Play supported PS Vita games as native Windows applications, with improved controller touch input and smoother high-refresh-rate PC streaming.
An unofficial Windows-focused fork of Project Nativ, developed and tested with Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Killzone: Mercenary, and DualShock 4 touch controls.
The short version: This fork packages a complete Windows Project Nativ environment and concentrates on practical gameplay improvements: more responsive PS Vita touch emulation using a PlayStation controller, improved touch input, steadier frame presentation while streaming, and optional experimental 120 FPS operation. Download the current tested distribution from Releases.
Project Nativ is a static-recompilation project that can rebuild supported PS Vita games into native desktop programs. That is a remarkable starting point, but playing those games on a PC—or streaming them to an Android handheld—introduces practical differences from the original Vita hardware.
Two problems motivated this fork:
- Touch controls: Uncharted: Golden Abyss uses the Vita's front touchscreen and rear touch surface. A DualShock 4 touchpad is a natural substitute, but brief taps, drag gestures, modifier buttons, and occasional cursor stuttering made some interactions awkward.
- Streaming and frame pacing: The Windows runtime could vary in presentation behavior with focus changes, the Windows taskbar, or an active streaming overlay. The goal was predictable gameplay and smoother presentation over Nightjar, including higher-refresh-rate experiments.
Development and hands-on testing focused on a Windows gaming PC streaming to an Astra 2 Android handheld using Nightjar Custom. The improvements are not limited in principle to that hardware, but other devices and configurations have not all been tested.
This fork does not replace or claim to be the original Project Nativ. It builds on the upstream project and maintains a downloadable custom Windows distribution for these specific improvements.
| Improvement | What it does |
|---|---|
| DualShock 4 touchpad controls | Uses the controller touchpad to emulate Vita touch interactions, including taps and drag gestures. |
| Front/rear touch targeting | Rear-touch behavior by default, with L1/R1 modifiers for changing the emulated touch target. |
| Better tap and drag handling | Improves detection of short taps and physical touchpad click-hold-drag-release sequences. |
| Cleaner cursor behavior | Reduces unwanted touch-cursor overlays during normal gameplay. |
| Android handheld touchscreen input | Improves recognition of short touches and longer presses when using the streamed handheld's screen. |
| Frame-aware presentation | Reduces unnecessary rendering/presentation work to support more consistent Windows and streamed gameplay. |
| Optional 120 FPS mode | Adds experimental 120 Hz timing and 30/60/120 FPS configuration options; results depend on the game and hardware. |
| Complete Windows distribution | Packages the launcher, runtime, Python environment, toolchain, and supporting files for Windows setup without building the entire development environment yourself. |
These are custom-fork changes or packaging improvements layered on top of Project Nativ's existing game recompilation and runtime technology. They do not mean every game supports every feature.
Get the current tested Windows distribution: Project Nativ Custom — Releases.
- Open Releases, select the latest stable custom release, and download the Windows distribution ZIP.
- Extract the entire archive to its own directory; do not launch the executable from inside the ZIP.
- Open the extracted
ProjectNativfolder and runProject Nativ.exe. - Follow the launcher setup to provide your own legally obtained game files and Sony PS Vita firmware. This project does not supply them.
- Build or recompile the supported game from the launcher. An existing compiled game executable may not include the new runtime changes until you recompile it.
- Configure the desired frame-rate and input options, then play locally or stream from the Windows PC.
Keep a backup of any known-good distribution, game builds, and save data before switching versions. The published release ZIP, checksums, and build details are available on the Releases page, not only as expiring GitHub Actions artifacts.
Platform note: The packaged custom release is for Windows. The original Project Nativ also has macOS and Linux support, but this fork does not advertise tested custom binaries for those platforms.
For games with Vita touch requirements:
- DualShock 4 touchpad: Use the touchpad for emulated touch input. The fork was developed around rear-touch behavior with L1/R1 touch-target modifiers.
- Quick taps and drags: Short gestures, click-and-hold, dragging and release handling received particular attention.
- Android handheld: When streaming to an Astra 2 or similar device, the handheld's touchscreen can provide front-touch input in supported configurations.
- Vita system dialogs: Check D-pad and face-button navigation in save, load and other system menus after recompiling a game.
This fork was tested in a workflow where Project Nativ runs on the Windows PC and Nightjar Custom streams the desktop game to an Android handheld. Nightjar is a separate application: Project Nativ does not run natively on Android, and this Windows ZIP is not an Android APK.
The streaming host, network, controller pairing and client settings still determine end-to-end latency and stream quality. The frame-aware runtime is intended to avoid unnecessary work in the Windows game's own presentation path; it cannot eliminate network jitter or guarantee a particular FPS.
