A new compatibility layer for high-level emulation of the PlayStation 4 has begun showing some notable progress in the open-source scene. Emulation developer Force67 has started work on PS4Delta, a software host for running games on a 64-bit version of Windows, and he’s picked up some help from a few notable names in the emulation scene.

According to Wololo.net, Force67 has been joined by Inori from GPCS4, working with him on developing PS4Delta, which is still in the early phases of development but making some fast headway.

The Github page lays down the basic groundwork, acknowledging that this experimental compatibility layer for PS4 emulation is only barely functional.

However, it shows a lot of promise because instead of trying to explore low-level emulation by trying to recreate how the software talks to the metal, they’re attempting to emulate some of the hardware calls through hooks that work with Windows.

Wololo points out that while progress is slow and nascent, they have managed to get the PS4’s ELF executables to run, and boot into the PS4 version of Journey.

They also managed to get some basic implementation of I/O file access, and decryption of stubs. The next step is to start working on implementing PS4 functions and from there, stability and compatibility.

While PS3 emulation has really taken off, with the RPCS3 managing to play some games at 1080p and 60fps, PS4 emulation this gen has been rather slow. However, if this new HLE approach to getting PS4 games to run on Windows turns out to be a fruitful venture, then expect to see more developers join in on the open source project to see it brought to life.

There aren’t too many noteworthy games I would be excited to see emulated on the PS4, but there’s definitely a few more gems on Sony’s system than what’s available on the Xbox One at the moment.

(Thanks for the news tip LatinoHeat)