PS3 Hardware Acceleration for RSX GPU in OtherOS++ (PS3 Linux)

Updates about this project can be seen here

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In 2018 we have already seen so much progress on the PlayStation 3 with a variety of new exploits and hacks that have opened many new avenues for people to join the homebrew community. However, the community developer's still are not done making new breakthroughs on the platform. One roadblock has remained on the PS3 and that was Hardware Acceleration on the NVIDIA RSX GPU, while we have seen the PS Vita / PSTV get HW Acceleration recently and how its has helped many projects on the platform. the PPC / CELL environment of the PS3 offers a challenging adventure with the architecture that the PS3 is built on, that sadly not many have been able to undertake and solve over the years, however that may of just changed.......​

Developer RenéRebe has made some great progress on the PS3 in OtherOS++ (PS3 Linux), He produced a video on YouTube detailing the technical side of this breakthrough for PS3 Linux (OtherOS++) that Hopefully (my personal hope) can benefit GameOS one day as well so that we can improve the overall homebrew landscape as well like perhaps finally the inclusion of an N64 emulator(?) or Improved 3d emulation in general, we know the hardware (if emu contains a PPC port) can do it, point to the internal emulators of PS2 / PSP / PS1 emulation to gauge the capabilities of emulation on the HW.
​

-STLcardsWS​

via Dev's YouTube

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  PS3/Linux NVidia RSX HW Acceleration​
  
  
  ​
  
  
  My summary of three nights of debugging to get PS3/Linux hardware accelerated X working again. It is finally up and running; in OtherOS++ with full access to the NVdia RSX GPU​
  
  
  Update: Also the developer posted this video a few days prior to the one above​
  
  
  Running PS3 PPC64 Linux in GameOS w/ FULL ACCESS RIGHTS!
  

  The first steps on the way to make PS3 Linux great again, and run it with full GameOS rights! ​

Checkout the developer's YouTube Channel for other great video's :
Thanks @gercapo for the Alert​

 

no

You could port a linux kernel to run in gameos. Not that anyone will..

 

Any chance to play latest MAME Romset With this method ?

 

that's really confusing to me, because AFAIK PS3 firmware 2.10 blocked the RSX Exploit that was allowing full GPU access in Linux (i.e. OtherOS).

So, I haven't heard anyone has found new RSX exploit running on 2.10+. That's why, how's simple tinkering with driver source code can bypass the protection without RSX exploit?!

In fact, even 'glevand', who made so much including "xf86-video-ps3gpu" driver did not find anything like the RSX Exploit present before PS3 firmware 2.10 (i don't know, maybe he didn't even look for such exploit, because "xf86-video-ps3gpu" objectives were different than full 3D hardware acceleration in Linux).

In anyway, I am really confused by this news, there is either some misunderstanding from my side or some misreporting or I don't know...

[EDIT] Actually, in 2016 reputable devs in the scene(i am sure most of you recognize their names) found new exploit - google for "PS3 GPU Full VRAM/IO access exploit". Apparently and very unfortunately it seems no source code was developed based on it. I cannot find even the old code that was working for firmwares lower than 2.10, maybe it's lost, after all more than 10 years has passed...

[EDIT2] the only clue about FW 2.00 exploit that gave full 3D i found is "libps3rsx" - all links are death. that's sad, because now we can downgrade most fat PS3 to FW 2.00 very easy and still use that work even without new exploit.

[EDIT3] Archive org, helped me to dig up the past - old post from 2007-8 by "ps2devman" that summarizes the status:

I'll try to answer you by gathering what have been done so far :

Thanks to IronPeter, you get control over 70% of the power of a Nv40 GPU (named RSX) on PS3's with firmwares < 2.10 (if you have 2.10 or above you have no GPU under your control, only a 2D space that is sent to screen every frame by Hypervisor itself through your authorized call).

"ps3rsx" source code is IronPeter's 3D sample
(Control over GPU is useful for 2 things. One is Hardware Accelerated 3D)

Glaurung's Linux kernel patch
(Other thing is kernel control of 2D bitblits with specific properties.)

