An unofficial fan port of The Darkness (Xbox 360, 2007), made by static recompilation: the game's PowerPC code is translated into C++ and runs natively on Windows, with a Direct3D 12 graphics layer built on ReXGlue and XenonRecomp.

This is a free, non-commercial fan project. No game data is included: you need your own copy of the game (see Game files and Legal).

Pre-release. So far it has been tested on one Windows 11 PC with an NVIDIA RTX graphics card. Other hardware (AMD, Intel, older NVIDIA, laptops, Steam Deck) is untested. Please report what you find.

Steam Deck: a Steam Deck preset is included, but the port has not been tested on a Deck yet. Reports from Steam Deck players are very welcome.

• Frame rates beyond 30: 60, your display's refresh rate (120/144/240), a custom limit or uncapped, with the game's timing kept correct (scripted scenes, physics and audio run at their original speed).
• Resolution: the 3D scene at 1x, 2x or 3x the console's 1280 x 720, or automatic (the launcher measures your graphics card once), fitted to any output resolution; windowed, borderless or automatic.
• Anti-aliasing: SMAA (default) or FXAA; AMD FSR 1 or CAS sharpening when the image is fitted to your screen.
• Widescreen (experimental): fills 21:9, 32:9 and 16:10 screens with more view at the sides; menus stay centred.
• Controls: keyboard and mouse with native mouse look and rebindable keys, or a controller; adjustable field of view.
• Settings in a launcher (presets: Enhanced, Performance, Original, Steam Deck) and in an overlay over the running game (F1).
• Motion blur on/off and HD texture packs (folder-based replacements).

Our own captures from test runs of this port.

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.
• A CPU with AVX2 (Intel Haswell / AMD Zen or newer).
• A Direct3D 12 graphics card with current drivers.
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x64).
• About 8 GB of free disk space if you use a disc image (it is extracted once).

The recompiled code matches exactly one version of the game:

Other regions, versions or title updates will not work. Dump the game from your own disc; this project does not provide or link to game files.

Download the zip from the Releases page and extract it to a folder of your choice (not inside Program Files). Or build it yourself: see BUILDING.md.

1. Run TheDarknessSettings.exe (the launcher).
2. On the first start it asks for your game: Choose disc image... (your .iso) or Choose game folder... (a folder with the extracted files, the one that contains default.xex). It checks that the version is supported; a disc image is extracted into the game folder next to the launcher.
3. Pick a preset (Enhanced is recommended), adjust anything you like and press Play.

Settings are stored in TheDarkness.pc.toml next to the executables; saves in runtime_data. The launcher's About button shows the version and opens the licence texts and the logs folder.

Open the launcher, or press F1 in the game. Changes to resolution, widescreen, language and a few graphics options apply at the next start; the launcher says so for each.

• Performance / Frame Rate: Frame rate (Original 30, 60, display refresh, custom, uncapped), VSync (VSync, VRR/G-SYNC/FreeSync, immediate), Menu frame rate.
• Display: output resolution, window mode, monitor, Fill wide and tall screens (widescreen, experimental).
• Graphics Quality: resolution scale, anti-aliasing, upscaling, motion blur, HD texture packs.
• Camera: field of view.
• Controls / Key bindings: keyboard and mouse, mouse look, sensitivity, controller options.
• Language.

English, French, German, Italian and Spanish: the game's own languages, for its text and speech. Set Language in the launcher; Automatic follows the Windows display language.

• Tested on one PC only (see the note at the top).
• Played on PC so far: every menu and the campaign from the start up to the orphanage explosion scene, including the Chinatown street and its combat. The chapters after that have not been played through yet. A check of everything the game can ask of the port found no gap on the single-player path (details in docs/WHOLE_GAME_AUDIT.md); if the game stops anyway, it shows a message and saves a crash report: please send it.
• Multiplayer: the menus work, but there is no online or local network play. The port behaves like a console without a network connection: the Xbox LIVE modes and leaderboards ask for an Xbox LIVE sign-in and stay on the menu, and System Link finds no games.
• Widescreen (experimental): at 21:9 and wider, subtitles are drawn larger than at 16:9 and two-line subtitles can overlap.
• The first minutes of play can stutter briefly while shaders are compiled for your graphics card; later sessions reuse them.
• Not in this release: HDR output, temporal anti-aliasing with upscalers (such as DLSS, FSR 3 or XeSS) and frame generation. If you would use one of them, say so in an issue.

Please open an issue with the Bug report template. It asks for:

• your CPU, graphics card, driver version, Windows version and screen resolution/refresh rate;
• your TheDarkness.pc.toml (settings) and what you did when the problem happened;
• the logs folder next to TheDarkness.exe (launcher: About, then Logs): runtime_crash.log and any TheDarkness_fatal_*.dmp and TheDarkness_stall_*.dmp files.

Never attach game files (disc images, extracted files) to an issue.

See BUILDING.md. In short: one script checks your game files, recompiles your own default.xex, builds the runtime and packages it.

• Unofficial. Estacado is a fan project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by 2K Games, Take-Two Interactive, Starbreeze Studios, Top Cow Productions or Microsoft.
• Trademarks belong to their owners. The Darkness and related names are trademarks of their respective owners; Xbox and Xbox 360 are trademarks of Microsoft. They are used here only to name the game this project works with.
• No game data. Neither this repository nor its releases contain any of the game's data: no textures, models, audio, video, text or other files from the disc.
• What the download contains. TheDarkness.exe contains the game's program code in translated form: the original PowerPC code converted into native code by static recompilation. It does nothing on its own. It needs your own, legally obtained copy of the game, which the launcher checks and prepares on your computer. The game's files and everything made from them (extracted files, shader caches, saves) stay on your computer: do not share them.
• Non-commercial. This project is free. It sells nothing and accepts no donations or sponsorships.
• No official artwork. The repository and the releases contain no logos, box art or marketing art of the game; titles are plain text and the screenshots are our own.
• Licences. Our source code is released under the MIT licence (LICENSE). The licence covers the source code of this repository only: it does not cover the game The Darkness or anything derived from it, such as the game's files or its recompiled code. Third-party components keep their own licences (THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md).
• Rights holders with a concern about this project: please open an issue and we will respond.

• The ReXGlue SDK and the Xenia project, whose work this port's system and graphics layer builds on.
• XenonRecomp (hedge-dev).
• SMAA (Jimenez et al.), AMD FidelityFX FSR 1 and CAS, Dear ImGui, SDL, and the other libraries listed in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.