White Knight Chronicles II Recomp

A native C++ port of White Knight Chronicles II built by recompiling the PS3 game code. Development starts with White Knight Chronicles I, which is included on the disc.

_{Crowded town street, native Vulkan build at the 30 FPS limit, 22 October 2026. Select the image for capture settings and the progress gallery, newest first.}

<p><a href="docs/GALLERY.md#2026-10-21--pipelined-geometry-and-faster-spu-code"><img src="verification/screenshots/2026-10-21-native-faster-spu-street.png" width="150" alt="Street FPS overlay, 21 Oct" title="Street FPS overlay, 21 Oct"></a> <a href="docs/GALLERY.md#2026-10-19---town-fps-checkpoint"><img src="verification/screenshots/2026-10-19-native-town-fps-unlocked.png" width="150" alt="Town FPS overlay, 19 Oct" title="Town FPS overlay, 19 Oct"></a> <a href="docs/GALLERY.md#2026-10-18---native-graphics-settings"><img src="verification/screenshots/2026-10-18-native-graphics-settings.png" width="150" alt="Graphics Settings, 18 Oct" title="Graphics Settings, 18 Oct"></a> <a href="docs/GALLERY.md#2026-10-17--town-stretching-fixed-secondary-bone-physics"><img src="verification/screenshots/2026-10-17-native-wkc1-secondary-bone-physics.png" width="150" alt="Town, 17 Oct" title="Town, 17 Oct"></a> <a href="docs/GALLERY.md#2026-10-16--vulkan-avatar-colours-restored"><img src="verification/screenshots/2026-10-16-native-vulkan-avatar-colours.png" width="150" alt="Avatar creation, 16 Oct" title="Avatar creation, 16 Oct"></a> <a href="docs/GALLERY.md#2026-10-16--title-menu"><img src="verification/screenshots/2026-10-16-title-menu.png" width="150" alt="Title menu, 16 Oct" title="Title menu, 16 Oct"></a> <a href="docs/GALLERY.md#2026-10-15--language-selection"><img src="verification/screenshots/2026-10-15-language-selection.png" width="150" alt="First screen, 15 Oct" title="First screen, 15 Oct"></a></p>

_{Newest first, back to the first native screen: the milestones are in the <a href="docs/GALLERY.md#milestones-at-a-glance">gallery timeline</a>.}

Status

Early development build. The native Windows build reaches the WKC1 starting town and can resume from a local save. The long-term SPU target is complete replacement with readable project-written C++; current coverage is partial.

Verified

• Startup screens, title menus, movie playback and avatar creation.
• Town rendering, short character movement, camera control and pause/resume.
• Logic Stone targeting, saving one starting-town slot and loading it through Continue after restarting.
• A dedicated Triangle → System → Graphics Settings panel with persistent preferences, the game's menu frame and a scrollbar.
• The town-to-Balastor Plain transition after Continue, with short movement and camera control. DirectX foreground clipping is fixed on that route, and leaf-shaped foliage shadow cutouts are restored on both renderers.
• 121 Windows regression checks pass in both normal Debug and optimized Release.

Graphics settings: windowed, borderless and fullscreen modes; named output resolutions; VSync; anisotropic filtering from Off to 16×; Off/FXAA anti-aliasing; 30/40/60 frame limits; and an optional transparent FPS overlay. Vulkan is the primary renderer. DirectX 12 is an experimental, restart-selected renderer. Window mode, output size, VSync, filtering, FXAA and the FPS overlay are integrated. Full rendering and transition parity remain in development.

Frame rate: use the 30 FPS baseline. Higher limits can exceed 30 presentations/s, but area transitions, cutscene skips and walking currently have reported faults above 30. Window titles show only the game name. The optional in-game FPS overlay measures presentations and can include repeated animation states.

Desktop launches disable inherited profilers, traces, input injection and GPU captures before runtime initialization. Normal play writes no diagnostic logs; the optional in-game FPS overlay remains your choice.

