PS5 HD Camera for PC

The PlayStation 5 camera as a regular webcam: Full HD at 60 fps and bokeh from real depth

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Website · Download · Install · Performance · How it works · Code signing policy

A driver for the PlayStation 5 HD Camera (CFI-ZEY1). The camera works in Zoom, Discord, Teams, Telegram, OBS, browsers and any other program.

• Windows 11: native 1920x1080 at 60 fps in every program (optionally also 720p and 30 fps) and bokeh: the background is blurred by real depth measured with the camera's two sensors, just like on the PS5. No neural networks: the GPU computes depth with a stereo algorithm (census + SGM) in Direct3D 11 shaders. The camera shows up as "PS5 Camera", with no separate virtual camera, and the bokeh is switched like Windows' own camera effects: Settings → Cameras → Background effects (portrait blur is light by default, standard blur stronger), and the same page's brightness, contrast, saturation and sharpness act on the driver's picture. The whole head stays sharp (ears, hair, headphones), the exposure follows the person, not the window behind them, and motion-compensated noise reduction and automatic anti-flicker help in dim rooms.
• Linux: native 1920x1080 at 30 and 60 fps, and (experimental, x86_64) the same bokeh computed on the GPU through Vulkan: a daemon reads the camera and feeds a v4l2loopback camera "PS5 Camera".
• macOS: the camera without bokeh, native 1920x1080 at 30 and 60 fps.

Install

A USB 3 port is required: on USB 2.0 the camera only delivers 640x400.

Windows 11

1. Download PS5CameraDriver.msi (PS5CameraDriver-ru.msi in Russian) from the releases page and run it, or winget install KROU4.PS5CameraDriver once the package is in winget. It needs administrator rights and, at installation or later, an internet connection (it downloads Sony's original firmware, see Firmware). Until releases are digitally signed, SmartScreen may warn about an unknown publisher (see Code signing policy).
2. Choose the "PS5 Camera" camera in your programs.

Bokeh is on after the first installation. Switch it in Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Cameras → PS5 Camera → Camera effects. Unattended installation: msiexec /i PS5CameraDriver.msi /qn BOKEH=on|off. The ZIP package (Install.cmd) installs the same without MSI. Details, modes, settings and troubleshooting: installer/README.txt.

Linux (systemd and udev required): sudo bash install.sh from PS5CameraDriver-linux.zip; --bokeh on adds the bokeh (x86_64, a GPU with Vulkan 1.1, v4l2loopback, which the installer installs), --bokeh off the plain camera. Details: installer/linux/README.txt.

macOS (Command Line Tools required: xcode-select --install): sudo bash install.sh from PS5CameraDriver-macos.zip.

Uninstall: Settings → Apps → Installed apps on Windows; uninstall.sh from the install folder on Linux and macOS (the installer prints its path at the end).

Performance

The picture is computed on the graphics card, so the driver needs one that supports Direct3D 11 (Windows) or Vulkan 1.1 (Linux); integrated graphics count. Measured on an RTX 3060 Ti with a Ryzen 5 5600, 1920x1080 at 60 fps:

Mode	GPU time per frame	GPU busy at 60 fps	GPU memory	CPU (driver)
Camera without effects	2.6–2.9 ms	~17%	~60 MB	~9% of one core
Bokeh	8.6–9.0 ms	~53%	~100–130 MB	~12% of one core
Bokeh, 1280x720 output	8.1 ms	~49%	~120 MB	—
Bokeh and the depth camera	9.9 ms	~59%	~160 MB	—

The GPU time and CPU of the first two rows come from the live camera (ps5cam-ctl status shows the GPU time per frame while a program uses the camera; the CPU is Windows Camera Frame Server's, where the effect runs), the rest from recorded camera frames fed at 60 fps. The Vulkan version (Linux) takes about the same: 3.0 ms without effects, 9.2 ms with bokeh on the same card. Without a graphics card (Windows' software renderer on the 6-core CPU) a frame takes 165 ms without effects and 550 ms with bokeh, so a GPU is required.

The work per frame is the same on any card, so the time grows as the card gets slower: for bokeh at 60 fps a card needs to be roughly at least 60% as fast as an RTX 3060 Ti; at 30 fps (choose 30 fps in the program, see installer/README.txt) about a quarter. Integrated graphics will most likely manage bokeh only at 30 fps or the camera without effects — this is an estimate, not a measurement. If you try it on other hardware, please share the frame rate and GPU time from ps5cam-ctl status in Discussions.

Measuring video latency on Windows

From version 1.2.9, close other camera applications and run:

& "$env:ProgramFiles\PS5Camera\ps5cam-ctl.exe" latency 360 0 latency.csv

This opens the physical camera at 1080p60 using the current picture settings, warms up for 30 frames, then measures 360 frames. The CSV contains timings and counters, not camera images. The report gives mean, p50, p95 and maximum values for each available stage. Run the same command with 360 40 slow-consumer.csv to simulate an application taking 40 ms between reads.

device -> reader uses the capture source's device timestamp; driver -> reader starts when the frame enters our processing. The processing span includes the GPU pipeline's one-frame readback delay; GPU compute time is reported separately. Output queue and delivery-to-reader times show where completed frames wait. Device MFT keeps the newest undelivered frame and reports replacements instead of retaining three ready frames. The reported drop counter covers that ready queue. Compare the CSV sequence values to detect frames missing between driver ingress and the reader; Frame Server or the application can skip frames while the driver's own replacement counter remains zero.

Missing timestamps are reported as unavailable, not zero. Camera/Frame Server paths can omit sample attributes. These measurements stop at the local Media Foundation reader; they do not measure sensor exposure, an application's preview/display, encoding, or network latency. The GPU performance table above is also separate from total video latency.

