Silent Hill - Series-Wide PC Guide

A guide for playing the entire mainline franchise on PC for newcomers and returning alike.

The Inevitable Questions

...Why tho?
There are many guides roaming around of how to play this franchise. However, there isn't one on the Steam hub. So I felt like putting up to the task, considering there is always some new interest.
Silent Hill is one of those series I have deep respect and appreciation for, so if I can get a single person to give it a try, I'm happy.

Why the hell is this on Homecoming’s hub?
Well, call me when Konami publishes the rest on Steam. Sadly the only recent re-release was 4 on GOG. If I want to have a good shared guide for this platform, I’m stuck with this. There are many guides to help other people but I feel one here isn't a bad thing.

Wouldn't the original hardware be better for playing this stuff?
Obviously, for many people, these methods are a crutch. If you are lucky enough, do go get them on their intended systems. It's usually a great time! Many out there sadly have to rely on these measures. Plus archival interest and all that- consoles eventually die, copies are expensive as hell, ect.

Isn’t this uhhhhhhhhh-----yknow?
First, no it's not illegal. That's complete lies. But to comply to the TOS of Steam, I have to force myself into a corner by doing the following.

• No mentions of the activity in question will ever be made in explicit. Just look around for what you need in the usual places. You should be able to do math, right?
  
• Any set-up and information regarding "recreation" will be simply not linked to. PC Patches are properly linked to the original authors when done so. This aside, for the rest you have to sadly rely on my “very specific words” to comply with the TOS of this platform. I know this specific point might be a hassle, but it is to not get this guide instantly erased. The sooner you can learn to help yourself find things you want on the internet, the better.
  
• There is no other reliable way with most of these games because Konami doesn’t care, why in the ever loving damn should you?

F@%# YOU! GET THE WESTERN ONES OUT OF HERE
I wholeheartedly discourage bandwagoning. As much as I personally do not like them as well, I feel, like any game out there, that they deserve critical, fair review rather than a quick "they f#!cking suck", hence why I am including them. You can always pretend they don't exist.

X thing is outdated or wrong
Emulation, PC Fixing and alike is always ongoing, improving and changing. Inevitably something in this guide is going to be outdated to hell and back. I'm going to try to keep it fresh but you can however just comment and I'll make sure to edit this thing.

I have an issue with this guide
Feel free to leave a comment and I'll try to reply as quick as I can.

Global recommendations, information and tips

For New Players

• Best played on release order. If for whatever reason you choose to skip entries, know that 3 is a direct sequel to 1, and Origins is a prequel to it. Everything else is minor callbacks or references.
  
• I’d recommended to choose Normal difficulties in your first run. If you feel confident, go for hard however.
  
• Please, avoid spoilers in general as much as possible. You will never again get to experience these games blind.
  
• These games are fairly short on a replay, consider it for new endings, secrets, different unlockables and even hidden goodies!
  
• Have a paper to take down notes. Many of the puzzle elements have hints scattered around.

For Everyone

• For games that use ISO's for installation, do not use Windows 10's virtual disc app, thing is reported to cause issues mounting them. It’s very likely that you will not have to worry about this however, as most sources for the original copies are already pre-patched or have already gotten extensive updates to make them easily accesible. ISO copies are usually the oldest ones you find around.
  
• The age of these games made it so the native PC ports (2-3-4) can easily run on most machines, Shattered Memories and especially Origins shouldn't be that bad to use on the alternatives. The real ball kicker is Downpour, where we require a more powerful machine due to requirements of the needed software.
  
• If you're relying on alternative means to play, a quick Google search can easily hook you with information that can assist working around any issues. Specifically the global and specific wiki are a good place to look. This is a general guide meant to assist as broadly as possible, and thus can't account niche problems. Do note that despite being old games for old consoles, the requirements are subtantially highter due to the software, but most machines from the past decade should be able to do a good enough job.
  
• Homecoming and Downpour will not always perform well no matter what you do. This is down to their existing technical issues.

Silent Hill

Dad of the decade

The one and only. Silent Hill is a Playstation classic. However it does mean no PC port. Thankfully, two decades have blessed us with choices to still play, some better than others.

Mednafe, ePSXe, XEBRA, and PCSX-R-PGXP are some options to consider. DuckStation is in my personal opinion the best one overall for this title, and general PS1 games. There are some more alternatives out there, but none come close in my opinion.

