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 allows Bloodborne to be run on Windows and Linux PCs by directly using code from the original PlayStation 4 version.

This is more than a simple emulator

Until now the most popular way to run Bloodborne on PC was the shadPS4 emulator. Bbport works differently. The game's original CPU code, written for the x86-64 architecture, is executed directly by the PC, while a specially prepared runtime replaces the PlayStation 4 system functions. However, this does not mean we have a fully native PC port. The graphics layer still uses a solution based on shadPS4 and translates GPU operations to Vulkan. The developers themselves emphasise that without the shadPS4 project, bbport could not currently run. The project supports Bloodborne version 1.09 and requires the user to supply their own game files. It therefore does not include Bloodborne itself and is not 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 are 30, 60 and 90 FPS modes, as well as an unlocked frame-rate cap. 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 about 150 FPS on a Radeon RX 7800 XT using FSR in Quality mode, though this should not be taken as a universal result for every PC. A full playthrough of the game on the current version has not yet been widely confirmed, so the project remains experimental.

Sony remains silent

Bloodborne debuted in 2015 and officially remains a PS4 title. On PS5 it runs via backwards 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.