Important

This project is still in early testing. The opening areas have been tested; a complete playthrough has not. Rendering and stability issues remain. You must supply your own game files — none are included, and none will be provided.

Start playing

Download and extract the Windows release ZIP to a writable folder.
Put your own legally-dumped copy of Army of Two (an extracted game folder containing AO2Game/ and default.xex) in an ArmyOfTwoExtracted folder next to the extracted release — or edit the path at the top of play.bat.
Run play.bat.

No Python or Visual Studio installation is needed for the release package. The first launch performs shader preparation (parallel compile + cache); later launches reuse the cache.

Requirement	Supported configuration
System	Windows x64, AVX-capable CPU, Direct3D 12 graphics driver
Game data	Your own dumped Army of Two (extracted folder, `default.xex`, XDVDFS ISO, or GOD). Disc 1 required to start.
Runtime	Microsoft Visual C++ 2015–2022 Redistributable (bundled app-local; install the latest if a DLL error appears)

Features

Feature	What to expect
Renderer	Native D3D12 backend via the ReXGlue `xenos` GPU plugin; ahead-of-time shader cache
Input	XInput controller, or keyboard with `--mnk_mode` (menus: WASD + Space, Start = Enter)
Graphics settings	Internal `resolution_scale`, `native_2x_msaa`, `anisotropic_override`, vsync — in `armyof2.toml` or the in-game F4/F3 menus
Performance	Locked ~30 fps at `resolution_scale = 1` on modest GPUs; see docs/PERFORMANCE.md
Diagnostics	Optional cvar-gated per-draw CPU profiler (`d3d12_draw_phase_profile`), off by default

Performance

Army of Two is a native 30 fps title and is GPU-fill-bound on this renderer. Keep resolution_scale = 1 for a locked ~30 fps; resolution_scale = 2 is 2× supersampling (4× the pixels) and roughly halves the framerate. native_2x_msaa = true and anisotropic_override = 5 recover most of the sharpness for near-zero cost. Full details in docs/PERFORMANCE.md.

Build from source

Building requires the ReXGlue SDK 0.10.0, CMake ≥ 3.25, Ninja, and Clang. The recompiler turns your own default.xex into C++ locally; the generated code is git-ignored and is never distributed.

Use the Army of Two ReXGlue SDK fork — ReXGlue SDK v0.10.0 plus the changes this game needs (non-RTTI data-pointer function discovery, discrete-GPU selection, and a per-draw profiler). Its ARMYOF2_FORK.md documents exactly what changed and why.

# Point the build at the Army of Two SDK fork checkout (contains the required changes)
cmake --preset win-amd64-release -DREXSDK_DIR=<path-to-ArmyOfTwo-Recomp-rexglue>

# Build (also runs codegen: recompiles your default.xex per armyof2_manifest.toml)
cmake --build out/build/win-amd64-release

Then run play.bat, or armyof2.exe --game_data_root <your-game-folder> --gpu_plugin xenos --mnk_mode.

Set your game path in armyof2_manifest.toml (game_root / entrypoint.file_path) before the first build.

Linux and macOS compile natively too (via the Vulkan backend / MoltenVK) — see docs/BUILDING.md for per-platform build and packaging steps. These are experimental: only Windows/Direct3D 12 has been validated so far. The prebuilt release is currently Windows-only; build from source on other platforms.

Credits

With research and tools from the Xbox 360 recompilation community:

ReXGlue SDK (Tom "crack" and contributors) — recompiler + runtime.
Xenia — GPU emulation research the xenos backend derives from.
XenonRecomp / XenosRecomp — static recompilation approach.

Army of Two and its assets belong to their respective owners (© Electronic Arts). This is an unofficial project, not affiliated with nor endorsed by EA, Microsoft, or Xbox, created for educational and preservation purposes. It is not intended to promote piracy or the unauthorized use of copyrighted material. Supply data extracted from your own disc; do not distribute game executables, resource archives, textures, audio, video, or generated game code.

License

The host/glue code in this repository is licensed under GPL-3.0. The ReXGlue SDK and any game code/assets are covered by their own respective licenses/owners.

Read official guide