Known issues

• Performance and game timing: the crowded town street is the slowest scene. With the frame limit unlocked it now runs at about 23–41 FPS on Vulkan, up from about 15 before pipelined geometry jobs; DirectX views of the crowd read 17–22. At the 30 FPS limit, lighter crowds hold 30 FPS. Patches 0134 and 0136 gained about 13% in a moderate crowd. On 22 October, cutting the geometry chain's overhead took a heavy crowd from 25.8 to 29.4 FPS in a same-process A/B (details). Running geometry jobs the native path cannot take as compiled jobs at their turn, instead of draining the pipeline, added 6–8% in the densest crowds, which now run at about 24–25 FPS (details). There the renderer's draws and the SPU command output (image 20) are the remaining cost (details). Movement still stutters, and loading and cutscene timing need further comparison with RPCS3.
• Rendering: black flicker at Leonard's feet and the rotating Logic Stone effect remain open. DirectX shadow fidelity and darker grass are under investigation, and moving cloud shade and apparent grass density need matched comparisons with RPCS3. Earlier stretched hair/clothing strips and inverted shadows are fixed in inspected Vulkan views.
• Controls: the game reads the sticks once per frame, so they feel slow and uneven wherever the frame rate drops; the frame-rate work is the main fix. Patch 0132 removed up to 16 ms of extra stick delay. Physical-controller consistency, especially at angles, still needs comparison.
• Gameplay coverage: sustained traversal, combat, a complete playthrough and broader save compatibility remain unverified.

Evidence, measurements and investigation history are in the findings log; remaining runtime implementation gaps are tracked in the runtime audit.

Roadmap

• Features: draw distance and fog controls, removal of menu background blur, and an in-game keyboard navigable with a gamepad.
• USA update 1.01 and DLC: integrate the updated executable and content, then validate loading, gameplay and save compatibility.
• European DLC: investigate content differences and compatibility with the USA build. An EU-only file entry has been identified; its purpose and compatibility remain unverified.
• Japanese release: the game, DLC and all ten update packages are available for research. The long-term goal is to add all Japanese-exclusive content with English translations, plus optional Japanese voiceovers.
• Platforms: Linux and Apple Silicon support are longer-term goals.

Development continues on the original USA disc baseline, with WKC1 tested first. These are planned additions; update, DLC and cross-region runtime support are not verified yet. GeoNet compatibility is separate later research.

How it works

The game code is translated to C/C++ ahead of time and compiled with a runtime that implements the PS3 services it uses. Tested town-to-plains routes run with the SPU interpreter fallback forbidden, after five missing SPU entries were added to the static build. The fallback remains available for untested paths.

Readable, project-written C++ runs the supported image-19 geometry jobs, pipelined across worker threads, all four image-23 visibility modes and the normal path of image 21, the event-flag set job. Image 20, the render-command builder, runs its interpreter loop and commands 25 and 12 in C++. Other SPU jobs, commands and inputs still run as compiled code. Everything about the SPU work is on one page, SPU jobs and their replacement: what each job does, how the port runs it, the problems found and fixed, what limits the frame rate and how a job is replaced.

Building and documentation

This repository contains project source, build tools, SDK patches and verification records. Building requires privately prepared game files from the USA BLUS30784 version 01.00 disc. Game files and generated game sources are kept outside this repository.

Page	Contents
SPU jobs and their replacement	Start here for SPU work: the 24 jobs, how they run, problems fixed, what limits FPS and the replacement workflow
Build guide	Requirements, private workspace layout, building, regression checks, play and diagnostic options
Findings log	Verified results, measurements, open issues and investigation history, grouped by topic
Runtime patch notes	What each numbered SDK patch changes and how it was checked, newest first
Runtime subsystem notes	Renderer, movie decoding, guest hooks, early SPURS and RSX patch notes, frame presentation and native text entry
Lessons for recompilers	Symptom index and reusable lessons on timing, rendering, SPU jobs and runtime services
Reference	Glossary, environment variables and known game addresses
Architecture	Execution model, remaining SPU fallback and modding scope
Native C++ execution work	Replacing SPU code with readable C++ and speeding up SPU jobs: evidence, work order and acceptance rules
DirectX parity audit	Vulkan fixes still missing from live DirectX, with evidence and next checks
Progress gallery	Dated screenshots, newest first
Runtime audit	Runtime-fix comparison and remaining implementation gaps
Code review history	Review findings, fixes and the checks that were run
Contributing	Contribution workflow and where new notes belong

Credits and license

Built on the PS3Recomp SDK. The pinned SDK revision is recorded in project.json, its license is retained in LICENSE.ps3recomp, and local runtime changes are maintained as numbered patches.

Special thanks

Thank you to these projects for the ideas, references and improvements this port has drawn on:

• PS3Recomp by sp00nznet and contributors
• Drakengard 3 recomp and PS3Recomp fork by soyjxck
• PS3Recomp fork by NoahBPeterson
• PS3Recomp fork by JonathanDC64
• inFAMOUS 2 recomp by erikomis
• Killzone 3 fix catalogue by undecuple
• Soulcalibur II HD recomp by n0madic
• RPCS3
• envytools and the PS3 Developer Wiki
• FFmpeg and SDL