shadPS4 Manager¶

Gets your PS4 games ready to play from Steam with shadPS4, the PS4 emulator, and takes care of everything around it: it installs one tested release of shadPS4 for your own user, takes the system modules of your PS4, unpacks your packages (.pkg) into game folders, offers shadPS4's settings and the shadNet account it signs in with, finds your games in its own Games\PS4 folder, puts them in Steam, and keeps a log. You never choose a folder: you put your games, packages and system modules in the app's folders, and it takes care of them. You play from Steam, and never need shadPS4's own window: a game starts full screen, and when you quit it you are back in Steam.

shadPS4 Manager is on the portal's Gaming tab: A on its tile installs it, and once it is installed, A opens it. It is also in the Start menu (Windows Portable Suite, shadPS4 Manager). It opens full screen; B goes back and ⧉ (View) exits it.

Whether a game runs, and how well, is up to shadPS4. Its compatibility list shows what others found; a PS4 game asks a lot of a handheld.

What you need¶

Your PS4 games: games dumped from your own PS4, each in a folder of its own with eboot.bin (as the app unpacks them), or packages (.pkg: a game or its update) that the app unpacks for you, put in Games\PS4 on the device or an SD card. The app never downloads a game.
The PS4's system modules (.sprx files), libraries of the PS4's own firmware, copied from your own PS4 into Games\PS4\Modules on the device. Many games run without them; a game that needs a missing one does not start. The app cannot ship them; it copies them into shadPS4 by itself.
Microsoft's Visual C++ runtime, which Steam and most games install already. shadPS4 for Windows does not start without it; the shadPS4 pane says so when it is missing, and vc_redist.x64.exe from Microsoft installs it.
Steam, started once on the device, to play the games from Steam (optional: without Steam, X Play starts a game in shadPS4 itself).

The screen¶

Five cards on the left, shadPS4, Your games, Settings, shadNet and Log; the right side shows what the focused card does. The d-pad or the left stick moves the amber focus. Every action is a button, listed in the row at the bottom with what it does on the pane that shows: A included (A Install, A Steam mark, A View log). Press the button, or tap the entry. B goes back: from a list or a page to where you came from, from a pane to its card on the left (on a card it does nothing). Once you are in a pane, the d-pad stays in it: at the top or bottom of a list the focus stops, and only B takes you back to the cards. ⧉ (View) exits the app. ☰ (Menu) opens the information of the pane that shows, and closes it again; the information icon at a pane's top right does the same by touch.

The amber edge shows where you are, as in every app of the suite. Nothing is ever grayed out: when a button cannot do its job now, pressing it says why on the pane's status line. Every card, row and entry also works by touch, and a long list scrolls with the d-pad or a finger.

shadPS4¶

The shadPS4 card on the left says only whether shadPS4 is installed and which button acts: Not installed. and Install with the A button. until it is installed, then Installed. and Remove with the X button.

The pane shows the shadPS4 that is installed, the one this version of the app installs, how many of the system modules shadPS4 cannot do without are there, the time spent in your games (as shadPS4 counts it) and the folder. shadPS4's own window is never opened: your games and their packages are on the Your games card, the modules are taken from here.

A Install (also A on the shadPS4 card) downloads shadPS4 0.21.0 for Windows from shadPS4's release on GitHub (32 MB), checks it against the checksum this version of the app was tested with, and unpacks it. The page counts the megabytes while it downloads. Nothing is downloaded before you press A.
The system modules you put in Games\PS4\Modules are copied into shadPS4's module folder by the app itself, when it opens and each time the shadPS4 card gets the focus: only the new or changed ones, so a module put there later is taken in too. The status line says how many it took, and the pane how many of the 25 that shadPS4 cannot do without are there; when some are missing, the status line names the folder to put them in.
X Remove shadPS4 removes shadPS4's program. Press it twice: the first press only changes the entry to Press again for five seconds. shadPS4's folder, with your saves, its settings and the system modules, stays, so a new install finds them again. It does not work while shadPS4 runs.
Y Update shows when another shadPS4 is installed, and puts in the one this version of the app brings.

⧉ during a download or while a package is unpacked asks first: a second ⧉ within five seconds exits the app. A download stops then; a package is left half unpacked and stays, so remove the half folder and unpack it again.

shadPS4 keeps its files in a folder named user beside its program (its portable mode), in the app's emulator folder: its settings (config.json), its users and their shadNet accounts (users.json), the saves (home, per user), the system modules (sys_modules), the controller's hotkeys (input_config), the time spent in each game (play_time.txt) and its own log (log\shad_log.txt). After the install, and each time the app opens, the app adds shadPS4's quit hotkeys (see In a game); what it added goes to the log.