In general, any of these run the game solid enough, accurate enough, with almost zero hassle. Silent Hill is thankfully one of those titles that just work regardless of what you use to play it.
You almost need a VERY specific case scenario or go out your way bashing options to even have minor issues.

Duckstation is just pure bliss, and is full of options and stuff to tinker to get it just right.
Mednafen is very popular, having a Libretro Core and being open source, unlike XEBRA, which by iself is also robust.
If you're using PCSX or ePSXe, which are plugin-dependant, I recommend using a OpenGL plugin, which is included in the downloads anyway.

Too long;didn't read, almost any option will play just fine. If you ask me go with Duckstation, but feel free to use whatever you see fit for whatever reason.

Due to it's age, PSX has a lot of documentation, so simply look up the wiki oriented to this stuff to find more information, links and guides to set up and enjoy. They are clean and informative enough that you likely wont have much trouble figuring out what you need.
Again, you really should have no trouble. This is an absolute gem, and in my opinion, if you can only play one game, it’s this one.

Key notes.

• Use correction settings to reduce the wobbling of graphics if you prefer. I would not recommend it however, as it has the effect of greatly affecting the excellent texture work.
  
• Adjust in-game brightness or the game will likely look absolutely terrible in lit-areas. If you still feel the image is off, a lazy workaround is looking up footage of the original version (like a playthrough) for reference as you adjust the settings. Again, most modern emulators for old consoles are so developed that it is very unlikely that you’ll have to deal with shortcomings or technical issues.
  
• If you want the easiest, most annoyance-free, even-a-child-can-do-it experience for playing and sharing the game (streaming, screenshot, file sharing), then good news, you can use Retroarch on Steam for free!
  
• Beware some jerks will call you a weenie for it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1118310/RetroArch/

Silent Hill 2

Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaames

Do you like Silent Hill 2? You're in luck! Many do too! So much they made the best playable version of this franchise!

Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition is a collaborative work which aside of fixing the PC version, aims to improve the game to a huge extent. While you could use PCSX2 for the closest thing to the authentic experience, Enhanced Edition is the better, most reliable way to enjoy this game.

After installing your copy (European and North American version are fine) refer to the site here [enhanced.townofsilenthill.com] for a guided installation. Follow everything slowly and you should have zero issues, it's genuinely impossible to mess it up.


Key notes.

• American executable if you don't have it. Link here[enhanced.townofsilenthill.com].
  
• To use a controller, first turn it on, then launch the game.
  
• Just refer here[enhanced.townofsilenthill.com] for anything else, these guys are walking legends and have any fix you could need for this game.

Silent Hill 3

She cute

Silent Hill 3 differs from 2 by having a way more neglected PC port. Not only does the port lack support to this extent, it's somewhat "gimped" of content by lacking some promotional items, consisting of just unlockable outfits. However it natively has 60 FPS and patching it is quite easy to boot.

For PC, we have Thirteenag's widescreen patch here[thirteenag.github.io], with a slightly enhanced version by Steam006 available here[community.pcgamingwiki.com]. Aside of making it compatible to current screens, it adds a metric ton of customization via ini tweaking. Install it on the directory, set things to your liking in the Silent_Hill_3_PC_Fix.ini and boot it with the DLLInjector.

If you're lazy you can rely on PCSX2. Good performance but you may find some minor visual bugs.

Key notes.

• If the patch isn't installed in the dev-intended location (eg. Program Files (x86)\KONAMI\SILENT HILL 3) this patch will not work. If you messed this up, just open Silent_Hill_3_PC_Fix.ini and correct the registry to the install location.
  
• For PCSX2, use openGL to fix misaligned shadows and if the cutscenes are a black void for you or have a nasty grid obstructing, go on Game Fixes tab, click "enable manual game fixes" and enable the "Switch to GSdx Software rendering when an FMV plays".
  
• If you have stuff like effects, shadows, grain filter, and blur beings all messed up on PCSX2, change accuracy level from Hardware mode.

Silent Hill 4 : The Room

Our guy

This is a special one, as Silent Hill 4 : The Room was re-released GOG again for some reason recently. Not that I am complaining, as the original version of 4 for PC was a literal god forsaken nightmare to work with with Windows 7, let alone 10.
Anyway, a fair warning against the PC version, there is missing content, and unlike 3, it's somewhat more significant as they are six missing "hauntings" out of fourteen. Essentially actual gameplay content. If this is enough deterrance to just pick up PCSX2 due to a need of authenticity, then I won't blame you.

