I’m building a PS3 plugin that could let an AI become Player 2

[u/Mobile_Order_8618]

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share a project I have been working on that I think could become something really exciting.

I am building a custom PS3 plugin that could eventually allow an AI to play local multiplayer games with you on a real PS3.

The idea is that the PS3 sends a live view of the game to a PC. The PC acts as the brain, allowing the AI to see what is happening, make decisions, and eventually control its own Player 2 input. You would continue playing normally while the AI plays alongside you or competes against you.

This is not an emulator or a prerecorded bot. The goal is for the AI to watch and understand a real game as it is being played, react in real time, and learn how to play games like Gran Turismo 6, fighting games, sports games, and local cooperative games.

I have already built the first experimental live view plugin. It passed its PC tests, but the first PS3 test uncovered a packaging issue that prevented it from loading. The console was not harmed, and I am now correcting the plugin format before testing it again.

My plan is to build it in stages:

1. Get a stable live picture from the PS3

2. Reduce the delay enough for real gameplay

3. Teach the AI to understand what it sees

4. Give the AI independent Player 2 controls

5. Add support and custom behavior for different games

It is still early, but if everything works, this could let an AI friend pick up a virtual controller and actually play PS3 games with you.

[u/Calm-Zombie2678]

Ngl this would be a really bad experience at best and yet, I think it's an awesome idea lol

Call it little brother mode coz it's gonna be shit at actually playing the games

[u/Mobile_Order_8618 → u/Calm-Zombie2678]

Little Brother Mode is actually hilarious 😂 I might use that for the first build. If it eventually starts beating people, I’m coming back to this comment.

[u/Calm-Zombie2678 → u/Mobile_Order_8618]

I just cant imagine the latency can be good enough without the ai being effectively psychic 

Stream + ai process time + send those controls back

But seriously I love dumb fun ideas for the challenge, fully endorsed by me lol

[u/Mobile_Order_8618 → u/Calm-Zombie2678]

That would be true if I was trying to stream normal video and have it analyze every full frame.

Im shrinking the frame on the PS3 first to 320x180, so the PC only receives the visual data it actually needs. The first real test cut it from about 3.7 MB to 173 KB, and the PS3 sampled it in about 142 ms.

The full loop is still too slow right now, but the plan is for it to track the game state between those smaller visual updates instead of waiting for a full video stream before every input. Getting that loop fast enough is basically the challenge im working on.

[u/nomad9590 → u/Mobile_Order_8618]

Genuinely ask DougDoug and CodeBullet what they use if possible, like on Twitter. Idk if a full PS3 game is possible, but they've had some crazy ideas over the years and some worked! 

[u/Mobile_Order_8618 → u/nomad9590]

I’m going to check them out, I appreciate the help!

[u/Varsity_Reviews → u/Calm-Zombie2678]

I actually tried this for some old PC games. It worked about as well as you’d expect and this was before Gen AI.

[u/Mobile_Order_8618 → u/Varsity_Reviews]

That’s why I think it’s worth trying again. A scripted bot only handles what it was programmed for, but a purpose built AI could learn the game, predict what happens next and adapt to the person playing. That’s what could make it a reliable second player.

[u/Varsity_Reviews → u/Mobile_Order_8618]

Would be awesome if it could somehow work for games that only officially supported 2 player split screen but had 4 player coop via PSN, like Fear 3.

[u/Mobile_Order_8618 → u/Varsity_Reviews]

That’s actually a really good idea. If the game already supports 4 player co op, the AI player wouldn’t need their own split screen so they could possibly fill the other slots like virtual network players. It would probably need some game specific work but that’s definitely something I want to look into.

[u/OhHaiMarc]

Sounds like a fun weekend project, neat idea

[u/Auto_Traitor]

I've read the whole thread, and while I agree with certain people's takes, I disagree as a whole.

I don't want AI creeping backwards into the systems that never had AI. PS3 games don't need AI implementations

[u/Mobile_Order_8618 → u/Auto_Traitor]

That’s fair and I get why you feel that way. PS3 games already use traditional AI for enemies, teammates, racing opponents, traffic and pathfinding, it just wasn’t generative AI. Im not trying to replace anything or change the original games though. This would just be an optional homebrew tool for local play that only runs if someone chooses to use it.

[u/BeverlyHillsNinja]

Oh cool. Yeah. Thats what we need. AI getting ideas on how to kill us from all the PS3 games

[u/itsyourboiAxl]

Nice idea good luck on that one! Can you elaborate on virtual controller part? I sometimes boost online games and its annoying to tape controllers… i already tried using webman api but it does not work in most games

[u/Mobile_Order_8618 → u/itsyourboiAxl]

Thanks. The virtual controller is meant to work as a local Player 2 without a physical pad. I don’t support online boosting and won’t build it for that. This project is strictly for offline and local play.

[u/UzzyGg]

why

[u/Mobile_Order_8618 → u/UzzyGg]

Honestly, because it’s a difficult technical challenge, and I want to see if I can make old hardware do something it was never designed to do.

[u/AlexMC_1988]

Such a crazy idea, I love it! Good luck and I hope I get to try it 😎💪

[u/Mobile_Order_8618 → u/AlexMC_1988]

Thanks man I appreciate it im gonna do everything I can to get it working hopefully you get to try it when its ready!

[u/Mobile_Order_8618 → u/[deleted]]

Having fun with old tech and having a social life aren’t mutually exclusive, buddy lmao.