "Emulated Storage Path", or in config.yml as pref-path. The recommended method to locate these is by using the in-app button (Open in top left on PC), but this serves to document other paths too. Assuming you did not change the Vita FS and are NOT using a portable install, you should be able to safely delete your Vita3K build/folder without losing your data. The default paths are as follows.

Windows:

• config.yml: In the same folder as Vita3K.exe. If you don't have file extensions turned on, it will appear as config.
• Filesystem: %APPDATA%/Vita3K/. This expands to C:/Users/<username>/AppData/Roaming/Vita3K/.
• Patches & Textures: In the same folder as Vita3K.exe in folders named patch and textures.
• Cache & Logs: Also in the same folder as Vita3K.exe. They're just folders named cache and logs.

Linux: Vita3K follows the XDG Base Directory Specification for its files. Changing XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_CACHE_HOME, and related will change these paths; these are just the defaults.

• config.yml: $HOME/.config/Vita3K/
• Filesystem: $HOME/.local/share/Vita3K/Vita3K/
• Patches & textures: $HOME/.local/share/Vita3K/ in folders patch and textures.
• Cache & Logs: $HOME/.cache/Vita3K/

Where $HOME is your user home directory (i.e. /home/username).

MacOS: All MacOS files that are not the Vita3K app itself are stored in Vita3K's Application Support Directory

• config.yml: $HOME/"Application Support"/Vita3K/Vita3K/
• Filesystem: $HOME/"Application Support"/Vita3K/Vita3K/fs/
• Patches, Textures, Cache, Logs: $HOME/"Application Support"/Vita3K/Vita3K/

Android:

• config.yml: Storage/Emulated/0/Android/Data/org.vita3k.emulator/
• Filesystem: Storage/Emulated/0/Android/Data/org.vita3k.emulator/files/fs/

Contributions are welcome. Check the Coding Style Guidelines and Developer Information.

Most development discussion happens on Discord, so be sure to visit the Discord server in the #development channel. Find something you want to implement or improve, test your changes, and send a pull request.

You can also contribute by improving documentation, the website, translating, testing, or reporting issues. The links of which can be found in this very page (top and bottom).

Good. You can report it through the GitHub issue tracker. Before sending anything:

• Check if your system matches the minimum requirements.
• Check if the issue is meaningful for the team.
• Search older issues and forum threads first.
• Use understandable English. It does not need to be perfect, just clear.
• Include details about your system, such as OS, CPU, GPU, and the Vita3K.log file.
• Do not post individual game issues there. Use the compatibility repository instead.