3 ms·

So... can one load a game on the PS4 at home using that, or is just intended to emulate the playstation on a PC ? I don't understand the intention behind making

by jokoon 11y ago

So... can one load a game on the PS4 at home using that, or is just intended to emulate the playstation on a PC ? I don't understand the intention behind making this open source, seeing all the loaded piracy history of the playstation consoles. Kinda feels like it's a little short for a SDK too, but I'm no expert.

Wofiel 11y ago
The PS4-Pong example in the README has a YouTube video[1] so it's physically possible to run something with the HTML5 canvas renderer, but there doesn't seem to be much in the way of instructions to do so up there. As for the sparseness, definitely true, the SDK really doesn't have much in the way of functionality yet, but I'm kind of surprised by what they have so far. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNqKyuTDbjE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNqKyuTDbjE
- SifJar 11y ago
  There are no instructions because the code exec method is not (yet?) public. The exploit is, but not the payload to run applications. There is no announced release date for code exec method, or indeed announced plans to release, as far as I am aware.
SifJar 11y ago
It runs via an exploit found about a year ago in WebKit [1] , and allows running custom code. It does not enable piracy, as that would require greater system access. It allows running simple applications, with severe limitations (can't use native video out or controllers; workarounds employed are using an HTML Canvas for visual output and a Nintendo DS for control). It is a very basic SDK right now, it is still in development and has a long way to go. Considering the exploit to run code only works on FW 1.76 (~1 year old), there presumably aren't many people able to run code anyway. [1] http://wololo.net/2014/10/24/webkit-exploit-confirmed-to-run-on-ps4-firmware-1-76 http://wololo.net/2014/10/24/webkit-exploit-confirmed-to-run...
stinos 11y ago
Kinda feels like it's a little short for a SDK too It sure is, also a bit sad that it takes such detours to be able to write software for such devices. Years ago when the first PSP came out things were different. I bought the PSP just because I saw there was a rather complete SDK available for it (also made available by hacking around and reverse engineering IIRC, but at least it was more than enough to write actual applications): it included access to buttons, sockets/wifi, raw framebuffer access etc. Which led to the availability of fun things like a working VNC client which was super impressive to me back then (remember that's like 5 years before the first iPad). I had only like one game which I never really played but instead I spent hours writing mini games and setting up communication between the PSP and a PC, using it as remote control and whatnot.
- Narishma 11y ago
  > I had only like one game which I never really played but instead I spent hours writing mini games and setting up communication between the PSP and a PC, using it as remote control and whatnot. And that's exactly why manufacturers go to such lengths to prevent people from hacking on their consoles. With the way they are priced, and depending on when you bought that PSP, it may have cost Sony money if you didn't buy any games for it.
  - venomsnake 11y ago
    > And that's exactly why manufacturers go to such lengths to prevent people from hacking on their consoles. With the way they are priced, and depending on when you bought that PSP, it may have cost Sony money if you didn't buy any games for it. There is this revolutionary business idea of selling stuff at profit. Cross subsidizing always bites you in the ass. Loss leaders too.
  - pandaman 11y ago
    What length exactly? Both Sony and MS released, at some point, SDKs that could use a retail unit for development [1,2,3,4] so I am not sure this is exactly why. 1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Mobile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Mobile 2.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_for_PlayStation_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_for_PlayStation_2 3.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OtherOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OtherOS 4.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_XNA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_XNA

by jokoon 11y ago

Wofiel 11y ago

The PS4-Pong example in the README has a YouTube video[1] so it's physically possible to run something with the HTML5 canvas renderer, but there doesn't seem to be much in the way of instructions to do so up there. As for the sparseness, definitely true, the SDK really doesn't have much in the way of functionality yet, but I'm kind of surprised by what they have so far. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNqKyuTDbjE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNqKyuTDbjE

SifJar 11y ago
There are no instructions because the code exec method is not (yet?) public. The exploit is, but not the payload to run applications. There is no announced release date for code exec method, or indeed announced plans to release, as far as I am aware.

SifJar 11y ago

It runs via an exploit found about a year ago in WebKit [1] , and allows running custom code. It does not enable piracy, as that would require greater system access. It allows running simple applications, with severe limitations (can't use native video out or controllers; workarounds employed are using an HTML Canvas for visual output and a Nintendo DS for control). It is a very basic SDK right now, it is still in development and has a long way to go. Considering the exploit to run code only works on FW 1.76 (~1 year old), there presumably aren't many people able to run code anyway. [1] http://wololo.net/2014/10/24/webkit-exploit-confirmed-to-run-on-ps4-firmware-1-76 http://wololo.net/2014/10/24/webkit-exploit-confirmed-to-run...

stinos 11y ago

Kinda feels like it's a little short for a SDK too It sure is, also a bit sad that it takes such detours to be able to write software for such devices. Years ago when the first PSP came out things were different. I bought the PSP just because I saw there was a rather complete SDK available for it (also made available by hacking around and reverse engineering IIRC, but at least it was more than enough to write actual applications): it included access to buttons, sockets/wifi, raw framebuffer access etc. Which led to the availability of fun things like a working VNC client which was super impressive to me back then (remember that's like 5 years before the first iPad). I had only like one game which I never really played but instead I spent hours writing mini games and setting up communication between the PSP and a PC, using it as remote control and whatnot.

Narishma 11y ago
> I had only like one game which I never really played but instead I spent hours writing mini games and setting up communication between the PSP and a PC, using it as remote control and whatnot. And that's exactly why manufacturers go to such lengths to prevent people from hacking on their consoles. With the way they are priced, and depending on when you bought that PSP, it may have cost Sony money if you didn't buy any games for it.
- venomsnake 11y ago
  > And that's exactly why manufacturers go to such lengths to prevent people from hacking on their consoles. With the way they are priced, and depending on when you bought that PSP, it may have cost Sony money if you didn't buy any games for it. There is this revolutionary business idea of selling stuff at profit. Cross subsidizing always bites you in the ass. Loss leaders too.
- pandaman 11y ago
  What length exactly? Both Sony and MS released, at some point, SDKs that could use a retail unit for development [1,2,3,4] so I am not sure this is exactly why. 1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Mobile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Mobile 2.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_for_PlayStation_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_for_PlayStation_2 3.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OtherOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OtherOS 4.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_XNA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_XNA