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Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 23:38, 8 July 2018 by 88.99.32.244 (talk) (Undo revision 581082 by Keith (talk) This version of Silent Hill 2 Enhancements is not ready (hence why it is under the "testing" link) and should not be released to the mass public yet.)
Template:Infobox game/row/winporter
Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut
Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut cover
Developers
Team Silent
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: The Arcade (unofficial port) 2014
PT for PC (unofficial remake) 2018
Silent Hill 2 2024
Silent Hill f 2025
Silent Hill: Townfall TBA
Silent Hill TBA

Key points

The PC version adds improved flashlight lighting, the ability to save at any time during the game, swap weapons without opening the menu, and a movie gallery.
Can only run stably on a single core: both the North American and European Director's Cut version are compatible to use with the Silent Hill 2 Widescreen Fix and accompanied fix packages.
Atmospheric fog and the shadowing are much simpler and less refined than the PlayStation 2 version.[1] See Fog Fix
FMVs suffer significantly in quality compared to the other versions.[2] See FMV Enhacement Pack
Frame rate is capped at 30 FPS. See High frame rate to raise frame rate cap.

General information

Silent Hill Wiki - A wiki for the series
Silent Hill Memories - Informative site
Silent Hill 2 PC Widescreen Fix Installation Guide

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
 Released on 3 CDs.
Windows
There are two versions, the North American version and 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 Widescreen Fix

A D3D8 wrapper for the European Director's Cut version which adds some fixes and new features:
  • Widescreen support (With proper Vert- scaling to hide off-screen characters in certain cutscenes)
  • Disable cutscene letterboxing
  • Steam controller support
  • Native single core affinity
  • Removes the 30 fps cap, has serious issues:
    • Has minor sound issues
    • The game will simply soft-lock on certain cutscenes
  • Correct the UI/ HUD width in widescreen (Through pillar-boxing)
  • Fixed slow camera speed (Just as fast as the PS2 version)
  • Illumination Fix:
    • Fixed a bug where the flashlight would illuminate objects behind it
    • Fixed a bug where one of the endings had fog/ shadow problems
  • Faster transitions (No loading between doors)
  • Allows to bind the same key to multiple actions (For both Gamepad and Keyboard)

Silent Hill 2 Fog Fix

A fix that improves fog quality and allows for custom fog settings.
For Widescreen Fix compatibility, see Use Fog Fix alongside Widescreen Fix.

Silent Hill 2 Audio Enhancement Pack

Replaces the PC version's audio files with the original, higher quality PlayStation 2 ones.

Silent Hill 2 FMV Enhancement Pack

A widescreen FMV enhancement pack with improved quality and upscaled resolution over the original PC version's FMVs.[1]

Silent Hill 2 Modern Compatibility Fix

A fix that allows higher resolutions (excluding 4K) and easier anti-aliasing application (at the cost of some glitches). Only use this for the North American version.

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

Windowed

Force windowed mode[citation needed]
  1. Install Silent Hill 2 Widescreen Fix.
  2. Go to the installation folder.
  3. Create wndmode.ini and start the game.
  4. Border can be toggled in wndmode.ini.

Anti-aliasing (AA)

MSAA is not compatible with the WineD3D fix; another option is to force SMAA instead.
Force MSAA[citation needed]
  1. Install Silent Hill 2 Widescreen Fix.
  2. Start the game to automatically create local.fix to support driver-level AA.
  3. Force AA in the graphics card control panel.
Force SMAA (with WineD3D)[citation needed]
  1. Apply the full WineD3D fix below.
  2. Download and open ReShade.
  3. Select sh2pc.exe and the OpenGL rendering API.
  4. Download the effects and install only SMAA.fx.
  5. Start the game and press ⇧ Shift+F2 to setup SMAA.

High frame rate

Changing the frame rate causes audio bugs when firing and reloading some weapons.
Change frame rate cap[citation needed]
  1. Install Silent Hill 2 Widescreen Fix.
  2. Open SilentHill2.WidescreenFix.ini.
  3. Change FPSLimit = 30 to FPSLimit = 60 or your desired value.

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.
Force feedback cannot be enabled for XInput controllers.
Add XInput support[citation needed]
  1. If using Silent Hill 2 Widescreen Fix, rename dinput8.dll to d3d8.dll.
  2. Download and run XInput Plus.
  3. Set the Target Program to sh2pc.exe.
  4. Go to DirectInput and check Enable DirectInput Output.
  5. Assign LT/RT to Button 11/12.
  6. Assign DPAD to Button 13-16.
  7. 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
French
German
Italian
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Arabic
Spanish

Issues fixed

Fixing most major issues

Issues: white textures, music fades randomly and sound loops, missing fog at the beginning of the game, missing graphical overlays, slow transitions, black lines appearing on faces, flashlight illuminates objects behind James, crashes, slow camera speed, "Maria" ending has buggy shadows and no fog, and chunks of environments missing when a camera is fixed close to a wall.
Fix issues[3]
  1. Download Silent Hill 2 Widescreen Fix.
  2. Copy dinput8.dll and the scripts folder to the installation folder.
  3. Rename dinput8.dll to d3d8.dll.
  4. Download WineD3D for Windows.
  5. Copy d3d9.dll, libwine.dll, and wined3d.dll to <path-to-game>\scripts\.
  6. Download LoadWineD3D ASI.
  7. Copy LoadWineD3D.asi to <path-to-game>\scripts\.
  8. Create a file named global.ini in <path-to-game>\scripts\ with the following content.
[GlobalSets]
UseD3D8to9=1

Game hangs at startup

On Windows 7, having single core affinity enabled through the Silent Hill 2 Widescreen Fix may prevent the game from running.
Disable SingleCoreAffinity on Windows 7[4]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\scripts\.
  2. Open SilentHill2.WidescreenFix.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.

"Insert a disc" message in the ending

Rename ending.bik[5]
  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

Use Fog Fix alongside Widescreen Fix

Use both fixes together[citation needed]
  1. Install Silent Hill 2 Widescreen Fix to the installation folder.
  2. Download Silent Hill 2 Fog Fix.
  3. Copy sh2.dll and sh2fog.ini to <path-to-game>\scripts\ (password: sh2).
  4. Rename sh2.dll to sh2.asi and start the game.

Make James run without slowing down

Apply unlimited stamina hack[6]
  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[7]
  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[8]
  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
MinimumRecommended
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 MB128 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD) 1.8 GB2.3 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