GOG's version is already fixed, but to go a step above, you can use Nemesis's patch here [community.pcgamingwiki.com] or ThirteenAG's patch here[thirteenag.github.io] to up the ante. Both correct notable issues, like disabling cutscene letterboxing and setting cutscene framerate from 15 to 30.

On PCSX2's side, we have a working game with very minor bugs thankfully, but it's still PCSX2 so you make the judgement call.

Key notes.

• Nemesis patch allows a 60 FPS mode, but it is not recommended at all. Not only can you not finish the game due to serious bug at the end but it also causes Henry to be completely unable to move at all while helding an attack stance.
  
• To disable the blur, you can open the sh4w.ini file from Nemesis patch, find the blur values and change them all from -1.0 to 0.0.

Silent Hill : Origins

There was an attempt

Originally haha a PSP exclusive, Silent Hill Origins later was ported to Playstation 2. However, as we all know, PSP has the excellent PPSSPP to compensate the lack of a PC port. There is by basic fact the option to use PCSX2 but I completely discourage it due to the objective superiority of PPSSPP in the technical side.

Honestly I wish I had anything to complain about, Origins runs perfectly fine and is playable from start to finish in my experience for the most part on my machine. Now, that said, the game might drop frames with the flashlight on, see below for a potential solution.

My best advice is you tinker with settings to your liking.
I'll leave the settings I used long ago, inspired from a community post, but you should try your own.

 
- Bakend: openGL
- Mode: buffered rendering
- Simulate block transfer effects: Check
- Frameskipping: off
- Auto frameskipping: uncheck
- Prevent FPS from exceeding 60: check
- Alternative speed: unlimited
- Postprocessing shadder: off
- vSync: check
- Mipmapping: check
- Hardware transform: check
- Software skinning: check
- Vertex cache: check
- Lazy texture chaching: uncheck
- Retain changed textures: uncheck
- Disable slower effects: check
- Spline/bezier curves quality: high
- Upscale leve: off
- Upscale type: xBRZ
- Deposterize: uncheck
- Anisotropic filtering: off
- Texture filtering: linear
- Screen scaling fliter: linear
- Software rendering: uncheck
 

Key notes.

• If you experience severe FPS drops due to the flashlight, try disabling Stencil Test in "hack settings". Please note this might cause other issues.

Silent Hill : Homecoming

God I don't like this game much

Homecoming was released in Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. As we all know, good luck with Xbox 360 on PC. So, what about the PS3 release? I mean this game is infamously crap on PC.
Usually when facing a bad PC port you'd usually prefer the console version, but sadly it's not an option worth considering, as the game is just as poor on actual PS3. And expect a freeze fest and crashes in RPCS3. So unless you are fine with eating that bullet, we are stuck fixing the PC version.

We depend on UnknownProject's patch, who is the saviour of this story. You first go to his site, link here [unknownproject.github.io]. Alternatively a direct link here [github.com] for the executable patch. There is a pdf explaining how to use the patch with the version sold on Steam here[github.com]

Patching is as easy as downloading and installing as instructed. For the most part you should have zero hassles, follow the instructions on the .txt and you're good to go.

Key notes.

• Don't mess with pc_mjs.cfg. Unless you know what to rebind, or are sure by following the patch's instructions, it is not recommended to touch it.
  
• Due to enemy count limits, after exiting the Sewers, you might have a crash. To avoid this, make sure you kill all the enemies during the Sewers arena to prevent this. Alternatively just try again and pray.
  
• Other collission/camara bugs can only be worked around by reloading a save.
  
• Alt-Tabbing is a no-no. Game's that busted.
  
• Due to many issues with this flimsy port, I heavily encourage you to play with a mouse and keyboard at a resolution of 1920x1080 or lower. That aside you do you.

Silent Hill : Shattered Memories

Real men get the bad ending

Remember that one time the Nintendo Wii decided to try sheding the stereotype of a glorified break-your-tv Fisher Price and had a bunch of M+17 rated games out of nowhere? Madworld and No More Heroes are pretty cool. Shame I can't say the same for Shattered Memories.

