Silent Hill 3

Silent Hill 3

Developers
	Team Silent
Publishers
	Konami
Release dates
Windows	October 31, 2003
Reception
Metacritic	72
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Microtransactions	None
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	TBA

Silent Hill 3 is a singleplayer cinematic camera and third-person survival horror game in the Silent Hill series.

The PC version adds improved flashlight lighting, 60 FPS gameplay and the ability to save at any time during the game. All fourteen of Heather's promotional outfits from the PlayStation 2 version are not present in the PC release. The game also lacks the soft shadows of the PlayStation 2 version.^{[citation needed]} The PC version suffers from badly compressed audio and incorrect pitch, resulting in poor sound quality. See Silent Hill 3 Audio Enhancement.

General information

Silent Hill Memories - Informative website

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM 4.85.00.0015 DRM. Includes the soundtrack CD.

The North American physical release had 5 CDs, while the European PC physical release features just one DVD.

This game is not available digitally.

Essential improvements

Silent Hill 3 with corrected FOV

Silent Hill 3 PC Fix by Steam006

Includes all fixes and features from all other patches.

Adds manual FOV control, borderless mode, window positioning, ability to force Vsync and more.

Restores missing audio and unused beta sounds.

Instructions
Extract the ZIP file and copy the contents to <path-to-game>. Configure options in Silent_Hill_3_PC_Fix.ini (Optional). Run the game from sh3.exe. Notes Password: pcgw

Silent Hill 3 Audio Enhancement Pack

Offers uncompressed PS2 audio quality with correct pitch for sound effects/music.

Has an online updater.

Compatible with Steam006's fix and HD Collection Voice Pack.

Requires the use of Reloaded II.

Skip intro videos

Delete data from files
Go to <path-to-game>\data\movie\. Open op.000 with a text editor. Delete all contents and save the file. Go to <path-to-game>\data\pic\. Open kcet.bmp and konami.bmp with a text editor. Delete all contents and save files.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\savedata\

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\savedata\

Video

In-game display settings

External display settings (1/2)

External display settings (2/2)

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			Use fix by Steam006.
Multi-monitor			Use fix by Steam006.
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD			Use fix by Steam006.
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed		Can also be toggled with Alt+↵ Enter.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Use fix by Steam006.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Forced post-process AA only (FXAA, MLAA)
High-fidelity upscaling
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Disabled by default. See Force Vsync.
60 FPS		Frame rate may fluctuate between 30 and 60 FPS. See Issues fixed.
120+ FPS		Frame rate is capped at 60 FPS. Increases the game speed when uncapped.
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Rendering resolution is actually internal frame buffer resolution. Use Widescreen Fix to customize.

It is highly recommended to set the in-game Brightness Level to 5 for adequate contrast.

Field of view (FOV)

Use FOV Hack

Download and install Visual Basic 6 Runtime. Download Silent Hill 3 FOV Hack and extract its contents. Run both sh3FOV.exe and the game. If running the game as admin, also run sh3FOV.exe as admin. Edit FOV options as needed. If using Widescreen Fix, it is recommended to decrease the Width FOV value. Press Numpad * to enable new FOV settings. To restore default settings, press Numpad /. Notes If your only intent is to run the game in widescreen, it's recommended to use the Silent Hill 3 Widescreen Fix instead, since it also corrects all the 2D items/assets/menus width.

Input

In-game keyboard and gamepad settings (1/3)

In-game keyboard and gamepad settings (2/3)

In-game keyboard and gamepad settings (3/3)

External keyboard and gamepad settings (1/2)

External keyboard and gamepad settings (2/2)

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		Strong negative mouse acceleration by default.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		DirectInput only. For XInput controllers, see Controller support.
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

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

DualShock 4 controllers
DualShock button prompts		Recognizes every button natively while playing. However, both SH3Config.exe and built-in button config do not detect L2/R2.
Light bar support
Connection modes	Bluetooth

Generic/other controllers
Button prompts

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback		Can be set between Soft, Normal, Hard or Off. For XInput controllers, see Controller support.
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Controller support

A fix is required for the game to recognize XInput Right Stick, LT/RT, LS/RS and D-pad when assigning controls.

Force feedback emulation can also be enabled for XInput controllers.

Use XInput Plus

Download and run XInput Plus. Set Target Program to sh3.exe. Go to the DirectInput tab and check Enable DirectInput Output. Assign Right Stick to Z Axis/Z Rot. Assign LT/RT to Button11/12. Assign DPAD to Button 13-16. Click Apply and a DLL file will be added to the game directory. Notes If using Silent Hill 3 Widescreen Fix, rename dinput8.dll to d3d8.dll. If used in conjunction with Silent Hill 3 Audio Enhancement Pack, set UseInitBeep to False in XInputPlus.ini to prevent crashes at startup.

