Super Mario Galaxy for the PlayStation 5

Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, 2007) as native PS5 homebrew, title PPSA99315, at 4K and 60 frames a second. Not an emulator: the game's own code, translated into C++ by Nebula and compiled for the console. Version 1.1.0.

You make the title yourself, from your own disc, with a small builder app for the Mac or Windows. Nothing of the game is in any download here.

USA disc only, revision 0. You need your own image of Super Mario Galaxy for the USA (RMGE01), revision 0, the first printing. The European, Japanese, Korean and later USA printings are not supported (Nebula translates that one disc). The builder checks your image before it starts.

What you need

• A PS5 that runs homebrew (etaHEN or similar), with ShadowMountPlus and an FTP server (port 2121).

• A computer to build the title on, either:

  • a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) on macOS 13 or later, or
  • a Windows 10 or 11 PC (64-bit).

  About 12 GB free on it while it builds.

• Your own image of the disc: .iso, .wbfs, .rvz, .wia, .ciso or .gcz all work.

• An FTP program (FileZilla, for example) and, for the HD textures, a program that opens .7z files (7-Zip on Windows, Keka or The Unarchiver on a Mac).

Set it up

1. Build the title

<p align="center"><img src="docs/builder-mac.png" width="600" alt="The builder app on a Mac, with a disc image dropped in"></p>

1. From the latest release, download the builder for your computer and unzip it:
   • Mac: SuperMarioGalaxy-PS5-Builder-1.1.0-mac.zip gives you the app Super Mario Galaxy PS5 Builder. Move it to Applications if you like and open it.
   • Windows: SuperMarioGalaxy-PS5-Builder-1.1.0-windows.zip gives you a folder Super Mario Galaxy PS5 Builder. Open Super Mario Galaxy PS5 Builder.exe in it. Keep the folder together: the app needs the kit folder and galaxy-builder.exe beside it. If SmartScreen says it doesn't know the app, choose More info, then Run anyway.
2. Drop your disc image onto the window, or click Choose… and pick it.
3. The title is saved on your Desktop. Change… picks another folder (on a drive with about 12 GB free).
4. Click Build. The window shows each step as it goes: checking your disc (the wrong region or revision stops it here, with the reason), extracting it, translating the game's code, making the game's data, compiling it all for the PS5, linking, and putting the title together. It takes about 4 minutes on an Apple silicon Mac and about 10 minutes on a fast PC (longer on fewer cores). You can use the computer meanwhile; Cancel stops it. Show details has every tool's output, if something goes wrong.
5. When it says Your title is ready, Show in Finder (Mac) or Open folder (Windows) shows you the result: a folder called PPSA99315 (about 4.5 GB).

The builder downloads nothing and changes nothing else on your computer. Its temporary files (about 8 GB, in a PPSA99315-build folder beside the title) are removed when it finishes or stops; after a Cancel, the next build clears them.

The title you build contains code translated from your disc. It is for your own console: please don't share it.

2. Copy it to the PS5

Copy the PPSA99315 folder to the console over FTP, as /data/homebrew/PPSA99315/. Its content/game.pak is 4.3 GB, so this takes a few minutes.

3. The HD textures (recommended)

The Super Mario Galaxy HD Texture Mod by CDAMJC and razius, with Bighead's extra additions: about 750 of the game's textures redrawn at four to eight times their resolution, in Dolphin's DDS format.

Download	What it is	Size
Super Mario Galaxy HD texture packs (Google Drive)	Take SMG1 HD Textures Full Size DDS.7z: the DDS version. A PNG version won't load.	595 MB .7z, 1.8 GB unpacked

The pack's own page, with its history and credits, is the Dolphin forum thread.

1. Unpack it on your computer. You get a folder called SMG1 HD Textures Full Size DDS.
2. Make a folder called textures in /data/homebrew/PPSA99315/ and copy that folder into it. Leave the folder as it is: the game finds the textures by their names, in any folder under textures/.