IronPeter's last 3D samples are tuned to run with Glaurung's kernel mod.

If you run Linux or OtherOS software (Mc made one) and use Glaurung's method to open RSX to regular kernel control, you obtain 2D hardware acceleration in a compatible enough way so all 2D ports you do will get accelerated. 3D ports is another affair. There is no friendly OpenGL port or similar made to take advantage of IronPeters's discoveries. So you can do accelerated 3D but by programming it at very low level. So no direct 3D ports are possible. Also the lack of TILE and ZCOMP access reduces by 30% the performance and the number of PS3's with firmware<2.10 is probably low on the planet at the moment...

So that's the current situation.

I assume lastest posts you see above in this thread are the lastest attempts to unlock RSX on firmwares >= 2.10 (failed so far).

There are projects in progress for firmwares >= 2.10 involving SPE's to replace a GPU by a set of several SPE's (CPU is named Cell, holding 1 PPE and 6 free to use SPE's). Also, no OpenGL or similar yet for taking advantage of SPE's.

Thus, this thread is still very interesting to survey...
(Note that my own firmwares are <2.10 and I don't plan to upgrade them!)

About performances :
fw>=2.10 : All direct ports will be slow (until SPE based mod works).
fw<2.10 : 2D direct ports will be fast (if you apply Glaurung's mod).
3D direct ports will be slow (won't use RSX unless recoded entirely).

JimParis pushed a mod that should work on all firmwares under Linux.
It's the ability to use 252Mb of gpu-side ram as an extension of the limited 256Mb cpu-side ram. I guess this extra ram is seen as a fast media storage. Still a 2D direct port that needs 500Mb will fail (or be very slow), for example. Needs to rewrite a few to take advantage of the extra 252Mb because, even if 'swapping' is possible (as said in JimParis' ps3nvram driver description, I doubt it will do any good to a piece of software that didn't expect to have only 256Mb of physical ram... So it's better to reduce the amount of memory a software port needs and switch manually at pr
oper -chosen- time).

 

If I were on a "jailbreakable" ps3 , I could have used this hack. But poor me, I own a ps3 super slim on OFW 4.82. Nothing for me!!!!

 

then, does it mean that it would / would be possible to create a modified video drive for ps3?

 

I am very aroused

 

To anyone,

Do i have to install a new Linux which makes use of the gpu or can i still use my red ribbon linux and wait for a community patch or something???

 

that's really confusing to me, because AFAIK PS3 firmware 2.10 blocked the RSX Exploit that was allowing full GPU access in Linux (i.e. OtherOS).

So, I haven't heard anyone has found new RSX exploit running on 2.10+. That's why, how's simple tinkering with driver source code can bypass the protection without RSX exploit?!

In fact, even 'glevand', who made so much including "xf86-video-ps3gpu" driver did not find anything like the RSX Exploit present before PS3 firmware 2.10 (i don't know, maybe he didn't even look for such exploit, because "xf86-video-ps3gpu" objectives were different than full 3D hardware acceleration in Linux).

In anyway, I am really confused by this news, there is either some misunderstanding from my side or some misreporting or I don't know...

[EDIT] Actually, in 2016 reputable devs in the scene(i am sure most of you recognize their names) found new exploit - google for "PS3 GPU Full VRAM/IO access exploit". Apparently and very unfortunately it seems no source code was developed based on it. I cannot find even the old code that was working for firmwares lower than 2.10, maybe it's lost, after all more than 10 years has passed...

[EDIT2] the only clue about FW 2.00 exploit that gave full 3D i found is "libps3rsx" - all links are death. that's sad, because now we can downgrade most fat PS3 to FW 2.00 very easy and still use that work even without new exploit.

[EDIT3] Archive org, helped me to dig up the past - old post from 2007-8 by "ps2devman" that summarizes the status:

Not 100% if i understand your post correctly or your concerns.

The title of the first video is:

PS3/Linux NVidia RSX HW accelerated X working again!

