Thanks to TheFlow’s work, your DualShock 3/4 can be used for multiplayer on the PSVita/PSTV!

UPDATE: The software mentioned in this article has been released 🙂 Article here

Time and time again, TheFlow has been able to make our PSVita/PSTV consoles more useful thanks to VitaShell, Adrenaline, h-encore and various dual analogue stick patches for PSP games among others. Now, he’s dabbling with the DualShock 3/4 and an Adrenaline update to go along with them!

What’s TheFlow up to now?

Like #LetMaiDie, the information we have is in the form of a few tweets as apparently, that’s the current trend in the PSVita world. From TheFlow’s tweets and a video, it seems that he’s working on the following:

• A new DualShock 3/4 (you know, the PS3/PS4 controller) plugin for the PSVita.
  • Apparently, this plugin is not an update to xerpi’s ds3/ds4vita according to a tweet so it will be a completely separate thing.
  • As per the video TheFlow showed us, his new plugin will allow you to use a DualShock 3 and DualShock 4 controller at the same time for local multiplayer. It also seems that it’ll also be possible to use 2 DS3 or 2 DS4 controllers instead of one DS3 and one DS4 controller. Unfortunately, the tweet describing the latter claim is somewhat sarcastic so some confirmation will be required on that…
  • Without a doubt, this plugin will be compatible with FW 3.60-3.68 and could be used as a full replacement to ds3/4vita. Obviously, this plugin will be a good replacement for those who want to use a DualShock 3 on FW 3.68 as it ds3vita isn’t working properly on that version.
    

    It seems that TheFlow never gets tired of updating Adrenaline with great new features!

• An update for Adrenaline that will allow for local multiplayer with the aforementioned plugin! Update: The update (version 6.7) allows PS1 games that support local multiplayer to work on the PSVita NOT PSP games
  • While no details have been revealed about how this will work, my best guess is that it makes crafty use of the PSP’s ad-hoc mode to achieve this feat. While the update mentioned above adds support for local multiplayer for PS1 games on the Vita, TheFlow has stated that he might be interested in making some local multiplayer patches/plugins to some other games, perhaps even PSP titles!
  • This will presumably work on both the PSVita and PSTV. It must be noted that the PSTV doesn’t natively support local multiplayer in PSP games as there isn’t a mechanism to simulate some sort of ad-hoc mode when using connecting controllers.
  • Currently, it is not clear whether the PSTV will require the above plugin or not for the local multiplayer function to work. The PSTV supports Adrenaline 6.7’s features out of the box
  • The game shown in the video is Tekken 3 for the PS1

This will be a pretty major update to Adrenaline and it’s great if you like playing games with other people on the couch. Furthermore, the plugin could also be useful for PSVita users who take their console on long train rides or airplane trips.

Conclusion

As for an ETA, TheFlow said ‘soon’. TheFlow has been known to deliver so unless something big happens in his life, it won’t be long before he finishes and releases his work!

TheFlow has stated that he will release his work soon around 18 hours ago so that might mean that a release could be out sometime this month or next month. As always, don’t bug him for ETAs or write him stupid tweets! As TheFlow has a Patreon and he’s releasing things on there first, you might have to chip in a buck or two if you want to test/use these new features as soon as possible.

Remember, developing for the PSVita is a time consuming affair so it’s only fair that he has a Patreon to be rewarded for his hard work!

TheFlow’s Twitter (further updates): https://twitter.com/theflow0/

TheFlow’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheOfficialFloW