sh23ds v0.2.2

A setup screen for when the game data isn't where sh23ds expects it. The game itself is the same as 0.2.1.

• No game data: starting sh23ds without its data used to end on a broken title screen. It now says what's wrong, in the website's look, with fog and film grain on the top screen and the install guide's QR code on a memo on the touch screen.
• Three cases: the data not there at all (the three install steps), in the wrong folder (where it was found, for example the zip unzipped into its own sh23ds-sd folder, and where it belongs), or only partly copied (how many files are missing).
• Missing files: for a partly copied card, Y opens a list of every missing file on the touch screen, folder by folder. Scroll it with the D-Pad, the Circle Pad, L and R or a finger.
• Packer: both packers now finish by writing files.txt, the pack's file list, which is what the missing files list is checked against. A card from an older packer still gets the setup screen, with only its key files checked.

Updating from 0.2.1

Install the new sh23ds.cia over the old one. Saves carry over. To get the full missing files list, a pack needs files.txt, so run the packer again only if you want that list.

A native 3DS port of Silent Hill 2 (PC Director's Cut). These files contain no game data: you build that from your own copy of the PC game with the packer.

Install

1. Build the game data from your Silent Hill 2 folder with the packer page in a desktop browser, or with Docker:
   docker run --rm -v "/path/to/Silent Hill 2:/game:ro" -v "$PWD/sd:/out" ghcr.io/ankushkun/sh23ds-packer
2. Copy the 3ds folder it makes to the root of the SD card (about 1.3 GB).
3. Run DSP1 once if sdmc:/3ds/dspfirm.cdc doesn't exist yet.
4. Install sh23ds.cia with FBI (or put sh23ds.3dsx in sdmc:/3ds/ for the Homebrew Launcher).

Runs on the New 3DS family, and on the original 3DS, 3DS XL and 2DS with a lighter profile that targets 30 fps (tested in Azahar's Old 3DS model, not yet on hardware). The full guide is on the website and in the README. Checksums are in sh23ds.sha256.

25284561de1d81a275efb76774e92bf9001081f1f1f7c87ab696907fe2e6a22d  sh23ds.3dsx
75ea31d0b4ab14003083ed182cb7cd31508e8a14a9fa11dcaafd8d87b75f84ac  sh23ds.cia

sh23ds v0.2.1

New HOME Menu art. The game itself is the same as 0.2.0.

• Icon: the website's mark, nine rusted red squares on black. The 3DSX shows it too, instead of the default homebrew icon.
• 3D banner: selecting sh23ds on the HOME Menu now shows an animated scene: the mark swaying and pulsing on a heartbeat, ash drifting down and the SILENT HILL 2 wordmark floating in front, with the 3D slider giving it depth. A short jingle of radio static, two heartbeats and a low chord plays with it.
• Name and details: the HOME Menu and FBI show "Silent Hill 2", "The PC Director's Cut, ported to the 3DS" and "sh23ds by ankushKun" for both the CIA and the 3DSX.

Updating from 0.2.0

Install the new sh23ds.cia over the old one. Saves carry over, and there's no need to run the packer again.

A native 3DS port of Silent Hill 2 (PC Director's Cut). These files contain no game data: you build that from your own copy of the PC game with the packer.

Install

1. Build the game data from your Silent Hill 2 folder with the packer page in a desktop browser, or with Docker:
   docker run --rm -v "/path/to/Silent Hill 2:/game:ro" -v "$PWD/sd:/out" ghcr.io/ankushkun/sh23ds-packer
2. Copy the 3ds folder it makes to the root of the SD card (about 1.3 GB).
3. Run DSP1 once if sdmc:/3ds/dspfirm.cdc doesn't exist yet.
4. Install sh23ds.cia with FBI (or put sh23ds.3dsx in sdmc:/3ds/ for the Homebrew Launcher).

Runs on the New 3DS family, and on the original 3DS, 3DS XL and 2DS with a lighter profile that targets 30 fps (tested in Azahar's Old 3DS model, not yet on hardware). The full guide is on the website and in the README. Checksums are in sh23ds.sha256.

