Torchlight Recomp

An unofficial native PC port of Torchlight for Xbox LIVE Arcade (Xbox 360), made by static recompilation with the ReXGlue SDK. The game's PowerPC code is translated to C++ and compiled for x86-64 and, on macOS, ARM64 (Apple Silicon); instead of emulating the Xbox 360 GPU, every draw is rebuilt with OGRE 14 on OpenGL 3.3 (or Direct3D 11 on Windows).

[!IMPORTANT] The releases contain no game assets and no original game files. The executable is built from the game's code and only runs with files from your own copy of Torchlight for Xbox LIVE Arcade (the XBLA package from your Xbox 360, version 1.0.140.0). This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by the owners of Torchlight or by Microsoft.

This is a beta. See Known limitations.

Contents

• Installing
• First start
• What works
• Known limitations
• Where files are kept
• Building
• Credits
• License

Installing

Download only from this repository's Releases page. Each release has a SHA256SUMS file with the checksum of every download.

Linux

Requirements: an x86-64 processor with x86-64-v3 (AVX2 and FMA): the Steam Deck, Intel Core 4th generation (Haswell) or later, AMD Zen (or Excavator) or later; many Intel Pentium, Celeron and Atom processors lack it, and the game says so and exits on them, glibc 2.35 or newer (Ubuntu 22.04 or later, or any current distribution), a GPU driver with OpenGL 3.3. X11 and Wayland both work.

chmod +x Torchlight-Recomp-*-x86_64.AppImage
./Torchlight-Recomp-*-x86_64.AppImage

The AppImage carries everything it needs except the system's graphics and sound libraries.

Windows

Requirements: 64-bit Windows 10 or 11. Direct3D 11 is the default and recommended renderer: it uses less CPU than OpenGL. OpenGL 3+ can be chosen in the settings when the GPU driver provides OpenGL 3.3.

Extract Torchlight-Recomp-*-x86_64.zip anywhere and run TorchlightRecomp\torchlight.exe.

The zip is not code-signed. The first time, Windows SmartScreen may show "Windows protected your PC": that is Windows being cautious with programs it has not seen downloaded often, not a detection of anything harmful. Click More info, then Run anyway; Windows remembers the choice for that copy. To check a download, compare its SHA-256 with the release's SHA256SUMS.

macOS

Requirements: a Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or later) and macOS 13.3 or later; tested on macOS 26. There is no build for Intel Macs. How the port works, and these steps as checked on macOS 26: docs/macos-port.md (section 6 for the package and Gatekeeper).

Open Torchlight-Recomp-*-arm64.dmg and drag Torchlight Recomp to Applications.

The app is not signed or notarized by Apple, so the first time macOS refuses to open it. That is macOS refusing apps from developers without a paid Apple account, not a detection of anything harmful. To open it:

1. Double-click Torchlight Recomp in Applications. macOS says "Apple could not verify “Torchlight Recomp.app” is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy." Click Done (not Move to Trash).
2. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security and scroll down to the message about "Torchlight Recomp". Click Open Anyway (it stays there for about an hour after step 1).
3. The same warning comes back, now with an Open Anyway button: click it and confirm with your password or Touch ID.

macOS remembers the choice; later starts open it directly. A new version needs the same steps once. To check a download, compare its SHA-256 (shasum -a 256 FILE in Terminal) with the release's SHA256SUMS.

To play with the keyboard (see First start), start it from Terminal:

open -a "Torchlight Recomp" --args --mnk_mode=true

On Apple keyboards the function keys control the Mac by default: press fn with them, fn+F3 for the frame counter and fn+F9 for a capture (or turn on "Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" in System Settings, Keyboard).

First start

A setup window opens, played with a gamepad, a mouse or a keyboard:

1. It asks for your Torchlight XBLA package: the file copied from your console's storage, or a folder with its contents already extracted. The package is checked (it must be Torchlight's, version 1.0.140.0, with every file intact) and its files, about 200 MB, are copied to the game's data folder (Where files are kept). Your package is only read.
2. It asks which achievement set to use, Xbox 360 or PC (Achievements). It can be changed later in the settings.

After that the game starts; later starts go straight to it. The window follows your system's language (English, German, French or Spanish). On Android, these are dialogs.

A gamepad is recommended. A keyboard can play through ReXGlue's controller emulation: start the game with --mnk_mode=true.

What works

The game runs on the native renderer: menus, town, dungeons, character creation, inventory, pets and saves.

On a laptop with a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (Linux, 720p, no frame cap), the native renderer runs the game about three and a half times as fast as the same build with ReXGlue's emulated Xenos GPU (3.4–3.8 times the game's frame rate, 2.8–3.4 times the presented one), loads levels 1.4–2 times faster, and has almost no frames over 33 ms. On the laptop's Intel UHD 630 the difference is 5–7 times (measurements).

As a rough estimate, performance is comparable to the PC version of Torchlight run through Proton on the same laptop: in some places the PC version is faster (up to about 20 %, the town square on the NVIDIA GPU), in others this port is (up to about 15 %, the mine on the Intel GPU) (measurements).

On laptops with a hybrid GPU (a dedicated GPU drawing, the built-in screen on the integrated one), copying each frame to the built-in screen caps the presented frame rate at about 180 fps with no frame limit. It goes away with the laptop's MUX switch set to discrete/dGPU-only in the BIOS, or with an external monitor on a port of the dedicated GPU. Playing on the integrated GPU avoids it too, and since the game is limited by the CPU it often presents as many frames or more (in the mine on this laptop: 208 fps on the Intel UHD 630 against 181 on the GeForce). With vertical sync on it does not matter (details).