Firmware

The camera needs firmware every time it is plugged in; the driver's service uploads it. Sony's firmware is not part of the project: the installer downloads the original image (PS5 system software 21.01-03.20.00.04) from public copies, checks its SHA-256 and applies the driver's changes — 90 bytes from firmware/ps5cam-firmware.json. On Windows an installation without internet access still completes, and the service builds the firmware when the camera is plugged in and the computer is online. Offline, put the original next to the installer as sony-firmware.bin or pass it with SONYFIRMWARE= (MSI), -Original (Install.cmd) or --original (Linux, macOS).

What the patch changes:

• 1920x1080 from one sensor at 60 fps (Sony limits 1080p to 30 fps);
• a 1080p60 bokeh mode: the full frame of the main sensor plus a 960x540 copy of the second one, downscaled in hardware by the camera's bridge chip. Two full 1080p60 streams do not fit the camera's USB bandwidth (about 393 MB/s available, 498 needed); this mode takes about 320 MB/s;
• automatic exposure by default.

How it works (Windows)

flowchart TB
    boot["USB 05A9:0580 — camera boot loader<br/>(built-in WinUSB)"] -->|"the ps5cam-svc service uploads the firmware"| uvc
    uvc["USB 05A9:058C — UVC camera<br/>(standard Windows driver)"] --> fs
    subgraph fs["Windows Camera Frame Server"]
        dmft["ps5cam-dmft.dll — the camera's Device MFT"]
        gpu["Direct3D 11: motion-compensated noise reduction · census → SGM → drop unreliable matches<br/>→ fill holes → temporal filter → guided filter → subject silhouette → autofocus → bokeh<br/>→ auto brightness metered on the subject"]
        dmft --> gpu
    end
    fs --> apps["“PS5 Camera” in Media Foundation, WinRT and DirectShow"]

Loading

A Device MFT is the standard Windows way to add frame processing to a camera: the code runs in user mode inside Frame Server, so no kernel driver and no driver signature are needed. The previous variant with a separate virtual camera is still available: Install.cmd -VirtualCamera.

Component	Purpose
src/service	service: uploads the firmware, attaches the effect to the camera on every plug-in
src/dmft	Device MFT: the effect inside the camera
src/vcam	virtual camera (-VirtualCamera variant)
src/core	GPU pipeline on Direct3D 11 (Windows) or Vulkan (Linux), shaders in src/core/shaders
src/linux	ps5cam-bokehd: bokeh on Linux (V4L2 capture → Vulkan → v4l2loopback)
src/ctl	ps5cam-ctl: settings (set mode 0 — bokeh, set mode 1 — none), registration
src/tray	tray icon for development (Install.cmd -Tray)
installer	installers: MSI (installer/msi) and ZIP for Windows, Linux, macOS; winget manifests (installer/winget)

Boot-mode driver. It is Windows' built-in WinUSB; there is no own kernel code. Windows only accepts a driver package that is signed, so the installer creates a certificate on this computer, signs the package catalog with it, adds the certificate to the trusted stores and deletes the private key right away: nothing else can ever be signed with it. Test mode is not needed. Uninstalling the driver removes the certificate too.

Building from source

Requires Windows 11, Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools (C++) and Windows SDK 10.0.26100.

.\build.ps1      # build\Release
.\package.ps1    # dist\: packages for Windows (ZIP, and MSI with WiX), Linux and macOS

The MSI packages need the WiX Toolset 5 .NET tool: dotnet tool install --global wix --version 5.0.2.

Linux (the bokeh daemon; Ubuntu 22.04 or newer): CMake 3.25+, Ninja, libvulkan-dev and dxc from the DirectXShaderCompiler releases (it compiles the same HLSL shaders to SPIR-V):

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release && cmake --build build

GitHub Actions builds the same packages on every commit and publishes them as a release for v* tags.

Limitations

• One program uses the camera at a time, as with any webcam.
• The camera measures depth from about half a metre: anything closer is blurred unevenly.
• Bokeh on Linux is experimental: the Vulkan pipeline gives the same picture as Windows on the same GPU (checked frame by frame), but it has seen little use with the camera on Linux yet.
• No bokeh on macOS: it would need a camera system extension, which macOS only runs with an Apple developer signature.

Contributing

Bug reports and ideas go to Issues, questions to Discussions; pull request rules are in CONTRIBUTING.md, vulnerabilities — see SECURITY.md.

Code signing policy

Free code signing provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation.

A signature confirms that the file was built from this repository's source code by an automated GitHub Actions build. Every release is signed only after manual approval.

• Committers and reviewers: KROU4
• Approvers: KROU4

Signed files are the programs and install scripts in PS5CameraDriver.zip: ps5cam-dmft.dll, ps5cam-vcam.dll, ps5cam-svc.exe, ps5cam-ctl.exe, ps5cam-tray.exe, install.ps1, uninstall.ps1, firmware.ps1; the MSI packages are built from these signed files.

Privacy policy. This program will not transfer any information to other networked systems unless specifically requested by the user or the person installing or operating it. The only network access is downloading Sony's original firmware from the addresses in firmware/ps5cam-firmware.json (copies on GitHub) when it is not placed next to the installer: by the installer, and, if the installation could not download it, by the service (about every 10 minutes while a camera waits for its firmware). Nothing is sent besides these requests. Camera video is processed on this computer only.

License

The code is licensed under the GNU GPL 3.0: you may use it freely, including at work, study, modify and redistribute it; software built on it must also be open source under GPL-3.0.

The camera firmware belongs to Sony and is not part of the project. The polynomial approximation of the Turbo colormap in the debug depth view is © Google LLC, Apache License 2.0.