The textures load as you play, so each one appears a moment after the area it's in. The pack stays compressed in the console's graphics memory.

4. Check the folder

When you're done it looks like this:

/data/homebrew/PPSA99315/
├── eboot.bin, sce_sys/, sce_module/, licenses/
├── RMGE01_boot_image.bin
├── content/
│   ├── game.pak
│   └── sys/, files/, ticket.bin, tmd.bin
└── textures/
    └── SMG1 HD Textures Full Size DDS/
        └── RMG/

Everything except textures/ came from the builder.

5. Play

1. Start Super Mario Galaxy from the home screen.
2. The corner of the screen says how to open the settings: hold the touchpad button and press Options.

The defaults are the best picture: 4K at 60 frames a second, the game drawn at six times its own resolution and smoothed (anti-aliasing Auto), widescreen, and the HD textures if they're there.

If something's wrong

• It isn't on the home screen: restart ShadowMountPlus (or the console).
• The builder says the disc can't be used: it says why. Most often it's another printing of the game (European, or a later USA revision); only the first USA printing works.
• The builder stops while compiling: see Show details for the reason. Check there are 12 GB free, then Try again.
• No HD textures: the pack isn't inside textures/, or it's the PNG version. Check the folder against the one above, then close the game and start it again: it looks for the pack as it starts.
• A short hitch the first time through an area: the console is preparing that area's shaders. The next time it's smooth.

Updating

Build the new version with the new builder and copy its PPSA99315 folder over the old one. Your saves and settings stay: they live in /data/homebrew/PPSA99315/userdata/ (saves/ is the Wii's memory, Nebula/ the settings), which the builder never makes.

What is better than on the Wii

• 4K at 60 frames a second, drawn at up to six times the Wii's resolution, with anti-aliasing (SMAA, FXAA or Auto) and anisotropic filtering.
• Widescreen as the game draws it, not stretched.
• HD texture packs in Dolphin's DDS format.
• The DualSense in place of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk: point with its gyro (or the right stick), tilt it for the Star Ball and ray surfing, shake it to spin if you like (motion controls), every button remappable, and PlayStation buttons in the settings.
• A settings menu in the game: display, graphics, controls, audio, language (English, French or Spanish) and text speed.
• Native: the game's code runs as x86-64 on the console's own CPU.

Controls

Action	DualSense
Move (Nunchuk stick)	<img src="docs/glyphs/stick_l.png" width="30" alt="Left stick">
Jump (Wii A)	<img src="docs/glyphs/south.png" width="30" alt="Cross">
Spin (shake the Wii Remote)	<img src="docs/glyphs/west.png" width="30" alt="Square">, <img src="docs/glyphs/north.png" width="30" alt="Triangle">, <img src="docs/glyphs/rb.png" width="30" alt="R1"> or <img src="docs/glyphs/rt.png" width="30" alt="R2">
Shoot Star Bits (Wii B)	<img src="docs/glyphs/lb.png" width="30" alt="L1">
Crouch, ground pound (Z)	<img src="docs/glyphs/lt.png" width="30" alt="L2">
Reset the camera (C)	<img src="docs/glyphs/l3.png" width="30" alt="L3">
Move the pointer	point the DualSense (gyro), or <img src="docs/glyphs/stick_r.png" width="30" alt="Right stick">
Re-centre the pointer (hold: keep it in the middle), bring back a hidden pointer	<img src="docs/glyphs/r3.png" width="30" alt="R3">
Steer the Star Ball, surf the ray	tilt the DualSense
Back out of a menu (jumps in play)	<img src="docs/glyphs/east.png" width="30" alt="Circle">
Pause (+)	<img src="docs/glyphs/start.png" width="30" alt="Options">
−	touchpad button
Wii D-pad	D-pad
This port's settings	hold the touchpad button, press <img src="docs/glyphs/start.png" width="30" alt="Options">

The game's own prompts still show the Wii Remote's buttons: A is <img src="docs/glyphs/south.png" width="20" alt="Cross"> and B is <img src="docs/glyphs/lb.png" width="20" alt="L1">.

