Shadow of the Colossus (PC, frame generation)

<h1 align="center">Shadow of the Colossus — native PC port, with frame generation</h1> <p align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/nakaionyt/ShadowOfTheColossus-PC-FrameGen/releases/latest"><img alt="Download" src="https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/nakaionyt/ShadowOfTheColossus-PC-FrameGen?label=download&style=for-the-badge&color=4f6e45"></a> <img alt="Windows 10/11" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Windows-10%20%7C%2011-3e5f73?style=for-the-badge"> <img alt="Vulkan 1.3" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Vulkan-1.3-3e5f73?style=for-the-badge"> <img alt="DLSS-G and FSR 3" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/frame%20gen-DLSS--G%20%7C%20FSR%203-4f6e45?style=for-the-badge"> <a href="LICENSE"><img alt="GPL-2.0-or-later" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/license-GPL--2.0--or--later-555?style=for-the-badge"></a> </p> <p align="center"> <img src="docs/images/open-world-dlssg.jpg" alt="Wander running across the open plains, with the FPS overlay showing DLSS-G x2" width="100%"> </p>

The PS4 Shadow of the Colossus (Bluepoint, 2018) running natively on Windows: the game's own x86-64 code runs on your CPU and the PS4 GPU work is translated to Vulkan. It is not a full emulator. This build adds frame generation to the Oussama268/ShadowOfTheColossus-PC port, so the game's 30 FPS lock is shown at a steady 60 FPS, and lets you uncap it live.

[!IMPORTANT] Bring your own game files. No game file and no Sony firmware is included. You need your own PS4 dump of the game (CUSA08809, EU version 1.01) and, for sound, libSceNgs2.sprx and libSceUlt.sprx from your own console.

Highlights

• Frame generation: NVIDIA DLSS Frame Generation on RTX 40/50, AMD FSR 3 on any Vulkan 1.3 GPU (RTX 20/30, Radeon, Arc). One generated frame between two game frames.
• F7 caps or uncaps the game at any time: 30 FPS like the PS4, or as fast as your CPU goes.
• F8 switches frame generation: off → DLSS-G → FSR 3, live, no restart.
• Steady pacing: 60 frames shown per second with the cap on, one every 16 to 17 ms. A late game frame no longer halves the frame rate.
• Faster: far sun shadow cascades are reused between frames (+17 to 22% FPS at the shrine).
• F10 overlay: frame rate, frame time graph, late frames, frame generation status.

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/images/temple-framegen-toast.jpg" alt="Switching frame generation to DLSS-G with F8" width="49%"> <img src="docs/images/cap-toast.jpg" alt="Capping the game at 30 FPS with F7" width="49%"> </p>

Performance

Measured on a Ryzen 7 5800X + RTX 4070 SUPER, 2560×1440 output, running through the open world:

Setting	Game FPS	Shown on screen
30 FPS cap + FSR 3	30.0	60.0, one frame every 16–17 ms
30 FPS cap + DLSS-G	30.0	60, 0.04% late frames
Uncapped	40–60 depending on the area (average 50)	same
Uncapped + FSR 3	40–50	80–113

The game logic follows real time: uncapped, Wander runs at the same speed as capped. The port is CPU-bound (one very busy thread): single-core speed matters most, the GPU is lightly used.

	Capped at 30	Uncapped (F7)
No frame generation	30, as on PS4	40–60
Frame generation (F8)	60, very even ← recommended	80–110, varies by area

Quick start

1. Download SotC-PC_v0.57-fg2_bring-your-own-game-files.zip from Releases and unzip it anywhere.
2. Install Microsoft's Visual C++ Redistributable 2015–2022 x64 if it is missing (NVIDIA frame generation needs it).
3. Run SotC.exe and choose your game folder (the CUSA08809 dump with eboot.bin) and the folder with your sound modules.
4. In Quick settings: Frame generation → Automatic (DLSS-G on RTX 40/50, else FSR 3), Uncapped FPS → unchecked for a steady 60.
5. PLAY. The first minutes can stutter a little while shaders compile (once).

Controller (DualShock 4, DualSense, Xbox…) or keyboard and mouse; keys can be remapped in the launcher's Controls page.

