README.md

Silent Hill 2 Enhancement

Introduction

A project designed to enhance Silent Hill 2 (SH2) graphics and audio for the PC. It also includes scripts to build or modify SH2 audio files (SFX, BGM and Dialog).

Features

Below is a list of features:

• 60 FPS Mode - Adds 60 FPS mode and fixes issues related to 60 FPS.
• Advanced Options Menu Fix - Fixes multiple visual text issues in the Advanced Options menu.
• Apartment Clock Fix - Fixes flashlight rendering on the apartment grandfather clock after a failed attempt to push it.
• Alt+Enter Support - Adds hotkey for toggling between fullscreen and windowed mode by pressing Alt+Enter.
• Alternate Stomp Fix - Restores the alternate stomp animation.
• Audio Clip Detection - Detects when the audio is stopped prematurely and fades out to avoid pops in the sound.
• Audio Loop Fix - Fixes audio looping issues with certain sounds, such as the final boss's moth sounds and chainsaw sounds.
• Audio Script Builder - Allows you to create or update the SH2 audio files.
• AutoUpdater - Automatically updates the module when new versions come out.
• ASI Loader - Loads custom libraries with the file extension .asi into the game using Ultimate ASI Loader.
• Black Pillar Box Fix - Forces all dynamically made letterboxing and pillarboxing to be black in color.
• Borderless Windowed Mode - Enable or disable windows border. Requires Windowed Mode to be enabled (WndMode = 1).
• Catacomb's Meat Cold Room Fix - Updates the color and lighting of the catacomb's meat cold rooms to be more like the PS2 version of the game.
• Cemetery Lighting Fix - Fixes an issue where wrong data is used when saving the game in the cemetery, which can corrupt fog effects.
• Chainsaw Spawn Fix - Prevents the chainsaw from spawning on a first playthrough, which is a developer-intended design choice.
• Closet Cutscene Fix - Adjusts visuals during the apartment closet cutscene to resemble the PS2 version.
• Configuration tool - A launcher tool that allows you to configure any of the setting for Silent Hill 2 Enhanced Edition.
• Creature Vehicle Spawn Fix - Fixes an issue where creatures would incorrectly exit from underneath a vehicle.
• CRT Shaders - Adds CRT shaders to help simulate what the game would look like on a CRT.
• CriWare Audio Engine - A complete rewrite of the Silent Hill 2 audio engine.
• Custom Hi-Res Font - Loads custom font texture font000.tga and fontwdata.bin as width data for the first 224 chars.
• Custom Mod Folder Support - Enables a custom mod folder sh2e to store modified game files so as to not overwrite native Silent Hill 2 files.
• d3d8to9 - Converts Silent Hill 2 to use Direct3D9 (d3d9.dll) rather than Direct3D8.
• Disable High DPI - Disables High DPI to prevent issues on systems with high DPI enabled.
• Disable Red Cross - Disables the low health (red cross) indicator completely. This option is recommended only if you are using a controller with vibration enabled.
• Disable Red Cross In Cutscenes - Hides the low health (red cross) indicator during in-game cutscenes.
• Disable Screensaver - Disables the screensaver during gameplay.
• DisableGameUX - Disables the Microsoft Game Explorer (GameUX) to prevent rundll32.exe high CPU.
• DPad Movement Fix - Allows movement with D-pad on DirectInput and XInput gamepads.
• Dynamic Resolution Support - Dynamically shows all supported resolutions in the in-game's Options menu. Also shows resolution ratio in Options menu.
• Effects Flicker Fix - Removes the black flicker that appears at the beginning of post-processing effects.
• Fad Screen Fixes - Fixes fading for specific areas in the game. Corrects wrong background music that would play if changing rooms during menu fade ins. Fixed background music issue on loading a game save.
• Flashlight & Room Brightness - Adjusts room lighting and flashlight brightness to resemble the PS2 version. Reduces flashlight intensity for environments, but keeps enemies and NPCs bright.
• Flashlight Flicker Fix - Fixes a bug that would make James' body flash with light if exiting the pause menu while the flashlight is off.
• Fog 2D Fix - Fixes an issue on Nvidia graphics cards where the 2D fog is missing.
• Fog Fix - Makes the game's fog closer resemble the PlayStation 2's version which is considered the best. Based on Nemesis2000 Fog Fix.
• Fog Parameter Fix - Adjusts the fog-of-war boundaries for specific areas to fix visual errors.
• Free Space Display Fix - Displays free space in KB, MB, GB or TB.
• Fullscreen Windowed Mode - Enables fullscreen windowed mode. Requires Windowed Mode to be enabled (WndMode = 1).
• Game Load Fix - Fixes multiple errors and crashes in game's quick save feature. Disables free-saving in a few rooms that would cause game issues upon file loading back into the rooms.
