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[Lime]

So I regularly get contacted through PM's or specific threads about how to get the Silent Hill 2, 3, and 4 running on a PC with widescreen and a less amount bugs. Thus, I figured I might as well make a thread as a guide to it, especially when one considers the fact that Konami has completely mishandled the console HD collection with the inexcusable bugs and abhorrent changes to the original material. As such, this is also an attempt at preserving some of the best games of the medium's history. Special thanks go out to all the excellent people who did the various Widescreen hacks, FOV values, and so on (Angular graphics for sh2 fix+corrected fmvs, nemesis2000 for the SH4 fix, emoose for SH2proxy, Squizzy for the original SH2 fix, Rope, whoever made the SH3 FOV tool, etc.).

Where to get these excellent Team Silent games on PC?
Unfortunately Konami lack many standard brain functions and haven't released the PC versions of the games through digital distribution (I could imagine Konami don't want the potential licensing and royalty issues of the voice actors once again by re-releasing the PC versions). This is a shame, as the used copies goes around anything between $20 to $120 on Ebay or Amazon, depending on the quality. However, you might get lucky and get a copy of either game for a lower price.

Guide to the PC versions:
The games are handled differently in how to get a proper non-4:3 aspect with whatever resolution you want. I will go through each game in 3 posts below the OP, in order to make the instructions more readable. If you have any corrections or suggestions, I'll add them whenever I have the time to do so.

• Silent Hill 2
• Silent Hill 3
• Silent Hill 4
• Differences between the PS2 and PC versions
• Cheat Engine tables for Camera hacks

Emulating the PS2 versions through PCSX2
Alternatively, if one is completely deterred by the complexities below and lack of port quality from PS2 to PC, then it is also possible to emulate the PS2 versions through PCSX2 and use the FOV hacks, depending on your region. The hacks have to be placed in the cheats folder and you have to remember to Enable Cheats in PCSX2 in order for the FOV hack to work. So far I've only seen FOV hacks for SH2 and SH3 for PAL and NTSC versions, while the Japanese version have FOV hacks for all three PS2 games. However, be aware that emulating them through hardware emulation (i.e. higher resolution than 480p) will cause several glitches, such as missing shadows, unplayable FMVs, and other bugs. Refer to this post for examples.

Custom Steam Icons for use at your leisure
I have also made some Custom steam icons for those who want shortcuts into their Steam library. These are in the game-specific post.

Antialiasing for Nvidia users: Read angular graphics' post

Steam icons by Kohlstream

 

[Lime]

Silent Hill 2:

The ultimate fix is here - Widescreen Fix + Fog Fix + Wine3D fix + Cutscene fix -> Installation Guide here: http://widescreenfix.townofsilenthill.com/SH2/

Demonstration video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=878F2cbLAXo

Results (no noise filter):

***UPDATE*** Angular Graphics' widescreen corrected FMVs

*** Silent Hill 2 [PC] FMV Widescreen Enhancement Pack v1.0 ***
by NeoGAF's angular graphics

Drop the data folder to your C:\Program Files (x86)\Konami\Silent Hill 2 (or equivalent) directory and overwrite. :)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_HXa9oj31OeWWlXREJOZTZCZFk

Steam icons

Xpadder profile by InfiniteNine
Download link

 

[Lime]

Silent Hill 3:

1. Install the game
2. Download sh3proxy and throw the two files into the main SH3 folder.
3. Edit the sh3proxy.ini to your liking.

SH3proxy features (wow!):

• Setting arbitrary video mode without conflict with the game's settings
• Setting arbitrary horizontal FOV (field-of-view) angle
• The engine no longer relies on resource paths in Windows registry
• Silent Hill 2 references can be unlocked without having to complete the game
• Safe mode warnings are disabled
• Fixes white border around game window on Windows
• Disabling Depth of Field effect
• Disabling black borders during cutscenes
• Setting arbitrary shadow resolution

Results:

[/QUOTE]

Steam Icons

Xpadder profile by InfiniteNine
Download link

 

[Lime]

Silent Hill 4:
Silent Hill 4 has now been fixed by a Widescreen fix.Here's the guide for the PC version:

1. Install Silent Hill 4
2. Download this zip file for Silent Hill 4 and dump the files into your install folder
3. Edit the .ini to your liking
4. Run Silent Hill 4
5. Voila! No more DoF bugs, no more 15FPS cutscenes, no more letterboxing!

Results

Steam icons

 

[Ostinatto]

thank you again based Lime !!

Subscribed !!

