portingpete/The-Darkness-Recomp v0.1.7

v0.1.7 - Sharper subtitles, Steam launch, and rendering fixes

on GitHub

Download and play

Download The-Darkness-Recomp-v0.1.7-windows-x64.zip, extract the whole ZIP, copy your own supported Xbox 360 dump into Darkness, and run Launch.cmd. Use LaunchWithSettings.cmd to choose settings and language before playing. Windows 10/11 x64, an SSSE3-capable CPU, and a Direct3D 11-capable graphics device are required. The Windows package includes the audio and Visual C++ runtimes; playing does not require a compiler or Python.

Diagnostic launchers are a separate optional download: The-Darkness-Recomp-v0.1.7-diagnostic-launchers.zip. Extract it beside the installed Launch.cmd when troubleshooting. It contains LaunchStallProfiler.cmd, LaunchShadowCapture.cmd, instructions, and a hash manifest. The normal release ZIP contains neither diagnostic launcher. Both ZIPs have SHA-256 checksum files.

Changes since v0.1.6

• Added persistent in-game mouse sensitivity, including Russian menu wording.
• Improved subtitle rendering with scalable Arial glyphs, retaining the game's spacing, wrapping, fades and outlines, with original bitmap glyphs as a fallback. Options > Subtitles > Subtitle Size now adjusts dialogue text from 50% to 200%, applies immediately, and saves the setting. Added localized subtitle controls.
• Fixed missing Darkness voice masks and keyboard prompts after texture cache eviction, and recovered texture cache capacity.
• Prepared authored shaders before gameplay and reduced scene capture overhead. Diagnostic input reads now run on a separate worker.
• Made DarkRecomp.exe launch directly from Steam without launch options. Existing shortcuts targeting DarkRecompPreview.exe need to be retargeted manually; see START_HERE.txt.
• Added the Windows executable icon and corrected Russian keyboard action translations.
• Split diagnostic launchers into their own optional ZIP.

Implementation includes assistance from OpenAI Codex.

Updating

Close the game and extract the complete Windows ZIP over the folder containing your existing Launch.cmd, replacing the included program files. Keep Darkness, saves, and DarkRecomp.settings.ini. Game files, private settings, saves, logs, and debug symbols are excluded from the downloads.

Older installations may still have diagnostic launchers left over from a previous release; this ZIP does not add them. The separate diagnostic ZIP is optional for normal play.

LaunchWithUpdates.cmd builds the latest official main-branch source and requires the development prerequisites described in START_HERE.txt. To update only published release packages without compiling, use:

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File tools\update_release.ps1

For an existing WSL installation, rerun SetupLinux.cmd to update its Linux copy while retaining Linux saves and settings.

Validation

• A fresh strict Windows build passed all 123 automated contracts. AOT verification checked 93 generated files with zero semantic diagnostics. The audio codec was rebuilt from pinned source; its source, patch, provenance, and license notices are included.
• Both ZIP CRCs, their downloadable SHA-256 checksums, and all 48 Windows manifest hashes and 3 diagnostic manifest hashes verified. The optional diagnostic ZIP has exactly four entries, and the normal ZIP contains neither diagnostic launcher. Checks found no game-file copies, private settings/saves, logs, debug symbols, or credential patterns in the packages.
• The final source is 91ff247, based on merged main 6ca72dc with packaging changes. After clarifying the F8 capture instruction, the packaging contract passed again; all 343 native source input fingerprints remained identical to the tested build, and strict AOT verification passed again.
• Extracted Launch.cmd setup checks passed against a physical game dump and an isolated copy. A direct extracted Preview-helper run verified 22,127 AOT functions, initialized D3D11 at 1280x720, rendered 5,011 native frames, and reached the expected 90-second diagnostic deadline. The inspected capture shows the opening legal screen; this verifies startup rendering, not in-world gameplay. The supervisor did not retain the process exit code. Original settings and all five existing save files retained their exact baseline hashes, and no test game/helper processes remained.
• The automated Launch.cmd play invocation through the hidden CMD test harness stalled before starting the helper. Its ordinary-launch result remains inconclusive in this environment; the direct extracted helper completed the startup rendering check above. The normal CMD launcher code is unchanged by this packaging update.

Known limits

This remains a prerelease without a complete gameplay playthrough. Linux runs the Windows executable through Proton; native Linux and Steam Deck gameplay/performance remain unverified. See STEAM_DECK.md.

Include the newest build_native/run/ runtime log when reporting a problem. Do not upload game files.

Full source changes since v0.1.6