shadPS4 v0.20 and v0.21: the PS4 emulator's shadNet goes stable and Bloodborne online play is official on PC

shadPS4, the PS4 emulator, put out three stable releases in October 2026: v0.19.0 on October 2, v0.20.0 on October 14 and v0.21.0 on October 30. The big one is v0.20.0. It followed the first stable release of shadNet 0.1.0, the project's own online service, and the release notes say it plainly: "yes Bloodborne fans, online Bloodborne is now officially available." v0.21.0 is a fix release that, among other things, makes the platinum trophy unlock again and works around two Rosetta 2 crashes on Mac. As of November 1, 2026, v0.21.0 is the latest stable version.

The three releases

v0.19.0 came more than a month after v0.18.0. v0.20.0 came just 12 days later, and the notes open with "That was close wasn't it? I know you are not used to so close releases." The v0.21.0 post adds that the release lands close to the anniversary of the repo's first commit, "so it is also kinda the birthday of shadPS4."

v0.20.0: Bloodborne online goes official

v0.20.0 is built around online play:

• sceNet rewritten with peer-to-peer support;
• a signaling fix ("always answer the offer") and new shadNet notifications;
• a fix for 33 ms of input smoothing that was accidentally applied to analog sticks and triggers;
• part two of the renderer optimizations (texture cache) and shader recompiler fixes, including NaN handling and instance IDs;
• recursive folder scanning in Big Picture mode, and CJK fonts that load regardless of the console language setting.

The notes include videos of P2P sessions over shadNet. The release is dedicated to developer Stephen, who is taking a break for his studies, which explains the codename.

How shadNet got here

The team also posted a short clarification on what shadNet is:

• it only supports libraries that shadPS4 already emulates;
• it uses its own protocol and cannot replace or connect to PSN;
• so only shadPS4 can connect to shadNet;
• most online games use their own custom servers and services, which shadNet doesn't and won't provide.

So Bloodborne works because its online features go through Sony's system libraries, which shadNet now answers. You play with other shadPS4 users only.

v0.21.0: a fix release

The v0.21.0 change list is long. The practical items:

• platinum trophies that never unlocked now do;
• Mac: workarounds for Rosetta 2 mistranslating negated scalar compares and crashing on VMASKMOVPS/PD, plus RenderDoc paths for macOS;
• a new fast_shader_math setting that relaxes float rules for speed;
• libraries: I/O event queues, the music player service, virtual USB storage, add-on content mounting, temporary data mounts, file locks, and an np_auth rewrite;
• controllers: scePadReadExt, and the DualShock 4 touchpad height now reports 942 like real hardware;
• network: the emulator answers PS4 device discovery on UDP 987;
• video core: garbage collector part 2, stencil-only depth targets, PM4 packet fixes.

Daily pre-release builds continue after it.

What this means for players

If you play Bloodborne on PC through shadPS4, v0.20.0 or later plus a shadNet account gets you online, but only with other shadPS4 players. Other games depend on whether their online code uses Sony's libraries; most big online games won't start working because of this. For the emulator's status, requirements and platforms, see the shadPS4 page. For Bloodborne across devices, see the Bloodborne page. If you'd rather skip emulation, October also brought bbport, which turns Bloodborne into a native PC program. The year as a whole is covered in shadPS4 in 2026.