Hi everyone,
I'm involved with and am a contributor to
Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition (although I'm not a programmer or modder myself) and would like to answer or comment on some of the posts here.
TheMoon said:
I got annoyed for a second, thinking this was an actual official release, then I realized it's the PC mods and fixes I had installed myself two months ago^^
All of these have been available for a long time but I guess it's nice to give them a push, especially considering how relatively often we get "should I play the HD collection" questions.
Be sure to watch the all-new demonstration trailer as we've added a lot more fixes since you've last installed it. The
Installation Guide has also been updated accordingly. You can see what new features have been added at
this Reddit post.
Dreamboum said:
I haven't watched the whole video but is it really an enhanced video ? The first few seconds of the parking lot is an overly bright area and the fog is mostly gone.
The fog is the same as the PS2 version on the Observation Deck (as in, the overlaid 2D fog image is present and there's 3D fog below the outlook along the trees). Also, the brightness you pointed out is the same between the PC version and PS2 build. If you were to disable the noise grain on the PS2 version it would look like this:
PS2 (via PCSX2) No Noise Filter:
PC No Noise Filter:
One of several issues we fixed for
Silent Hill 2 PC is modifying the noise filter. The noise filter on the PC build drastically changed the game's visuals when in use, making the screen much brighter compared to the PS2 version with its noise filter in effect:
PS2 (via PCSX2) Noise Filter:
PC Original Noise Filter:
PC Modified Noise Filter:
Now, the PC noise filter is much more in line with the PS2 build. And it may not be the fairest comparison to compare an analog (composite?) image (PS2) to a digital, lossless image (PC screen cap). This is why PCSX2 screenshots above are used for comparison.
Acetown said:
Good stuff. Only thing missing now, that I can think of, are soft shadows.
Definitely! We still have plenty of smaller, nuanced adjustments we plan to implement but soft shadow integration is the "mac daddy" fix we have left to implement (
along with allowing dynamic objects to have shadows cast upon them).
Once we implement soft shadows the PC version will then have: PS2 quality shadows, PS2 quality FMVs, PS2 quality noise filter, PS2 quality audio, and PS2 quality camera speed.
Dreamboum said:
Did they reinstate the music in the hotel ? I know one music was gone in the PC version and it was so dumb
May I ask you to provide more details (or an audio/video example) of this? We definitely would like to include it, if it's been missing/removed prior.
Atolm said:
Very impressive. Does it work with Xinput controllers?. I remember setting one in 3 was a real pain.
It does! Refer to this step:
http://enhanced.townofsilenthill.com/SH2/#installXinputPlus
Hesemonni said:
I take it that cutscene widescreen FOV was fixed? /s
I felt it important to showcase most, if not all, parts that ReduceCutsceneFOV and the camera clipping fixes fix in the demonstration trailer so people have a true appreciation of why these particular mods are so important to use. Seeing characters "frozen in place" ruins the atmosphere/experience and camera clipping is irritating overall.
Psyrgery said:
@Dark1x should definately check this out
Peter Ian Staker said:
This looks great. I really want Dark1x to make a video comparing this to the PS2 version.
I've been in touch with him about this! Fingers crossed he's intrigued enough to make his own coverage about it!
Brelappin said:
That's cool and all, but the installation instructions are longer than a CVS receipt so I'll probably skip it. I have a working install of SH2 on my pc with widescreen and 4K resolutions already so I'm good
I felt it important to go over every possible detail/adjustment for these fix packages to make user installation as error-free as possible. It would not be responsible of me to leave out many details for the sake of less reading, which could result in improper installation/mod adjustments which could lead to the game constantly crashing or not booting at all.
Do note: You are missing out on many great fixes by not implementing these fixes. Playing in widescreen alone is great, but there's so much more to fix with this game. The demonstration trailer showcases what a lot of the improvements bring to the table.
Buddy mcpuddy said:
The opening scene on ps2 looks nothing like that first screenshot. The contrast is completely borked there.
Please refer to comments above about the Observation Deck's visuals. I should also mention that all clips shown in the demonstration trailer that aren't directly related to the noise filter do
not have the noise filter enabled. Why? Because YouTube's video compression would greatly muddy/dirty the clips with the noise filter in effect. Thus, I disabled it wherever and whenever possible. And, as we now know, disabling the noise filter brightens the game regardless of game version.
Erebus said:
Wow that's a lot for fixes indeed, so big props to all the people involved in the project. Having said that, I re-played my original copy of SH2 (which is unanimously considered the definitive version iirc) on PCSX2 without any issues a couple of years ago. I'm wondering if after all these patches the PC version is better than the PS2 one.
I'm not a fan nor one to get into which version is THE definitive best (which is why the voice over in the demonstration trailer says, "...makes it
A definitive Silent Hill 2 HD experience."
However, and take this as you will, but playing the game on PCSX2 has its own problems:
- Chunks of the wall disappear along the camera's edge when using the widescreen hack
- The noise grain chunks are stretched when using the widescreen hack
- There is no "ReduceCutsceneFOV" fix for the PCSX2 version when using the widescreen hack
- There is no "camera clipping fix" for the PCSX2 version when using the widescreen hack
- You cannot un-stretch the fullscreen (2D) images (if you prefer to have them non-stretched) for the PCSX2 version when using the widescreen hack
- The PS2 verions use per-vertex lighting for the flashlight which looks worse than the per-pixel method used on the Xbox/PC versions
- The rowboat glitch is present on PS2 versions
- The "Maria" ending environment value bug is present on PS2 versions (here, here, and here)
JarlRaven said:
This thread title jebaited me harder than anything in my entire life. I thought Konami was taking steps to resemble a videogame publisher again.
I feel your pain. Konami's utter disregard to this IP has hurt all of us fans... This is why us, the fans, had to pick up the ball they dropped and help to make a true
SH2 HD experience. We decided on the name
Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition to help give an "official" title for our work and differentiate it from the abysmal
SIlent Hill HD Collection.