0eb0e8c5f27137523d5c535e7f92aee5edaee4e6685ee955d212a550314d7ead  sh23ds.3dsx
59c2400e0242582f19085e49a9009c26a1dd4153ddf0dfc6cd89cea4915f9607  sh23ds.cia

sh23ds v0.2.1-rc.4

A fourth test build of the new HOME Menu art, ahead of 0.2.1. The game itself is the same as 0.2.0.

rc.3's 3D banner works on a console. This build only removes its flat grey fog sheet, so the mark, the falling ash and the wordmark sit on the HOME Menu's own background. Nothing else in the banner changed, and it still follows only patterns from the banners known to work.

If the HOME Menu crashes or freezes, hold POWER to switch off, start the console, open FBI without highlighting sh23ds and reinstall rc.3's CIA over it.

• Icon: the website's mark, nine rusted red squares on black, in both the CIA and the 3DSX.
• Name and details: "Silent Hill 2", "The PC Director's Cut, ported to the 3DS", by "sh23ds by ankushKun".
• 3D banner: the mark swaying with ash falling and the SILENT HILL 2 wordmark in front, with a short jingle of radio static, two heartbeats and a low chord.

A native 3DS port of Silent Hill 2 (PC Director's Cut). These files contain no game data: you build that from your own copy of the PC game with the packer.

Install

1. Build the game data from your Silent Hill 2 folder with the packer page in a desktop browser, or with Docker:
   docker run --rm -v "/path/to/Silent Hill 2:/game:ro" -v "$PWD/sd:/out" ghcr.io/ankushkun/sh23ds-packer
2. Copy the 3ds folder it makes to the root of the SD card (about 1.3 GB).
3. Run DSP1 once if sdmc:/3ds/dspfirm.cdc doesn't exist yet.
4. Install sh23ds.cia with FBI (or put sh23ds.3dsx in sdmc:/3ds/ for the Homebrew Launcher).

Runs on the New 3DS family, and on the original 3DS, 3DS XL and 2DS with a lighter profile that targets 30 fps (tested in Azahar's Old 3DS model, not yet on hardware). The full guide is on the website and in the README. Checksums are in sh23ds.sha256.

0eb0e8c5f27137523d5c535e7f92aee5edaee4e6685ee955d212a550314d7ead  sh23ds.3dsx
82d42d7c64af8488946142a4bb33c344254fb666f3ac47ff8d6218b753474d13  sh23ds.cia

sh23ds v0.2.1-rc.3

A third test build of the new HOME Menu art, ahead of 0.2.1. The game itself is the same as 0.2.0.

rc.2's 3D banner froze the HOME Menu. Looking back over every banner made with this pipeline, two work on a console (3dsDL's and 3dsFM's) and seven have crashed or frozen. Each failed one did something the working two never do, but no single feature explains all of them. So the banner is now built only from patterns those two working banners use, and the build checks this. Run against the old models, the check passes both working banners and rejects every failed one, including rc.1 and rc.2.

What changed in the scene: the rust is shaped from geometry instead of a texture (only the wordmark keeps one, as in the working banners), the fog and the ash hang under one barely moving bone the way 3dsDL's sparkles hang under its card, and every moving part has all three animation tracks.

Still a console test. If the HOME Menu crashes or freezes again, hold POWER to switch off, start the console, open FBI without highlighting sh23ds and reinstall 0.2.0's CIA over it. If the HOME Menu starts on sh23ds and fails again, start once without the SD card. sh23ds-still-banner.cia has the same scene without animation: if the main CIA freezes, try that one next, since it tells an animation fault apart from a model fault in one test.

• Icon: the website's mark, nine rusted red squares on black, in both the CIA and the 3DSX.
• Name and details: "Silent Hill 2", "The PC Director's Cut, ported to the 3DS", by "sh23ds by ankushKun".
• 3D banner: the mark swaying in fog with ash falling and the SILENT HILL 2 wordmark in front, with a short jingle of radio static, two heartbeats and a low chord.

A native 3DS port of Silent Hill 2 (PC Director's Cut). These files contain no game data: you build that from your own copy of the PC game with the packer.

Install

1. Build the game data from your Silent Hill 2 folder with the packer page in a desktop browser, or with Docker:
   docker run --rm -v "/path/to/Silent Hill 2:/game:ro" -v "$PWD/sd:/out" ghcr.io/ankushkun/sh23ds-packer
2. Copy the 3ds folder it makes to the root of the SD card (about 1.3 GB).
3. Run DSP1 once if sdmc:/3ds/dspfirm.cdc doesn't exist yet.
4. Install sh23ds.cia with FBI (or put sh23ds.3dsx in sdmc:/3ds/ for the Homebrew Launcher).

Runs on the New 3DS family, and on the original 3DS, 3DS XL and 2DS with a lighter profile that targets 30 fps (tested in Azahar's Old 3DS model, not yet on hardware). The full guide is on the website and in the README. Checksums are in sh23ds.sha256.

0eb0e8c5f27137523d5c535e7f92aee5edaee4e6685ee955d212a550314d7ead  sh23ds.3dsx
44bf5c696e061e3a00b53f1fdeb7d78b4363710bcdfdd39ff7a85336a9eae6ea  sh23ds.cia

sh23ds v0.2.1-rc.2

A second test build of the new HOME Menu art, ahead of 0.2.1. The game itself is the same as 0.2.0.

rc.1's 3D banner crashed the HOME Menu as soon as sh23ds was selected. Its model passed every structural check that 3dsDL's banner needed, but the banner as a whole was much bigger: a 2.9-second jingle (stored uncompressed, 512 KB) and a larger texture made it 551 KB, against 315 KB for 3dsDL's banner, which works on a console. This build uses 3dsDL's sound length (1.6 s) and texture size, and packs to 314 KB. Packaging now stops if the banner grows past what the working banners use.

Still a console test. If the HOME Menu crashes or freezes again, hold POWER to switch off, start the console, open FBI without highlighting sh23ds and reinstall 0.2.0's CIA over it. If the HOME Menu starts on sh23ds and crashes again, start once without the SD card.

• Icon: the website's mark, nine rusted red squares on black, in both the CIA and the 3DSX.
• Name and details: "Silent Hill 2", "The PC Director's Cut, ported to the 3DS", by "sh23ds by ankushKun".
• 3D banner: the mark swaying in fog with ash falling and the SILENT HILL 2 wordmark in front, with a short jingle of radio static, two heartbeats and a low chord.

A native 3DS port of Silent Hill 2 (PC Director's Cut). These files contain no game data: you build that from your own copy of the PC game with the packer.

Install

1. Build the game data from your Silent Hill 2 folder with the packer page in a desktop browser, or with Docker:
   docker run --rm -v "/path/to/Silent Hill 2:/game:ro" -v "$PWD/sd:/out" ghcr.io/ankushkun/sh23ds-packer
2. Copy the 3ds folder it makes to the root of the SD card (about 1.3 GB).
3. Run DSP1 once if sdmc:/3ds/dspfirm.cdc doesn't exist yet.
4. Install sh23ds.cia with FBI (or put sh23ds.3dsx in sdmc:/3ds/ for the Homebrew Launcher).

Runs on the New 3DS family, and on the original 3DS, 3DS XL and 2DS with a lighter profile that targets 30 fps (tested in Azahar's Old 3DS model, not yet on hardware). The full guide is on the website and in the README. Checksums are in sh23ds.sha256.

0eb0e8c5f27137523d5c535e7f92aee5edaee4e6685ee955d212a550314d7ead  sh23ds.3dsx
fef7458e4a9a38f99d8b7baf9075cd3ae7a23fdff8a573961400e0e43ec93caf  sh23ds.cia

sh23ds v0.2.1-rc.1

A test build of the new HOME Menu art, ahead of 0.2.1. The game itself is the same as 0.2.0.

The 3D banner hasn't been tried on a console yet. A bad banner can freeze the HOME Menu. If that happens, hold POWER to switch off, start the console, open FBI without highlighting sh23ds and reinstall 0.2.0's CIA over it. If the HOME Menu starts on sh23ds and freezes again, start once without the SD card.

• Icon: the website's mark, nine rusted red squares on black, in both the CIA and the 3DSX (the 3DSX used to show the default homebrew icon).
• Name and details: "Silent Hill 2", "The PC Director's Cut, ported to the 3DS", by "sh23ds by ankushKun", the same in both builds.
• 3D banner: the mark swaying in fog with ash falling and the SILENT HILL 2 wordmark in front, with a short original jingle of radio static, a heartbeat and a low chord. How it is built and the rules that keep it from freezing the HOME Menu are in port/meta/banner/README.md.