Dolphin is our friend in this case. A widely used and very good piece of software. The game will definitely run more than adequately in a decent rig, but start to push the fidelity at your own risk.
Setting up Mouse and Keyboard or controller is equally viable, just follow the prompts and you should be good in minutes. Now, there is the alternative of PCSX2 and PPSSPP but they don't come close, and I don't recommend them at all when you have a way better alternative.

Key notes.

• The snow particles can sometimes not work correctly due to a slew of reasons. This can be corrected by disabling "Store EFB Copies to Texture Only".
  
• If you want a higher resolution without the flashlight being broken, set Vertex Rounding to "On".
  
• Unless your PC is a beast, don't tinker with Internal Resolution and Anti-Aliasing.
  
• Using Hybrid ubershaders is recomended. If there is any stuttering, this should fix most of it.

Credit to dante3732[forums.dolphin-emu.org] for this good configuration for M+KB in Dolphin.

Silent Hill : Downpour

This game deserves an outdated format.

Downpour, like Shattered Memories or Homecoming, never had a PC port. However we luckly have a PS3 version, so we can rely on our friend RPCS3.
The game is certified playable from start to finish with very little issues. Any problems steem from the game itself.

There is a patch for unlocking the framerate, obviously you might have some issues with this but it's not like the game is normally any better.
To add it manually, do as follows;

• Open your preferred text editor (e.g: VSCode, Sublime, Notepad++,).
  
• Add the line Version: 1.2 to the top of the file. Do not paste anything else on this line. Hit Enter and move to the next line.
  
• Paste as follow. Please ensure that the formatting is as shown here, as otherwise the game will ignore the patch if it detects any formatting deficiencies or mistakes.

 PPU-11f50d10f4626cdd59837e2fe44b701a9d9bfeac: # SHGAME.SELF
  Unlock FPS:
    Games:
      "Silent Hill Downpour":
        BLES01446: []
        BLUS30565: []
    Author: illusion
    Notes: "Removes 62FPS limit.\nMaximum framerate with the patch is half the Vblank frequency."
    Patch Version: 1.0
    Patch:
      - [] 

• Click Save and name the file imported_patch.yml. Do NOT change the capitalization or use any other name and whatever else, RPCS3 will not be able to apply the patches if anything is out of the ordinary.
  
• Save the file in the specified location:

Windows: \patches\
Linux: ~/.config/rpcs3/patches/

• Navigate to the Patch Manager as mentioned before and tick the checkbox corresponding to the patch you wish to apply.

Key notes.

• Some freezing can occur, but rare.
  
• What isn't rare is bad AI, visual bugs, crap framerate and god awful textures. That's just the game. Have fun with the chase sequences.

Conclusion

And that's it!

Hopefully this can help you or someone else out there to enjoy what the series has to offer. If you have any questions, complaints or suggestions comment ahead and I'll try to reach as quick as I can.

[Elbroseph]

I was able to get homecoming to run decently but i ran into a bug where josh doesnt move on a walkway and I cannot progress unfortunately.

[HostileEnvironment]

Downpour is utter SHITE,

If you hate yourself please play that game.

[DisableBore]

I've yet to try Xenia myself, but I will soon and will update the guide if they are a better alternative. When I wrote the guide it was still rather barren in development.

[Diflin]

also both of those look pretty cool, ill check them out

[Diflin]

ok so i ran Downpour through Xenia and its sorta better, needs some configuration to run the best possibly and im still tweaking it but playing with an xbox controller and its much smoother than RPCS3

[DisableBore]

Downpour is strange. It's ideas to spice up and try a different direction go from interesting but poorly executed, to "terrible concepts that sadly made it into the final game".
I only played it from start to finish like twice years ago and I got halfway in before dropping it while making this guide.

Anyway if you want something to make up for it, go try Signalis or Tormented Souls. Both are good.

[Diflin]

i think i contracted syphilis from playing downpour

[Nescius]

Dude, you saved my hide with the Shattered Memories guide, thanks. I really needed help with the motion control setup.

[DisableBore]

Hello! Assuming you have the latest version, with the updated GUI, simply click on "Start file" and find your .cue file.
Most downloads from different sources nowadays will have a .bin file with data and a .cue which is basically the disc.Select it to boot up the game.

If you cannot find a source to download the game, I'd be happy to supply one for you. Add me.

[codeinvalid]

Bear with me y'all- I am very computer illiterate but I am desperate to try SH1 since SH2 is my favorite game. Once I have Duckstation installed what do I do? How do I find the game / what kind of file am I looking for?