OpenShao 0.3.0

This update adds a new launcher with automatic updates, restores Survival Mode, and brings in-game recompilation settings, widescreen and ultrawide support, expanded input remapping, independent text and voice languages, new enhancements, graphics fixes and performance improvements.

Important

Releases before 0.3.0 have no updater. Download this version manually once and extract it to a new folder. From now on, updates are installed from the launcher.

New launcher

• Rebuilt the launcher with its own visual identity, rendered with Direct3D 12 on Windows and Vulkan on Linux.
• Organized it into four pages: Play, Mods, Files and About.
• Game selection now happens inside the launcher. The first start, or a game that moved, opens a page to choose a game file (ISO, XISO, ZIP or default.xbe) or an extracted folder.
• If the saved game folder no longer contains default.xbe, the launcher reopens game selection and explains why.
• ZIP imports show their progress in the launcher and can be cancelled.
• Files shows the game, saves, data and logs folders, with Change, Open and Move, plus Restore Video for recovering display settings.
• About lists the project license and every bundled component with its license.
• Language packs show their flag in Mods.
• Keyboard and controller navigation: Enter or A plays, Esc or B goes back, and the shoulder buttons switch pages.
• Only one copy runs at a time. Starting OpenShao again brings the open window forward on Windows and shows a notice on Linux.
• New application icon.

Automatic updates

• The launcher checks for a new version when it opens and shows Update when one is available.
• Updates are downloaded from the project's GitHub releases and installed only after their SHA-256 matches the published checksum.
• The play circle shows the download progress. The launcher restarts on the new version when the update is installed.
• A failed installation keeps the previous version.
• Saves, settings, mods and game files are never changed by an update.
• The check can be turned off in Files > Updates.

Folder migration

• The first start of 0.3.0 finds the data and saves folders of earlier releases by their contents and renames them to OpenShao.
• Saves, settings, installed mods, the selected game and moved folders are kept, and their stored paths are updated.
• Nothing moves when a folder is in use or when more than one earlier folder matches.

Note

On Windows, saves are now in Saved Games\OpenShao and data in %LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenShao.

Survival Mode restoration

• Restored the hidden Survival Mode.
• Rebuilt the Survival 5 arena, whose Xbox scene data is incomplete.

In-game recompilation settings

• Added Konfigure Recompilation to the main menu, below Kontent.
• Added five settings categories: Display, Graphics, Controls, Audio and Language.
• Added Enhancements as a separate main-menu entry, below Konfigure Recompilation.
• Integrated the new menus with the game's original fonts, animations, sounds, selection effects and interface style.
• Added Save Changes and Discard and Return. Saving applies the settings and returns to the main menu.
• Added a 15-second confirmation for display changes, automatically restoring the previous settings if they are not confirmed.
• Added Exit to Desktop to the main menu, with a confirmation prompt.

Important

The original game's Audio, Brightness, Gameplay and other native options remain available.

In-game pause menu settings

• Added Konfigure Recompilation to the original gameplay pause menu, accessible through SELECT.
• Added five settings categories: Controls, Graphics, Video & Screen, Audio and Interface.
• Added live controller and keyboard remapping, mouse configuration, graphics adjustments, display settings, audio volume and FPS display controls.
• Settings apply and save immediately, without returning to the main menu.
• Added a 15-second confirmation for display changes, automatically reverting unconfirmed changes.
• Added Exit to Desktop to the gameplay pause menu, with confirmation and an unsaved-progress warning.
• The pause menu lists Continue, Options, Konfigure Recompilation, Exit Game and Exit to Desktop. Exit Game returns to the main menu.

Languages and localization

• Added independent Text Language and Voice Language settings.
• Added English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Brazilian Portuguese voices, selectable independently of the interface language.
• Added an automatic game restart when the text or voice language changes.

Important

Language changes return directly to the main menu, skipping startup movies while preserving saved settings and game progress.

• Added localized recompilation settings, button hints, confirmations and system messages for all six supported languages.
• Updated PC-specific storage messages. The native storage prompt can open the configured saves folder.
• Language packs are installed and managed only through Mods, with Install, Enable, Disable, Update and Remove.
• When a selected text or voice language needs a missing or disabled pack, the launcher opens Mods before starting the game.
• Fixed language selection when choosing an unavailable language.
• Saved text and voice preferences are kept when enabling or disabling language packs.

Note

Brazilian Portuguese voices and translated resources require the installed and enabled language pack.

Scorpion Unfiltered

• Added the optional Scorpion Unfiltered enhancement.
• Increased the frequency of Scorpion's two rare, explicit voice lines during compatible combat voice events.
• Kept all four original recordings with these selection probabilities:
  • First rare variation: 50%.
  • Second rare variation: 40%.
  • First standard variation: 5%.
  • Second standard variation: 5%.
• Added voice previews in the Enhancements menu, so players can hear both variations of the selected pair.
• The original recordings and normal gameplay audio are unchanged when the enhancement is disabled.

