RPCS3 announces major macOS graphics update in time for new OLED MacBook Pro 14/16
The team behind RPCS3, the world’s best Sony PlayStation 3 emulator, has announced an important update for the macOS build of RPCS3. The RPCS3 macOS build now brings KosmicKrisp, “a Vulkan driver that runs on top of Metal 4”. RPCS3 doesn’t officially support the Metal graphics API that macOS relies on. So, the PS3 emulator needs an intermediary layer to bridge the gap between the Vulkan API, which the RPCS3 team recommends, and Metal.
RPCS3 used to rely on MoltenVK, which resulted in many issues according to the team. KosmicKrisp apparently fixes these graphical issues and results in “graphical improvements”. The RPCS3 team credits the development to schm1dtMac, the developer tasked with maintaining the RPCS3 macOS builds.
Now, while KosmicKrisp has become the definite Vulkan driver to use on RPCS3, it only works on macOS 26 Tahoe and newer. So, if you are stuck on older macOS builds, RPCS3 still retains MoltenVK as an option.
RPCS3 macOS graphics update comes alongside new OLED MacBook Pros
While it might be pure coincidence, the RPCS3 macOS graphical improvements have come at a time when Apple has just released the brand-new MacBook Pro 14 and MacBook Pro 16 with OLED displays. PS3 games will no doubt look stunning on these new MacBook Pros thanks to the high-refresh-rate Tandem OLED panels that bring incredible contrast and cover 100% DCI-P3 and AdobeRGB. The new MacBook Pro 14 and 16 also feature the excellent Apple M5 Pro and M5 Max. So, performance also won't be an issue.
That said, macOS is not the best place to play PS3 games. The RPCS3 team officially recommends Linux for the best performance. However, you might not even need RPCS3 in the future to play your favorite PS3 titles, as we've begun to see native recompilation of games on PC.
Source(s)
RPCS3 on X, Teaser image source: RPCS3, Unsplash, edited
Add as a preferred source on Google