A native 3DS port of Silent Hill 2 (PC Director's Cut). These files contain no game data: you build that from your own copy of the PC game with the packer.

Install

1. Build the game data from your Silent Hill 2 folder with the packer page in a desktop browser, or with Docker:
   docker run --rm -v "/path/to/Silent Hill 2:/game:ro" -v "$PWD/sd:/out" ghcr.io/ankushkun/sh23ds-packer
2. Copy the 3ds folder it makes to the root of the SD card (about 1.3 GB).
3. Run DSP1 once if sdmc:/3ds/dspfirm.cdc doesn't exist yet.
4. Install sh23ds.cia with FBI (or put sh23ds.3dsx in sdmc:/3ds/ for the Homebrew Launcher).

Runs on the New 3DS family, and on the original 3DS, 3DS XL and 2DS with a lighter profile that targets 30 fps (tested in Azahar's Old 3DS model, not yet on hardware). The full guide is on the website and in the README. Checksums are in sh23ds.sha256.

0eb0e8c5f27137523d5c535e7f92aee5edaee4e6685ee955d212a550314d7ead  sh23ds.3dsx
2b7d08b1ea64eecaf08e41dbd8b5ccea90f3485be1fe48f50aa5796c59486eb2  sh23ds.cia

sh23ds v0.2.0

An experimental build with a new two-screen interface, reworked controls and a round of console fixes. Most of it was shaped by the first runs on a New 3DS, and some of the console fixes below still wait for a retest on hardware, so expect rough edges and please report what you find.

The two screens

• Every list now lives on the touch screen and the thing you picked shows on top: the item's model and text, the chosen save file, the setting, the memo, the map. Nothing is drawn twice.
• The touch screen takes the look of the PC's menus, with the red selection band, film grain and button prompts that show the button each action is bound to.
• The play page has the mini map, James' condition, the weapon in hand (tap it for the next one) and your healing items as quick slots.
• Messages and subtitles are on the top screen by default. The Advanced Options can move them back to the touch screen.

Controls

• The D-Pad walks James like the Circle Pad, in every direction no action uses. On the New 3DS that's all four, and on the original 3DS left and right.
• Directional Style (walk where you point) is the default control type. Every action can be rebound per console in the Control Options.
• New Cheats page in the Options: Infinite Stamina (on by default, so James never stops to catch his breath) and Infinite Ammo (off).

Scenes and movies

• Movies fade in from the room's last picture and out to black, instead of cutting.
• The room fades to black before an in-engine scene starts, and a scene that leads into a movie hands its last picture to the movie.

Fixed for consoles

• Freeze when closing from the HOME Menu. The game waited for GPU frames that never come once the app is closing, so HOME and then Close hung the console.
• Flashing white rectangles in the fog. The fog sprites are now cut to the near and far planes before they are drawn, which is the suspected cause on the town roads. This one still needs a retest on a console. SELECT held with R steps through a fog test to help narrow it down.
• Frame captures that looked like a freeze. dumpframe now writes straight to the SD card in a few large writes.

Also new

• The figure on the road in the town's first fog, created by the stage program as on the PC.
• The map lying on the car seat, drawn from the PC's own picture.
• Saves remember the weapon in hand.

Updating from 0.1.2

Install the new sh23ds.cia over the old one; saves carry over. The map on the car seat is a new picture, so run the packer again to get it.

A native 3DS port of Silent Hill 2 (PC Director's Cut). These files contain no game data: you build that from your own copy of the PC game with the packer.

Install

1. Build the game data from your Silent Hill 2 folder with the packer page in a desktop browser, or with Docker:
   docker run --rm -v "/path/to/Silent Hill 2:/game:ro" -v "$PWD/sd:/out" ghcr.io/ankushkun/sh23ds-packer
2. Copy the 3ds folder it makes to the root of the SD card (about 1.3 GB).
3. Run DSP1 once if sdmc:/3ds/dspfirm.cdc doesn't exist yet.
4. Install sh23ds.cia with FBI (or put sh23ds.3dsx in sdmc:/3ds/ for the Homebrew Launcher).