In the settings menu the D-pad moves and changes, <img src="docs/glyphs/south.png" width="20" alt="Cross"> changes, <img src="docs/glyphs/north.png" width="20" alt="Triangle"> applies, <img src="docs/glyphs/west.png" width="20" alt="Square"> undoes, <img src="docs/glyphs/lb.png" width="20" alt="L1"> and <img src="docs/glyphs/rb.png" width="20" alt="R1"> change page, and <img src="docs/glyphs/east.png" width="20" alt="Circle"> closes it. Controls rebinds any of the Wii's buttons and sets the pointer's speed, deadzones and hiding, the gyro pointer and its sensitivity, spinning with a shake of the DualSense (Motion shake, off at first), and the vibration.

Motion controls

The DualSense's motion sensors do the Wii Remote's jobs, from the first start.

• Pointing: turn the DualSense left, right, up and down and the pointer follows, like a Wii Remote aimed at the screen. It works the same with the pad held flat or upright. Turn past the edge and the pointer leaves the screen, as on the Wii; turn back and it returns. The right stick moves the pointer too.
• Setting the middle: hold the DualSense where you want the middle of the screen to be and press <img src="docs/glyphs/r3.png" width="20" alt="R3">. The pointer jumps to the middle and follows the pad from there. While you hold <img src="docs/glyphs/r3.png" width="20" alt="R3"> it stays in the middle.
• Drift: the gyro calibrates itself whenever the pad rests for half a second. If the pointer creeps, put the pad down for a moment, then press <img src="docs/glyphs/r3.png" width="20" alt="R3">.
• Hiding: a pointer that stays still for 5 seconds hides. Turning the pad doesn't bring it back, so it can't pop up while you play; <img src="docs/glyphs/r3.png" width="20" alt="R3"> or the right stick does.
• Tilting: tilt the DualSense to roll the Star Ball and to steer when surfing the ray, as you would tilt the Wii Remote.
• Shaking (off at first): with Motion shake on, a shake or a quick flick of the wrist spins, as a shake of the Wii Remote or the Nunchuk does. <img src="docs/glyphs/west.png" width="20" alt="Square">, <img src="docs/glyphs/north.png" width="20" alt="Triangle">, <img src="docs/glyphs/rb.png" width="20" alt="R1"> and <img src="docs/glyphs/rt.png" width="20" alt="R2"> spin either way.

These are on the Controls page of the settings menu (hold the touchpad button and press <img src="docs/glyphs/start.png" width="20" alt="Options">):

Setting	What it does	At first
Gyro pointer	On: the pad points and its tilt steers. Off: the right stick points and the left stick steers the Star Ball and the ray, as in 1.0.0	On
Gyro sensitivity	How far the pointer moves for a turn of the pad. At 1.0 a turn of 40 degrees crosses the screen; 2.0 needs 20 degrees. 0.2 to 5.0	1.0
Motion shake	Off, Wii Remote or Nunchuk: which controller a shake stands for	Off
Shake sensitivity	1 needs a hard shake, 5 a light one	3
Hide still pointer	Seconds before a still pointer hides, or Never	5 s

Known limits (1.1.0)

• Only the first USA printing of the disc (RMGE01, revision 0).
• The game's prompts show the Wii Remote's buttons (above).
• 30 or 60 frames a second (a 120 Hz mode was tried and taken out: the game's animated models broke in the frames in between).
• The builder needs an Apple silicon Mac or a 64-bit Windows PC.
• Played through the opening, the file select, saving and the Comet Observatory hub on a PS5; not yet to the end.

