FelipePrado0/gow3_pc

Project overview

SpartanPort runs the PS4 version of God of War III Remastered on Windows 10/11 and experimental Linux via AppImage. It is not an emulator in the usual sense: the game's original x86-64 executable runs directly on the PC CPU, while a purpose-built runtime reimplements the PS4 system libraries. Graphics go through the shadPS4 Vulkan video core, adapted with fixes specific to this title.

The port adds a launcher, an in-game menu with cheats and tuning, controller icons, trophy notifications, mod support, and patches for resolutions from 480p to 4K and engine frame rates up to 240 FPS. It is aimed at players who already own the game and are comfortable managing game dumps, graphics drivers and per-title compatibility quirks.

Quick start

1. Confirm your hardware meets the system requirements: AVX-capable CPU, Vulkan 1.3 driver, and a GPU with at least 4 GB VRAM for 720p60.
2. Download spartanport-windows.zip from the latest release and extract it to a normal folder; do not run from inside the archive.
3. Launch SpartanPort.exe. Windows SmartScreen may warn because the binary is not digitally signed — the README instructs clicking More info → Run anyway.
4. Click Choose the game folder and select the folder containing eboot.bin from your own PS4 dump (tested IDs CUSA01623 and CUSA01715, versions 01.00 and 01.02).
5. Adjust quick settings such as resolution and frame-rate limit, click Save, then PLAY. The first start prepares the game image and compiles shaders; later starts load shaders from the cache.

On Linux, download spartanport-x86_64.AppImage from the releases page, then run chmod +x spartanport-x86_64.AppImage && ./spartanport-x86_64.AppImage, choose the game folder and press PLAY. The AppImage self-updates from the release and verifies the SHA-256 of the downloaded file Linux section.

While playing, press Insert or R3 + L2 to open the port menu; saves, the shader cache and logs live in the user folder beside SpartanPort.exe.

Requirements and limitations

• You must supply the game yourself. No game files, dumps or copyrighted assets are included; only dumps from your own PS4 are supported.
• Platforms: Windows 10 1903+ or Windows 11, 64-bit; Linux needs glibc 2.39 or newer and is labelled experimental.
• CPUs: AVX is required. Older chips without MOVBE, BMI1 or LZCNT fall back to emulated instructions with unmeasured performance.
• Graphics: Vulkan 1.3 is mandatory. AMD Polaris cards have an intermittent SurfaceFormat crash under investigation (issue #1181); Intel integrated graphics also show crashes and rendering errors.
• Feature prerequisites: FSR 4 needs an RX 6000-series or newer AMD card or Intel Arc; frame generation needs an upscaler selected.
• Windows specifics: low-memory errors may require a 16–24 GB page file on C:. The executable is unsigned, so SmartScreen blocking is expected.
• License: GPL-2.0 or later, with third-party components under their own licenses license section.

How it works

The project splits responsibilities between CPU and GPU. The loader in src/probe.c prepares the game image from eboot.bin, installs signature-matched hooks and starts the original game code; src/runtime_*.c reimplements memory, threads, files, audio, video, input, saves and system services. The GPU side under gpu/shadps4/ translates PS4 GPU commands and shaders to Vulkan, including per-title rendering fixes. Patches are applied in memory at startup, so game files are not modified. The launcher is written in Rust with iced, and a Dear ImGui overlay provides the in-game menu how it works.

HotRepo's take

This repository has no recorded HotRepo ranking, star-curve samples or Hacker News discussion, so there is no site-side usage data to weigh. The materials themselves show a substantial engineering effort — a native runtime, a Vulkan translation layer with title-specific fixes, a Rust launcher, a test suite and source-build instructions — rather than a thin repackaging page. The main practical caveat is distribution: the shipped artifacts are prebuilt binaries, and release downloads are the primary way to play, so users should treat the unsigned executables and their origin accordingly.