Midtown Madness 3 recompilation

Build the Xbox game as a native PC executable using xboxrecomp. No game files are included; you need a dump of your own disc.

Experimental and AI-assisted. Windows x64 gameplay has been checked. Linux x64 has a build path, but gameplay has not been rechecked after the SDL3 migration. The builder does not support macOS.

Build and play

On Windows, install:

• Python 3.12 or newer, Git and CMake.
• Visual Studio 2022 or newer with Desktop development with C++ and C++ CMake tools for Windows.

Run these commands from a terminal:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/MattSG/mm3-recomp.git
cd mm3-recomp

Download the Windows builder from Releases, or run python scripts/build_gui.py from the checkout.

1. Choose your disc image. Check SHA verifies its game code and reports whether the image matches a tested dump.
2. Choose Direct3D 12 or Vulkan, then Build. If asked, select the checkout folder. Use Show log for progress or errors.
3. Select Launch game, configure the game's launcher, then press Play.

The standalone builder can check a disc without Python, but building requires the tools above. The first build downloads dependencies and translates the game code. Both graphics backends use SDL3 and share one build. Vulkan needs a compatible GPU driver; no Vulkan SDK is required.

Command line

From the repository root:

python scripts/setup.py --iso "<path to your disc image>"
.\build\RelWithDebInfo\mm3_recomp.exe

Setup extracts the disc, translates and builds the game, then tries to capture its DSP programs for native compilation. Audio can use the DSP interpreter if capture is not completed. Later setup runs can omit --iso when the game files are already extracted.

The GUI builds in build/gui-windows-sdl3_gpu; command-line setup uses build. For a direct launch, RECOMP_SDL_GPU_DRIVER selects vulkan or direct3d12; leave it unset for automatic selection.

Linux

Use an x86-64 system with Python, a C/C++ compiler, CMake, Ninja, pkg-config, OpenSSL, SDL3's platform build dependencies and a Vulkan driver. Install the FFmpeg development packages for libavformat, libavcodec, libavutil, libswscale and libswresample. The GUI also needs Tkinter (python3-tk on Ubuntu).

From the checkout, run python3 scripts/build_gui.py, or use:

python3 scripts/setup.py --iso "<path to your disc image>"
RECOMP_SDL_GPU_DRIVER=vulkan ./build/mm3_recomp

The standalone Linux builder is also available in Releases; make it executable with chmod +x mm3-builder-linux. GUI builds use build/gui-linux-sdl3_gpu.

Disc compatibility

The tested images are the USA redump ISO and the Europe/Australia multilingual XISO. Other dumps are accepted only if their game-code hash matches the expected code. The tested image hashes are listed in scripts/extract_disc.py; the builder shows the check results before building.

Playing and settings

The game's launcher has Settings, Controls and Mods tabs. Settings include resolution, aspect ratio, MSAA, texture filtering, draw distance, field of view and a frame limit. Keyboard/mouse input and controller button mappings are configured under Controls.

• Enable Use keyboard and mouse to drive without a controller. With the Keyboard driving mod enabled, arrows drive and steer, R/F change gear, Space is the handbrake and C changes camera.
• Enable Menu keys and mouse for mouse selection and clicks in game menus.
• Press F11 or Alt+Enter to switch fullscreen.
• If audio stutters, try Settings > Audio > Sound processor > Off. This bypasses DSP effects and mixes the voices directly.
• Back up your saves before trying a new build.

For a command-line build, python scripts/play.py --keyboard --profile Balanced skips the settings launcher. It also supports Quality and LowPower profiles. For a GUI build, supply --exe with that build's executable path.

Mods

Most visual and gameplay mods default to on. Developer features default to off. The collision guard is required.

Mod	Purpose
Widescreen	Widen the view and move the HUD to the window edges.
Extended draw distance	Draw the world further away, with depth fog.
Smooth skyline	Filter the distant skyline panorama.
Field of view	Adjust the race camera's view.
Console-rate simulation	Keep simulation timing separate from rendering; default 30 updates/second.
Keyboard driving	Add driving keys when keyboard input is enabled.
Menu mouse	Select and confirm menu items with the mouse.
Lamp flare depth	Hide lamp flares behind scene geometry.
Skip intro movies	Skip startup logos and movies; story movies still play.
Collision cell guard	Repair invalid face indices in a Paris collision cell.

The Mods tab also has translation corrections and optional developer/debug features. src/mods/mods.c lists the switches and defaults. The retail developer tools require tools/debug-features/prepare.py.

Network status

System Link and Insignia integration are work in progress. Live two-PC System Link and Xbox Live sign-in have not been verified.

Optional car tools

The editor and model converters are maintained in the separate mm3-car-tools repository. A recursive clone checks it out as the tools/car-tools submodule; it is not part of the game launcher or builder.

See the car-tools README for Car Workshop and model conversion instructions. Custom model assets are not included. The game's normal build does not install custom cars.

Documentation and contributions

• Contributing: changes, bug reports and tests.
• Documentation: implementation notes and developer tools.
• Game test harness: bounded runtime checks.
• SDL3 validation: tested scenarios and limits.

Game-specific changes belong here. Generic runtime fixes belong in the xboxrecomp fork, included as tools/xboxrecomp.

Copyright and contributions

Do not upload game files, disc images, generated/decompiled game code, DLC, BIOS files, keys or saves. Submit only material you have permission to contribute.

This is an unofficial project, unaffiliated with Microsoft, Xbox or DICE. Original project code is GPL-3.0-only; third-party code retains its own licences. Earlier MIT revisions remain available under MIT. See THIRD_PARTY.md and the submodules' notices for attribution, including work from lakshya16157's PC Native fork. Midtown Madness 3 and its assets belong to their rights holders.