Runs on the New 3DS family, and on the original 3DS, 3DS XL and 2DS with a lighter profile that targets 30 fps (tested in Azahar's Old 3DS model, not yet on hardware). The full guide is on the website and in the README. Checksums are in sh23ds.sha256.

1e6475b1f0a779bdc5ad9d66f8263f0c0df09bad91f6db6c3ccce6196dd2dff5  sh23ds.3dsx
705818922b18c90f6152be428a6dd1d607a32beabe5d8630809b228251a6f848  sh23ds.cia

sh23ds v0.1.2

Fixes for the first reports from a real console, plus the lake boat. Each console fix below has a cause found in the code, but none of them can be confirmed in Azahar, so they stay unconfirmed until they are tried on hardware again.

Fixed for consoles

• Characters too dark. The 3DS GPU keeps 8 bits per light colour, and the game's character lights (up to about 1.4, times the brightness setting) went past that and wrapped round to almost black. Azahar reads more bits, so it showed them as meant. Character lights now go to the GPU at half strength and the texture combiner doubles them back, which gives the same picture in Azahar and keeps every value in range on a console.
• Stuttering video and voices in cutscenes. Two causes. The audio thread only refilled its buffers when the main loop asked, once a frame, so a frame spent loading a scene or an area (seconds on a console's SD card) left the sound with nothing to play; it now also wakes on its own every 20 ms. And the console reads the SD card one request at a time, so a big read held up the music's and the voice's small reads; the audio now keeps several seconds read ahead, and large files are read in 64 KB pieces so the audio gets its turn. On a simulated console-speed card, the warp into Angela's scene went from one audio gap to none. The debug screen and perflog now count audio gaps.
• Rotational controls and the D-pad turned the wrong way. Turning, strafing, the quick turn, aiming without a target, looking around and the boat all had left and right swapped. Positional sound was swapped as well.
• The flashlight button did nothing. That part is as on the PC until James finds the flashlight in Wood Side Apartments. But the button used to click and switch an invisible light before then; it now does nothing until he has it, and the light only shines once he does.

Also new

• The lake boat, rowed with the PC's own controls, from the town pier to the hotel.
• The endings, the clear data and New Game+ checked against the PC, with several score counters fixed.
• The rest of the Enhanced Edition's options that apply to the port, a fix for a dark wedge drawn over the street near the town's centre, and the fog's area data read once at start-up instead of on the first frame of each area.

Updating from 0.1.1

Install the new sh23ds.cia over the old one; saves carry over. The boat needs two new data files, chr/boat/boat.s3a and chr/jms/jms_boat.s3a, which the packer now makes.

A native 3DS port of Silent Hill 2 (PC Director's Cut). These files contain no game data: you build that from your own copy of the PC game with the packer.

Install

1. Build the game data from your Silent Hill 2 folder (it needs Docker):
   docker run --rm -v "/path/to/Silent Hill 2:/game:ro" -v "$PWD/sd:/out" ghcr.io/ankushkun/sh23ds-packer
2. Copy the 3ds folder from sd/ to the root of the SD card (about 1.3 GB).
3. Run DSP1 once if sdmc:/3ds/dspfirm.cdc doesn't exist yet.
4. Install sh23ds.cia with FBI (or put sh23ds.3dsx in sdmc:/3ds/ for the Homebrew Launcher).

Runs on the New 3DS family, and on the original 3DS, 3DS XL and 2DS with a lighter profile that targets 30 fps (tested in Azahar's Old 3DS model, not yet on hardware). The full guide is on the website and in the README. Checksums are in sh23ds.sha256.

10f7faa7ebdd3dd74ab32920a53a6e5126c121fc0b38145a9bda0b0cd7f82433  sh23ds.3dsx
08e78aca45b5d25dffe6c5717f059f2428d70f5cf602f65284a7500bfd891883  sh23ds.cia

sh23ds v0.1.1

Smoother play and the last four weapons. Still tested in Azahar only, so console reports are welcome.

What changed

• The steel pipe, great knife, chainsaw and Hyper Spray can now be picked up in a normal run. The chainsaw and the Hyper Spray turn up on a New Game after the endings that unlock them, as on the PC.
• The Hyper Spray sprays the PC's mist cloud.
• Models placed in the stages and enemy models now load in the background, so walking through town or into a new room no longer stalls for a moment. In Azahar's sweep of every room, no room drops a frame after its load on either model.

