Help:Building RPCS3

Official, up-to-date instructions for Windows and Linux can be found in the readme. However, many build platforms are supported partially by the development team i.e. pull requests are accepted from various members of the community who have taken to ensuring that other platforms can also build RPCS3 correctly. However, they are not actively maintained by the development team, and as a result many Unices such as macOS and FreeBSD break often. You can find the build process detailed for several less-common platforms below.

Dependencies

RPCS3 uses many 3rd party libraries and projects. Most notably, in order to build the project, you will need the following:

• CMake 3.16.9+
• Python 3.6+
• Qt 6.6.3
• Vulkan SDK 1.3.268.0 (Has to be this version) For instructions see "Install the SDK" here

In addition, GCC 11+ or Clang 12+ are the minimum needed compilers.

Clone

Clone and initialize the repository:

git clone https://github.com/RPCS3/rpcs3.git
cd rpcs3
git submodule update --init

macOS

Support for macOS is highly experimental. On Apple silicon Macs, Rosetta and the x64 version of Homebrew must be used:

# run an x64 shell
arch -x86_64 zsh
# install x64 brew
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
# set x64 brew env
eval "$(/usr/local/Homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"
# install dependencies
brew install llvm@18 molten-vk vulkan-headers sdl2 nasm ninja cmake glew git ffmpeg@5 python pipenv
brew link -f ffmpeg@5

We need to install Qt6, brew's version is incompatible with the project so we get it manually

if [ ! -d "./6.6.3" ]; then
    mkdir -p "/tmp/Qt"
    mkdir -p "./6.6.3/macos"
    cd 6.6.3 && ln -s macos clang_64 && cd ..
    git -C /tmp/Qt clone https://github.com/engnr/qt-downloader.git
    git -C /tmp/Qt/qt-downloader checkout f52efee0f18668c6d6de2dec0234b8c4bc54c597
    export PIPENV_PIPFILE="/tmp/Qt/qt-downloader/Pipfile"
    pipenv install
    pipenv run /tmp/Qt/qt-downloader/qt-downloader macos desktop 6.6.3 clang_64 --opensource --addons qtmultimedia
fi

You will also need to remember to set environment vars:

export CXX=clang++
export CC=clang
export Qt6_DIR="$PWD/6.6.3/macos/lib/cmake/Qt6"
export PATH="$PWD/6.6.3/macos/bin:/usr/local/opt/llvm@18/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/opt/X11/bin:/Library/Apple/usr/bin"
export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/opt/llvm@18/lib -Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/opt/llvm@18/lib"
export CXXFLAGS="-I/usr/local/opt/llvm@18/include -msse -msse2 -mcx16 -no-pie"
export CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH="/usr/local/opt/molten-vk/include"
export VULKAN_SDK="/usr/local/opt/molten-vk"
export VK_ICD_FILENAMES="$VULKAN_SDK/share/vulkan/icd.d/MoltenVK_icd.json"

Some symbolic links to moltenVK may be necessary for CMake to detect Vulkan:

ln -s "$VULKAN_SDK/lib/libMoltenVK.dylib" "$VULKAN_SDK/lib/libvulkan.dylib"
mkdir -p 3rdparty/MoltenVK/MoltenVK/Build/Products/Release/dynamic && ln -s "$VULKAN_SDK/lib/libMoltenVK.dylib" ./3rdparty/MoltenVK/MoltenVK/Build/Products/Release/dynamic/libMoltenVK.dylib

Build

cd .. && mkdir rpcs3_build && cd rpcs3_build
cmake -DUSE_DISCORD_RPC=OFF -DUSE_VULKAN=ON -DUSE_ALSA=OFF -DUSE_PULSE=OFF -DUSE_AUDIOUNIT=ON -G Ninja -DLLVM_CCACHE_BUILD=OFF -DLLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD="X86" -DLLVM_BUILD_RUNTIME=OFF -DLLVM_BUILD_TOOLS=OFF -DLLVM_INCLUDE_DOCS=OFF -DLLVM_INCLUDE_EXAMPLES=OFF -DLLVM_INCLUDE_TESTS=OFF -DLLVM_INCLUDE_TOOLS=OFF -DLLVM_INCLUDE_UTILS=OFF -DLLVM_USE_PERF=OFF -DLLVM_ENABLE_Z3_SOLVER=OFF -DCMAKE_CXX_STANDARD=20 -DUSE_NATIVE_INSTRUCTIONS=OFF -DUSE_SYSTEM_FFMPEG=ON ../rpcs3/
ninja

