Official Sony PS1 Libraries

Edit on Github | Updated: 19th December 2024

Note that the order of the externals defined in this list will not reflect the order in the final linked executable, as the order here is just the order that the PSYLIB.EXE tool exports in.

LIBAPI - PS1 OS Kernel API

The LIBAPI.LIB file is required in all PS1 executables as it controls the Playstation Kernel and interactions between the basic Playsation Operating System.

LIBC - Standard GCC C Library

The standard C library used for functions like printf that are compiled in almost every C-based program.

LIBC2 - Standard C library

A faster (cacheable) implementation of the C standard libraries but required more memory than standard LIBC.

LIBCARD

LIBCARD.LIB is the library for communicating with the memory cards.

LIBCD (Basic CD-ROM & Streaming)

LIBCD.LIB is required for any games that need to access data from the CD drive. From the official documentation:

The CD/Streaming Library (libcd) consists of two separate libraries:
• The CD-ROM Library, which provides functions for controlling the PlayStation built-in CD-ROM drive. It provides CD sound control and other services.
• The Streaming Library, which is a group of functions for continuous reading of realtime data such as movies, sounds or vertex data stored on high-capacity media.

LIBCOMB (Link Cable Library)

The Link Cable Library (libcomb.lib) provides functions for connecting PlayStatios’s together via a “link” cable.

LIBDS (Extended CD-ROM)

The extended CD-ROM library is basically the same as libcd but it implements a command queue to allow for speed differences between cpu and cdrom. You can’t use both libds and libcd at the same time!

LIBETC (Callbacks management Library)

The ETC library (libetc.lib) is mainly used for callbacks and is needed for a variety of other libraries such as graphics and sound as well as controllers. It main function is to control callbacks.

From the official documentation:

Many functions such as graphics drawing, transferring data to the sound buffer, and loading data from the CD-ROM, may execute in parallel (asynchronously) in the background. These functions are called non- blocking functions, because they don’t block the CPU from performing other tasks.

You can define callback functions that execute when the non-blocking function actually terminates. What actually happens is that when the non-blocking function completes, it generates an interrupt and the program jumps to the address registered as the callback. When the callback returns, the program returns to the point where the callback began, and normal processing resumes.

A dedicated local stack is used for a callback function so that control can return to the original state after the callback returns. All interrupts are prohibited within callback functions. (Areas in which interrupts are prohibited are called critical sections.)

LIBGPU (Basic Graphics Library)

LibGPU is a library for utilizing the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and frame buffer, it works using Primitives similar to OpenGL, triangles, sprites etc.

The frame buffer is a 1mb memory chip that stores all the values of the pixels to display to the TV screen.

LIBGS (Extended Graphics Library)

The extended graphics library LIBGS.LIB builds on top of LIBGPU and LIBGTE and provides functions to display TIM images and TMD model files.

From the official docs:

The extended graphics library (libgs) integrates the 2D and 3D graphics systems used in libgpu and libgte. It is designed to work well with the standard graphics file formats that can be created by PlayStation authoring tools:
• The TIM format stores image resolution, color numbers and color look-up table information.
• The TMD format stores multiple objects, scale information and texture address information.
• HMD is a new format that was added in version 4.0 of the libraries. See Chapter 18, “HMD Library”, for more information about this format.
In contrast with the libgpu and libgte libraries which process polygon-level data, libgs processes data by object units (groups of polygons), allowing 3D programs to be prototyped easily. By adding attributes to objects, it’s easy to create special effects.
Using libgs involves extra overhead compared to using libgpu and libgte. However, libgs is an open architecture. Therefore, once you are ready to produce your game, you can optimize it by adding user- defined functions (via a jump table) that use libgpu and libgte services.

LIBGTE (Geometry Transformation Engine)

LIBGTE is a library for 2D/3D math calculations that use the GTW hardware chip on the playstation to calculate coordinates and colour information before it is sent to the GPU.

LIBGUN

Lightgun library

LIBHMD (HMD model, texture and animation format handling)

The LIBHMD.LIB library supports loading the HMD format which is a 3D object that contains animation, texture and vertices to represent an object in 3D space.

LIBMATH

Basic Maths library that supports floating point operations.

LIBMCRD (Extended Memory card)

Higher level library for using the playstation memory cards, higherlevel than libcard.

LIBMCX - PocketStation

Provides functions to control the PocketStation (a playstation memory card with a screen that can run ARM code) (reffered to as PDA in the official developer documentation.

LIBPAD

The LIBPAD.LIB library is used to interface with the game pads (controllers), including Dual shock controllers.

LIBPress

LIBPress is a compression library that can compress and decompress sound and image data using a few different compression algorithms such as DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform), BVQ (Block Vector Quantization) and Huffman Encoding.

LIBSIO

LibSIO is a standard input output library for development kits to connect to and from PC,so you can write out debugging information to the PC.

LIBSN

LibSN (Sn systems reference?) is a very low-level library for managing the stack pointer (SP along with access to the PC). It is used along with 2MByte and 8MByte.obj files.

LIBSND

LibSND is the extended sound library that is at a higher level than the basic libspu, it can play VAB and SEQ audio files, along with a variety of different sound effects.