0.2 Alpha (experimental)

0.2 Alpha (experimental)

Download DOA3-0.2-Alpha.zip.

This release makes the game look much closer to the Xbox and protects your save. Fighters and stages are now lit by the game's own lights, with shading and specular highlights, instead of being drawn at full brightness. The auto-save survives a crash in the middle of saving. A review of the runtime against the original executable also fixed a set of timing, file and kernel details.

What's new

• Lighting. About 95% of DOA3's 3D draws use Direct3D's built-in lighting, which 0.1 skipped. The renderer now evaluates it per vertex as the Xbox does: scene ambient and emissive light, up to eight directional and point lights with range and distance falloff, and specular highlights. Translucent materials take their transparency from the material, as the game sets them up.
• Crash-safe saves. The auto-save after a match runs inside a save journal. If the game crashes or a disk write fails while it saves, the previous save is restored, right away or on the next start.
• Omega's heat haze in the final Story stage blends the previous frame, as on the Xbox, so its afterimage shows.
• Display and pacing, from the sister project doaxbv-re: even 60 Hz pacing on high-refresh displays, an opt-in variable-refresh mode (RECOMP_D3D_VRR=1), smoother depth of field above native resolution, and a normal exit when you close the window mid-frame.
• Fixes to kernel timers, directory searches, memory commits, 3D audio with invalid positions, stage-edge collision state, texture unbinding, and frame pacing after the boot fast-forward.
• Setup. BuildGame.cmd extracts again if you drop a different ISO or an earlier extraction never finished. Play.cmd prepares its disc copy safely and stays open with an error if the game exits abnormally.

The full list is in CHANGELOG.md.

Setup

1. Extract the entire ZIP into a new folder with a short path, for example C:\DOA3.
2. Drag your Dead or Alive 3 (Xbox, USA) ISO, or an extracted disc folder containing default.xbe, onto BuildGame.cmd. Wait for Build complete (about 10-20 minutes the first time).
3. Double-click Launcher.cmd, pick your settings and press Play.

Requires Windows 10/11 x64, Python 3.12+, CMake 3.20+, Visual Studio 2022 or its Build Tools with the "Desktop development with C++" workload, and an internet connection for the first build (it downloads SDL3 and the Capstone Python package). Other regions and versions are refused. See the ZIP's README.txt.

Setup builds the game runner locally from your own disc. The ZIP contains source and setup tools, with no game files or prebuilt game runner.

Upgrading from 0.1: extract 0.2 into a new folder and run BuildGame.cmd again; a 0.1 build is refused because the generated program changed. To keep your progress, launch 0.2 once, close it, then copy private\play-disc\.recomp-storage from your 0.1 folder over the new one.

Known limits

• The game shows 4:3 by default, as on the Xbox. Widescreen widens the 3D view but stretches the HUD and menus.
• Linear fog and I3DL2 reverb are not reproduced yet, so distant scenery is clearer and stages sound drier than on the Xbox.
• The lighting follows Direct3D's fixed-function rules but has not been compared side by side with real hardware.
• The copyright notice at boot runs fast on the first boot. Not every mode has been played to its end; Story endings are untested.

Please report issues with reproduction steps, your build version, hardware/controller details, and the "recomp stop" or crash lines from the end of the newest log in private\play-logs. Remove private paths before sharing log lines; do not upload whole logs, game files, generated game code or saves.

This project uses LLMs and AI coding agents extensively for code, reverse engineering, tests and documentation. Their output can contain mistakes; passing tests does not establish complete game fidelity.

Bundled components retain their licenses. XboxDev extract-xiso uses build-202505152050; its license is included. This product includes software developed by in in@fishtank.com. SMAA is included as source under its MIT license. See LICENSE and NOTICE.

If you like my work, please consider buying a coffee on my Ko-fi.

0.1 Alpha (experimental)

0.1 Alpha (experimental)

Download DOA3-0.1-Alpha.zip.

The first public release of the native Windows port of Dead or Alive 3 (Xbox, USA). The game boots and plays: intro movie, title, menus, Story (through the final fight against Omega), Time Attack, Watch and Sparring with audio, stage transfers, continue and attract mode, paced to 60 Hz.

What's in it

• Direct3D 8 replaced by a native Direct3D 11 renderer: resolution up to 4K, MSAA, SMAA and optional widescreen.
• DirectSound replaced by XAudio2, including 3D positioning, distance, Doppler and the Xbox's HRTF.
• Hand-written stage collision: fighters stop at walls and fall through stage transfers.
• A launcher for resolution, anti-aliasing, widescreen and volume, plus controller support through SDL3 and a keyboard layout for player 1.
• Since the private 0.0.2 test build: the character select portrait stays inside its box, and the Omega stage shows its arena instead of a black screen.

Setup

1. Extract the entire ZIP into a new folder with a short path, for example C:\DOA3.
2. Drag your Dead or Alive 3 (Xbox, USA) ISO, or an extracted disc folder containing default.xbe, onto BuildGame.cmd. Wait for Build complete (about 10-20 minutes the first time).
3. Double-click Launcher.cmd, pick your settings and press Play.

Requires Windows 10/11 x64, Python 3.12+, CMake 3.20+, Visual Studio 2022 or its Build Tools with the "Desktop development with C++" workload, and an internet connection for the first build (it downloads SDL3 and the Capstone Python package). Other regions and versions are refused. See the ZIP's README.txt.

Setup builds the game runner locally from your own disc. The ZIP contains source and setup tools, with no game files or prebuilt game runner.

Known limits

• The game shows 4:3 by default, as on the Xbox. Widescreen widens the 3D view but stretches the HUD and menus.
• The copyright notice at boot runs fast on the first boot.
• Not every mode has been played to its end; Story endings are untested.
• The Omega stage's heat-haze effect is approximated and may differ in strength from the Xbox.

Please report issues with reproduction steps, your build version, hardware/controller details, and the "recomp stop" or crash lines from the end of the newest log in private\play-logs. Remove private paths before sharing log lines; do not upload whole logs, game files, generated game code or saves.

This project uses LLMs and AI coding agents extensively for code, reverse engineering, tests and documentation. Their output can contain mistakes; passing tests does not establish complete game fidelity.

Bundled components retain their licenses. XboxDev extract-xiso uses build-202505152050; its license is included. This product includes software developed by in in@fishtank.com. SMAA is included as source under its MIT license. See LICENSE and NOTICE.

If you like my work, please consider buying a coffee on my Ko-fi.