MHGU Recomp

Name: MHGU Recomp
Author: morerokk

MHGURecomp is a native PC port of Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate for Windows and Linux that supports higher resolutions and frame rates.

Type: PC port
Game: Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
Runs on Windows and Linux
By morerokk
Latest release 0.9.11, 2026-10-25
Source: https://github.com/morerokk/MHGURecomp

README

MHGU Recomp

A native PC port of Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (Nintendo Switch, version 1.4.0), made by statically recompiling the game's 32-bit ARM code to C and running it on a host runtime: Switch system services and the NVN graphics API are reimplemented on Windows, with Vulkan for rendering.

No game files are included. You need your own copy of the game, dumped from your own Switch. This project does not explain how to dump it and does not provide game files, keys or links to them.

Status: fully playable, but there may be some bugs. I've played a dozen hunts with no remaining issues. Multiplayer also works.

What it adds over the Switch version

Graphics settings (resolution, MSAA, FXAA, Supersampling, VSync)
Any screen shape from 16:10 to ultrawide (21:9, 32:9 and wider), with the HUD unstretched: centered or spread to the screen's sides
Frame rate cap anywhere between 30-240 fps
Supports almost every controller under the sun
Experimental KB+M controls
Optional: small monsters are properly synced between players in multiplayer
Optional: monster HP scaling by playercount
Fast-forward unskippable cutscenes by pressing A
Optional: village quests are playable in multiplayer (press L/R at the quest counter), with appropriately re-scaled monster HP
Mod support. The vast majority of mods work by dropping them into the mods folder, including Forge mods. (see Mods)
Cheat codes in the same format as Ryujinx and Atmosphère, in the cheats folder (see Cheats)

Requirements

OS: Windows 10/11 64-bit, or Linux
CPU: Any CPU from 2014 or newer (needs AVX2 support)
GPU: Any GPU from 2016 or newer (needs Vulkan 1.2 support), and at least 1GB of VRAM
The game files for Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, version 1.4.0. You can extract these from your Switch or Ryujinx with patches pre-applied.
- (Title ID 0100770008DD8000, the main executable's build ID starts with FB08F1D20FD1204F)

Installation

Download the latest prebuilt release from the Releases page. Make sure you download the right ZIP file for your desired platform.

You need the exefs and romfs folders from Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate 1.4.0. If you are coming from Ryujinx, you can right-click the game (make sure the 1.4.0 title update is applied), and Extract the game files with the patches pre-applied.

Extract the release zip anywhere, for example C:\Games\MHGURecomp\.

Put the game's exefs and romfs folders in the data subfolder. It should look like this:

MHGURecomp\
  mhgurecomp.exe
  mhgugame.dll
  (other .dll files)
  data\
    exefs\
      main
      main.npdm
      rtld
      sdk
      subsdk0
    romfs\
      nativeNX\
      (the rest of the game's romfs)

exefs must come from the 1.4.0 update, and romfs must be the base game's romfs with the update's files merged over it.

Start mhgurecomp.exe.

If the files are missing or the wrong version, a message box says so.

Where things are

What	Where
Settings	`mhgurecomp.ini` next to the exe (written with the defaults on first start; delete it to reset)
Save data	`%APPDATA%\MHGURecomp\save\` (kept apart from the game folder so updating the port can't touch it)
Log	`log.txt` next to the exe (look here first when something goes wrong)
Screenshots	`shots\` next to the exe (F12)
Mods	`mods\` next to the exe: one folder per mod (see below)
Cheats	`cheats\` next to the exe: `.txt` files with cheat codes (see below)
Shader cache	`cache\` next to the exe (safe to delete; the first minutes after that may stutter)

To move an existing Switch save over, put its system and system_backup files in %APPDATA%\MHGURecomp\save\save_0\.

Controls

Almost every controller under the sun should work, as long as it has SDL support. If you really want to swap the face buttons on non-Nintendo controllers, open the .ini file and set FaceButtons = Label.

Keyboard and mouse support (not recommended):

Key	Switch button
W A S D	left stick (hold Left Shift to walk)
Mouse	right stick (camera)
Left click / Right click	X / A
Space / R	B / Y
Q / E	L / R
Tab / T	ZL / ZR
Enter / Backspace	Plus / Minus
Arrow keys	d-pad
Ctrl / Alt	left / right stick click

Click in the game window to capture the mouse for the camera; Escape lets it go (so does switching to another window). MouseSensitivity in the ini's [Mouse] section sets its speed; the game's own camera options (speed, inverted axes) apply to it too.

When the game asks for text (names, chat), the keyboard types: Enter confirms, Escape cancels, Ctrl+V pastes.

Other keys: Alt+Enter switches between windowed and full screen, F12 takes a screenshot, F7 cycles MSAA.