A newer shadPS4 never reaches the device by itself: a new release may change how games run, so it comes only with a new version of shadPS4 Manager, tried first, which the portal offers as an update. Then Y Update puts in its program, and what you made stays.

Where your games go¶

The app has folders of its own, which it makes when it opens; you never choose or browse to a folder:

Games\PS4 in your user folder (C:\Users\<you>\Games\PS4): put your games there, as packages (.pkg) or already unpacked, and they show on Your games. On an SD card or a USB drive, make a folder Games\PS4 on it, and the app looks there too.
Games\PS4\Modules: put the system modules (.sprx) from your PS4 there, and the app copies them into shadPS4.

The Log card shows where the folder is.

Games\PS4\
├── Modules\              the system modules you put here (.sprx)
├── EP0700-CUSA03865_00-GALAGA0000000000-0100.pkg   a package you put here
├── CUSA03865\            the game, unpacked by the app: eboot.bin, sce_sys\ (param.sfo, icon0.png, pic1.png), ...
└── CUSA03865-UPDATE\     its update, which shadPS4 lays over the game when it starts

Packages¶

A package (.pkg) is how the PS4 gets a game bought digitally, or its update. On Your games a package that waits is a row of its own: PKG is a game that needs to be unpacked to play, PKG update an update for a game you have. The app unpacks them with the same extractor as the BC250 suite's shadPS4 Manager.

X Unpack all unpacks every package that waits, one after the other: the games first, then the updates. A Unpack on one unpacks only that one. The status line says which one of how many and counts its files; a large game takes minutes.
A game goes into a folder named by its ID, CUSA00001, beside its package.
An update goes beside its game, wherever that is, into a folder named like the game's with -UPDATE, which shadPS4 lays over the game when it starts; the game's folder stays as it was. An update newer than the one there replaces it: the new one is unpacked first, and the old one goes only when every file of the new one was written. An update whose game is still a package waits for it: A on it says so, and X unpacks both. An update without its game goes into CUSA00001, as a game with its update in it.
You decide whether the package goes. When the unpacking ends, the keep page lists the packages unpacked without an error, as each takes as much room as its game: X deletes the ones marked Delete, B keeps them all. A kept package is not listed or unpacked again while it stays the same file. A package that failed stays, and the status line says why.
A folder that is there already is never written into: the status line says so; remove that folder first.
Add-ons (DLC) are not unpacked by the app, and do not show.

When some files of a package could not be written, the status line says how many, and extraction_errors.txt in the game's folder names them; the game may not start. filelist.txt there lists every file of the package.

Your games¶

The games are the folders with an eboot.bin in the app's Games\PS4 folders (see Where your games go) and up to five folders below them, each listed with its title and ID (CUSA00001) from its own param.sfo, and the time spent in it. An update or a mod beside a game (a folder named like the game's with -UPDATE, -patch or -mods) is no game of its own: shadPS4 lays it over the game. A on the Your games card goes to the list.

You play the games from Steam; the app puts them there.

A Steam mark on a game marks it for Steam, or takes the mark away. Y Update Steam then makes Steam match the marks: each marked game is a non-Steam game named [PS4] <title> in Steam's library and its Big Picture mode; a game without the mark, or no longer found, is taken out. Steam closes for it and starts again, its window open and signed in. Steam must have been started once on the device, and shadPS4 must be installed. When there is nothing to change, Y says so on the status line instead. Right after writing, the app reads Steam's file back and counts the games in Steam from that; should a game it wrote not be found, the status line and the log say which.
X Play on a game that is in Steam starts it, through Steam: when Steam does not run, the app starts it first and hands it the game once Steam has signed in, then Steam starts shadPS4 with the game, full screen, as from Steam's library. A game that is not in Steam yet says so: A marks it, Y puts it there. On a device without Steam (not installed, or never started), X Play starts the game in shadPS4 itself, full screen, the same way Steam would.
LT Refresh reads the game folders again: a game put there, renamed or taken away while the app is open shows at once. A game in Steam that you rename or move keeps its mark when the app can tell it is the same game (by its title ID or serial, or a disc image by its size): Y Update Steam then puts it in Steam under its new name and takes the old shortcut out. Until then, its shortcut in Steam shows a screen that says the game is no longer there, instead of starting the emulator; A closes it.
Steam's library opens from the portal: RT Steam in its bottom row.
RB Remove game on a game shows the keep page of what would go: the game's folder, its update, patch and mods beside it, and its Steam shortcut. X deletes the rows marked Delete (for the shortcut, Steam closes and starts again), B goes back and deletes nothing. Your saves and the play time stay in shadPS4's folder and are never on the page. The app offers no game whose folder is one of the app's Games\PS4 folders itself, a drive, or a folder holding another game: the status line says to delete it by hand.
A package that waits is a row of its own, PKG or PKG update: A Unpack and X Unpack all, see Packages.

