Bloodborne finally runs on PC without traditional emulation. Fans did it themselves.

Players have been waiting for an official PC version of Bloodborne for more than a decade. Sony still hasn't announced it, but the community has just taken another big step. The bbport project enables Bloodborne to run on Windows and Linux computers by using the original PlayStation 4 code directly.

This is more than a regular emulator

Until now the most popular way to run Bloodborne on PC was the shadPS4 emulator. Bbport works differently. The CPU code of the original game, written for the x86-64 architecture, is executed directly by the computer, and a specially prepared runtime replaces the PlayStation 4 system functions. However, that does not mean we have a fully native PC port. The graphics layer still uses a solution based on shadPS4 and translates GPU operations into Vulkan. The creators themselves emphasise that without the shadPS4 project, bbport could not currently work. The project supports Bloodborne version 1.09 and requires the user’s own game files. It therefore does not include Bloodborne itself nor is it an official release from Sony or FromSoftware.

60, 90 FPS and FSR

Bbport also adds features that were never in the original PS4 version. Available modes are 30, 60 and 90 FPS, as well as an uncapped frame rate. The project also supports AMD FSR 3.1, FSR 4 and FSR 4.1.1 and lets you change resolution, image sharpness or disable motion blur and depth of field from the menu. The project's creator even reported around 150 FPS on a Radeon RX 7800 XT when using FSR in Quality mode, though that shouldn't be taken as a universal result for every PC. A full playthrough of the game on the current version also hasn't been widely confirmed yet, so the project remains experimental.

Sony remains silent

Bloodborne debuted in 2015 and officially remains a PS4 title. On PS5 it runs via backward compatibility, still without an official update to 60 FPS. Meanwhile the community is getting closer to creating a PC version that won't require full console emulation.

Sources: GitHub @bbport, Tom’s Hardware, DSOGaming, Destructoid.