Settings

Everything is in mhgurecomp.ini; each setting is explained in the file itself. In short:

[Display]: Mode (Borderless / Fullscreen / Windowed), Resolution, RenderResolution (the 3D resolution), AspectRatio (Auto follows the window: 16:10 and anything wider fill it, narrower gets 16:10 with bars), FOV (1.0 = the game's), UIAnchor (Center keeps the HUD in the middle 16:9 on an ultrawide screen, Edges spreads it to the sides)
[Anti-aliasing]: MSAA (Off / 2x / 4x / 8x), FXAA (On / Off)
[Performance]: FPS (30 to 240), VSync (On / Off; above your monitor's refresh rate, turn VSync off)
[Controls]: FaceButtons (Position / Label), BackgroundInput (On / Off: the controller keeps working while the game's window is in the background, such as with a wiki in front of it; default On)
[Mouse]: MouseSensitivity (1 = default, 0.1 to 10)
[Multiplayer]: Port, Join (addresses of hosts outside your LAN), SyncSmallMonsters
[Monster HP]: HP factors for 1 to 4 hunters in Hub quests, and per-quest exceptions (default: all 1, the original game)
[Village Quests]: VillageQuestsInHub (default On), HubHP (default 2.0: Village quests posted in the Hub multiply their monsters' HP by this first, then by the [Monster HP] factor)
[Bonus Content]: BonusContent (default On), see below

Multiplayer

Over LAN or a VLAN, this should work out of the box.

Over the internet, the host needs to forward the right port (39500 TCP/UDP by default), the client needs to configure the host's IP address in their .ini file. (Join = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)

Choose the "Local Wireless" multiplayer options, as this port pretends to be a local nearby Switch with a wireless connection. The online options are unavailable and are unnecessary.

Bonus content

By default, the bonus subfolder in releases contains a savegame with all the free online content (event quests, item packs, palicoes), which will be copied into your savegame when the game starts the 2nd time.

If you don't want this, set BonusContent = Off or don't provide a savegame in the bonus subfolder. You can also provide your own savegame instead if you want. Note that this port will not attempt to copy bonus content if such bonus content already exists.

Mods

To install a mod, put the mod folder in mods\. Remove the folder to uninstall said mod. Mods are layered over the game at startup.

romfs mods (files that replace or add game data) are found inside the mod's folder, including the atmosphere\contents\0100770008DD8000\romfs layout.
exefs patches (.pchtxt, .ips) are applied when they change data. Patches to game code can't be applied, because the code is precompiled; the log lists them.
Forge plugins (.nro in romfs\nativeNX\plugins\) are loaded. Forge's menu with the plugins' settings opens with Insert (or the key in Forge's own config.ini, if a mod includes Forge's files); use the mouse, keyboard or controller in it. While it is open the game gets no controller input. Window positions are kept in forge_imgui.ini.
You do not need any resolution, FPS cap or connection fix mods. These features are included with this port.

If you are newer to the game, I very strongly recommend the Key Quest Markers mod by PurplefinNeptuna. This marks out the Village and Hub quests you need to complete for the next tier directly in the quest menu, which means you no longer need a wiki to play the damn game.

Cheats

Put .txt files with cheat codes in cheats\. Every cheat in them is on from the start. Codes made for Ryujinx or a modded Switch work as they are, as long as they are for version 1.4.0. A file can hold any number of cheats, each starting with its name in square brackets:

[Skill points x2]
04000000 000DFAB4 E1A00080

To turn off a file without deleting it, start its name with _.
Cheats that change the game's code also work: the port runs each changed function in an interpreter. That function runs slower, which only matters for functions the game calls very often.
log.txt lists the cheats it loaded, and any it couldn't read.
extras\cheats\ in the source has two cheats that double the skill points from armor, weapon and talisman decorations, and talismans (with Double Talisman, talisman points go x4). Skill points x2 doubles negative points too; Skill points x2 (positive only) leaves them as they are. Use only one of the two.
Valor Sheathe original damage reduction sets the damage you take in a Valor Sheathe evade back to the game's own values (70% less for Blademasters, 85% for Gunners), for mods that change it, such as GU Rebalanced (50% / 65%). The rest of the mod stays as it is. To pick other values, see docs/research/valor-sheathe.md.

Building from source

The build recompiles the game code from your own copy of the game. Nothing in this repository contains game code or data, and the build never uploads anything.

1. Tools (Windows)

Install MSYS2 to C:\msys64.

In the MSYS2 UCRT64 shell, install the compiler and libraries:

pacman -S --needed make git \
  mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-clang mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-lld mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-pkgconf \
  mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-sdl3 mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-ffmpeg mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-shaderc \
  mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-vulkan-headers mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-vulkan-loader \
  mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-vulkan-memory-allocator

Install Python 3.10 or newer for Windows. Then, in a Command Prompt in the repository folder, make the tools' virtual environment (the Makefile uses tools\venv when it exists):
```
py -3 -m venv tools\venv
tools\venv\Scripts\pip install -r tools\requirements.txt
```

2. Recompile and build

From the UCRT64 shell, in the repository folder, with your game files in a folder holding exefs\ and romfs\ (as under "Installing a release"):

make gen GAME=/c/path/to/game      # translate the game code to C in generated/ (~300 MB)
make -j4 GAME=/c/path/to/game      # compile everything into build/

The first full build takes a while (about 8 minutes on a 4-core Haswell with -j4; more cores: higher -j). Later builds only recompile what changed.

make turns build\ into a ready-to-run game folder, and puts nothing else there (the compiler's own files go to obj\):

mhgurecomp.exe, the runtime;
mhgugame.dll, the recompiled game code;
the MSYS2 DLLs they need;
data\exefs and data\romfs, hard links to your game files, so they take no extra disk space.

