The ps2-web-recomp project can launch Gran Turismo 4 at a steady 50 fps in Chrome on a laptop’s integrated GPU, rendering at twice the console’s native resolution. The same pipeline also runs God of War II at 60 fps in heavy combat, showing that static recompilation can deliver real‑time PS2 performance in the browser.
How static recompilation works
The toolchain reads a disc’s executable, follows control flow, and emits C++ in 16 KiB units that preserve the Emotion Engine’s quirks—128‑bit registers, branch delay slots, and a non‑IEEE floating‑point model. Those units become WebAssembly modules, while a lightweight PS2 kernel provides high‑level emulation of threads, interrupts, and I/O. Vector‑unit microcode is compiled ahead of time into SIMD C++ and then into WebAssembly, allowing the GPU to run the game’s graphics via WebGPU compute shaders.
Performance and hardware needs
Running the browser build requires a WebGPU‑capable browser (Chrome or Edge). On Linux, WebGPU must be enabled via chrome://flags/#enable-unsafe-webgpu and chrome://flags/#enable-vulkan. Without WebGPU the fallback software renderer is too slow for 3D. The project needs roughly 300 MB of disk space per game for generated code and builds, and a modern GPU to sustain 50 fps at double resolution.
Getting a game running
You need git, CMake, Ninja, a C++20 compiler, Python 3, and 7‑Zip for compressed ISOs. After cloning the repo, scripts/port.sh mygame "My Game.iso" translates the disc, records vector‑unit programs, and builds both a web page and a native runner. Serve the page with scripts/serve.py and open the generated URL, e.g., localhost server. The browser stores a virtual memory card locally, so progress survives reloads.
Caveats and when to try it
Only two games have been fully ported; most other titles will likely stop at an unimplemented syscall or missing IOP library, which the runner logs as [sys] unhandled syscall or [iop] missing …. The repository contains no game data, so you must supply your own disc images and keep them private. If you have a supported GPU and are comfortable with a build pipeline, try the demo with Gran Turismo 4 to gauge whether the performance meets your needs before investing time in porting another title.
