Evolution Studios’ 2014 PlayStation 4 exclusive racing title, Driveclub, has long been a favourite among racing fans, despite Sony delisting the game in 2019 and shutting down its online servers in 2020. For years, the game remained locked at 1080p and 30 FPS on PlayStation without even receiving a PS4 Pro or PS5 patch. That’s a real shame, as the game is a bit of a gem for racing fans. While the shadPS4 emulator made big strides recently by getting the game running on PC at high resolutions, modders have now gone a step further. Similar to recent community efforts that brought other PlayStation titles to PC, fan-made projects have surfaced on GitHub that allow Driveclub to run natively on Windows without relying on a traditional full-system emulator, although you will still need a copy of the game, but well, you can figure that part out, right?

Unlike standard emulation, these new community projects do not emulate the PlayStation 4 CPU. Because the PS4 already uses an x86-64 architecture, the tools execute Driveclub’s original code directly on your PC’s processor while reimplementing the console’s system libraries and translating GPU commands to Vulkan. There are currently a couple of distinct projects taking this route. The first is DriveClub Recomp, developed by GitHub user OverkillLabs3, which comes packaged with its own dedicated Windows launcher. This launcher verifies your game files and lets you configure display settings, keyboard or controller inputs, DLC access, and mod support before booting into the game. Meanwhile, a parallel project called DCport (maintained by qnfn alongside the Driveclub-Port repository) takes a similar native execution and Vulkan wrapper approach, adding support for AMD FSR 3.1, FSR 4, and frame generation up to 240 FPS.

Because the game is freed from its original console constraints, PC players can push the visuals far beyond the original 1080p presentation. DriveClub Recomp supports internal rendering and output resolutions ranging from 720p all the way up to 8K, alongside an unlocked frame rate that does not break or speed up the game’s physics engine. If you ever saw this game on PlayStation, you’ll know it was visually impressive, so now, it looks insane even by modern standards.

Ultrawide monitors are also properly supported across 21:9 and 32:9 aspect ratios, including 2560×1080, 3440×1440, and 5120×1440 resolutions. Rather than stretching the image, the port expands the horizontal field of view while keeping the in-game HUD neatly centred. Furthermore, the original anti-aliasing solution has been replaced with modern native-resolution alternatives, including NVIDIA DLAA/DLSS for RTX graphics cards and AMD FSR 3.1 Native AA for all GPUs. Owners of RTX cards can even toggle between DLAA and FSR on the fly during gameplay by pressing the F10 key, while additional options for FXAA, SMAA, and texture filtering are also available.

In terms of real-world performance, the results are already very promising. According to OverkillLabs3, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti paired with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D holds around 60 FPS at native 4K during the game’s heaviest weather and racing scenes. The recent v0.2.3 update also improved CPU-heavy race performance by around 15 per cent, bumping one 4K test track from 62 FPS up to 71 FPS. Independent benchmarks shared by YouTube channel Testing Games show even stronger numbers across a wider range of hardware

• 4K Resolution (NVIDIA RTX 5090 + Ryzen 7 9800X3D): 100 to 120 FPS
• 1440p Resolution (NVIDIA RTX 3080): 75 to 90 FPS
• 1080p Resolution (NVIDIA GTX 1060): 35 to 40 FPS

As these ports are still in active, early development, there are a few rough edges to keep in mind. Players will experience some initial stuttering during the first few minutes of gameplay while shaders compile and cache in the background, though subsequent runs are much smoother. Slower CPUs can still suffer from frame drops in busy grid scenes, some surface reflections currently render brighter than intended, and all online features remain non-functional. Additionally, DriveClub Recomp has primarily been tested on NVIDIA hardware so far.

• Direct x86-64 native code execution on Windows with Vulkan GPU translation (no CPU emulation required)
• Custom Windows launcher for file verification, display configuration, and mod/DLC management
• Resolution scaling from 720p up to 8K with an unlocked frame rate
• True 21:9 and 32:9 ultrawide monitor support (2560×1080, 3440×1440, and 5120×1440) with a centred HUD
• Modern anti-aliasing and upscaling support, including NVIDIA DLAA/DLSS and AMD FSR 3.1 (plus FSR 4 on DCport), with real-time F10 toggling on RTX GPUs
• Background shader compilation and caching to reduce in-game stutter after the initial run
• Full keyboard and controller input support
• Requires the user’s own decrypted dump of Driveclub version 1.28 and PS4 firmware modules (no copyrighted game assets are included)

Check it out on GitHub.