Deciding what to keep¶

The app deletes nothing before you decide what to keep. The keep page lists what would go, a row each with its size, and every row starts as Delete:

A on a row turns it to Keep, and back to Delete.
X Delete marked deletes the rows still marked Delete; the status line on Your games then says what went and what was kept. With every row on Keep, X says so and deletes nothing.
B goes back to Your games and deletes nothing.

The pictures in Steam come from inside the game: its icon (sce_sys\icon0.png) on the cover, the wide picture and as the logo, its background (sce_sys\pic1.png) on the banner; without them the title is drawn on a dark background. With a SteamGridDB API key, Update Steam also takes a cover for each game from SteamGridDB: LB Steam artwork on Your games opens the page that keeps the key (X Paste, R3 ⌨, A Save, Y Remove key twice, B back without saving). See Steam artwork from SteamGridDB.

In a game¶

shadPS4 plays with the device's controller as the PS4's: A is Cross, B Circle, X Square, Y Triangle, Menu Options, LB and RB are L1 and R1, the triggers L2 and R2, and View alone is the touchpad.

To quit a game, hold View, LB and RB together for two seconds: shadPS4 closes as its window would close, and you are back in Steam, or in the app when it started the game. Closing the game at the top of the screen says the hold was seen. It works the same in every game manager of the suite, started from Steam's library or from the app. The line at the bottom of Your games says so when a game starts. A short press of View and Menu opens shadPS4's own quit window (A quits, B goes back to the game), as does Ctrl+Shift+End on a keyboard: the app adds these hotkeys to shadPS4's input_config\global.ini, since shadPS4 by itself opens it only from a keyboard; the file's other lines stay as they are.

When the device runs hot, you are warned without the game stopping. While a game runs, the app reads the chip's temperature every two seconds. When the CPU or the GPU stays above 90 °C for half a minute, a banner shows at the top of the screen for a few seconds (on every screen, with a second one attached), and the controller rumbles three times; it warns again at most every five minutes while the chip stays that hot. The banner takes no press and does not take the focus from the game. A pause, or a lower performance mode (the portal's Performance Mode page), lets the device cool down. When the game ends, the log (A View log on the Log pane) says how hot the chip got and for how long. Windows cannot read how hot the outside of the device is: the chip's temperature is the closest reading, and the chip slows itself down at its own limit.

Settings¶

The Settings card's pane has four tabs, Screen, Sound, Controller and In a game: LB and RB step through them, or tap one. A tab is a row per setting with its value; A on one steps to the next value and saves it at once into shadPS4's settings (user\config.json in its folder; the row at the bottom says A Change, LB Previous tab, RB Next tab). They are the settings shadPS4's own settings window offers for every game. shadPS4 reads them when a game starts; while shadPS4 is open, the pane asks you to close it first, since shadPS4 writes its own settings back when it ends. A game's own settings in shadPS4 come before these. The information icon at the pane's top right says what each setting of the tab does.

Screen

Setting	Values
VSync	Mailbox (no tearing, shadPS4's choice), On, Off: how a frame goes to the screen
FidelityFX upscaling (FSR)	On or Off: AMD's upscaler, sharper than plain scaling when the game draws at a lower resolution than the screen's
Sharpening (RCAS)	On or Off: FSR's sharpening, only with FidelityFX upscaling on
HDR	On or Off: for a game and a screen that support it
Frame rate counter	On or Off: the frames a second in a corner of the picture

Sound

Setting	Values
Sound output	SDL (shadPS4's choice), OpenAL
Volume	100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, Muted, 150%, 200%, 300%, 500%: shadPS4's own volume, before Windows'

Controller

Setting	Values
Motion controls	On or Off: the controller's motion sensors, for a game that reads them (a DualShock 4 or DualSense; the device's own controller has none)
Hide the mouse pointer	Never, After a few seconds (shadPS4's choice), Always

In a game

Setting	Values
Language	The PS4's system language, in which a game that has it shows its text: 31 languages, English (United States) by default
Trophy messages	On or Off: a message in the game when a trophy is won
Splash screen	On or Off: the game's own splash picture while it starts

The values show once shadPS4 is installed; until shadPS4 has written its settings, they are its own defaults. A value in shadPS4's settings that the app does not offer is shown as it is, and A goes on from the first value.

shadNet¶

shadNet is shadPS4's online service, for online trophies, friends and online play in the games it supports. shadPS4 signs in by itself when a game starts, with the account kept here for one of its four users; player 1 plays with the device's controller. The line under the heading says who signs in where, and what the last game's sign-in did (from shadPS4's own log).

