Anonymous edits have been disabled on the wiki. If you want to contribute please login or create an account.

Warning for game developers: PCGamingWiki staff members will only ever reach out to you using the official press@pcgamingwiki.com mail address.
Be aware of scammers claiming to be representatives or affiliates of PCGamingWiki who promise a PCGW page for a game key.

Difference between revisions of "Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut"

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
(partially rewritten the keypoint about missing PS2 features — mods don't seem to improve SH2 on PC over the PS2 version however since 60fps has bugs and resolution is of course a native feature)
m ("reduced or radically changed" changed to "downgraded")
Line 20: Line 20:
 
'''Key points'''
 
'''Key points'''
 
{{++}} ''Silent Hill 2 PC'' comes with improved flashlight lighting, a quick-save function, real-time weapon swapping and a movie gallery.
 
{{++}} ''Silent Hill 2 PC'' comes with improved flashlight lighting, a quick-save function, real-time weapon swapping and a movie gallery.
−
{{--}} Many features from the PlayStation 2 version have been reduced or radically changed,<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nna2yt1c9gI&feature=youtu.be&t=739 DF Retro: Silent Hill 2 - Horror Perfected on PS2/Xbox/PC/PS3]</ref> but [[#Essential improvements|mods]] can restore some and improve compatibility on modern systems.
+
{{--}} Many features from the PlayStation 2 version have been downgraded,<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nna2yt1c9gI&feature=youtu.be&t=739 DF Retro: Silent Hill 2 - Horror Perfected on PS2/Xbox/PC/PS3]</ref> but [[#Essential improvements|mods]] can restore some and improve compatibility on modern systems.
  
 
'''General information'''
 
'''General information'''

Revision as of 19:52, 7 February 2019

Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut
Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut cover
Developers
Team Silent
Windows Creature Labs
Publishers
Konami
Release dates
Windows December 2, 2002
Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut guide on StrategyWiki
Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut on Wikipedia
Icon overlay.png
Silent Hill
Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut 2002
Silent Hill 3 2003
Silent Hill 4: The Room 2004
Silent Hill: Homecoming 2008
Silent Hill 2 2024

Key points

Silent Hill 2 PC comes with improved flashlight lighting, a quick-save function, real-time weapon swapping and a movie gallery.
Many features from the PlayStation 2 version have been downgraded,[1] but mods can restore some and improve compatibility on modern systems.

General information

Silent Hill Wiki - A wiki for the series
Silent Hill Memories - Informative site
Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition Installation Guide

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
 SecuROM 4 DRM. Patch 1.1 removes the DRM.
Released on 3 CDs.
Windows
There are two versions: the North American version and the European Director's Cut version. If the title screen lacks "Director's Cut" on it, it's the North American version. Both versions include the extra scenario Born from a Wish along with an extra UFO ending.

Essential improvements

Silent Hill 2 running at 1920x1080
Silent Hill 2 running at 1920x1080

Silent Hill 2 Enhancements

Silent Hill 2 Enhancements is a collection of unofficial mods which implement widescreen resolution support, add PlayStation 2 quality audio and fog that were missing from the PC version, improve controller support and much more.[2]
See also Enhanced Edition Essential Files and Enhanced EXE.

Silent Hill 2 Audio Enhancement Pack

The PC version's audio is compressed and lacks detail in comparison to the PlayStation 2 version.[3]
The Audio Enhancement Pack replaces the PC version's audio files with the original, higher quality PlayStation 2 ones.

Silent Hill 2 FMV Enhancement Pack

The PC version's FMVs have a reduction in quality compared to the console versions.[4]
The FMV Enhancement Pack improves the quality and upscales the resolution of the FMVs.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\[Note 1]
keyconf.dat stores input bindings.
language.ini stores language settings.
options.ini stores gameplay and volume settings.
settings.ini stores video and audio settings.

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\data\save\[Note 1]

Video settings

Video settings
Video settings

Template:Video settings

Increase noise effect resolution

Change IncreaseNoiseEffectRes[5]
  1. Install Silent Hill 2 Enhancements.
  2. Open d3d8.ini.
  3. Set IncreaseNoiseEffectRes to any value between 128 and 4096 to adjust the resolution.

