santiquiroz/gears-of-war-2-pc-port v0.3.8

on GitHub

What's new

• Much faster on PC: the native front end is off by default. Graphics → Draw source → Automatic now picks Console commands on PC. The native front end (on by default since 0.3.3) reads every draw from the game's Direct3D state, but the command processor still reads the console's command stream in full, so today it adds work: chapter 2 hospital, 1440p internal, frame rate unlocked, RX 7800 XT: 263 fps instead of 151, the same picture, and back to the 0.3.2 level. Android keeps it on until the phone is measured the same way. You can still choose Direct3D calls (native) by hand.
• Vulkan on PC, experimental (issue #34). PC Options → Graphics → Graphics API: Automatic (Direct3D 12), Direct3D 12 or Vulkan (experimental); applies after a restart (gpu_backend in gow2.toml). The Windows runtime now carries both backends, and Direct3D 12 stays the default. On a PC with an integrated and a dedicated GPU, Vulkan renders on the same GPU Direct3D 12 would use (SDK patch 0063). FSR 3/4 and DLSS are Direct3D 12 only; FSR 1 and CAS work on Vulkan. Try it if your driver crashes or stutters with Direct3D 12.
• Native renderer by default on NVIDIA (issue #24). Graphics → Renderer → Automatic now picks Native on NVIDIA as well as AMD and Android. On a GTX 1070 in the chapter 2 hospital it gave 60 fps with the GPU at 55 %, against 57 fps at 100 % emulating the EDRAM, with the same picture (thanks @valeriyjurievich-ctrl). Intel stays on the emulated path until someone measures it.
• Mali GPUs start on Android (issue #27). The Vulkan renderer no longer refuses GPUs without vertexPipelineStoresAndAtomics (Mali-G720 in the Dimensity 8300, and many other Mali GPUs); it skips only the rare draws whose vertex shader writes to memory (SDK patch 0062). APK updated 2026-10-29 (commit eacb8b5): the first Mali log (Mali-G720 MC8) showed it then stopped at fillModeNonSolid, which the Android build no longer requires (line and point polygon modes draw filled). Nothing changes on Adreno. Still untested on a Mali phone: reports welcome.
• Android settings and GPU driver (issue #33). Drag a finger over the Device Options list to scroll it (lifting the finger after a drag no longer presses the row under it). The GPU driver picker accepts driver zips that file managers label application/x-zip-compressed or application/octet-stream.
• Split-screen is two players. The menu offered 3 and 4 split-screen players, but the game allows only two signed-in profiles, and its "Too many profile sessions" box never closed, so the game could not get back to the menus. The row now offers 1 and 2, and a local_users above 2 in gow2.toml is brought down to 2 at start.
• Busy scenes stay on the native front end where it is on (Android, or PC when chosen): its per-frame draw buffer holds 8192 draws instead of 4096; near the gas canisters of Act 1 about 230 draws a frame overflowed it and went through the slower path (issue #26 log).
• Measured, kept as they were: occlusion queries off on PC and a prototype that skips unchanged constant blocks both landed inside the run-to-run spread, so neither ships.
• Performance analysis: where the frame time goes on PC and Android, why the gap with "Hollow" exists, and the plan to close it: docs/PERFORMANCE.md.

Downloads

• gow2-recomp-0.3.8-win64.zip: Windows 10/11 x64. Bring your own game files: your .iso or an extracted folder (see QUICKSTART.txt).
• gow2-recomp-0.3.8-android-arm64.apk: Android 10+ arm64, experimental.

Both files were scanned with Microsoft Defender before upload. Windows 11 "Bad Image ... 0xc0e90002" is Smart App Control blocking the unsigned DLLs (see the README). Every player in a System Link or co-op session should run the same release.