Run

open ./bin/rpcs3.app

Msys2

There is some support for non-MSVC based compilation on Windows. The Msys2 platform using the Mingw build tools did work at one point, though it should be noted that the following instructions are outdated.

Dependencies

pacman -S base-devel mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake mingw-w64-x86_64-yasm mingw-w64-x86_64-python2 mingw-w64-x86_64-ntldd-git mingw-w64-x86_64-qt5 mingw-w64-x86_64-openal mingw-w64-x86_64-glew git

Clone

git clone https://github.com/RPCS3/rpcs3.git
cd rpcs3
git submodule update --init

Configure

cd .. && mkdir rpcs3_build && cd rpcs3_build
cmake -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM=mingw32-make ../rpcs3/
mingw32-make.exe GitVersion && mingw32-make.exe discord-rpc

Build

mingw32-make -jX #X is core count

Install

cd ./bin
for l in $(ntldd.exe -R rpcs3.exe|grep mingw64|sed -e 's/^[ \t]*//'|cut -d' ' -f3);do cp $l .;done

mkdir -p ./qt/plugins/{bearer,imageformats,platforms,styles}
cp /mingw64/share/qt5/plugins/bearer/qgenericbearer.dll ./qt/plugins/bearer/
cp /mingw64/share/qt5/plugins/imageformats/{qgif.dll,qicns.dll,qico.dll,qjpeg.dll,qtga.dll,qtiff.dll,qwbmp.dll,qwebp.dll} ./qt/plugins/imageformats/
cp /mingw64/share/qt5/plugins/platforms/qwindows.dll ./qt/plugins/platforms/
cp /mingw64/share/qt5/plugins/styles/qwindowsvistastyle.dll ./qt/plugins/styles/

Run

./rpcs3

CMake Build Options

All CMake options are enabled or disabled using the parameters ON or OFF respectively.

Option	Default	Description
-DUSE_NATIVE_INSTRUCTIONS=	ON	Build with -march=native, which is useful for local builds, but not good for packages.
-DWITH_LLVM=	ON	Build with LLVM.
-DBUILD_LLVM_SUBMODULE=	ON	Build with pre-built LLVM libraries from RPCS3 git submodule.
-DUSE_ALSA=	ON	Build with ALSA audio backend.
-DUSE_PULSE=	ON	Build with PulseAudio audio backend.
-DUSE_LIBEVDEV=	ON	Build with libevdev-based joystick support.
-DUSE_DISCORD_RPC=	ON	Build with Discord Rich Presence integration.
-DUSE_SYSTEM_ZLIB=	ON	Build with system ZLIB instead of the built-in one.
-DUSE_VULKAN=	ON	Build with Vulkan support.
-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=	OFF	?
-DSKIP_GLSLANG_INSTALL=	?	?
-DENABLE_AMD_EXTENSIONS=	ON	Build with support for AMD-specific extensions.
-DENABLE_GLSLANG_BINARIES=	ON	?
-DENABLE_NV_EXTENSIONS=	ON	Build with support for NVIDIA-specific extensions.
-DENABLE_HLSL=	ON	?
-DENABLE_OPT=	ON	?
-DUNITY_BUILD_EMU=	OFF	?
-DUSE_SYSTEM_LIBPNG=	OFF	Build against the shared libpng instead of using the built-in one. libpng 1.6+ highly recommended. Try this option if you get version conflict errors or only see black game icons.
-DUSE_SYSTEM_FFMPEG=	OFF	Build against the shared FFmpeg libraries instead of using the built-in patched version. Try this if the built-in version breaks the OpenGL renderer for you.