How to run and complete Uncharted: Golden Abyss on PS Vita TV?

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When Sony was developing PS Vita TV, engineers faced a logical question: what to do with games that rely on unique features of the portable PS Vita? After all, the original console has front and rear touch screens, a gyroscope, a camera, and other special features. But the TV-connected console simply doesn't and can't have these capabilities.

Ultimately, Sony decided to create a whitelist - a catalog of games compatible with PS Vita TV. However, there was one oddity: even Sony's own flagship projects weren't included in this list. For example, Uncharted: Golden Abyss.

What limitations does the player face

If you try to launch Uncharted on PS Vita TV, the console will display an error.

The reason is obvious: the game's controls actively use touch panels and the gyroscope, while connected PS3 or PS4 controllers don't support these functions. Or do they?

When attempting to play Uncharted: Golden Abyss on PS Vita TV, players encounter two main obstacles:

1. Touch screens

On the original PS Vita, players actively use touch panels - for example, to clean archaeological finds from dirt or to navigate the interface.

This problem is solved at the PS Vita TV level (no firmware required).

2. Gyroscope

This is where the real problem begins.

Some game episodes (like walking across a log) use the gyroscope.

PS Vita TV doesn't recognize motion because it officially doesn't support gyroscopic functions available in DualShock 3 or 4.

As a result, you get a softlock - the game can't be continued because the scene requires rotating the console itself, and you can't emulate this.

This makes Golden Abyss unbeatable on the official PS Vita TV system.

However, all this can be fixed on a hacked PS Vita TV. But before we go further, let's consider one important point.

DualShock 3 or DualShock 4: which to choose for comfortable gameplay

The main difference between DualShock 4 and DualShock 3 is the presence of a touch panel on the front of the controller. This makes it much closer to the capabilities of the original PS Vita.

Although PS Vita TV allows emulating touch control even with DualShock 3 (by pressing L3 or R3), I strongly recommend using DualShock 4. Why?

Some moments in Uncharted: Golden Abyss are extremely inconvenient with stick cursor control. For example, episodes where you need to cut vines with a machete require complex and precise screen swipes. This is almost impossible with sticks - the movements become jerky and poorly recognized by the game.

The DualShock 4 touch panel works much better in this regard - it allows you to perform such actions naturally, close to how it was on Vita.

How to bypass the Uncharted launch restriction on PS Vita TV

The first problem you'll encounter is launching the game. Officially, you can't launch Uncharted: Golden Abyss on PS Vita TV. To bypass this problem, you'll need to install (on a hacked PS Vita TV) the Whitelister v.1.1 program.

Go to the website https://www.rinnegatamante.eu/vitadb/#/.

In the search window, type Whitelister.

Download the whitelister.vpk file.

On PS Vita TV, go to the VitaShell program, then press the Options button on the controller. This menu will open:

Now you need to open an FTP client on your computer (for example, FileZilla) and connect to address 192.168.1.19 with port 1337.

Note! You might have a different address.

On the console (on the right in FileZilla), go to the ux0: folder and create a VPK folder. Copy the whitelister.vpk file you downloaded earlier into this folder.

Now on the PS Vita TV itself, go to the VitaShell program. Navigate to ux0:vpk/ and install the whitelister.vpk file (press X and you'll be asked if you want to install this program).

Agree, then agree again and wait for the installation. When the program is installed, this icon will appear in the main menu:

Just launch the program. It will open and immediately close. This is normal, the whitelist is fixed and now you can launch Uncharted.

Note! This program must be launched after each console shutdown.

Setting up touch controls

Now let's move on to touch controls. As I wrote earlier, this function is implemented at the PS Vita TV level itself.

Hold the PS button, open the settings menu and check the box "Use touch pointer in games".

After this, you can use L3 and R3 to emulate the front and rear touch screens.

A cursor will appear that you can use to "tap" on the screen.

This will allow you to perform basic touch actions, and most game moments will become playable.

But the gyroscope problem remains.

How to enable gyroscope in DualShock 3 and 4 on hacked system

I'm genuinely surprised that despite having gyroscopes in DualShock 3 and 4 controllers, Sony didn't even attempt to add official support for these functions on PS Vita TV.

Because technically it was more than possible. For understanding: a custom patch that allows using the gyroscope from DS3 and DS4 in almost any game weighs less than 7 kilobytes.

This patch is called DS34Motion. It can be downloaded from Github.

Download the files: ds34motion.skprx and ds34motion.suprx.

Then in VitaShell, on the console, check where the tai folder is located. The DS34Motion developer writes that this folder is in ux0:. But for me, like many others, this folder was in ur0:.

I'll continue talking specifically about ur0:, but if you have ux0:, just change the letter r to x everywhere.

Copy the files ds34motion.skprx and ds34motion.suprx to the ur0:tai folder using the FileZilla client.

From the console to your computer, download the config.txt file (it's in the same ur0:tai folder).

Open config.txt in Notepad and add these lines (anywhere):

*KERNEL

ur0:tai/ds34motion.skprx

*ALL

ur0:tai/ds34motion.suprx

Save the file and overwrite it back to the console.

Reboot the console.

That's it! Now the DualShock controllers' gyroscope will work in Uncharted. However, DualShock 3 must be connected to PS Vita TV strictly via Bluetooth.

Note! This patch works not only with Uncharted, but also with other games:

Welcome Park - the skateboard game is now playable.

Tearaway - the introduction where you need to shake the PS Vita can now be completed by shaking the controller.

Flower - the game is fully playable.

Wipeout 2048 - the game supports motion control.

Rayman Legends - Murfy can now perform actions requiring motion control.

Virtua Tennis 4 - in "Match VR" mode, horizontal control inversion may be felt.

Gravity Rush - in "No gravity" mode, horizontal control inversion may be felt.

Epilogue

After all this effort, Uncharted: Golden Abyss becomes quite playable on PS Vita TV. Yes, the path isn't the most straightforward - you'll need to hack the system, install plugins, tinker with settings a bit - but in the end you get the opportunity to complete one of the most atmospheric and technically impressive games on the platform.

And the most pleasant thing - it's not as uncomfortable to play as it might seem. Yes, you have to emulate the touch panel, and configure gyroscopic controls manually, but after a short adaptation period, the game feels almost the same as on the original PS Vita.

It's surprising that Sony itself never attempted to adapt its key games for PS Vita TV. With gyroscopes in DualShock 3 and 4 controllers, minimal technical barriers and obvious demand - no patch, no update, not even a hint of support was released. Although the community was able to implement the required functionality in a patch less than 7 kilobytes in size. Sony seems to have decided to simply forget about PS Vita TV and all its potential.

This is especially ironic considering that Uncharted: Golden Abyss is Sony's own flagship exclusive that remained officially unavailable on their own home console.

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