Use Steam Input to bind triggers with keyboard bindings

Add sh3.exe to Steam as a Non-Steam Game. Run Steam in Big Picture mode and navigate to the SH3 shortcut. Select the shortcut, then Manage Shortcut and Controller Configuration. For both triggers, select the trigger and click the box underneath Full Pull Action. In the Select Binding window, select the keyboard binding for the action you want to perform in the game. Once both triggers have been bound, go back to the SH3 shortcut and select Controller Options. Make sure that Steam Input Per-Game Setting is set to Forced On. Run the game through Big Picture mode and if Steam Input was successfully applied, a dialog box should appear. Notes To use triggers, it's necessary to run the game through Big Picture mode. This method won't work with Steam006's fix, as that requires a separate admin-required injector to be used, which unfortunately Steam can't apply to Steam Input.

Audio

General settings

Extra options

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Separate sliders for BGM and SE.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		See Mute on focus lost.
Royalty free audio

Mute on focus lost

Set mute in background[citation needed]
Download d3d8to9. Copy d3d8.dll to the installation folder. Download Special K. Copy SpecialK32.dll to the installation folder. Rename SpecialK32.dll to d3d9.dll. Run the game and exit. Edit d3d9.ini in the installation folder. Find [Window.System] and set MuteInBackground to true.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish				Fan translation, download.
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation, download.
Russian				Full fan localization, download.
Spanish
Turkish				Fan translation, download.

Silent Hill 3 HD Collection Voice Pack

Ports voices from the HD Collection to the PC version.

Requires the use of Reloaded II.

Has an online updater.

Compatible with Steam006's fix and the Audio Enhancement Pack.

Includes higher resolution FMVs from the HD Collection.

Issues unresolved

Forcing anti-aliasing

If using anti-aliasing (MSAA, at least), the Depth of Field effect becomes corrupted (halos around objects).^{[citation needed]}

Post-process AA (FXAA, MLAA) works as intended (best compatibility in conjunction with the D3D9-11 wrappers).

Issues fixed

Motion trails

The light sources affected by bloom leave long dark motion trails on screen when camera is moving.

Turn off the fullscreen smoothing filter[citation needed]
Go to the in-game Extra Options (second options tab) and set Display Mode to Sharp. Notes Disabling the smoothing filter leads to more pronounced aliasing.

Frame rate fluctuation

Frame rate may fluctuate between 30 and 60 FPS.

Both solutions won't work properly with low FPS. Frame rate must be at least above 50 FPS.

FPS fluctuation fix[citation needed]
Install Widescreen Fix or sh3proxy.

Game freezes in the options menu

Force single core affinity[citation needed]
Install Widescreen Fix.

Low resolution Depth of Field

Custom DOF resolution[citation needed]
Install Widescreen Fix or sh3proxy. Adjust DOFRes value. Notes Only increases the resolution, not the strength. Effect will become imperceptible with in-game resolutions higher than 720p.

Low resolution Shadows

Custom shadows resolution[citation needed]
Install Widescreen Fix or sh3proxy. Adjust ShadowRes value.

White border on Windows 10

Fix fullscreen issues[citation needed]
Install Widescreen Fix or sh3proxy.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	8.1

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Silent Hill 3 Widescreen Fix by ThirteenAG

An alternative D3D8 wrapper which adds some fixes and features (outdated):

• Widescreen support (With proper Vert- scaling to hide off-screen characters in certain cutscenes).
• Disabling cutscenes letterboxing.
• Native single core affinity.
• Removing the FPS fluctuation between 30 and 60 FPS.
• UI/HUD width correction in widescreen (through pillar-boxing).
• Removing the safe mode warning when closing the game through Alt+F4.
• Fixing image deformation when rendering the game at higher resolutions.
• Ability to change the status screen resolution.
• Ability to change the depth of field resolution.
• Ability to change the real-time shadows resolution.
• Ability to change the fog complexity.
• Enabling several references to Silent Hill 2 for new saves, a feature from sh3proxy.

Nemesis2000's Widescreen fix for Silent Hill 3

A D3D8 wrapper which adds enhanced fog effects (similar to Nemesis2000's fog fix for Silent Hill 2) along with most of the fixes from the widescreen patch mentioned above.

Not all fixes from the above patch seem to be included, e.g. UI/FPS fixes and references to Silent Hill 2 (needs testing to be sure!).

Listed here for archival purposes; see Steam006's patch instead.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98, ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium III 1.0 GHz or AMD Athlon	Intel Pentium 4 1.4 GHz or AMD Athlon
System memory (RAM)	256 MB	512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	4.7 GB	6 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 3 Ti ATI Radeon 8500 32 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.1b compatible	Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti Nvidia GeForce FX
Sound (audio device)	DirectX compatible