Each row shows its value; A on it changes it, and each change is kept in shadPS4's own files at once (users.json and config.json in its folder; before shadPS4's first start the app makes them, with shadPS4's own four users). Not while shadPS4 runs.

Row	A
Sign in when a game starts	On or Off; on only with a name and a password
Player	The next of shadPS4's four users, with its own account
shadNet name	Its page: 3 to 16 letters, digits, `-` or `_`; names are case-sensitive
Password	Its page; the row shows dots
Email	Its page: needed to create an account
Server	Its page: `host:port`; empty is shadPS4's own server, `srv.shadps4.net:31313`
Registration key	Its page: only when a server asks for one to create an account; kept nowhere

A text row's page has the field alone, with the touch keyboard: A Keep keeps it and goes back to the row, X Paste puts in what you copied in a browser on the device, R3 ⌨ opens or closes Windows' touch keyboard, B goes back without keeping it.

X Create account creates the account on the server, with the name, the password and the email address (and the registration key, when you gave one).
Y Try sign-in signs in as shadPS4 would, and out again: it tells whether the account works.

The password goes over the network as it is, as shadPS4 itself sends it: use one you use nowhere else.

Log¶

shadPS4's folder, how many of the system modules it cannot do without are there, where your Games\PS4 folder is, and the newest lines of this app's log (the installs, the modules copied, the packages unpacked, the Steam changes, the settings and the shadNet account changed). A View log, or a tap on the pane, shows the whole log in the pane: the d-pad scrolls it, and B goes back. The newest lines show at the bottom of a box of their own, which a finger can scroll; a tap on it shows the whole log too.

How it works¶

A game's shortcut in Steam starts the app itself in its play mode, shadPS4-Manager.exe --play -f true -g "<game>\eboot.bin", which shows no window: it starts shadPS4.exe -f true -g "<game>\eboot.bin" in shadPS4's folder, so that shadPS4 finds its user folder there (-f true gives the game the whole screen), watches the controller for View, LB and RB held, and ends when shadPS4 ends, so Steam sees the game end. Asked to close, shadPS4 gets ten seconds before it is ended. shadPS4's own window (its Big Picture mode) is never shown. On a device without Steam the app starts a game the same way. A shortcut made by an earlier version, which starts shadPS4.exe itself, shows (Update Steam) on its game: Y Update Steam writes it again.

Every Monday the suite checks whether shadPS4 has a newer release than the one this app brings, and whether the file it downloads is still the one it was tested with; what moved goes to the suite's developers, and a newer shadPS4 comes in a new version of the app.

Install it on its own¶

The portal installs it. To install it on its own, download wp-shadps4-v<x.y.z>.zip and SHA256SUMS from its release, then in PowerShell, in that folder:

(Get-FileHash wp-shadps4-v<x.y.z>.zip).Hash -eq (-split (Get-Content SHA256SUMS))[0]   # True: the download is intact
Expand-Archive wp-shadps4-v<x.y.z>.zip . -Force
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File wp-shadps4-v<x.y.z>\install.ps1

Installed on its own, it gets a Start-menu entry and a Desktop shortcut. Afterwards the installer asks whether to remove the download.

Option
`--no-desktop-shortcut`	the Start-menu entry only
`--uninstall`	remove the app; the settings, the log and shadPS4 with your saves and system modules stay
`--uninstall --purge`	also remove the settings, the log and shadPS4's folder, with your saves, its settings and the system modules in it

Files¶

Where	What
`%LOCALAPPDATA%\windows-portable-suite\windows-portable-shadps4\app\`	The program, `shadPS4-Manager.exe`
`%LOCALAPPDATA%\windows-portable-suite\windows-portable-shadps4\emulator\`	shadPS4 (`shadPS4.exe`), `installed.json` (the version the app installed) and `user\`, everything shadPS4 keeps: `config.json` (its settings), `users.json` (its users and their shadNet accounts), `home\` (the saves, per user), `sys_modules\` (the system modules), `input_config\` (the hotkeys), `play_time.txt` (the time spent in each game), `log\shad_log.txt` (its own log)
`%LOCALAPPDATA%\windows-portable-suite\windows-portable-shadps4\covers\`	The covers from SteamGridDB, per game
`%LOCALAPPDATA%\windows-portable-suite\windows-portable-shadps4\windows-portable-shadps4.log`	The log
`%USERPROFILE%\Games\PS4\`	Your games and packages; `Modules\` in it, the system modules you put there
`%APPDATA%\windows-portable-suite\windows-portable-shadps4.ini`	The app's settings
`%APPDATA%\windows-portable-suite\steamgriddb-key`	Your SteamGridDB API key, when you put one there
Steam's `userdata\<user>\config\shortcuts.vdf` and `grid\`	The games in Steam and their pictures