Input settings

Template:Input settings

Controller support

A fix is required for the game to recognize XInput LT/RT and D-pad when assigning controls.
Add XInput support[citation needed]
  1. Download and run XInput Plus.
  2. Set the Target Program to sh2pc.exe.
  3. Go to DirectInput and check Enable DirectInput Output.
  4. Assign LT/RT to Button 11/12.
  5. Assign DPAD to Button 13-16.
  6. Click Apply and OK.

Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

May require DirectSound3D restoration software to restore hardware-accelerated 3D sound functionality on Windows Vista and later.

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Arabic
Fan translation, download.
Simplified Chinese
Fan translation, download.
French
German
Italian
Polish
Fan translation, download. Includes a widescreen patch.
Brazilian Portuguese
Fan translation, download.
Russian
Fan translation, download.
Spanish

Issues unresolved

Side effects playing the game at 60 FPS

Some of the game's elements play too quickly or bug out.[6]
The handgun and shotgun bullet casing sound effects don't play correctly.[6]

No soft shadows

The PC version lacks soft shadows present in the PlayStation 2 version.

Issues fixed

Music fades randomly and sound loops

The game can only run stably on a single core.
Limit the game to one CPU core[citation needed]
  1. Install Silent Hill 2 Enhancements.
  2. Open d3d8.ini and ensure SingleCoreAffinity = 1 is set.

Game hangs at startup

On Windows 7, having single core affinity enabled through Silent Hill 2 Enhancements may prevent the game from running.
Disable SingleCoreAffinity on Windows 7[7]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Open d3d8.ini.
  3. Change SingleCoreAffinity = 1 to SingleCoreAffinity = 0.
  4. Doing this will require manually changing the single core affinity from Task Manager every time you run the game.

Clicking or popping sound effects

Use IndirectSound[8]
  1. Download IndirectSound.
  2. Copy dsound.dll and dsound.ini to the installation folder.
  3. Open dsound.ini.
  4. Change earlyStopFadeOutTime = 0 to earlyStopFadeOutTime = 0.002.

Textures appear as solid white surfaces

Use WhiteShaderFix[9]
  1. Install Silent Hill 2 Enhancements.
  2. Ensure WhiteShaderFix is set to 1.

"Insert a disc" message in the ending

Rename ending.bik[10]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\data\movie\.
  2. Rename ending.bik to end.bik.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 8
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Make James run without slowing down

Apply unlimited stamina hack[11]
  1. Open sh2pc.exe with a hex editor such as HxD.
  2. Press Ctrl+G and go to the address 001356D1.
  3. Change the value CF to C8 and save the changes.

Disable background fog

Disable fogging[12]
  1. Download and run DxWnd.
  2. Click on Edit, then Add.
  3. Set the path to <path-to-game>\sh2pc.exe
  4. Disable Run in Window.
  5. Click on the Direct3D tab and enable Disable Fogging.
  6. Click OK, File, Save, and start the game with DxWnd running.

Add icon to executable file

sh2pc.exe may have no icon set by default.
Set icon with Rcedit[13]
  1. Download Rcedit depending on your OS bitness, and copy it to <path-to-game>.
  2. Download sh2_newicon.zip and extract sh2_new.ico to <path-to-game>.
  3. Open a Command Prompt.
  4. Type in and enter cd <path-to-game>.
    • Replace <path-to-game> with the actual path; e.g. cd C:\Games\Silent Hill 2.
  5. Type in and enter rcedit-x64.exe sh2pc.exe --set-icon sh2_new.ico.
    • If you use the 32-bit version, replace rcedit-x64.exe with rcedit-x86.exe above.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 98, 2000, ME, XP
Processor (CPU) AMD Athlon - 700 MHz
Intel Pentium - 700 MHz		 AMD Athlon - 1 GHz
Intel Pentium - 1 GHz
System memory (RAM) 64 MB 128 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 1.8 GB 2.3 GB
Video card (GPU) 32 MB of VRAM
DirectX 8.1 compatible 		64 MB of VRAM

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References