Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut

Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut

Developers
	Team Silent
Windows	Creature Labs
Publishers
	Konami
Release dates
Windows	December 2, 2002
Reception
Metacritic	70
IGDB	90
Taxonomy
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Cinematic camera, Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Survival horror
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Contemporary, Horror, North America
Series	Silent Hill

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

Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut is a survival horror game developed by Team Silent, ported by Creature Labs, and published by Konami. It is the second installment in the Silent Hill series.

The game was originally released for the PlayStation 2 on September 21, 2001 worldwide. The game later received an extended Director's Cut version on PlayStation 2 as a Greatest Hits re-release, Xbox, and PC, which added a new Born from a Wish scenario, a secret UFO ending, and for the PC version, a quick-save function, real-time weapon swapping, and a movie gallery. The PC version also features improved flashlight lighting like in the Xbox port, however, it also has a number of inaccuracies, missing or downgraded effects, and lower audio and FMV quality than previous versions. It also has compatibility issues with newer versions of Windows and hardware (see here for details).

There has been growing efforts by modders to fix the issues with the PC version, starting with sh2proxy by emoose to address compatibility issues and implement widescreen support for the game. It has since been succeeded by Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition, a community-driven project for the PC version that restores features from the original PlayStation 2 version, adds support for HD and widescreen resolutions, improved controller support, and other quality-of-life improvements.

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		SecuROM 4.83 DRM. Patch 1.1 removes the DRM. Released on 3 CDs.

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: Enhanced Edition

Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition 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.

All improvements in this section are included in the full installation of the Enhanced Edition collection.

Silent Hill 2 FMV Enhancement Pack

The PC version's FMV videos were re-encoded in Bink format and run at 30FPS instead of 60 on PlayStation 2.

The FMV Enhancement Pack improves the quality and upscales the resolution of the FMVs.

Silent Hill 2 Audio Enhancement Pack

The PC version's audio is compressed and lacks detail in comparison to the PlayStation 2 version.

The Audio Enhancement Pack replaces the PC version's audio files with the original, higher quality PlayStation 2 ones.

Silent Hill 2 PC Fix by Steam006

A fix which adds new features and fixes some bugs.

Do not use this fix if you plan to follow the Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition installation method.

Instructions[citation needed]
Copy all the files to <path-to-game> Configure the width and height and other options in Silent_Hill_2_PC_Fix.ini. Start the game with DLLInjector.exe.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\

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\

Video

Video settings

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			Use Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen			Use Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition.
4K Ultra HD			Use Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		Use Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition, then set ScreenMode in d3d8.ini to 1.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Use Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition, then set ScreenMode in d3d8.ini to 2.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Use Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition, then set AnisotropicFiltering in d3d8.ini between 2 to 16; setting this value to 1 will automatically use the highest amount supported by your video card, and 0 will disable anisotropic filtering.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Use Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition. For SMAA, set EnableSMAA in d3d8.ini to 1. Alternatively, GPU-based MSAA can be forced via your video card's respective control panel; see here for instructions and recommended settings.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS		Capped at 30 FPS. See High frame rate.
120+ FPS

High frame rate

Change the frame rate cap

Install Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition. Open d3d8.ini. Add the following to its own lines in the file: ; Controls the frame rate limit, but it may cause bugs if increased above 30 FPS. FPSLimit = 60 Notes Playing the game at 60 FPS causes various bugs which are as follows. The intensity/effectiveness of the motion blur is reduced by half. The bullet casing sound effects for the handgun and shotgun glitch out. Animation for James transcribing notes onto his map is twice as fast. James's inner monologue (immediately upon exiting the hospital) may run twice as fast. Water animates/moves quicker in all areas (James rowing on the lake, water in the labyrinth, etc) and drains twice as fast during the RPT Apartment boss fight. The flames in Angela's staircase move twice as fast. The flashlight dies out twice as fast in the prison bug room. The "ritual" prison monster's footsteps happen way too fast.

Change noise effect resolution

Change IncreaseNoiseEffectRes
Install Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition. Open d3d8.ini. Set IncreaseNoiseEffectRes to any value between 128 and 4096. The larger the value, the smaller the noise grain will be.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Mouse buttons cannot be remapped with other keys.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus		Not supported in the pause menu.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		DirectInput only.
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Use Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition to assign multiple actions to any button.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers		See Controller support.
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers
Button prompts

Additional information
Button prompts
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback		DirectInput only. Use Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition to restore vibration for XInput controllers.
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Controller support

Analog triggers and vibration on XInput controllers won't function without workarounds.

Fix triggers and vibration
Install Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition to restore vibration for XInput-based controllers. Download and run XInput Plus. Set the Target Program to sh2pc.exe. Go to DirectInput and check Enable DirectInput Output. Assign LT/RT to Button 11/12. Click Apply and OK.

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Background music and sound effects.
Surround sound		Up to 7.0 output.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		DirectSound3D.

May require DirectSound3D restoration software to restore hardware-accelerated 3D sound functionality on Windows Vista and later. (DSOAL is included in Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition)

Localizations

Use Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition to restore the language selection in the options menu.

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. It requires the Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition
Russian				Fan translation by «HomeTown.ru / Ashigaru».
Spanish				Game is officially translated in Spanish but an improved fan translation is also available, download.
Indonesian				Fan translation, download.
Turkish				Fan translation, download.

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]
Install Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition. 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: Enhanced Edition may prevent the game from running.

Disable SingleCoreAffinity on Windows 7
Go to the installation folder. Open d3d8.ini. Set SingleCoreAffinity = 0. 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 AudioClipDetection
Install Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition. Open d3d8.ini and ensure AudioClipDetection = 1 is set.

Textures appear as solid white surfaces

Use WhiteShaderFix
Install Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition. Ensure WhiteShaderFix is set to 1.

"Insert a disc" message in the ending

Rename ending.bik
Go to <path-to-game>\data\movie\. Rename ending.bik to end.bik.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	8.1	For DirectX 9 support, use Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition.
Shader Model support	1.4

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	ADX	Sound files are low quality and missing details compared to the PlayStation 2 version. The original audio files be restored into the PC version with Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition and installing the Audio Enhancement Pack.
Cutscenes	Bink Video	FMVs are compressed and play at 30 FPS instead of 60 compared to the PlayStation 2 version. The FMVs can be improved by using the Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition mod and installing the FMV Enhancement Pack.

Silent Hill 2 HD Collection Voice Pack

This replaces the original voice acting with the new voices from the Silent Hill HD Collection release.

The HD Voice Pack includes and integrates the Audio Enhancement Pack and FMV Enhancement Pack for its audio improvements.

The HD Collection voices are very divisive and often considered to be inferior to the original voice acting.

Make James run without slowing down

Apply unlimited stamina-hack
Open sh2pc.exe with a hex-editor such as HxD. Press Ctrl+F and find address 89 BE 20 01 00 00 D8 B6 40 01 00 00 (Hex-values). Press Ctrl+G and go to 41 (offset relative to: current offset). Change the value CF to C8 and save the changes.

Disable background fog

Disable fogging
Download and run DxWnd. Click on Edit, then Add. Set the path to <path-to-game>\sh2pc.exe Disable Run in Window. Click on the Direct3D tab and enable Disable Fogging. 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

Download Rcedit depending on your OS bitness, and copy it to <path-to-game>. Download sh2_newicon.zip and extract sh2_new.ico to <path-to-game>. Open a Command Prompt. Type in and enter cd <path-to-game>. Replace <path-to-game> with the actual path; e.g. cd C:\Games\Silent Hill 2. 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