Display settings

The game's own Options → Settings menu has an extra Video column:

• Resolution: the internal render resolution, independent of the window's size.
• Aspect ratio: Auto (your display's), or 4:3, 16:10, 16:9, 21:9 and 32:9 up to your display's width. A wider ratio shows more of the scene instead of stretching it.
• Frame rate limit and Vertical sync.
• Renderer (Windows: Direct3D 11, recommended, or OpenGL 3+) and GPU, on machines with more than one.
• Language and Achievements (below).

Some settings apply after a restart; the column says which.

Achievements

Two sets, chosen at the first start or in the Video column. Each keeps its own progress.

• Xbox 360: the game's original 12 achievements, listed with their icons in the game's Achievements screen.
• PC: the 66 achievements of the PC version, with an unlock notification in the game. The three for mods (MODS_1, MODS_5, MODS_10) are earned by playing with PC mods (Mods). They are kept on this machine: there is no Steam connection.

Importing PC saves

Characters, the shared stash and the options of Torchlight for PC can be brought over. Copy them, together with the PC version's Pak.zip, into the import folder of the game's data folder. When you open the "load character" menu, the game offers the import and explains anything it cannot convert. Your PC installation is never touched; the copies in import are renamed once imported.

Mods

Mods made for Torchlight on PC can be used: copy their folders into the mods folder next to your saves, and order or turn them off in mods.dat, as on PC. Large packs such as the Ultimate Torchlight Mod-Pack load, and your saves are copied whenever the set of mods changes. See docs/mods-guide.md for how to install them, what works and what does not yet.

Languages

English, German, French and Spanish, as in the game, chosen in the Video column (after a restart). Other languages can be added as language packs, including translations made for the PC version: see docs/translations.md.

Known limitations

• Beta. Expect bugs. Please report them in the issues, with the log of the run (Where files are kept).
• PC achievements are covered by tests, but only a few have been earned in actual play so far.
• Xbox LIVE features (sign-in, leaderboards) are not available.
• Steam Deck: the AppImage is meant to work in Desktop Mode but has not been tested on the device yet.
• macOS: the app is not signed or notarized (see Gatekeeper, above), and started from Finder it has no keyboard controls: without a gamepad, start it from Terminal as shown there.
• Ultrawide: at 32:9, the story screens shown inside a level can show a few rows of the level at the top right.
• Mods: new affixes and new level pieces from mods are not loaded yet, mods must be unpacked folders, and the first start with a new set of mods takes longer (a "Preparing mods" notice shows its progress). The details are in docs/mods-guide.md.
• Game files: restart the game after adding files to the game's own folder (the installed game, not the mods folder): files added while it runs are not seen until it starts again.
• Languages: language packs for scripts written right to left (Arabic) are not supported, and Chinese and Japanese not yet.
• The Windows zip is not code-signed (see SmartScreen, above).

Where files are kept

The released game keeps everything in one folder beside it: TorchlightRecomp-data/, next to the AppImage, the .exe or the .app. Move the two together to take your saves, settings and mods with you.

	In TorchlightRecomp-data/
Settings (settings.toml)	config/
Saves	data/
Mods (with mods.dat) and replacements	data/mods/, data/replacements/
Game data, with import for PC saves	game/
Logs	logs/
Shader cache	cache/

The first start offers copying files from an earlier install, which stay where they were. If you chose the user folders there, or the game cannot write beside itself, or you built the game yourself, these are used instead:

	Linux	Windows
Settings (settings.toml)	~/.config/TorchlightRecomp/	%APPDATA%\TorchlightRecomp\
Game data, with import for PC saves	~/.local/share/TorchlightRecomp/game/	%LOCALAPPDATA%\TorchlightRecomp\game\
Saves	~/.local/share/TorchlightRecomp/	%USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\TorchlightRecomp\
Mods (with mods.dat)	~/.local/share/TorchlightRecomp/mods/	%USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\TorchlightRecomp\mods\
Logs	~/.local/state/TorchlightRecomp/logs/	%LOCALAPPDATA%\TorchlightRecomp\logs\
Shader cache	~/.cache/TorchlightRecomp/	%LOCALAPPDATA%\TorchlightRecomp\ogre\

On Linux the XDG_*_HOME variables are honored.

On macOS, in ~/Library/:

	macOS
Settings (settings.toml) and saves	Application Support/TorchlightRecomp/
Mods (with mods.dat) and replacements	Application Support/TorchlightRecomp/mods/, .../replacements/
Game data, with import for PC saves	Application Support/TorchlightRecomp/game/
Logs	Logs/TorchlightRecomp/
Shader cache	Caches/TorchlightRecomp/ogre/

Building

Building the game needs your own copy of it too: the code generator reads its executable. Without it, only the libraries, the tests and the tools build (what CI does). See docs/BUILDING.md for the dependencies (the patched ReXGlue SDK, OGRE 14.6.0), the build on Linux, Windows and macOS, the tests and the development tools, and docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for how the port works. To contribute, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Credits

• ReXGlue SDK: the static recompiler and runtime this port is built on, which includes code derived from Xenia. Our patches to it are in patches/.
• OGRE: the renderer that draws the game.
• Rayman Origins Recompiled: the null GPU plugin patch (patches/README.md).
• SDL, FFmpeg, Dear ImGui, miniz and the other components listed, with their licenses, in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.
• Unleashed Recompiled and Zelda 64: Recompiled, whose release and packaging practices this project follows.

Torchlight was made by Runic Games.

License

• The project's own code: GNU General Public License, version 3 (LICENSE).
• The patches to the ReXGlue SDK in patches/: BSD 3-Clause License (patches/LICENSE), ReXGlue's license, so that they can go upstream. Patches taken from other projects keep their original license and attribution.
• The game is not included and is not covered by these licenses, nor is the code generated from it (generated/).
• Third-party components: THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.