Orbit Console

Experimental iPadOS port of the shadPS4 PlayStation 4 emulator core.

Native iPad UI · Metal / MoltenVK · Touch + Controller Input · ARM64 Bring-up

Screenshots

About

Orbit Console is a personal experimental fork of shadPS4 focused on exploring whether the emulator core can be brought up inside a native iPadOS app shell.

The app side is designed around a console-style experience:

• PS4-inspired dashboard layout
• game library import flow
• profile/user selection flow
• settings menu for system, graphics, audio, input, appearance, and debug options
• virtual DualShock-style touch controller
• Bluetooth controller navigation
• in-game overlay for FPS/RAM/debug status and quick actions

The core side is currently focused on iPadOS survival work:

• compact iOS address-space layout
• sandbox-friendly memory backing file
• StikDebug/JIT handshake delay path
• low-memory diagnostics
• Metal/MoltenVK surface bridge
• chunked ELF segment loading logs
• experimental ARM64 custom CPU bridge scaffold

Current Status

This repository is not a finished iPad PS4 emulator yet. It is a work-in-progress research port.

Working or partially working:

• Orbit Console native iPadOS app shell
• full-screen iPad dashboard
• game import and library UI
• settings panels
• virtual controller overlay
• external controller input path
• diagnostics log output
• early shadPS4 core initialization on iPadOS
• HLE library registration
• module loading diagnostics

Still incomplete:

• full x86-64 to ARM64 dynarec/JIT backend
• broad x86-64 interpreter coverage
• complete SSE/AVX support
• complete guest thread/TLS/exception behavior
• stable GPU presentation for real gameplay
• finished iPadOS audio output

Requirements

• macOS with Xcode
• iPadOS 18+
• iPad with Apple Silicon, tested during development on iPad Air M3
• Apple development signing configured
• StikDebug or equivalent debug/JIT attach workflow
• legally dumped PS4 games and firmware/system modules where required

Build

From the repository root:

xcodebuild \
  -project build_ios/shadPS4.xcodeproj \
  -scheme shadps4 \
  -configuration Debug \
  -destination 'id=YOUR_DEVICE_ID' \
  DEVELOPMENT_TEAM=YOUR_TEAM_ID \
  PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER=com.yourname.orbitconsole \
  CODE_SIGN_STYLE=Automatic \
  CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY='Apple Development' \
  build

Local example:

xcodebuild \
  -project build_ios/shadPS4.xcodeproj \
  -scheme shadps4 \
  -configuration Debug \
  -destination 'id=00008122-001C199826FA401C' \
  DEVELOPMENT_TEAM=4HX756P7TJ \
  PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER=com.mathachai.shadps4 \
  CODE_SIGN_STYLE=Automatic \
  CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY='Apple Development' \
  build

Install

xcrun devicectl device install app \
  --device YOUR_DEVICE_ID \
  "build_ios/Debug-iphoneos/Orbit Console.app"

Local example:

xcrun devicectl device install app \
  --device 00008122-001C199826FA401C \
  "/Users/mathachai/Downloads/shadPS4-main/build_ios/Debug-iphoneos/Orbit Console.app"

Test Flow

1. Install Orbit Console on the iPad.
2. Attach/open the app through StikDebug before starting a game.
3. Add a dumped game folder or eboot.bin from the dashboard.
4. Press Start Game.
5. If the app exits, copy orbit_console_cpu.log from the device.

Diagnostic Logs

Orbit Console writes its device-side diagnostic log here:

Documents/orbit_console_cpu.log

Copy the log from the iPad:

xcrun devicectl device copy from \
  --device YOUR_DEVICE_ID \
  --domain-type appDataContainer \
  --domain-identifier com.yourname.orbitconsole \
  --source Documents/orbit_console_cpu.log \
  --destination ~/Desktop/orbit_console_cpu.log

Local example:

xcrun devicectl device copy from \
  --device 00008122-001C199826FA401C \
  --domain-type appDataContainer \
  --domain-identifier com.mathachai.shadps4 \
  --source Documents/orbit_console_cpu.log \
  --destination ~/Desktop/orbit_console_cpu.log

View the latest entries:

tail -300 ~/Desktop/orbit_console_cpu.log

Useful markers:

core stage 90: HLE libraries initialized
core stage 91: loading game module
Module loading segment bytes
ELF LoadSegment begin
ELF LoadSegment progress
ELF LoadSegment complete
CustomCPUTranslator unsupported opcode

iPadOS Notes

iPadOS is not macOS:

• there is no Rosetta 2 on iPadOS
• x86-64 PS4 code cannot run natively on ARM64
• JIT/debug permission needs an attach workflow such as StikDebug
• free developer accounts have tighter memory ceilings
• large contiguous virtual memory mappings can fail
• desktop-only APIs such as shm_open need iOS-safe alternatives

CPU Bridge Status

The current ARM64 custom CPU bridge is an early scaffold, not a complete emulator backend.

It currently includes:

• guest x86-64 register context
• RFLAGS basics
• REX/ModRM/SIB/RIP-relative decode helpers
• selected integer instructions
• selected XMM/SSE instructions
• Zydis-based unsupported opcode logging
• safe suspend path for unsupported instructions

Real gameplay still requires a much deeper solution:

• broad interpreter coverage, or
• x86-64 to AArch64 dynarec/JIT with block cache, syscall/HLE dispatch, thread/TLS handling, and exception bridging.

Repository

GitHub:

https://github.com/GUTY345/orbit-console

Recommended ignored local output:

build_ios/
.codex_backups/
.zhanlu/
DerivedData/
*.xcuserdata

Legal

This repository does not include PS4 firmware, system modules, games, copyrighted assets, or keys. Only use files dumped from hardware and games you legally own.

Upstream and License

Orbit Console is based on shadPS4.

This project remains licensed under GPL-2.0-or-later. See LICENSE.