• Game Results Fix - Fixes an issue where the game would crash when loading game results while in game.
• Gamepad and Joystick Support - Adds better support for gamepads and joysticks, including XInput support (using Xidi) and D-pad support.
• Halogen Light Fix - Fixes the prison hallway halogen lights
• Hang On Pause Fix - Fixes an issue where the game will hang when Esc is pressed while transition is active.
• Hospital Chase Fix - Correctly syncs an attack animation to the rest of the cutscene that plays out during the Hospital chase.
• Hotel Water Fix - Restores lighting values for the hotel water.
• Image and FMV Scaling - Dynamically scales fullscreen images and videos to fit whatever screen resolution is being used.
• Improved Storage Support - Allows you to save the game when you have more than 2 TB of free space.
• Increase Blood - Increases the blood pool size of dead enemies to better match the PS2 version.
• Increase Draw Distance - Fixes distant hallway walls (such as those in the Woodside Apartments) from suddenly appearing. This makes them appear gradually, more naturally.
• Language Pack Support - Supports custom language packs for adding new languages to the game.
• Left-handed Joystick Support - Swaps left and right joystick functions. Useful for left-handed players.
• Lighting Transition Fix - Makes lighting transition smooth from one light source to another for a few particular areas.
• Japanese Language Support - Re-enables Japanese language support in the game.
• Joystick Camera Movement - Sets right joystick mode for search camera movement on controllers.
• Missing Wall Chunks Fix - Fixes an issue on Nvidia graphics cards where wall chunks are missing in some locations.
• Mouse & Keyboard Support - Adds mouse and keyboard support for in-game menus, as well as mouse support for movement.
• Multi-Language Support - Restores the language selection in the Options menu.
• NoCD Patch - Disables the CD check. Note: not yet supported in all game versions.
• Noise Filter Tuning - Makes the noise filter resemble the PlayStation 2's noise filter.
• Piston Room Fix - Hides a piston behind a door that should not be seen during a cutscene.
• Reset Screen Res - Resets the display adapter on exit which fixes an issue when using WineD3D casing the screen to go dark.
• Room 312 Pause Menu Fix - Restores the noise filter and bloom effects in the pause menu for Room 312.
• Room 312 Shadow Fix - Prevents distracting shadow flickering while in Room 312 of the Hotel.
• Rowboat Animation Fix - Fixes an issue with rowboat animation if you exit to the main menu and reload the game.
• Save Game Sound Fix - Restores missing save game sound FX in certain locations.
• Save / Load Background Images Fix - Ensures the correct background image is shown in the save and load game menus.
• Secondary Monitor Support - Allows the game to be played on a secondary monitor.
• Setup Tool - Tool that will download and install all files needed for the Silent Hill 2 Enhanced Edition. Note: Silent Hill 2 needs to be installed separately.
• Screen Capture Support - Allows taking screenshots at any time while playing.
• SFX Address Fix - Dynamically updates SH2 memory with correct index locations for the SFX from the sddata.bin file (required if you are using a modified version of the sddata.bin audio file).
• Shader Support - Includes custom shaders for adjusting color, setting in game brightness and SMAA.
• Soft Shadow Support - Adds soft shadows, shadow level intensities, shadow fading on flashlight toggles, and self shadows.
• Special FX Fix - Restores post-processing effects, which includes depth-of-field, motion blur, and pseudo blooms.
• Specularity Fix - Restores specularity throughout the game similar to the PS2 version of the game.
• Texture Address Fix - Dynamically updates SH2 memory to reserve additional space for large texture (required if you are using a large texture files).
• Town West Gate Event Fix - Changes James' commentary about the back alley Heaven's Night gate at night to properly reflect the gate's status.
• UAC Control - Checks if administrator access is required for the game to function correctly and prompts for UAC if needed.
• Vibration Support - Enables force feedback vibration support for XInput and DirectInput gamepads.
• White Shader Fix - Fixes an issue on Nvidia graphics cards where certain textures would appear as white when they should be black.
• Widescreen Fix - Allows the game to fit any sized monitor appropriately and fixes other inherit game bugs.
• Windowed Mode - Runs the game in windowed mode.
• Woodside Apartment Object Fix - Fixes spawning placements for objects in Woodside Apartments Room 205.

