v0.7.0 — Linux

Runs on far more Linux distributions, accepts saves and downloadable content from a real Xbox, and the renderer is faster.

No game data is included. You need your own copy of RalliSport Challenge 2 (Xbox, NTSC). Put its files (the folder with default.xbe, Layer0, Layer1, Media, Movies, …) in a game folder next to the program.

Package	Start with	Needs
rsc2-v0.7.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz	./run.sh	glibc 2.35 or newer (Ubuntu 22.04, Linux Mint 21, Debian 12, Fedora 36, a current SteamOS, an up-to-date Arch or anything newer), SDL2 and the Vulkan loader; a Vulkan 1.3 GPU (Mesa 23 or newer, or the NVIDIA driver)

A Windows package will be published separately. Until then the latest one is v0.6.0 — Windows.

The binaries contain the code translated from the game's executable, built in. They are meant for owners of the game. To build it yourself, see the README.

New since v0.6.0

• Runs on Linux Mint, Ubuntu LTS and Debian (#9). The Linux build used to need a rolling distribution: a very new glibc and the system's glslang 16. It's now built on Ubuntu 22.04 with the shader compiler linked in. The only libraries it needs are SDL2 and the Vulkan loader, which nearly every desktop already has. OpenSSL isn't needed any more either.

• Saves and downloadable content from a real Xbox (#13). The Xbox signs saves and DLC with a key that comes from the console's own BIOS, and this build can't ship that key. Files made on a console were therefore reported as "damaged". When a file has been read in full and only its signature can't be checked, it's now accepted. Truncated or unreadable files still fail. This has been tested with a save whose signature was deliberately broken, not yet with real DLC: please report in #13 whether yours works. RECOMP_SIGNED_STRICT=1 brings back the console's strict check.

• Faster rendering:

  • The GPU reads the game's vertices as they are, with no conversion on the CPU.
  • Triangle strips are drawn as strips.
  • Draw state is only set when it changes, and texture sets are reused within a frame.
  • Packed normals are unpacked on the GPU.
  • Texture changes are detected with SIMD hashing.

  Uncapped frame rates are clearly higher. With a frame-rate limit, the game no longer keeps a CPU core busy while waiting: at 60 fps it used about 1.5 cores, now about half of one.

Known issues

• On older Mesa drivers (tested with Mesa 23.2), the very first race after installing can show a flat blue patch on the road for a few seconds while shaders are prepared. Later starts use the shader cache and don't show it.
• HDR has been tested on KDE Plasma 6.7 with an NVIDIA GPU only.
• The Xbox audio DSP is not emulated. The reverb uses the game's parameters but is not the original DSP program (#5).
• All open issues

Checksums are in SHA256SUMS.txt.