nefariousjosiah/WWE-SVR2008-RECOMP v1.0 on GitHub

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 running natively on Windows, and on Linux and the Steam Deck through Proton: the game's code recompiled for PC, with a native renderer. 60 fps, up to 4K; 720p at 60 fps on the Steam Deck.

v1.0: a massive performance update, and a new renderer as the default

SvR 2008 catches up with the 2009 and 2010 ports, with everything they learned:

Direct3D 12 is now the default renderer on Windows. The game now has two renderers. svr2008.exe draws with Direct3D 12, and on the Steam Deck and Linux it starts svr2008_vulkan.exe (Vulkan) by itself, so Deck players don't need to change anything. You can switch in the settings menu (F1, Back + Start, or Share + Options on PlayStation) under Graphics API: Auto, Direct3D 12 or Vulkan. If a PC can't start Direct3D 12 at all, the game falls back to Vulkan by itself.

A steady 60 fps on lower-end PCs: a GTX 1060 with an i7-8700 now holds a solid 60.

Far less work per frame. The graphics driver's work runs on its own thread, and textures, geometry and shader settings are only sent again when they change. The crowd, drawn in thousands of small pieces, used to cost the most on slower processors.
No first-time stutters. Every shader variant is prepared when the game is built (1,142 of them), and the graphics pipelines the game uses are compiled in the background while each scene loads, not in the middle of an entrance. The download includes the pipelines a play session uses.
New setting: CPU priority. High lets the game go first when other programs (browser, recording, downloads) want the processor too.
Laptops: Auto resolution renders at 720p on built-in graphics (Intel UHD / Iris Xe, the Radeon in Ryzen laptops). Laptops with two graphics chips now run the game on their dedicated graphics card.
The settings menu shows what Auto picked, for example Auto (1440p) or Auto (Direct3D 12).

Fixes:

Sharper image: the game's own edge-blur filter (the console's cheap anti-aliasing, which smeared hair, tattoos, ropes and the crowd) is off; the higher internal resolution smooths edges instead. svr_edge_blur = true in svr2008.toml brings the original look back.
NVIDIA graphics cards: objects the game "cuts out" by their transparency no longer come out speckled. NVIDIA rounds a fully opaque value a hair under 1.0, and the port now compares at the console's 8-bit precision.
Wrong textures after scene changes: when the game reused a texture slot for a different picture, the old picture could stay on screen; it's rebuilt now.
game.log is now always written next to svr2008.exe, even when the game is started from Steam or another folder.

Updating: on v0.2 or newer, open the settings menu, go down to Update and press A twice; your saves are kept and backed up first. On v0.1, download the zip below and extract it over your folder (your .iso and userdata stay where they are).

You need your own copy of the game: a disc image (.iso, about 7.8 GB) of your own SvR 2008 disc, USA / Europe release. None of the disc's files are in this download, and this project does not condone piracy.

Download

SVR2008-NATIVE.zip under Assets below (not Source code, which is the developer source).

Windows

Extract the zip into a folder of its own (for example C:\Games\SVR2008-NATIVE).
Copy your .iso into that folder, next to svr2008.exe.
Run svr2008.exe (if Windows warns, More info > Run anyway). The game finds the disc image by itself and starts.

A controller is recommended: keyboard controls are included but not tested yet.

Linux / Steam Deck (Proton)

Extract the zip, copy your .iso into that folder next to svr2008.exe, add svr2008.exe to Steam as a non-Steam game with Proton Experimental, and start it (from Game Mode on the Deck). Step by step: README.