Silent Hill 2 (sh2-nx)

<div align=center> <img src="docs/banner.png" alt="Silent Hill 2" width="70%"> </div> <h1 align=center>Silent Hill 2 — Nintendo Switch port</h1> <p align=center><a href="https://discord.gg/H9yb3hSkvf"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Discord-Join%20the%20server-5865F2?logo=discord&logoColor=white" alt="Discord"></a></p> <p align=center><b>v1.02</b></p>

A native Nintendo Switch port of the PC version of Silent Hill 2 (Director's Cut / Restless Dreams), with support for the packs of Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition.

It's not an emulator. The game's x86 executable is statically recompiled to C ahead of time and the C is compiled for the Switch's ARM64 CPU. The Windows layer the game expects (Direct3D 8, DirectSound, DirectInput, Bink, kernel32...) is reimplemented on top of SDL2, OpenGL and FFmpeg.

[!NOTE] No game files are included. You need your own copy of the PC game with the Enhanced Edition installed; the NRO from Releases, or one you build yourself (Building the NRO), runs it.

Features

• Native code: every function of sh2pc.exe runs as ARM64 code; no emulator, no Wine.
• Launcher: Play and Options before the game; Options changes the main sh2e.ini settings on the console.
• Widescreen: 16:9, drawn at 720p handheld and 1080p docked, or the original 4:3 (ThirteenAG's WidescreenFix, ported).
• Enhanced Edition packs: HD textures and maps, the EE title and save screens, the restored music, voices and sound effects, EE menus, EE's high resolution font (sh2e/font, which also has the Japanese text), and the FMV pack's 1080p60 movies with their subtitles (movie=1). Translations made for the Enhanced Edition load from a lang folder.
• Enhanced Edition fixes: search camera on the right stick, movement on the d-pad, pause menu fix, vibration fixes.
• Controller: SH2EE's button layout with Nintendo's A/B, HD rumble following the in-game Vibration option.
• Saving and loading, movies with synced audio, every menu.
• Shader cache: shaders are compiled once and kept on the SD card, so areas only stutter the first time.
• Also builds for Linux (x86-64), which is where most of the debugging happens.

How to install

1. On your PC, install Silent Hill 2 and run the Enhanced Edition setup with at least the Enhanced Executable, Essential Files, Image Enhancement Pack and Audio Enhancement Pack. The port is built for the sh2pc.exe it installs: 5,685,248 bytes, SHA-1 3201a5e1029f3ae3b77770255dcbe10360b3cd09.

2. Get sh2-nx.nro from Releases, or build it from that folder (Building the NRO).

3. Copy everything to the SD card. With the card (or its folder) mounted on the PC:

   .venv/bin/python tools/make_sd.py /path/to/sd --lang en      # en, fr, de, it, es or jp
   

   or by hand. Your sh2-nx folder should look like this:

   /switch/sh2-nx/
     sh2-nx.nro
     sh2pc.exe        (from your PC install)
     data/            (from your PC install, about 2.4 GB)
     sh2e/            (from your PC install, about 6 GB with sh2e/movie)
     sh2e.ini         (which Enhanced Edition packs to use: docs/sh2e.ini.example)
     language.ini     (optional: SET DX_CONFIG_LANGUAGE 1 is English)
     lang/            (optional: a translation for the Enhanced Edition, e.g. Russian)
     keyconf.dat      (optional: your PC's button mapping)
   

   sh2e/pic/etc and sh2e/menu/mc are needed even with every pack switched off: the title and save screens are laid out for the Enhanced Edition's art.

4. Launch it from the homebrew menu in title takeover mode (hold R while starting an installed game) or from a forwarder set to a 39-bit address space. Not from the album: applet mode does not give homebrew enough memory.

Settings, saves (data/save) and the shader cache are written next to the NRO.

[!CAUTION] The first time you enter an area its shaders are compiled, so it can stutter for a moment. They are kept in sh2-progs.bin and later visits are smooth.

Controls

<div align="center">

Switch	Xbox (PC)	Action
A	A	Action, confirm
B	B	Cancel, flashlight
Y	X	Run / guard
X	Y	Map
L / R	LB / RB	Cycle target
ZL	LT	Search mode (ready the weapon)
ZR	RT	Aim lock
+	Start	Inventory
−	Back	Skip / pause
Left stick, d-pad	Left stick, d-pad	Move
Right stick	Right stick	Search camera

</div>

A confirms and B cancels, as in other Switch games, so those two sit swapped compared with an Xbox pad; every other button is in the same place as on an Xbox pad with the Enhanced Edition. Remap them in Options > Control Options; a keyconf.dat from a PC install maps the same buttons.