 

[Lime]

Differences between the original PS2 versions and the ported PC versions:
The Silent Hill PC ports are not incredibly stellar and 4 is probably the worst of them. So this list is only a work-in-progress, as the differences I can remember off the top of my head are thus far:

Silent Hill 2:
Soft shadows
The volumetric fog in the PC version is more simple and less fluid than the PS2 version. Example:

PC fog

PS2 fog (through PCSX2, no FOV hack)

Silent Hill 3:
PC version allows for 4096x4096 internally rendered textures, but I imagine it is only a select few, as many of the textures still are identical to the PS2 version.
Depth of Field effect remains at the original PS2 resolution, thus creating a jaggy DoF effect in the PC version.
Otherwise it's probably the best port.

Silent Hill 4:
Cutscenes run @ 15 frames per second. So far I haven't encountered a solution to this problem.
Post-processing filters, such as the noise-efect or the crackled hair on the camera when encountering a ghost, is missing from the PC version.
Object-blur is bugged and thus creates a hazy look to cutscenes
These bugs are no longer relevant after nemesis2000's SH4 fix. Realtime shadows are pretty bad though

 

[Stallion Free]

Nicely done. SH4 with a proper widescreen solution makes for a compelling replay.

 

[Persona7]

Awesome!

We needed this thread.

 

[zephervack]

Thank you for this guide, someday I will have the guts and time to play all this games.

 

[faceless007]

Good guide. Should mention that for SH2, you need to set the resolution in the in-game options to 640x480 for the respatch to work.

 

[Lime]

Nicely done. SH4 with a proper widescreen solution makes for a compelling replay.

I thought the same thing, until the 15FPS cutscenes made the replay unbearable. Unfortunately I can't play my PS2 copy in widescreen yet, due to lack of a FOV hack.

Good guide. Should mention that for SH2, you need to set the resolution in the in-game options to 640x480 for the respatch to work.

Good suggestion, Faceless007. I remember you telling me about it some months ago, thanks for reminding me again .

 

[legacyzero]

I did this already to 2 and 3. I need to try this for 4.

 

[Syphon Filter]

Dam i thought they were coming to steam or something.

 

[Hoplatee]

Nice guides! Perfect excuse to replay SH3... Mmmm.

Cutscenes run @ 15 frames per second. So far I haven't encountered a solution to this problem.

Whoa. That seems... weird. I never played the PC version of 4 so I had no idea.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Whoa. That seems... weird. I never played the PC version of 4 so I had no idea.

Here's an example of what cutscenes in SH4 PC look like. To add to that, combat in SH4 is terribad when playing with m+kb.

 

[Reiko]

HD Collections AM Cry.

I need to buy a new PS2.

 

[BocoDragon]

Bookmarked!

Ive got a PC hooked up to a TV. I'll make my own HD collection

 

[Atolm]

Any Xbox 360 Xpadder profile for playing those games? When I tried to play them the key config sucked balls.

 

[Oemenia]

Ive played the first game and ive always heard the second and third are masterpieces but have been holding off, seems like with your guide the PC ports are no longer so bad.

With that said, my biggest gripe is gamepad support since games like these are so cinematic.

 

[Redx508]

So 360 Pad is a no go?

 

[Stallion Free]

So 360 Pad is a no go?

Joy2Key is pretty simple.

 

[Revoh]

I'm bookmarking this because I have never played any Silent Hill before. Yeap, that's right.
I'm planning on playing all of them sometime.

 

[Persona7]

So 360 Pad is a no go?

The games have basic gamepad support built in , does not work well with the 360 or other modern controllers.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

I am surprised no one knew about this ENB mods for Silent Hill 2

http://enbseries.enbdev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=366

Anyone tested these mods?

 

[Mr. Enigma]

 

[toddhunter]

I am surprised no one knew about this ENB mods for Silent Hill 2

http://enbseries.enbdev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=366

Anyone tested these mods?

To me all the "before" shots look quite a bit better.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Thank you so much. My wife and I did a playthrough of SH2 and 3 a few months back, and were looking very much to the HD release as we were hoping to play through again with improvements, only to find out that is was shit. This brings hope. I think her and I may have a game to play this weekend.

 

[Tomat]

Great thread! Thanks for posting this. Definitely want to go through the SH series at some point. I really enjoyed Silent Hill Origin on the PSP.

 

[Hoplatee]

Here's an example of what cutscenes in SH4 PC look like. To add to that, combat in SH4 is terribad when playing with m+kb.

Wow that is terrible

 

[Jotamide]

Thank you very much for this. Subbed!