Widescreen and ultrawide support

• Added Original (4:3), 16:9, 16:10, 21:9 and 32:9 aspect ratio modes.
• Added Automatic, which follows the window's actual aspect ratio, including formats such as 3:2.
• Adjusted the camera field of view for the selected aspect ratio.
• Adapted menus, HUD elements, tutorials, loading bars, transitions and screen overlays.
• The animated menu sky now fills widescreen displays with proportional scaling.
• Adjusted Raiden's tutorial panel, portrait and confirmation prompt.
• Aligned Kontent gallery thumbnails and selection outlines with their background frames.
• Kept gallery frame proportions and filled the surrounding space with mirrored decorative edges.
• Opened artwork shows the complete image while keeping navigation controls visible.
• Videos, including logos and Kontent movies, keep their proportions without stretching or cropping.
• Interface text and selection effects keep their proportions across display modes.

Note

Videos can keep black bars when needed to show the complete image.

Graphics fixes and improvements

• Fixed square or incorrectly rendered shadows on affected GPUs in the Direct3D 12 renderer.
• Improved shadow depth handling and clearing.
• Fixed missing or incorrectly oriented surfaces in campaign and extra maps, including the Shokan Shrine floor and Wasteland cliffs.
• Fixed portal effects that could appear edge-on, and a translucent light shaft that covered a portal.
• Kept the original order of sky layers without changing their culling or depth.
• Fixed the missing right edge of the frame on the brightness adjustment screen.
• Added Bloom Effect to the Graphics settings. It is disabled by default; enable it for the original Xbox glow.
• Improved preservation of the original rendering when Bloom Effect is disabled.
• Set the default brightness to 50% for new configurations and for the original brightness screen's Default action. Existing saved adjustments are kept.
• Vulkan: improved texture sampling at sprite edges, render-scale shadow bias and GPU synchronization. Pipeline caches from other drivers or devices are rejected.

Input remapping

• Added controller remapping for buttons, directional pads, triggers and individual analog stick directions.
• Added primary and alternate keyboard bindings for every supported game input.
• Expanded mouse settings with button and wheel remapping, sensitivity, horizontal and vertical inversion, and movement assignment.
• Added direct input capture for controller and keyboard bindings.
• Added shared-binding detection and conflict feedback.
• Added separate default restoration for controllers, keyboards and mice.
• Improved input handling when opening or leaving the recompilation settings.
• Custom mappings apply to menus and gameplay.
• Improved Ko-op player assignment with one or two controllers, and controller reconnection after Bluetooth drops.
• Extended Linux input support to the expanded keyboard and mouse mappings.

Cache and performance

• Added persistent shader and graphics pipeline caches to the Windows Direct3D 12 renderer, reducing repeated compilation across sessions.
• New cache entries are written in the background.
• Added integrity and compatibility checks. The renderer rebuilds data that cannot be used.
• Expanded diagnostic logs with cache statistics and compilation timings.
• F9 now shows the OpenShao version together with the frame rate and frame time.

Note

New scenes or effects can still need compilation on first use. Renderer, GPU or driver changes can require parts of the cache to be rebuilt.

Mods

• The mod catalog is now OpenShao-Mods. Releases from earlier catalog locations keep working.
• Fixed the selected mod unexpectedly changing when the mod catalog refreshed.

Additional improvements

• Improved native menu text rendering, alignment and localization handling.
• Improved menu navigation, selection restoration and input handling across settings pages.
• Improved preservation of configuration changes during language restarts.
• Rewrote the README and the packaged readme, with a FAQ and shorter building instructions.
• Updated the Windows and Linux build configurations and expanded automated regression coverage.

Validation

• Latest recorded automated test results: 68/68 passed on Windows and 44/44 passed on Linux (Ubuntu 24.04 via WSL2).
• Automated coverage includes the launcher, game selection, updates, folder migration, single-instance start, Survival arena recovery, geometry fixes, recompilation settings, language handling, input mapping, graphics, menu presentation and restart behavior.
• Verified the Windows ZIP and Linux TAR.GZ release packages, including executable integrity and SHA-256 checksums.
• Checked sample frames from all eight original SFD videos in the five fixed display modes and Automatic.
• Recorded additional checks for brightness frames, gallery layouts and artwork presentation across all six modes.

These checks do not establish complete campaign compatibility or correct behavior on every hardware configuration.

Special thanks

Special thanks to @eygwi for reporting graphics issues and helping test the fixes.

Thanks to @nicolasj32 for testing ultrawide support, providing feedback and reports, and reviewing and refining the localized text for the new Konfigure Recompilation settings, including the JSON menu translations.