ARMSX3 1.6 adds XMB Mode, a PS3-style home screen and pause menu for the Android PS3 emulator, plus a second-screen panel for the AYN Thor

Three days after ARMSX3 1.5 moved the Android PS3 emulator onto RPCS3's rebuilt graphics core, the team released ARMSX3 1.6 on November 1 and a follow-up, 1.6.1, on the morning of November 2 (Pacific time). This one is mostly about how the app looks and feels: a new optional XMB Mode makes ARMSX3 look and behave like a PS3's home screen.

What XMB Mode is

• A console-style startup and the PS3's wave background in each month's colour, dimming late at night like the real thing. You can pick a colour, cycle through the months, or use a simple wave or a screensaver instead.
• PS3 themes (.p3t) bring their backgrounds (still, slideshow or animated), icons and system sounds.
• Your games show their own backgrounds, music and animated icons, for PKG, folder, ISO and CHD games.
• Every ARMSX3 setting is laid out as XMB lists with search, "Not default" tags and remembered per-game settings.
• The whole app lives in there: the PKG/Data Manager with updates and DLC, save states with pictures, mods, trophies, patches, cheats, skins, controller mapping and app updates.
• A Triangle menu on every game to play it, open its own settings, clear its PPU and SPU caches or add it to your home screen.
• Photo and Music columns, RPCN and Discord friends, invites and Remote Play.
• The in-game XMB is the pause menu: resume, restart, change disc, close the game, settings, screenshots and save states.
• It works fully by touch as well as with a controller.

Where the PS3 files come from

Like RPCS3 on PC, ARMSX3 needs the PS3 system software installed before games run, and you supply it yourself (Overclocked doesn't host or link it). The developers explain that the separate Boot XMB option runs Sony's own system software, while XMB Mode runs none of Sony's code: it's ARMSX3's own Android interface, drawing the wave with its own shader and only reading a few unencrypted files (text, icons, fonts and the startup sound) that your own firmware install already unpacked. None of those files ship with the app. The project says it isn't affiliated with Sony.

Other changes in 1.6

• Shader Resolution: runs a RetroArch shader preset at a lower resolution (67% by default) and scales it up, so heavy presets run far faster.
• Faster game boots: cached PPU code now loads on several threads, and damaged cache files get recompiled.
• Resistance: Fall of Man and NHL Legacy no longer crash on Vulkan.
• Saving now works on storage that refuses to rename files, such as some SD cards, which could stop games with "Game stopped".
• A batch of SPU and patch speed-ups from RPCS3 developers.

1.6.1: notices and a second-screen panel

1.6.1 gives XMB Mode its own notices (battery warnings, compile progress, friends coming online, invites and RPCN friend requests), shows the console's error dialog when a game stops, and fixes music overlap and a blue flash when closing games. On devices with a second display, like the AYN Thor and dual-screen add-ons, the bottom screen now shows the game you're playing with its FPS, Pause and Screenshot buttons, your macros, and the time and battery. It also brings two RPCS3 fixes that guard against rare timing freezes on ARM.

Getting it

ARMSX3 1.6.1 comes as four APKs: builds for Android 11, 13 and 15 on ARMv8.2 chips, and a legacy ARMv8.1 build. Download it only from the official GitHub release. You need your own PS3 games and system software. For drivers and setup, see our emulators hub and GPU drivers page.

Sources: ARMSX3 1.6 release notes, ARMSX3 1.6.1 release notes. Facts verified against the original reports; written by Overclocked.