Updating from 0.1.0

Install the new sh23ds.cia over the old one. Your saves carry over. The mist needs one new data file, 3ds/sh23ds/effect/mist.t3x, which the packer now makes. With a 0.1.0 pack the spray still works; you just won't see the mist.

A native 3DS port of Silent Hill 2 (PC Director's Cut). These files contain no game data: you build that from your own copy of the PC game with the packer.

Install

1. Build the game data from your Silent Hill 2 folder (it needs Docker):
   docker run --rm -v "/path/to/Silent Hill 2:/game:ro" -v "$PWD/sd:/out" ghcr.io/ankushkun/sh23ds-packer
2. Copy the 3ds folder from sd/ to the root of the SD card (about 1.3 GB).
3. Run DSP1 once if sdmc:/3ds/dspfirm.cdc doesn't exist yet.
4. Install sh23ds.cia with FBI (or put sh23ds.3dsx in sdmc:/3ds/ for the Homebrew Launcher).

Runs on the New 3DS family, and on the original 3DS, 3DS XL and 2DS with a lighter profile that targets 30 fps (tested in Azahar's Old 3DS model, not yet on hardware). The full guide is on the website and in the README. Checksums are in sh23ds.sha256.

c6fedf7f78b9c368016a77071ac89c16626c3be3804461c88170a42e1972420f  sh23ds.3dsx
68de051b097ff48e2c9c6e80d5215f949880e5675f74cdee3dfd6cabb24c6eb2  sh23ds.cia

sh23ds v0.1.0

The first release. The whole game can be played through in Azahar, on both the New 3DS and the original 3DS models. Nobody has run it on a console yet, so reports from real hardware are the most useful thing right now.

What's in it

• Every area, the PC camera, each room's lighting, the fog layer and flashlight shadows, with the Enhanced Edition's fixes built in.
• The story from the restroom mirror to every ending, and Born From a Wish.
• Enemies and bosses, and all of James' weapons: the plank, steel pipe, great knife, chainsaw, handgun, shotgun, rifle and Hyper Spray, with their moves from the PC.
• The PC's controls (Rotational and Directional), quick turn, strafing and target lock, with layouts for the New 3DS and the original 3DS.
• The touch screen: the live map, items with their turning models, memos, ten save files, the PC's options and Extra Options.
• All the cutscenes and FMVs, the music and positional sound.
• A lighter profile for the original 3DS, 3DS XL and 2DS that targets 30 fps.

Known gaps

• The steel pipe, great knife, chainsaw and Hyper Spray fight as on the PC, but their pickups are still being tested, so a normal run may not reach them yet.
• The lake has no boat yet: the embark goes straight to the hotel pier.
• A few rooms' ambient sounds and lights are still to come. None of them blocks the story.
• Hard, Extra and Beginner are being played through; Normal is done.

A native 3DS port of Silent Hill 2 (PC Director's Cut). These files contain no game data: you build that from your own copy of the PC game with the packer.

Install

1. Build the game data from your Silent Hill 2 folder (it needs Docker):
   docker run --rm -v "/path/to/Silent Hill 2:/game:ro" -v "$PWD/sd:/out" ghcr.io/ankushkun/sh23ds-packer
2. Copy the 3ds folder from sd/ to the root of the SD card (about 1.3 GB).
3. Run DSP1 once if sdmc:/3ds/dspfirm.cdc doesn't exist yet.
4. Install sh23ds.cia with FBI (or put sh23ds.3dsx in sdmc:/3ds/ for the Homebrew Launcher).

Runs on the New 3DS family, and on the original 3DS, 3DS XL and 2DS with a lighter profile that targets 30 fps (tested in Azahar's Old 3DS model, not yet on hardware). The full guide is on the website and in the README. Checksums are in sh23ds.sha256.

b3e1e5387a1f95361e564caf485c7a9eab9f8f965ef7efe1010f041e445ce230  sh23ds.3dsx
0e90c76a02e3ab2c485282bef7285730059384f947a16af0c0201a4d4b0eab73  sh23ds.cia