How it works

• Nebula (keepvaibin/nebula) translates the game's PowerPC code into C++ ahead of time and runs it on its own runtime, which stands in for the Wii's graphics (GX), sound (DSP), storage and system software. It is a Windows program; this port keeps it as it is, on a Win32 compatibility layer for the console (ps5/compat: files, threads and fibers, exceptions, windows, XInput for the DualSense, XAudio2).
• Graphics: Nebula's own Direct3D 12 renderer, unchanged, on vkd3d (Wine's Direct3D 12 on Vulkan), over the RADV driver linked into the title (PS5_Vulkan), output through VK_KHR_display at 3840x2160 (ps5/gx).
• HD textures: ps5/gx/texture_pack.cpp indexes textures/ by Dolphin's file names, hashes each texture as Dolphin does and swaps in its DDS as it loads.
• The builder (ps5/builder): nebula-recomp (Nebula's recompiler) extracts and translates the player's disc, LLVM 22's clang compiles the translation for the console and links it to the rest of the title, which comes in the builder's kit already built. The kit's link is recorded from this repository's own build, so a title built from the same disc is byte-identical to the developer's.
• What the console needs changed in Nebula is ps5/patches/nebula.patch, every hunk behind GALAXY_PS5.

Build from source

From macOS, through the Lima VM ps5 that holds the PS5 stack (PS5_Vulkan, PS5_Mesa, PS5_PayloadSDK, LLVM 22), with Rust on the Mac:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/griches/PS5_MarioGalaxy
cd PS5_MarioGalaxy
ps5/tools/prepare-game.sh /path/to/your/RMGE01.iso --content   # patch Nebula, translate the disc
ps5/tools/vm.sh build                   # -> dist/PPSA99315/ (eboot.bin, sce_sys, licences)
bash ps5/tools/console.sh deploy        # the title over FTP (PS5_HOST in ../PS5_Vulkan/.env)
bash ps5/tools/console.sh game-files    # content/ and the boot image
bash ps5/tools/console.sh textures      # an HD pack from gamedata/textures
bash ps5/tools/console.sh run 60        # launch and follow klog

console.sh env KEY=VALUE... writes the title's env.txt, the runtime's environment (Nebula's GALAXY_* options; GALAXY_PS5_TEXPACK_MB sets the HD pack's graphics memory budget, 2048 MB by default).

The builder apps:

ps5/builder/build-tools-mac.sh                      # nebula-recomp, ps5-native-tool, galaxy-builder
ps5/builder/build-tools-windows.sh USER@PC          # the same for Windows, built on a PC over SSH
ps5/builder/make-kit.sh mac build/builder-kit-mac   # the kits (a VM build records the link)
ps5/builder/make-kit.sh windows build/builder-kit-windows
NOTARY_KEY_JSON=~/key.json ps5/builder/mac/build-app.sh 1.1.0   # the signed, notarised Mac app
ps5/builder/package-windows.sh 1.1.0                # the Windows zip

The home-screen art (ps5/art, converted by ps5/art/make-title-art.sh) is the port's own, made with ChatGPT in the style of the game's cover; nothing in it is from the game.

Credits

• Nebula by keepvaibin: the recompiler and runtime this port is built on.
• Super Mario Galaxy HD Texture Mod by CDAMJC and razius, extra additions by Bighead.
• vkd3d (the Wine project), Mesa's RADV, PS5_Vulkan, the PS5 Payload SDK (John Törnblom), LLVM, zlib, xxHash's algorithm (Yann Collet), and the free DSP ROM from Dolphin that Nebula's recompiler carries.
• Button pictures: Kenney's Input Prompts (CC0).

Licence

GPL-3.0, as Nebula. The title and the builder carry every component's licence text in licenses/ (vkd3d is LGPL-2.1, Mesa MIT, LLVM Apache-2.0 with LLVM exceptions, zlib's and xxHash's their own).

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo. Super Mario Galaxy is a trademark of Nintendo. No part of the game is in this repository or its downloads: the title is made from your own disc.