Here was the release post with that source code.
https://playstationhax.xyz/forums/topic/2807-release-full-rsx-vramio-access-exploit/

Its coming from a creditable source and it was not put out there and promoted, the dev states he will be doing some more work and detailing some new info in an upcoming video. So we will have to stay tuned and wait. Seems he has alot of various projects on alot of platforms.

 

Not 100% if i understand your post correctly or your concerns.

The title of the first video is:
PS3/Linux NVidia RSX HW accelerated X working again!

exactly and my point is: any type of "HW acceleration" with RSX - is it possible without RSX exploit?! If yes, what can be "HW acceleration" with RSX without exploit and what needs such.

So, in the video I see only tinkering with old drivers source code, not deploying any RSX exploit. That's why I am confused about the video and what that guy in the video is trying to achieve and the way he's trying to achieve it.

At least when I read "again!" I was thinking it means what we lost after FW2.0, because I am no aware of any loss of "HW acceleration" with RSX since FW2.10.

Here was the release post with that source code.

2807-release-full-rsx-vramio-access-exploit

Its coming from a creditable source...

that's exactly what I stated about RSX Exploit from 2016 - I wrote in my post above:

===
in 2016 reputable devs in the scene(i am sure most of you recognize their names) found new exploit - google for "PS3 GPU Full VRAM/IO access exploit".
===

so, no any doubt or question that 2016 exploit is real deal, but again, I see no use of the RSX exploit in the video...

in summary, my question is: on FW2.10+ (because Sony fix the old RSX exploit from 2007 there) and without the new "PS3 GPU Full VRAM/IO access exploit" from 2016 being utilized, then what kind HW acceleration you can get with RSX with just changes in the drivers source code as the video shows?

 

We dont know if he is using the RSX exploit from 2016 @m4tt
Maybe he is using it but is not mentioned in the video ?

His youtube channel is a bit special, this video was "one more" in the channel, the way i see it was like an overview of what he was tweaking at the rsx source codes he found... but not explained in detail

And thx for your messages btw, are very explicative

 

"we have seen the PS Vita / PSTV get HW Acceleration recently" uhmm what?

 

"we have seen the PS Vita / PSTV get HW Acceleration recently" uhmm what?

Might be talking about the overclock, you can overclock the vita now

 

"we have seen the PS Vita / PSTV get HW Acceleration recently" uhmm what?

I think that @STLcardsWS meant there VitaGL library. Which as far as i understand is using GPU for operations. So is 3D library hardware accelerated by GPU.

 

"we have seen the PS Vita / PSTV get HW Acceleration recently" uhmm what?

I think that @STLcardsWS meant there VitaGL library. Which as far as i understand is using GPU for operations. So is 3D library hardware accelerated by GPU.

Yea, various homebrew now supporting VitaGL is fully hardware accelerated
VitaQuake , Half-Life/Counter Strike Port, to name a few now supporting

 

exactly and my point is: any type of "HW acceleration" with RSX - is it possible without RSX exploit?! If yes, what can be "HW acceleration" with RSX without exploit and what needs such.

So, in the video I see only tinkering with old drivers source code, not deploying any RSX exploit. That's why I am confused about the video and what that guy in the video is trying to achieve and the way he's trying to achieve it.

At least when I read "again!" I was thinking it means what we lost after FW2.0, because I am no aware of any loss of "HW acceleration" with RSX since FW2.10.



that's exactly what I stated about RSX Exploit from 2016 - I wrote in my post above:

===
in 2016 reputable devs in the scene(i am sure most of you recognize their names) found new exploit - google for "PS3 GPU Full VRAM/IO access exploit".
===

so, no any doubt or question that 2016 exploit is real deal, but again, I see no use of the RSX exploit in the video...

in summary, my question is: on FW2.10+ (because Sony fix the old RSX exploit from 2007 there) and without the new "PS3 GPU Full VRAM/IO access exploit" from 2016 being utilized, then what kind HW acceleration you can get with RSX with just changes in the drivers source code as the video shows?

