Apollo PS4 Save Tool in Development by Bucanero

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Developer bucanero (Twitter) of the corresponding Apollo Save Tool for PS3 and PKGi PS3 recently announced that an Apollo PS4 Save Tool for the PS4Scene is currently in development on his Github repository with some preliminary details below. 🤩

Download: apollo-ps4-main.zip (WIP) / GIT

He currently runs a blog at Bucanero.com.ar, those who would like to support his ongoing development work can do so via DParrino (Senza Codici) on Patreon or Bucanerodev (Marcelo Parrino) on PayPal and to quote from bucanero on the Apollo Save Tool for PS4 progress thus far:

Apollo PS4 Save Tool in Development by Bucanero 2.jpgApollo keeps growing! ;) After some time playing around with the open source PS4 ***s, I have completed a rough port of Apollo to the PS4 :D

This still needs a lot of work, so don’t ask for a release date.

  • I need to remove a bunch of stuff that won’t be available on the PS4 (trophies, ps2 classic stuff, licenses, etc.)
  • Add code to properly mount and unmount PS4 saves
  • Add little-endian support to the game-genie/BSD patching engine
  • Review the GUI and adjust screens, messages, dialogs, etc.
  • Improve overall responsiveness (clean-up the ported code)
  • Lots of testing

For anyone who wants to help:

  • Please collect and share GameGenie / SaveWizard codes and patches for PS4 saves, so we can build a nice patch database for Apollo PS4
  • If you have a jailbroken PS4 and want to test a beta in the future, let me know

Development notes:

  • The code uses Open Orbis *** with a bunch of libraries that I ported (dbglogger, orbis2d, polarssl, libzip)
  • I’ll later upload all the OpenOrbis ported libraries to github here: OOSDK_Libraries
  • As usual, Apollo is open-source: Apollo PS4 Github
  • Open Orbis *** is C++ oriented, but since Apollo code was pure C, I ended up mixing stuff from the orbisdev ***. Credits to the open-orbis and orbisdev teams for their work on the PS4.
  • Currently Open Orbis has no 3D support, so without 3D acceleration the screen rendering is really slow… (drawing everything pixel by pixel).
  • I’m doing further tests and checking other options to keep a decent GUI without turning the app slow and unresponsive.
  • If required I might have to trim down the UI and make it more “spartan”, so drawing it is faster with less fancy textures, and stuff (probably Berion will be suffering again :D)

Yes, my goal is to achieve the same save-game functionality on PS4 as Apollo has on the PS3. There’s a long road ahead, but most of the heavy work is already there. I just need to adjust and tweak for the PS4 platform.

I have been working on branching a new apollo-library, that handles all the save-game patching (game genie/save wizard codes and BSD codes), with support for both little-endian (PS4) and big-endian (PS3) processors (ideally that library could be used in any platform).

I have also adjusted the UI render (now it looks almost like the PS3 screen), but I’m still trying different alternatives, to balance “visuals” and “response speed”. I’m still unhappy with the responsiveness.

Apollo PS4 Save Tool in Development by Bucanero 3.jpgOnce I get those 2 tasks solved, I’ll jump into the pure PS4-native challenge (mounting, editing, and un-mounting ps4 save-games). Now Apollo can properly list PS4 saves.

:note: Below are some handy PS4 Save-related links for those interested:

:idea: Finally, in related news a work-in-progress PS4 Save Signer PKG from Team Alua with updates via ac2pic was also added to Github recently… if anyone gives it a try let us know in the comments below.

Download: IV0000-BREW00085_00-SAVESIGNER000000.pkg (WIP) (6.31 MB) / GIT

And from the README.md: PS4 Save Signer

WIP socket server

Credits

Cheers to @yyoossk on Twitter for the initial heads-up earlier! 🍻

Apollo PS4 Save Tool in Development by Bucanero.jpg