shadPS4 v0.21.0 "Until Mavethee Dawn": platinum trophy fix and a faster shader math option

The PlayStation 4 emulator shadPS4 released version 0.21.0, codenamed "Until Mavethee Dawn", on October 30, 2026, two weeks after 0.20.0. A pre-release build dated November 1 is already available for the curious. Core fixes include reworked analog input smoothing, Rosetta 2 workarounds on Mac, stable file identities for stat and fstat, and fixes for a shutdown deadlock and a memory unmap bug.

On the system library side, the update adds new I/O event queue APIs, mounting of temporary app content data, high-level emulation of USB storage and the music player, a rewrite of np_auth, ATRAC9 RIFF header parsing and posix_flock support. A bug that kept platinum trophies from ever unlocking is also fixed, good news for trophy hunters.

Rendering and shaders

The video core improves PM4 packet handling and fixes several texture cache issues, and adds RenderDoc support on drivers without capture replay. The shader recompiler gains a fast_shader_math setting that relaxes floating point rules to gain speed at the cost of some precision, along with instruction and barrier analysis fixes.

To try it: the shadPS4 releases page (Windows, Linux, macOS) or, easier, the QtLauncher and its version manager. The official quick start guide is in the project wiki. Reminder: the emulator is still in development and you must use your own games and system files dumped from your own PS4.

Source: GitHub shadPS4