To play from another folder, copy the contents of build\ there; to update that folder, copy them over it (data\ can be skipped when it is already there). The build never contains settings, caches, mods or logs, so your mhgurecomp.ini and the rest stay as they are. Or start run-game.bat: it runs build\mhgurecomp.exe with the settings, caches, mods\ and log.txt in run\ (MHGU_HOME), keeping build\ clean. Starting build\mhgurecomp.exe directly also works, but then it writes those into build\.

Useful targets and options:

make test-lift: checks the recompiler against the Unicorn CPU emulator on thousands of the game's instructions.
make clean: removes the compiled files (obj\ and the program files in build\). It keeps build\data.
GENARCH=-march=x86-64-v2: compiles the game code without AVX2, for older CPUs. Untested.

Making a release

A release is the contents of build\ without the game files:

Include mhgurecomp.exe, mhgugame.dll and all other .dll files.
Leave out data\.

The exe creates the mods and cheats folders and the ini on first start. Players then add their own data\ as described above.

Linux

The Windows build runs under Proton / Wine. A native Linux build is supported as well: the Makefile picks runtime/platform/linux.c when uname -s isn't Windows and everything else is shared. Tested on Gentoo x86_64 with clang under Wayland (NVIDIA). Besides make, git, clang, lld and Python 3.10 or newer it needs:

SDL3, the Vulkan loader and headers, shaderc and ffmpeg's avformat / avcodec / avutil — the same libraries the MSYS2 list above installs, under your distro's names;
vk_mem_alloc.h (3.4.0) in third_party/vk_mem_alloc/, which the Makefile has on the include path (a distro package that installs the header where the compiler looks by default works just as well);
zenity or kdialog for the dialog on a fatal error. Without either, the message goes to the terminal and to log.txt as usual.

python3 -m venv tools/venv && tools/venv/bin/pip install -r tools/requirements.txt
make gen GAME=../mhgu/game       # as above: the folder holding exefs/ and romfs/
make -j8 GAME=../mhgu/game
cd build && ./mhgurecomp

build/ becomes the game folder exactly as on Windows: mhgurecomp, mhgugame.so with the recompiled game code and data/ as hard links to your game files, nothing else; the ini, caches and mods/ are written beside them when it runs (MHGU_HOME=<folder> puts those there instead). Saves go to $XDG_DATA_HOME/MHGURecomp/save, default ~/.local/share/MHGURecomp/save — the folder the Windows build keeps them in under %APPDATA%, same layout, so moving a save across is copying save_0.

From Windows, the Linux build can be made in WSL with Arch Linux (wsl --install -d archlinux), straight from the Windows checkout, into its own folders so the Windows build is left alone:

pacman -S --needed make git clang lld python sdl3 vulkan-headers vulkan-icd-loader shaderc ffmpeg vulkan-swrast
mkdir -p /usr/local/include/vma && cp /mnt/c/msys64/ucrt64/include/vma/vk_mem_alloc.h /usr/local/include/vma/
make -j16 B=build-linux O=obj-linux     # in the repository, under /mnt/c/...

Arch has no package for vk_mem_alloc.h; MSYS2's (3.4.0) is the one the Windows build uses. build-linux/data can hold links to the game files (ln -s /mnt/c/.../exefs build-linux/data/exefs, same for romfs, then touch build-linux/data/.complete) instead of a second copy. It also runs there, in a WSLg window, slowly: WSL's own Vulkan driver (dzn, Vulkan on Direct3D 12) can't create the renderer's pipeline layouts, so use Mesa's software one with VK_DRIVER_FILES=/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/lvp_icd.json. WSLg can't capture the mouse (clicks still work as buttons), and screenshots come out black there.

Repository layout

Folder	What's in it
`tools/`	the recompiler: `lifter.py` (ARM to C), `neon.py` (NEON / VFP), `gen.py` (whole modules), `nso.py`, test and research tools
`runtime/`	the host side: CPU state, kernel and threads, Switch services (`services/`, `hle/`), networking (`net/`), the NVN graphics API on Vulkan (`nvn/`), settings, input, mods
`docs/`	`STATUS.md`: progress, design notes, reverse-engineering findings, debug options
`extras/`	`cheats/`: cheat files players can copy into their `cheats` folder

License

MHGU Recomp's own code is under the MIT License (LICENSE). It builds on code from LAS Recomp and Forge, and bundles cimgui and Dear ImGui, all under the MIT License too: see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES. The license does not cover the game or its code, including the recompiled game code a build produces (mhgugame.dll / mhgugame.so).

Legal

This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Capcom or Nintendo. Monster Hunter is a trademark of Capcom. The repository contains no game code, data or keys; the build reads them from a copy you provide. Please support the developers by owning the game.