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PlayStation Vita

The PlayStation Vita is a console developed by Sony. It was released in 2011. As of writing, it is the last dedicated handheld console released.

The Vita was the successor to the PlayStation Portable and was backwards compatible with its software, but due to lacking a disc drive it could not play its physical discs (the Vita would use cartridges for its titles instead). The Vita features a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore CPU paired with a quad-core SGX543MP GPU. The system, like the PSP before it, had multiple revisions and re-releases, before its eventual discontinuation in 2019. Despite this, it still has a strong following due to its homebrew scene, with software still being developed for it to this day.

PS Vita emulation is still very experimental and only a few select titles work. Do not expect great performance either.

Right now, the PS Vita emulator is only available on x86_64 platforms.

This system scrapes metadata for the “psvita” group(s) and loads the psvita set from the currently selected theme, if available.

Quick reference

  • Emulator: Vita3K
  • Folder: /userdata/roms/psvita
  • Accepted ROM formats: .psvita

BIOS

Games require the PS Vita's system modules. These are stored as two files on PlayStation's update server:

Once both are downloaded, transfer them to Batocera at /userdata/bios/psvita. Then, on Batocera, press [F1] on the system list and go to Applications → FIXME (what is it named?) to open the emulator.

screenshots

Click on the FIXME in the FIXME corner, and go to File → Install Firmware.

screenshot

Navigate to where your saved the system modules earlier and install them.

screenshot

ROMs

All parts on this page are under construction, but this part especially is.

Place your PlayStation Vita ROMs in /userdata/roms/psvita.

There are multiple ways PS Vita ROMs have been dumped. These are the most popular:

  • Mai Dump: Probably the most bootleg approach. Titles have been individually patched to make them bootable. May be missing game data, and for preservation is generally not recommended. Typically come in ZIP or VPK formats.
  • VPK: The “installer” type of dump. This is somewhat close to the official media release. Mai Dumps may also come in VPK format, but they are not the same.
  • PKG: FIXME
  • NoNpDRM rips: FIXME
  • EBOOTPBP: FIXME

The only format that has been confirmed working with Vita3K on Batocera are Mai Dumps in ZIP format.

Ordinarily, you would need to “install” the game onto the emulated PS Vita's system software (just as you would the original PS Vita), however Batocera takes care of that automatically for you. All that's required is to put the TITLE ID of the game in square brackets at the end of its name. For example: 

Street Fighter X Tekken (USA) [PCSE00005].zip

The game TITLE ID can be gotten by extracting the game itself and looking at the FIXME file or by referring to FIXME.

Emulators

Vita3K

Added in Batocera v36, Vita3K is a highly experimental low-level emulator for the PS Vita. A quickstart guide and minimum requirements can be found on its website.

Vita3K configuration

Standardized features available to all cores of this emulator: psvita.videomode

ES setting name batocera.conf_key Description ⇒ ES option key_value
Settings that apply to all cores of this emulator
GRAPHICS API psvita.vita3k_gfxbackend Choose which graphics API library to use. Vulkan is better, when supported.
⇒ OpenGL OpenGL, Vulkan Vulkan.
RENDERING RESOLUTION psvita.vita3k_resolution Enhancement. Increase the rendering resolution. Makes 3D objects clearer.
⇒ 1x (960×544) 1, 2x (1920×1088) 2, 3x (2880×1632) 3, 4x (3840×2176) 4, 5x (4800×2720) 5, 6x (5760×3264) 6, 7x (6720×3808) 7, 8x (7680×4352) 8.
FXAA psvita.vita3k_fxaa Anti-aliasing is a technique for smoothing out jagged edges.
⇒ Disabled (Default) False, Enabled True.
VSYNC psvita.vita3k_vsync Fix screen tearing.
⇒ Disabled False, Enabled (Default) True.

Controls

Here are the default PlayStation Vita's controls shown on a Batocera RetroPad:

Troubleshooting

Further troubleshooting

For further troubleshooting, refer to the generic support pages.

  • systems/psvita.txt
  • Last modified: 5 months ago
  • by atari