v1.8.0: Calm-Consideration41's HD movies, material maps, FSR and DLSS, frame generation, HDR, 16:10

A native PC port of the original Xbox version of Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, a fork of
Pazzi7054's CastlevaniaCOD-PC built on
TGP482's Xbox XBE Recomp, for Windows and Linux. 1.8.0 is
Calm-Consideration41's release: HD movies, material maps, anti-aliasing and upscaling, frame generation, ambient
occlusion, HDR, 16:10 and more.

You need your own copy of the game: the USA or the European Xbox disc, as an .iso or its extracted files. These
downloads contain no game files, no disc image and no game code; the first start builds the game code from your copy.

This is a personal, non-commercial fan project. It has nothing to do with Konami or Microsoft: it is not
affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by them.

Which download?

• Windows: CastlevaniaCOD-PC-1.8.0.zip
• Linux: CastlevaniaCOD-PC-1.8.0-linux.tar.xz

Both have the same game, the same launcher and the same settings (Linux has no HDR or frame generation yet, see
below); take the one for your system. Optional, and not part of these downloads: Calm-Consideration41's HD movies and
textures (below).

Is it safe?

The programs are not code-signed (this is a free hobby project) and the downloads are new, so browsers and Windows
may warn about them. That is not a virus:

• VirusTotal scan of the Windows zip: no security vendor flagged the file (0 of 63), see the report, nor its download link (0 of 93), see that report; Microsoft Defender finds nothing in it either
• VirusTotal scan of the Linux archive: no security vendor flagged its download link (0 of 93), see the report
• SHA-256 of CastlevaniaCOD-PC-1.8.0.zip: b5371d0b55ba71df14892df881514c84cac78d5d9e4cbf84699f457f646c2e8a
  (in PowerShell, Get-FileHash CastlevaniaCOD-PC-1.8.0.zip shows the one of your download)
• SHA-256 of CastlevaniaCOD-PC-1.8.0-linux.tar.xz: 55f8b94e713474acada325cf5f9da64377c307dadc30c8840b496b5256bbcb0f (sha256sum shows yours)
• All of the source is in this repository; you can build it yourself.

If the browser blocks the download, open its downloads list (Ctrl+J) and keep the file: in Chrome Keep or
Download suspicious file; in Edge ..., Keep, Show more, then Keep anyway. If Windows says
"Windows protected your PC": More info, then Run anyway.

Install on Windows

1. Extract the zip anywhere and run Castlevania.exe. The assets folder opens.
2. Put your .iso (or the extracted disc) in it and run Castlevania.exe again. The first start builds the game code
   in a few minutes; press Start when it is done.
3. Optional: HD movies and an HD texture pack (below). CastlevaniaLauncher.exe has every setting. For AMD FSR or
   NVIDIA DLSS (anti-aliasing, upscaling, frame generation), its Graphics page downloads their files from AMD and
   NVIDIA.

Install on Linux

1. Extract the archive anywhere you can write to, your home folder for one:
   tar xf CastlevaniaCOD-PC-1.8.0-linux.tar.xz
2. Run ./Castlevania in the CastlevaniaCOD-PC folder (or double-click it). The assets folder opens.
3. Put your .iso (or the extracted disc) in it and run ./Castlevania again. The first start builds the game code
   with the compiler that comes in the archive, in a few minutes; press Start when it is done.
4. Optional: HD movies and an HD texture pack (below). ./CastlevaniaLauncher has every setting.

Nothing needs installing and no root: only a Vulkan driver, which desktop Linux has (Mesa for AMD and Intel, NVIDIA's
own driver). The HD movies play with the FFmpeg that comes in lib, and anti-aliasing and upscaling are the game's
own TAA, which needs nothing either. glibc 2.35 or later: Ubuntu 22.04 or later, Debian 12, Fedora, Arch, SteamOS and
the like, on X11 or Wayland.

HD movies and textures (optional)

Calm-Consideration41's own downloads, his work, linked here with thanks (not part of this release):

• HD movies (Google Drive,
  3.9 GB): every story movie upscaled. Extract it and put its movies folder beside Castlevania.exe (or
  Castlevania). The launcher's View page and the in-game menu (F10) turn them off and on and set their size (Fit,
  Fill, Original), at once, a movie playing too. On the N editions of Windows they need Microsoft's Media Feature Pack.
• Textures v4 (Google Drive,
  12 GB): his HD texture pack, with material maps for the light and the stones' depth. Extract it and put its
  textures folder beside the game, in place of another pack's. The launcher's Textures page has Material maps
  and Surface depth.

New in 1.8.0

By Calm-Consideration41, merged into both the Windows and the Linux builds:

• HD movies from a movie pack, in place of the disc's (see above), switched on and off while playing.
• Material maps and surface depth: with a pack that has them (his v4), stone, wood and metal take the light by
  their normal maps and show depth by their height maps.
• Anti-aliasing and upscaling: AMD FSR on any graphics card, NVIDIA DLSS on a GeForce RTX; the 3D can be drawn
  below the screen's resolution and rebuilt to it (Quality, Balanced, Performance) for a higher frame rate on a laptop
  or a handheld. The launcher downloads AMD's and NVIDIA's files from their own releases (checked by their SHA-256,
  and loaded only signed by AMD or NVIDIA). On Linux these are the game's own TAA, as AMD's and NVIDIA's
  libraries are Windows ones.
• Frame generation (Windows): a frame made between each two the game draws, by AMD FSR 3 or NVIDIA DLSS (GeForce
  RTX 40 or 50), for twice the frame rate on a fast screen.
• Ambient occlusion: soft shadow where surfaces meet, Low or High, now with or without anti-aliasing.
• HDR (Windows), on an HDR display, with its peak and scene brightness.
• 16:10 widescreen, for the Steam Deck's 1280x800 and 16:10 monitors (Widescreen: 16:9 or 16:10).
• The in-game menu by controller: LB and RB turn its pages, B and Start close it.
• The launcher's new pages: Display, Graphics (with quality presets), View, Textures, Game, Controls.
• The HD texture pack switched on and off while playing, in the in-game menu.

Also in 1.8.0:

• Frame generation with v-sync on a screen whose refresh is not a multiple of 120 Hz (60, 85, 144, 165) shows its
  frames without v-sync: with it, AMD's held the game at 42 frames a second on an 85 Hz screen, which slowed its play.
  A G-SYNC or FreeSync screen shows them without tearing.
• A regression test for each of these features, on both platforms.

Linux: no HDR and no frame generation yet. The TAA is new; please report what you find, with the logs folder's
castlevania.log.

Still being worked on: with the fog pushed out or off, or Far view on, some rooms' skies show the edges of the
painted cards they are made of. The Abandoned Castle's rampart already keeps its sky as the game shows it.

Since 1.6.0: Linux (1.7.0). Since 1.5.0: Calm-Consideration41's field of view, draw distance and fog, HUD at the
corners, PS2 stick response, inverted camera and rumble on both motors (1.6.0).