The underlying Project Nativ repository includes game packs for these US-region game versions:
| Game | Title ID | Supported upstream pack versions | Custom-fork testing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uncharted: Golden Abyss | PCSA00029 |
1.00 | Primary focus; local and Nightjar-streamed gameplay tested |
| Killzone: Mercenary | PCSA00107 |
1.00, 1.12 | Compiled and played; earlier 60 FPS streaming tests |
| Unit 13 | PCSA00014 |
1.00 | Included upstream pack; not independently verified for this fork |
| Shovel Knight | PCSE00640 |
1.00 | Included upstream pack; not independently verified for this fork |
Supported versions are matched against the game's executable. Other regions or later game updates are not automatically supported just because a game has the same title. Check the launcher and upstream player guide.
- 60 FPS: Earlier Uncharted and Killzone gameplay testing reached approximately 60 FPS locally and over Nightjar in the tested setups.
- 120 FPS: An experimental mode was implemented and tested successfully in Uncharted gameplay. This is not a blanket compatibility guarantee for cinematics, scripted events, animation timing or physics, and Killzone gameplay at 120 FPS was not established in the same way.
- Streaming: Higher configured FPS requires sufficient PC performance, streaming host/client support, display refresh rate, decoder capacity and network conditions.
Project Nativ is not conventional emulation. Its recompilation pipeline translates a supported PS Vita game's ARMv7/Thumb-2/VFP/NEON code into C ahead of time and compiles that output into a native desktop executable. It reconstructs the system-library and runtime behavior the game expects: threading, input, graphics, audio, media and networking.
The game and firmware are supplied locally by the user. No Sony firmware or commercial game code/data is included in this repository or release downloads.
For a detailed explanation, see Architecture, Runtime and Developer documentation.
The current baseline is the published Distribution 20 release, based on source commit c1af8e2669742d7e886bb5cbc56ab9edcc94420e. It restores the earlier UI/input implementation after a subsequent experimental change caused regressions. The underlying runtime and game source is not rebuilt merely by publishing a release.
For future downloads always use Releases rather than a hard-coded version URL. Release numbers and build filenames can change without requiring a README edit.
This repository's main branch contains the upstream-aligned project base. Custom Windows development and the Distribution 20 build were carried out on the experimental/120fps branch, with the accepted release pinned to its exact source commit. If you inspect or compile code, use the release tag/commit to reproduce the published version rather than assuming main contains all custom runtime changes.
The release ZIP is built using GitHub Actions. The published distribution includes the build metadata and a SHA-256 checksum file for integrity checking.
- 120 FPS is experimental. Some Vita titles may tie game logic or cinematic timing to their original frame rate.
- Touch input can still vary with load. Intermittent touch-cursor stuttering was observed during demanding scenes and cinematics; the accepted release is a stable baseline, not proof that every edge case is solved.
- Device coverage is limited. Hands-on testing primarily covered the Windows/Android handheld/DualShock 4 workflow described above.
- Not every upstream game pack has been independently verified with this fork.
- No bundled games or firmware. You must supply your own supported files.
- Recompilation may be required for existing installed game builds to pick up runtime changes.
For a useful bug report, include the release or source commit, game title ID/version, Windows and GPU information, controller model and connection method, local-versus-streamed behavior, reproduction steps, and logs if available. Please remove personal information from logs before sharing.
Open an issue for this fork for custom Windows distribution, touch-input or streaming-related problems. For general upstream Project Nativ behavior, see the original repository.
- Player guide — installing, first run, controls and troubleshooting
- Architecture — static recompilation and system/runtime design
- Developer guide — build pipeline, tools and game packs
- Runtime — graphics, timing, audio and input
- Verification — regression testing and validation
- Debugging — diagnostics, captures and logs
- Online play — matchmaking and networking
Project Nativ Custom is an independent, unofficial fork of Project Nativ by TheLostPantheon and contributors. The original project's static recompiler, game packs, platform runtime, launcher, documentation and foundational game-compatibility work remain the basis of this fork. This edition adds Windows-focused touch/input, presentation, high-refresh-rate and packaging changes.
The repository is licensed under GNU GPL version 2 or (at your option) any later version; see LICENSE. Third-party dependencies retain their own licenses; see THIRD_PARTY.md.
As documented by the original project, AI-assisted tools have been used in development and documentation under human direction and testing.
The original project's Ko-fi belongs to its upstream developer, not to this custom fork.
Want to try PS Vita recompilation with improved touch controls and PC streaming?
Download Project Nativ Custom · Report an issue · Original Project Nativ