Settings

sh2e.ini, next to the NRO (example); the launcher's Options screen sets resolution, handheld, docked, movie, PreserveSoundsOnLoad and cores:

Setting	Effect
pic=1, sound=1, bg=1, ...	read that folder of data/ from sh2e/ (the Enhanced Edition pack)
movie=1	the FMV pack (sh2e/movie): its 1080p60 videos play at speed with their subtitles; the Switch drops frames decoding them. movie=0 plays the original videos
resolution=1920x1080	the default; 1280x720 for a lighter game, 960x720 for the original 4:3
handheld=720, docked=0	the defaults (720p handheld, 1080p docked): how many lines the screen-sized render targets are drawn with in each mode, then scaled to the screen (the game is still laid out for resolution); 0 draws them at the game's resolution. Docking or undocking switches at the next frame
FlashlightToggleSFX=0	no click when the flashlight is switched (on by default when sh2e/sound/extra has the sounds)
PreserveSoundsOnLoad=0	the game's own load and save sounds, which loading cuts off (by default the Enhanced Edition's play through)
cores=1	every game thread on one core, a fallback if the music ever loops again
log=1	write sh2.log next to the NRO, for bug reports (off by default: it costs an SD card write per line). Crashes always go to sh2-crash.log

Movies

The movie loop no longer waits for the 30 Hz limiter (EE FixFMVSpeed), subtitles follow the video's frame rate (EE FmvSubtitlesSyncFix), and a video the Switch cannot decode in time drops frames to keep up with its sound. With that the FMV pack's 60 fps videos play at speed (movie=1). The game itself runs at its original 30 fps.

Building the NRO

You need the game (step 1 of How to install): the code generator reads sh2pc.exe, applies the Enhanced Edition patches to it and recompiles it.

Requirements: Python 3, CMake, Ninja, and for the Switch build podman (or a local devkitPro install with devkitA64, libnx, switch-sdl2, switch-mesa, switch-ffmpeg and switch-pkg-config). For the Linux build, SDL2 and FFmpeg development files (Fedora: dnf install SDL2-devel ffmpeg-free-devel).

git clone https://github.com/cutarev/sh2-nx && cd sh2-nx
python3 -m venv .venv && .venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
ln -s "/path/to/Silent Hill 2" game     # the folder holding sh2pc.exe, data/ and sh2e/
tools/regen.sh                          # patches and recompiles game/sh2pc.exe into src/recomp/gen (~4 min)

tools/build-switch.sh                   # -> build/switch/sh2-nx.nro (devkitPro's container under podman)
tools/build-switch-local.sh             # the same with a local devkitPro install

cmake -S . -B build/linux -G Ninja && cmake --build build/linux    # Linux build
build/linux/sh2 game

How it works

• The game's code is translated, not emulated. tools/regen.sh wraps the PE as an XBE for xboxrecomp (patched for this port: flag joins, jump tables, x87/MMX corner cases, setjmp/longjmp), which turns every function into C.
• Enhanced Edition patches. EE patches the running game from its d3d8.dll; here its code byte patches are applied to the exe before recompiling (tools/patch_exe.py, each site checked against the original bytes) and its hooks become hand-written functions in src/game/ee.c. Details in docs/ENHANCED.md.
• The Windows layer. Direct3D 8 runs on OpenGL 4.3 core with the shaders translated to GLSL (src/d3d8), DirectSound is a software mixer on SDL audio, DirectInput goes through SDL, Bink videos through FFmpeg, and kernel32, user32 and msvcr70 are in src/win32. src/runtime holds the guest memory, threads and the Linux/Horizon layer.

Debugging aids (Linux)

Variable	Effect
SH2_KEYS="12:Return,30:W+5"	scripted key presses (seconds, key, optional hold); the window is hidden and the real keyboard ignored
SH2_SHOW=1	keep the window visible during a scripted run
SH2_SHOT=dir, SH2_SHOT_EVERY=n	dump frames as PPM (tools/ppm2png.py)
SH2_WAV=file	record the audio mix (raw float32 stereo, 44.1 kHz)
SH2_STATS=1	frame rate and guest heap
SH2_TRACE=1	log every bridged Windows call (trace=1 with log=1 in sh2e.ini on the Switch)
SH2_COVER=frame	with a tracing build (TRACE=$PWD/build/disasm/functions.json tools/regen.sh --recomp-only), log each function the first time it runs after that frame
SH2_ORACLE=va,n	differential test of one function against Unicorn (tools/oracle.py)

tools/fuzz.py checks the lifter's instruction semantics against Unicorn.

Credits

• Konami and Team Silent: creators of Silent Hill 2. This is an unofficial, fan-made port with no affiliation.
• r4lix and Le Z: the Enhanced Edition support, widescreen, HD rumble, the shader cache and the lifter, save and front buffer fixes in v0.55.
• Silent Hill 2 Enhancements by Elisha Riedlinger and contributors (zlib): the patches ported in src/game/ee.c and tools/patch_exe.py.
• WidescreenFixesPack by ThirteenAG (MIT): the widescreen fix.
• xboxrecomp by sp00nznet: the x86 to C lifter.
• nfsmw-nx, the Need for Speed: Most Wanted Switch port, for the Horizon guest-memory technique.
• devkitPro and switchbrew, SDL2, FFmpeg, Mesa.

Legal

Silent Hill is a trademark of Konami. This project is not affiliated with Konami. This repository contains no assets or program code from the original game; users must provide their own copy. Running homebrew requires custom firmware.