What the host must provide — and what the docs do not promise

Host OS

README and BUILD.md describe a tool that ports executables to Linux and Windows. Converted titles need system libraries built for the target OS and a compatible x86-64 host. Relinker-only does not build those libraries.

Official GitHub Releases ship host libraries for Linux and Windows only. Match the relinker and the libraries to one tag and one OS. A Windows relinker with Linux libraries is a failed layout, not a host-spec test.

Graphics: Vulkan 1.1 is a device filter

USAGE.md: the game runs on the first Vulkan 1.1 device with graphics and compute queues and swapchain presentation, preferring a discrete GPU over an integrated one. That is the documented selection rule. Meeting Vulkan 1.1 does not establish that a title’s shaders, memory paths, or gameplay work.

Set ANYPS5_GPU to a part of a device name, compared without regard to case. Names print at start-up in the Physical device candidate lines. When no usable device contains the text, the start fails and the error lists the device names.

A listed Vulkan device can still fail later. USAGE notes that the Windows OpenCL, OpenGL, and Vulkan Compatibility Pack can install Mesa Dozen, which exposes D3D12 devices through Vulkan; some D3D12 drivers can crash while the Vulkan loader enumerates adapters. README: the shader recompiler produces SPIR-V. A version number, or a candidate line, is not a playable report.

CPU extensions

USAGE.md: titles run natively, so the host CPU needs the extensions of the PS5’s Zen 2 CPU that compiled code uses without checking, among them AVX2, FMA, F16C, BMI1, BMI2, LZCNT and MOVBE.

On Linux and Windows a converted title logs the host CPU’s extensions at start-up and stops before running any title code, naming the CPU and the missing extensions, if one is absent. That stop is a host-CPU limit, not a missing game file.

Intel hosts and --to-intel

USAGE.md: add --to-intel for Intel hosts, or --to-rosetta for Rosetta. A title that runs under Rosetta on Apple silicon is relinked with --macos --to-rosetta.

The --to-intel flag converts supported AMD-only instructions in the executable and bundled modules. Unsupported instructions or unreachable conversion stubs cause an error (relinker exit 2).

relinker --windows --to-intel source/input.elf app.exe

--to-intel rewrites AMD-specific instructions found in those files. It cannot translate AMD-specific instructions generated by a title at runtime, so such titles require an AMD host. Conversion is not a runtime-generated AMD path. Record the CPU and the convert flags with the report; do not assume every x86-64 machine can run the same output.

Memory: commit limit, not a universal RAM floor

USAGE.md does not publish a minimum RAM or VRAM figure that every title must meet. Memory use depends on the title and on what it maps. An allocation failure is not automatically “not enough physical RAM.”

On Windows, direct memory (sceKernelAllocateDirectMemory, up to 13824 MiB per title) is committed when the title maps it, not when the title allocates it or first uses its pages. The system commit limit — installed memory plus page file size, the second value of Committed in Task Manager — must cover the mapped direct memory together with all other committed memory. Otherwise sceKernelMapDirectMemory throws. Enlarge the page file or close other applications. That 13824 MiB figure is a documented per-title cap, not a recommended PC spec.

On Linux, when the Vulkan driver imports dma-buf memory (not the NVIDIA proprietary driver), shared direct memory is imported through /dev/udmabuf, and the user who runs the game needs read-write access. Without access, startup can print [gpu] open /dev/udmabuf: Permission denied and those ranges are copied instead of imported. That is a device-node permission, not a RAM floor.

Do not invent a single “8 GB / 16 GB / RTX …” minimum for every title. Quote the map error, the commit limit or /dev/udmabuf line, the GPU name, and the release tag.

Source-build tools (only if you compile)

Most people should stay on the official GitHub zip pair. Compiling is optional. When you do compile, use the BUILD.md that came with that tree — the versions below are what current main and v0.1.3 document today, and they can change.

Relinker-only: CMake, a C++20 compiler, and a build tool. Python 3.9 or newer enables the Python regression tests. This mode builds on Linux, Windows, and macOS, including Apple silicon. It does not build the host libraries a converted title still needs.

Full build requirements named on current main and at v0.1.3: x86-64, Git, CMake 3.22.1 or newer, Ninja, C++20. Open BUILD.md for Linux packages (GCC/G++, SDL X11/Wayland/audio headers, and so on). With the default BUILD_TESTING=OFF, cmake --build does not produce the patched libraries; the explicit --target libs step is required.

Windows full build on current main: x86-64 MinGW-w64 GCC with POSIX threads. The compiler must provide DWARF exceptions with -fno-asynchronous-unwind-tables, or SEH exceptions for System V ABI functions. BUILD.md names WinLibs GCC 15.2.0 (x86_64-ucrt-posix-seh, release 15.2.0posix-14.0.0-ucrt-r7) and MSYS2 UCRT64 GCC 16.2.0-6. After --target libs, copy libgcc_s_seh-1.dll, libstdc++-6.dll, and libwinpthread-1.dll beside the patched libraries. Release zips already contain them.

BUILD.md at tag v0.1.3 names only MinGW-w64 GCC 15.2.0 (WinLibs x86_64-ucrt-posix-seh, release 15.2.0posix-14.0.0-ucrt-r7) as currently supported for the Windows full build. If you compile that tag, follow that file, not the later main toolchain list.

Toolchain versions can change. This page does not freeze a forever Windows GCC pin. The browser web converter is a convert tool (files stay on the device); it does not replace the Windows or Linux host GPU and CPU rules above.

Build from source: relinker vs full runtime

Match the report to the release zip

A compatibility note is only as good as the environment it names. Record the official tag (or the commit you compiled), the OS, the GPU and driver names from Physical device candidate, and the convert flags (--windows, --to-intel, --macos, and the rest).

README and BUILD.md: the relinker-only build runs on macOS, including Apple silicon. USAGE.md: --macos writes x86-64 Mach-O, which runs under Rosetta on Apple silicon; --to-rosetta lowers instructions Rosetta lacks. Official releases still ship host libraries for Linux and Windows only. A passing relinker-only compile, or a Mach-O convert, is a conversion experiment — not a Mac game-runtime requirement and not Playable. Community macOS runtime forks are separate experiments, not official release assets.

Vulkan headers used to compile a self-build are not the same fact as a tested host driver. Quote the zip tag or the commit. Do not upgrade a title’s stage from a host checklist.

After this page

If the host matches the documented OS, CPU extensions, and Vulkan device filter, still convert a clean ELF and lay out app / libs / app0. A window is not gameplay. Windows 126 or 193, a commit-limit throw, or a missing Vulkan device stay on the troubleshooting guide.

Download: official zip pair · Setup: two files and folder layout · Build from source: relinker vs full runtime · Troubleshooting: 193, 126, host limits

Do not claim

• A universal minimum RAM, VRAM, or GPU model that every title must meet.
• That Vulkan 1.1, or a Physical device candidate line, means a title runs or is Playable.
• That --to-intel translates AMD-specific instructions a title generates at runtime.
• That official releases require or support a Mac game runtime.
• That Linux audio is fixed on v0.1.3.
• That any title’s compatibility stage changed because the host checklist was ticked.

Original sources

• USAGE.md on current main (Input and conversion, Runtime layout, GPU selection)
• USAGE.md at tag v0.1.3
• BUILD.md on current main (Relinker only, Requirements)
• BUILD.md at tag v0.1.3
• README on current main (Linux/Windows porting, relinker-only on macOS)
• README at tag v0.1.3