ARMSX2/ARMSX3

What it is

ARMSX3 is an Android port of RPCS3 aimed at ARM64 devices. It tracks current RPCS3 upstream code, including recent ARM64 work, and provides a native Android UI around a core emulator library. It is for people who want to run PS3 software on Android hardware and are prepared to build and supply the required firmware themselves.

The project offers two modes: booting the PS3's own system software (XMB) from an installed firmware, and an ARMSX3 interface that reuses firmware assets such as fonts, icons and sound while running no Sony code. Games, firmware and other Sony files are not included.

Build and install

Building requires the Android SDK with NDK r27 or newer, CMake 3.30 or newer, JDK 17, and a arm64-v8a target. Android Studio can supply the toolchain. Clone the repository with submodules, then manually fetch two dependencies that are not submodules: librashader and libadrenotools.

git clone --recursive https://github.com/ARMSX2/ARMSX3.git
cd ARMSX3
git clone https://github.com/SnowflakePowered/librashader 3rdparty/librashader
git clone https://github.com/bylaws/libadrenotools android/armsx3-ui/app/src/main/cpp/libadrenotools

Configure and build the core; this is the long step and produces a large unstripped shared library:

export ANDROID_HOME=$HOME/Library/Android/sdk
cmake -B build-android -G Ninja \
  -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=$ANDROID_HOME/ndk/<version>/build/cmake/android.toolchain.cmake \
  -DANDROID_ABI=arm64-v8a -DANDROID_PLATFORM=android-31 \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
cmake --build build-android --target armsx3-core -j8

Strip the library, copy it into the app's jniLibs/arm64-v8a/ directory, then build the APK with Gradle. The result lands under app/build/outputs/apk/release/. The optional Discord Social SDK is proprietary and must be obtained separately; the build skips it otherwise. On first run, install your own PS3 firmware.

Constraints

• Target ABI is arm64-v8a (armv8.2 supported); the build uses Android platform 31.
• The core library must be rebuilt and copied again whenever files under rpcs3/ or android/src/ change; Gradle does not build it automatically.
• PS3 firmware is required and is not distributed. Games must be your own copies.
• Discord integration requires the proprietary Discord Social SDK from Discord's developer portal.
• Licensed GPL-2.0-only, matching RPCS3; individual file headers may differ.

HotRepo's take

The project was recorded on the GitHub daily C++ list on 2026-11-05 with 977 stars and 49 forks, gaining 10 stars that day and reaching 7th place on the C++ list. That is a single daily snapshot, so it supports only that day's standing, not a longer trend. The scope is narrow: ARM64 Android users willing to assemble the SDK, NDK, third-party checkouts and a multi-gigabyte core build before installing firmware. The value here is the upstream RPCS3 ARM64 work made buildable for Android, not a ready-to-run release.

Project source and documentation