I am sure he has done more then the video is showing or detailed,

He is available on twitter, might be a good idea to throw some questions his way

 

I asked him how the progress is getting on on youtube and this is his reply:-

First had to do some other videos to diversify my YT start, as mentioned in other comments, will continue with that the coming weeks. Mostly just debugging why some bits and peaces do not work as they did a decade ago anymore, certainly requiring some trial'n error and many reboots. I'm really surprised nobody did this the last 10 years, ...

 

I asked him how the progress is getting on on youtube and this is his reply:-

First had to do some other videos to diversify my YT start, as mentioned in other comments, will continue with that the coming weeks. Mostly just debugging why some bits and peaces do not work as they did a decade ago anymore, certainly requiring some trial'n error and many reboots. I'm really surprised nobody did this the last 10 years, ...

what that guy is really talking about ?!

things that work decade ago, doesn't work now simply, because Sony released FW 2.10 and blocked the old RSX exploit from 2007.

the almighty 'glevand' made RSX driver not only for Linux, but even for FreeBSD, you can Google for "xf86-video-ps3gpu" and "ps3freebsd-xf86-video-ps3gpu". he even supported/updated that driver for years when there were changes in the kernels of Linux and FreeBSD - AFAIK, that driver still works as good as in the old days. Also, glevand's "ps3gpu" driver has all RSX hardware accelerations that could be achieved without RSX exploit.

I really don't know, either that guy is totally unaware and ignorant of all development done by the PS3 scene over the years or he just talks in way I don't understand him. Or it's all to boost his Youtube ratings and profit as he himself said "videos to diversify my YT" and no other real results are in his agenda.

 

Been reading the talks in the video just now and found a couple of interesting messages

Well, yes I thought it was obvious, as this was working a decade ago with a hypervisor insecurity up to FW 2.10 (or what that was, I think I mentioned in the video). I obviously will sort the patches nicely into t2 and publish the details and more videos soon!

He is aware of the RSX exploit

yes, as I already mentioned in other comments I will setup a #t2sde/#ps3 ISO image in some weeks. We have a ppc ISO but historically this was only for Mac's, IBM/Morotrola PReP and pSeries and such, never felt like messing with this petitlinux boot loader thing, but I will do this now ;_)

It seems a linux T2 build for PS3 is incoming

 

that's really confusing to me, because AFAIK PS3 firmware 2.10 blocked the RSX Exploit that was allowing full GPU access in Linux (i.e. OtherOS).

So, I haven't heard anyone has found new RSX exploit running on 2.10+. That's why, how's simple tinkering with driver source code can bypass the protection without RSX exploit?!

In fact, even 'glevand', who made so much including "xf86-video-ps3gpu" driver did not find anything like the RSX Exploit present before PS3 firmware 2.10 (i don't know, maybe he didn't even look for such exploit, because "xf86-video-ps3gpu" objectives were different than full 3D hardware acceleration in Linux).

In anyway, I am really confused by this news, there is either some misunderstanding from my side or some misreporting or I don't know...

[EDIT] Actually, in 2016 reputable devs in the scene(i am sure most of you recognize their names) found new exploit - google for "PS3 GPU Full VRAM/IO access exploit". Apparently and very unfortunately it seems no source code was developed based on it. I cannot find even the old code that was working for firmwares lower than 2.10, maybe it's lost, after all more than 10 years has passed...

[EDIT2] the only clue about FW 2.00 exploit that gave full 3D i found is "libps3rsx" - all links are death. that's sad, because now we can downgrade most fat PS3 to FW 2.00 very easy and still use that work even without new exploit.

[EDIT3] Archive org, helped me to dig up the past - old post from 2007-8 by "ps2devman" that summarizes the status:

I have the libps3rsx's source code,
However i can't post links because i am a new user,I will send it to you in a private message.

 

I have the libps3rsx's source code,
However i can't post links because i am a new user,I will send it to you in a private message.

Try it again, posting links is "unlocked" after the 6th user message (and you have 6 right now)