With the efforts of many dedicated developers such as Xerpi, TheFlow, Rinnegatamante and many others, the PSVita homebrew scene is surprisingly still thriving 2 years after it started. This week brings along updates to Xerpi’s USB Streaming Plugin, the release of PiCrest and updates to many great homebrew!

USB Streaming Plugin (UDCD_UVC) updated to version 5

Streaming your PSVita games over USB is now a thing thanks to Xerpi!

Right now, this is probably the hottest development in the PSVita scene since Xerpi has been able to successfully stream the PSVita’s screen over USB at a more-than-playable speed. Earlier this week, he released version 3 which was a buggy but huge improvement over version 2. Then, he released version 4 which addressed what was wrong with version 3. However, Xerpi didn’t stop when everything was working well but he decided to continue pushing the PSVita and released version 5!

Version 5 of this mind boggling plugin brings about:

• Main DRAM instead of CDRAM (cached DRAM) is now used for colour-space conversion output.
  • This allows RAM hungry games to boot up since now, they have more RAM available to them.
• Adrenaline can now be streamed as framebuffers other than 960×544 are properly supported.
• The size of the plugin was reduced to 6.9KB. Not that a few shaving a few KBs will do a difference with 256GB microSD cards that some are using 😉 Still, it’s a nice touch
• Code cleanups and optimisations™

If you haven’t tried this plugin yet, go check it out right now even if it’s only for the WOW factor. Remember, install it in the *KERNEL section of your taiHEN config file, reboot your device and use OBS on your PC. Any issues should be reported in the above link.

PiCrest released

It’s been a while since the PSVita last got a Lua game but now ‘CreckeryOp’, the developer of Cookie Clicker Vita, has brought another one to the table. PiCrest is a nonogram game in which grids must be coloured or left blank to reveal a hidden design/picture!

PiCrest is an extremely well-made homebrew that you should definitely check out if you like challenging your mind!

This Lua (interpreted by LPP) game has the following features:

• An easy to understand control scheme with the d-pad buttons.
  • This means that it’s PSTV compatible
• 3 different difficulties and a level generator so that it never gets boring
  • Easy grids are 5×5, Medium ones are 10×10, Hard ones are 15×15
• 75 different levels (15 – Easy, 40 – Medium, 20 – Hard)
• Pleasant animations when navigating menus and in-game
• A level editor with a pretty extensive palette
• Other features such as multi-language support, a score counter and hints

Overall, this is a pretty well-made game that you should really try out if you like these sorts of games. Furthermore, it’s a nice game to play on the go once you get a hang of it! To get it, simply press this link, grab the VPK and install it via VitaShell. You may also use VHBB if you desire since it’s available on VitaDB.

Other Homebrew

AutoPlugin is a simple idea that’s done well which could save new users lots of headaches!

Obviously, a week can’t go by without homebrew being updated. This week saw the updating of:

• AutoPlugin, by TheHeroGAC, to version 3.07
  • AutoPlugin versions 3.0x brought about updates to many plugins such as Xerpi’s USB streamer, a Spanish translation and a description when you install plugins.
  • This video shows a recent version of the plugin in action!
• vitaWolfen, by Rinnegatamante, to version 1.6
  • This brought about fixes to crashes when the player dies, improved LiveArea assets and performance improvements
• Adrenaline Bubble Manager, by ONELua Team, to version 5.11
  • It’s now compatible with Adrenaline 6.7 and Adrenaline Bubble Booter version 0.8
• vitaXash3D, the Half-Life/Counter Strike port by fgsfdsfgs, with a multiplayer fix
• IMCUnlock, by SKGleba, version 3.0 was released
  • Don’t use this unless you know what you’re doing!

Useful PC tools such as PSVIMGTOOLS Easy Frontend also got some love this week 🙂

Some Android/PC tools were also updated and these include:

• The HENkaku server for Android, by CodeStation, updated to version 1.10
• Final h-encore version 1.5, by Soarqin, was released
• PSVIMGTOOLS Easy Frontend, by MrGhidini was updated to version 1.82

As always, any issues should be reported to the respective authors of the software

Conclusion

I personally think that it’s quite surprising to see all this activity in the homebrew scene for a console that didn’t do well commercially. Without a doubt, the PSVita is the prime example of how a homebrew scene can raise a console up from the dead!