 

[televator]

Aw yes! Just traded some games for SH2 on PC. Finally! I'll be able to play the true HD collection.

 

[Crub]

How well will this work with a DS3 if I use MotioninJoy and set it to "Playstation 2 (POV,Joysticks)"? I always have issues with gamepads when it comes to old games.

 

[Easy_D]

You say "PC version allows for 4096x4096 textures" but I'm pretty sure that's actually the internal resolution. I notice no difference in textures, but the overall IQ improves the higher it's set.

 

[PetriP-TNT]

Remember: If you are playing without the noise filter in SH2, you have already lost.

 

[IrishNinja]

this is an excellent and long overdue thread, good work OP!

 

[Stallion Free]

So I wrapped up a couple of the games I had been working on and set up SH2 again for a replay because of this thread. I really dig my 360 pad setup in Xpadder for the game. I basically just delete all the joystick entries in the game, screenshot the keyboard bindings and then use that screenshot as reference for setting up a profile that I think will work well/is similar to the console bindings. It's a damn shame we will never get "HD" re-releases with this kind of image quality:

 

[legacyzero]

So clean, yet so dirty.

 

[randomwab]

I don't know how I missed this thread. And then I find it, stumble in, and see someone has fixed the FOV for The Room PC!?

omg

So excite. Replay time. Thanks for this fantastic thread, Lime. You've been on my good list ever since you said this about Silent Hill 2...

Thematically it's the Crime & Punishment of the medium. It's impeccable and a hallmark of what digital games are able to achieve artistically.

 

[Lime]

You're too kind, randomwab. Thanks for making my day even better

Remember when playing SH4 that the cutscenes are in 15FPS, the post-processing filter seems to be missing, and the blur in cutscenes is bugged. The PCSX2 version seems to be fine, but (so far) cannot be run in 16:9.

So I wrapped up a couple of the games I had been working on and set up SH2 again for a replay because of this thread. I really dig my 360 pad setup in Xpadder for the game. I basically just delete all the joystick entries in the game, screenshot the keyboard bindings and then use that screenshot as reference for setting up a profile that I think will work well/is similar to the console bindings. It's a damn shame we will never get "HD" re-releases with this kind of image quality:

Stallion Free, do you think you could make your Xpadder profile available (or send it to me)? Then I can include it in the SH2 post.

You say "PC version allows for 4096x4096 textures" but I'm pretty sure that's actually the internal resolution. I notice no difference in textures, but the overall IQ improves the higher it's set.

Like I mentioned, I wasn't saying that the source textures themselves were 4096x4096, but that they were able to be rendered internally in that particular resolution. I apologize if that wasn't clear.

 

[CaptainSchwann]

Sub'd. Got something fun to try when I get home from work. Thanks for the awesome thread

 

[Stallion Free]

I gotta tweak my xpadder set up a little further.

 

[Redx508]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wya4XhTPMcc&feature=player_embedded#!
Sad..

Good thing i am playing on PC

 

[Soup Bar]

I just found my CDs of the third game. I wish 2 was on Steam. Thanks for the tips OP.

 

[Corky]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wya4XhTPMcc&feature=player_embedded#!
Sad..

Good thing i am playing on PC

Wow I was just watching this from the other thread and my god did I just dodge a bullet...had no idea it was that bad.

Thanks a lot for the thread man I can't believe I've never actually played through this series, or at least the first couple of games .

 

[SOLDIER]

I tried the PC version of SH2 a while back, and the only issue I was having was a 5-10 second transition whenever I opened up the map screen. I was told this was due to the game having to change resolutions every time.

Has this been addressed by now?

 

[JRW]

Does the res changer and .exe replacement work with the Directors Cut version of Silent Hill 2 PC?

 

[Stallion Free]

Does the res changer and .exe replacement work with the Directors Cut version of Silent Hill 2 PC?

I think that's the only PC version there is.

 

[Dizzy-4U]

Does the res changer and .exe replacement work with the Directors Cut version of Silent Hill 2 PC?

Yes.

The only issue I'm having is that I cannot set AA because it disables advanced filters and lens flare. Tried the workaround and didn't work for me.

Anyways, I also tried the enb mod and I like it. The color saturation was too much for me so instead of 1.5 I changed it to 0.5. Blacks are darker now instead of grey. Looks nice.

 

[JRW]

Ok Thanks, Now I just have to figure out how to get my 360 controller working with it.

 

[JRW]

Is there anyway to get SH2 working properly with an Xbox 360 controller? When trying to configure it in SH2 I can't assign anything to the L & R triggers or the d-pad.