More accurate movement from the first touch
ARMSX3 1.1.3 makes several changes to controller input that should be immediately noticeable in games built around precise movement. A full push upward or left on the analog stick now reaches the end of its intended range instead of stopping one step short. The previous behavior could make a character walk rather than run when the stick was pushed directly in those directions, with God of War III, Uncharted 2, Uncharted 3, and The Last of Us specifically called out as affected games.
The update also preserves full strength for pushes that are a few degrees away from a straight vertical or horizontal direction. This brings the reported behavior closer to that of a physical PlayStation 3 controller and should make movement less sensitive to tiny changes in the angle of a stick press.
D-pad mapping and rumble fixes
Using the D-pad as a substitute for the left analog stick now applies a full-strength input rather than approximately 90 percent of the range. ARMSX3 also changes how mapped stick directions are released: letting go of the D-pad, or releasing a button assigned to a stick direction, no longer cancels an active direction while that direction is still being held through another input.
Rumble handling has been corrected for games that keep a motor running at a very low setting. Instead of buzzing continuously for the entire session, the controller should now stop vibrating when those games use a low motor value to hold the motor still. Ragnarok Odyssey ACE is listed as one example of the affected software.
Graphics and game-specific compatibility updates
The release incorporates a large group of changes from upstream RPCS3, the PlayStation 3 emulator codebase on which ARMSX3 is based. Armored Core V should no longer lose geometry during its lock-on animation, while a flickering light issue in Resistance 3 has been fixed. Depth-buffer behavior now follows tests from real PlayStation 3 hardware, which may reduce flicker from alpha effects in supported games.
Games that use the PlayStation 3's hardware mouse cursor can now display that cursor. ARMSX3 also enables a new PPU Event Wake-Up Delay setting automatically for 3D Dot Game Heroes, addressing a crash reported for that title.
Two optional read-speed emulation settings target games that can load data too quickly. Emulate HDD Read Speed addresses crashes in Armored Core V and Armored Core: Verdict Day. Emulate BD-ROM Read Speed addresses blocky video in the Dragon Ball: Raging Blast games. Both options are disabled by default and are available under All Core Settings, so they can be enabled when a particular game needs them rather than affecting every title.
A further option is available for GPUs without an extended depth range. It addresses missing or incorrect character rendering in Destiny and is also disabled by default. The release notes identify these compatibility options as upstream changes, with ARMSX3 exposing them for Android users.
Installation, audio, and save-state reliability
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles should no longer fail at 0 percent when installing a PKG. This is separate from loading a game after installation and specifically targets the installation process.
Games with custom soundtracks are less likely to freeze when their music stops. Save states also no longer crash in games that keep a file open after that file has been deleted or replaced. Together, these changes cover two different sources of interruption: audio playback reaching an unexpected state and save-state restoration encountering changed files.
The SPU recompiler has received a correctness fix for a bug that could produce incorrect results, and a previously removed optimization pass has returned. The release also includes an accuracy fix for the PPU interpreter. These are internal emulation changes, but their practical purpose is to reduce incorrect emulated behavior while retaining performance work in the recompiler.
Security and maintenance changes
ARMSX3 1.1.3 includes dozens of memory-safety fixes and updates to wolfSSL, curl, and libpng. RPCN data and title IDs are checked more strictly as well. These changes do not add a visible game feature, but they tighten handling around networking and common supporting libraries.
The Android project uses recent RPCS3 upstream code, including its ARM64 improvements. The supplied build is version 1.1.3, published on October 14, 2026, with four Android APK variants: ARMSX3-1.1.3-a11-armv8.2-sdk30.apk, ARMSX3-1.1.3-a13-armv8.2-sdk33.apk, ARMSX3-1.1.3-a15-armv8.2-sdk35.apk, and ARMSX3-1.1.3-legacy-armv8.1-sdk30.apk. The variant names distinguish Android SDK targets and ARM64 capability levels; they are Android packages for the emulator rather than software for the original PlayStation 3 hardware.
What to expect after updating
The first launch of each game after updating may take longer because shaders are rebuilt following upstream changes. The release notes state that the PPU cache is not affected, so this extra work is tied to shader rebuilding rather than a full rebuild of every emulation cache.
The mobile-specific note concerns Sonic '06. ARMSX3 keeps an existing patch for the US version with update 1.01 instead of using an upstream fix that still flickered unless SPU MMIO Delay Enabled was turned on. The notes report that enabling that setting reduced the cited test result from 60 frames per second to 30 on an 8 Elite, while the retained patch was reported to run the game well on devices such as the Retroid Pocket 5 with a Snapdragon 865 and newer hardware. These are project-reported mobile results, not a guarantee for every Android device or game configuration.
ARMSX3 requires PlayStation 3 firmware to run, and that firmware is not included with the project. The release is distributed as Android APK builds, while the emulated system is the PlayStation 3; the host platform and the console being emulated are separate.
