HD texture and model packs
The renderer knows every texture and model by name, so packs can swap them for more detailed ones. Optional, and only if you want them.
Upcoming features
What's being built right now.
Nothing on this page is in a release yet. It's the work in progress as it stands today, without dates or promises. When something is ready, it goes to the beta first, then to everyone.
One rule
The original stays.
Everything below is an option. The Original Xbox 360 look stays one click away in the launcher, drawn as the console drew it, whatever comes next.
In development
A renderer of its own.
Today the port runs the game's own code natively, but its graphics still go through an emulated Xbox 360 graphics chip: the game's drawing commands are turned into PC ones as they arrive. That works, and it's what every release so far has used.
The new renderer works one step higher. It takes the game's own drawing calls directly and draws them on Vulkan, with the game's shaders translated to PC shaders ahead of time. It knows every texture, model and render target the game uses, which is what the features further down are built on.
Where it stands
- Passes the test scenes: its frames are checked against frames from today's renderer, scene by scene.
- Already faster: about 230 FPS uncapped in the opening on the Venture, against about 110 with today's renderer.
- True higher resolutions: at 1.5x and 2x the game is drawn at the higher resolution, not scaled up afterwards.
- Ambient occlusion works on it, with the same picture as today.
In development
Native Linux and Steam Deck.
Vulkan runs on Windows, Linux and the Steam Deck alike, so the new renderer is also the road to a real Linux version: a native program, with no Proton and no Windows layer in between.
Parts of it already work behind the scenes, such as the launcher, downloads and updates as an AppImage. Until it's ready, the Windows version runs through Proton today (here's how); on a ROG Ally with Bazzite it held 120 FPS on the 10 W power profile.
In development
High frame rates, done right.
The game was made for 30 FPS. You can already play at 60, 120, 240 or more, but above 30 some of its logic runs at the wrong speed: a few animations skip, like the crew rowing at the start.
The fix isn't to invent frames in between (frame interpolation). It's to fix the game's logic so it runs correctly at any frame rate, so every frame you see is a real one, drawn by the game from the game's own state.
The first fix of this kind is already out: above 30 FPS the V-Rex's footsteps could shake the camera without end, and since v1.9.10 the shake fades at any frame rate exactly as it does on the console.
In development
Smooth from the first minute.
Today each new effect (a shader) is prepared the first time it appears, so a first play-through can have a short pause or an object that shows up a moment late. The shader pack already covers much of it.
The new renderer goes further. While the launcher sets the game up, it translates every one of the game's shaders from your own game files, and it prepares the graphics pipelines ahead of time (prewarming), so there's nothing left to prepare when you play. Nothing from the game leaves your PC or comes in the download: it's all made from your copy.
Later
Built on top of it.
Once the native renderer is in place, it opens doors that today's renderer keeps shut. These come after it, in no fixed order.
HDR
Real high dynamic range output for HDR screens: brighter fire, deeper night.
Modern lighting
Lighting and shadow upgrades, as settings on top of the original look rather than in place of it.
Follow along
First in the Discord.
News, test builds and the beta channel's first versions show up in the Discord, and so does the chance to tell us what you'd like next. Every finished change is in the changelog.