Silent Hill 2 Enhanced Edition Installation Guide

To learn more, check out the Silent Hill 2 Enhanced Edition Installation Guide webpage.

Configuration

To view an ini example see the settings.ini file.

For more details on how to configure the module see the Configuration Details webpage.

Donations

All my work here is free and can be freely used. For more details on how you can use this module see the license section below. However, if you would like to donate to me then check out my donations page. All donations are for work already completed! Please don't donate for future work or to try and increase my development speed. Thanks!

Note: these donation only go to me, not to anyone else who helped with this project. To donate to others check out the credits page.

License

Copyright (C) 2024 Elisha Riedlinger

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. In no event will the author(s) be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software. Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose, including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it freely, subject to the following restrictions:

1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be appreciated but is not required.
2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be misrepresented as being the original software.
3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.

This project uses code from several other projects. Below is a list of locations that source code was taken from:

• adx2aix: Used to multiplex multiple ADX files into a single AIX file.
• adxencd: Used to encode ADX files from raw WAV files.
• aix2adx: Used to convert the AIX files into ADX format.
• AFS Packer: By PacoChan. Used to create the 'voice.afs' file.
• Aqrit's ddwrapper: Includes code to read the ini config file.
• d3d8to9: Includes the full Direct3D 8 to Direct3D 9 code.
• DSoundCtrl: Includes code from DirectSoundControl used for fixing pops and clicks in the audio.
• DxWnd: Includes code from DxWnd used for API hooking.
• DxWrapper: Includes code to create wrapper dlls and resets the display adapter.
• Gemini-Loboto3's SH2config: Integrated all code for the Launcher.
• GetComputerManufacturer: Includes code from rohitab.com to get the computer vendor and model.
• GetFileVersionInfo: Includes code from stackoverflow.com for getting the version of a PE file.
• md5 hash: Includes code for computing md5 hash.
• MemoryModule: Includes code for loading libraries from memory.
• Nemesis2000 Fog Fix: Includes code created by reviewing the Nemesis2000 fog fix.
• ReShade: Includes code from ReShade for supporting custom shaders.
• SS2EE Web Installer - Included the tool that will download and install all files needed for the Silent Hill 2 Enhanced Edition.
• SPIRV: Includes code from SPIRV.
• stb: Includes code from stb.
• TinyXML-2: Used in the Launcher.
• utfcpp: Includes code from utfcpp.
• Ultimate ASI Loader: Includes code for loading ASI plugins and code for loading modules from a module resource.
• Widescreen Fix: Includes code from the Widescreen Fix by ThirteenAG and AeroWidescreen.
• xxHash: Used in the Launcher.

Development

This project is written in C++ using Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2017.

The project uses the Windows 10 SDK, WDK and DirectX9 SDK. The exact version required can be seen in the project properties in Visual Studio.

Note: The "C++ ATL for v141 build tools (x86 & x64)" is required to compile this project.

Thanks for stopping by!