In-game keys

Key	Action
F7	30 FPS cap on / off
F8	Frame generation: off → DLSS-G → FSR 3 → off
F10	Show / hide the FPS overlay

Requirements

• Windows 10/11 64-bit, a Vulkan 1.3 GPU with recent drivers.
• CPU: a fast single core (Ryzen 5000/7000, Intel 12th gen or newer). Turning on XMP/EXPO in the BIOS helps a lot (+25% measured).
• GPU: RTX 3060 / 4060 or Radeon RX 6600 are enough. DLSS-G needs an RTX 40 or 50 and Windows Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling. About 4 GB of video memory at 1440p.
• For a steady 60: a 60 or 120 Hz display, or G-SYNC / FreeSync.

Is the whole game playable?

The game is playable: menus, saves, the open world, sound, controller, keyboard and mouse. A full run from start to end with all 16 colossi has not been verified on this exact build yet.

Known issues:

• Switching saves without restarting the game can close it: restart before loading another save.
• In places the water stays dark or flat.
• FSR 3 was tested on an NVIDIA card; on AMD and Intel it is less tested. Feedback welcome in Issues.
• FSR 3 is a little less clean than DLSS-G when the camera turns fast (slight ghosting).

If anything looks wrong: press F8 until frame generation is off, or set it to Off in the launcher.

Under the hood

• Frame generation inputs come from the game itself: depth and motion vectors are copied from its G-buffer pass (an R16G16 float target holding curUV − prevUV), and the camera (view and projection, jitter, near/far, reversed-Z) is decoded from its view constants. vk_dlssg.cpp
• DLSS-G goes through NVIDIA Streamline 2.14 (Vulkan), with Reflex markers.
• FSR 3 uses the FidelityFX SDK 2.3 optical flow and frame interpolation on Vulkan (FSR-Vulkan). The presenter shows the interpolated frame, then the game frame half a frame later. vk_fsrfg.cpp
• F7: the game caps itself with sceVideoOutSetFlipRate(1) and its logic follows real time; the rate it asks for is kept and applied or not by the vblank thread. sotc_fps_cap.h
• Shadow reuse: the engine snaps its sun shadow cascades to texels, so a far cascade is moved by whole texels instead of redrawn every other frame (99.9% texel-identical to a real draw). vk_shadow_scroll.cpp

Building

Windows with MSYS2 (CLANG64); package list in packaging/windows/README.md. Freezing SotC.exe needs a Windows Python with PyInstaller and Pillow (WINPYTHON).

git clone --recursive https://github.com/nakaionyt/ShadowOfTheColossus-PC-FrameGen.git
bash build.sh                              # out/bb-probe.exe
bash packaging/windows/package_sotc.sh     # dist/SotC-PC.zip

The release zip also carries the NVIDIA Streamline 2.14.16 runtime files next to bb-probe.exe (sl.interposer.dll, sl.common.dll, sl.dlss_g.dll, sl.reflex.dll, sl.pcl.dll, nvngx_dlssg.dll, NvLowLatencyVk.dll, from the official SDK). Packaging refuses any .sprx/.prx: Sony firmware never goes into the package. More details on the port, its launcher and its diagnostic variables: docs/README-upstream.md and docs/sotc/README-SotC.md.

Credits

• AjncSystem: the Shadow of the Colossus PC port; Oussama268: the 0.57-opt fork this build starts from.
• bloodborne_pc (Supermedo, deadinside, deadinside28): native loader, runtime and launcher.
• shadPS4 and the shadPS4 SotC fork: Vulkan video core.
• Pink-shadPS4 (luizgustavs): culling, command recording thread, shader fixes and more.
• illusion: the original 60 FPS patch (GoldHEN).
• AMD FidelityFX FSR 3, ported to Vulkan by FSR-Vulkan.
• NVIDIA DLSS Frame Generation, Streamline and Reflex.

Legal

Shadow of the Colossus belongs to Sony Interactive Entertainment; the 2018 remake is by Bluepoint Games. This project is not affiliated with Sony, Bluepoint, NVIDIA or AMD, and contains no game data. NVIDIA, DLSS and Reflex are trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation; AMD and FidelityFX are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

The program is licensed GPL-2.0-or-later (LICENSE). The NVIDIA runtime files in the release are under NVIDIA's licenses (bin/licenses-nvidia/ in the zip); other components are listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt.