reSOT

reSOT

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, recompiled from Xbox to native Windows and Android.

Current version: v0.3.0. reSOT is an advanced, playable recompilation and port of the original Xbox retail game and E3 2003 demo. Both games now run well on Windows and Android in the configurations tested by the user, with working gameplay, menus, movies, audio and controller support. The project has progressed beyond initial boot and rendering bring-up into gameplay, performance improvements and platform polish.

Windows has separate native executables for demo and retail. Android has one native arm64 app for both, with Vulkan rendering, a game installer and touch controls. This is static recompilation: the original game's code runs as native code against reSOT's replacement for the Xbox hardware and services.

You need your own game files. reSOT does not include the game, extracted assets or Xbox executables. The generated C is published with the project; it remains derived from the original game and is not covered by reSOT's MIT licence.

Playable targets

Target	Supported Xbox executable	Current state
xbox-demo	E3 2003 demo, built 2003-07-18	🟢 Playable on Windows and Android. Menus, movies, audio, controls and level gameplay are running. Windows play has reached the third level; the demo also has its restored Load Map menu.
xbox-retail	NTSC retail, title 0x5553001D, built 2003-10-20	🟢 Playable on Windows and Android. Substantial gameplay has been reported, with corrected game timing, audio, rendering and HUD alignment. The v0.3.0 Windows menu-music restoration is confirmed by the user.

The user reports that the game now runs well on both platforms. Performance still depends on the device, renderer, scene and graphics settings. This is an advanced playable port, with full-game completion, remaining graphical edge cases and some recent platform features still under validation.

Windows retail captures from the first areas, 2026-10-17, using scripted controller input at 16:9 Hor+. The F5 panel was covered with black in the two letterboxed cutscene frames. These are gameplay examples, not a full-game test.

Windows demo captures from a scripted 185-second run, 2026-10-14, at 16:9 Hor+.

What's included in v0.3.0

• Retail music restoration. Restores the original synchronous streaming completion path. Music is audible again in the Windows retail main menu, confirmed by the user. Gameplay music and Android listening after this particular fix still need separate confirmation.
• Persistent demo menu additions. Load Map and reSOT Options are rebuilt whenever the demo recreates its main menu, fixing their disappearance after a menu rebuild or return from gameplay.
• Cleaner retail menus. Xbox Live is hidden in both the main menu and the pause Options page. Xbox Live itself is not implemented.
• Mouse and touch menus. Point at native menu rows and left-click to select; right-click goes back. On Android, tap a row to select and swipe right or use Android Back to go back. Keyboard and controller remain available.
• Automatic Android control visibility. The touch pad hides in menus, Bink movies and camera scenes with cinematic bars, then restores the player's visibility preference in gameplay. The FPS button remains available when the pad is hidden; it becomes invisible while its panel is open, with the same touch area available to close the panel. The overlay toggle fades to invisible but keeps its touch area active, allowing the full pad to be reopened in menus and cutscenes. With the pad hidden, styled Back and Confirm buttons appear at the bottom corners. Tapping a Bink movie or pressing Confirm skips it.
• Vulkan performance work. Dedicated shader translation and caching, material descriptor caching, exact input-geometry reuse, batched command payloads and texture-upload improvements reduce repeated work on both hosts. The user confirms a substantial improvement with the geometry-cache build.
• Rendering and HUD corrections. Includes the retail fountain-return correction and ultrawide sand-tank alignment, plus newer RGB565 alpha and shadow-projection corrections. The latter still need visual confirmation.
• Android audio and power handling. Bounds stale audio queues after stalls, permits bounded audio catch-up, and adjusts display refresh and temporary thermal frame budgets without overwriting the user's settings.
• Updated controls and diagnostics. Refined Android touch pictograms and HUD clearance, repaired log-source selection, and retained the shared graphics, input and diagnostic options.

Both Windows targets and the Android release APK build as 0.3.0; Android uses versionCode 5. Shader compilation, pointer, audio and GPU regressions passed in the recorded release checks. The latest APK's new touch-menu and overlay transitions have not yet been tested on a connected device. See VALIDATION.md for commands and observations.

Features and current status

🟢 Working in recorded runs or confirmed by the user. 🟡 Implemented with remaining checks or known limitations. ⚪ Not validated or not implemented. Green describes the listed feature and tested scope; it does not certify every level, device or exact console accuracy.

Feature	Xbox demo	Xbox retail
Static recompilation and native builds	🟢 Windows and Android	🟢 Windows and Android
Boot, title screen and main menu	🟢	🟢
In-level gameplay and rendering	🟢 Played through multiple demo levels; remaining visual edge cases tracked	🟢 Substantial gameplay reported; remaining scene-specific issues tracked
Windows play	🟢 Keyboard/mouse or controller; high frame rates reported	🟢 Corrected timing; high frame rates reported
Android play with native Vulkan	🟢 Runs well in user-tested configurations	🟢 Runs well in user-tested configurations; caching improvements confirmed
Bink movies and video skipping	🟢 Audio/video confirmed	🟢 Audio/video confirmed
Game audio and effects	🟢 Audio and earlier stutter/crash fixes confirmed	🟢 Audio and earlier movie-return fix confirmed; Windows menu music restored in v0.3.0
Keyboard and physical controllers	🟢	🟢
Android gameplay touch controls	🟢 Custom layout, vibration and approved visual design	🟢 Same shared controls
Native menu navigation and pause	🟢 Includes Load Map and reSOT Options	🟢 Includes reSOT Options; Xbox Live entries hidden
Mouse/touch selection of menu rows	🟡 Shared bridge and synthetic tests pass; broader interaction checks pending	🟡 Shared bridge and synthetic tests pass; Android device checks pending
Automatic Android overlay hiding	🟡 Implemented for menus, Bink and letterboxed camera scenes; device checks pending	🟡 Same shared implementation and validation limit
Native Vulkan renderer	🟢 Windows and Android runs; shader/GPU comparisons pass	🟢 Windows and Android runs; gameplay and GPU comparisons recorded
Native Direct3D 11 renderer	🟢 Windows default	🟢 Windows default
Native Direct3D 12 renderer	🟡 Optional Windows backend; startup and GPU tests pass	🟡 Optional Windows backend; broader gameplay checks pending
Widescreen Hor+ and HUD layout	🟢 Widened view with preserved HUD proportions; artwork edges remain limited	🟢 Widened view; ultrawide sand-tank alignment confirmed; some dialog layout limits remain
Graphics options and effect-quality selector	🟢 Shared options; selector confirmed by the user	🟢 Shared options; broader effect accuracy remains under study
Vulkan shader/material/geometry caches	🟢 Shared optimizations and regression checks	🟢 Gameplay geometry reuse observed; user reports improved performance
Launcher, game-folder selection and ISO installation	🟢 Available on both hosts; demo ISO installation used by the user	🟢 Available on both hosts; separate retail game detection
FPS panel, diagnostics and input rebinding	🟢	🟢
Save/load and memory units	🟡 Save crash resolved; complete persistence checks pending	🟡 Save crash resolved; Android save/relaunch/load checks pending
Shadows, stencil and remaining effects	🟡 Projected shadows implemented; some effects and scene defects remain	🟡 Rendering corrections included; shadow appearance and stencil remain incomplete
Full-game completion and console comparison	⚪ Not yet established	⚪ Not yet established

The current focus is longer playthroughs, remaining scene-specific crashes and visual defects, save/load persistence, and validation of the newest Android menu/overlay behavior. Older reports and performance experiments are kept in the validation log rather than used as the current player-facing status.

Playing on Windows and Android

Platform	Renderer and package	Instructions
Windows 10/11 x64	Separate demo/retail EXEs. Direct3D 11 by default; native Vulkan and Direct3D 12 selectable, with restart.	Windows guide
Android 10+ arm64	One APK, com.fulger.resot, for both targets. Native Vulkan through SDL GPU.	Android guide

Windows: open the target's EXE to use the launcher, select your game folder or install your ISO. Demo and retail use separate game folders. The locally built EXE embeds its checked Xbox image; a separate default.xbe is not needed beside that EXE to play. Space or controller A skips videos. F5 toggles the FPS/current-world panel, F6 the diagnostics panel, F7 the host options, and F11 fullscreen. Graphics and controls are also available through the native reSOT Options menu.

Android: install the APK and use the launcher to install your own ISO. The app keeps demo and retail under Android/data/com.fulger.resot/files/xbox-demo and xbox-retail and reads default.xbe from the selected game folder. Use the touch controls or a physical controller. The overlay supports layout editing, vibration and manual visibility control. Compatible Adreno devices can also select a user-supplied custom Vulkan driver from the launcher; no custom driver is bundled.

Both hosts save preferences in resot-options.ini. Current bundled defaults are unlimited FPS, VSync/glow/logs off, post-processing Low and 200% look sensitivity. Windows defaults to D3D11 at 720p (150%); Android defaults to Vulkan at 480p (100%). Existing preferences survive upgrades. Resolution, frame limit, VSync and effect quality can be adjusted for the device.

Build from your own Xbox files

Copy the contents of your discs into these ignored folders:

Assets/
  xbox-demo/     default.xbe  prince.bf  video/  sound/
  xbox-retail/   default.xbe  prince.bf  shaders.bin  VIDEO/  SOUND/  MEDIA/  POP1/  POP2/

Only the checked executable revisions below are supported. Demo and retail have different addresses, hooks and seed lists; the build verifies SHA-256.

xbox-demo    79C1A47828630AB0D4E5DD19B1FD036FFA58EA2C0FE729B0D3456DAC3E79D4F5
xbox-retail  753C58B191279BF4D1A8B28A936DF36AA222ED566487AB1FBDFCD090E91EE379

Windows builds use Visual Studio's C++ tools, CMake and Python with Capstone. Android adds the SDK, NDK and Gradle. See the platform guides for pinned versions and dependency setup.

.\tools\recomp.ps1 -Target xbox-demo
.\tools\recomp.ps1 -Target xbox-retail
.\tools\run.ps1 -Target xbox-demo
.\tools\run.ps1 -Target xbox-retail

# Rebuild existing lifted sources after host/runtime changes:
python tools/check-hlsl.py
.\tools\recomp.ps1 -Target xbox-demo -BuildOnly
.\tools\recomp.ps1 -Target xbox-retail -BuildOnly

# One Android APK containing both targets:
.\tools\build-android.ps1

Windows outputs are bin/sot-xbox-demo.exe and bin/sot-xbox-retail.exe; Android outputs bin/reSOT-android.apk. Outputs and game data stay local and ignored. Use tools/shortcut.ps1 for a Windows desktop shortcut.

How it works

Your default.xbe -> analyse and lift x86 to C -> native compiler
                                                   |
                 original game + linked Xbox libraries
                                                   |
                    reSOT platform and Xbox runtime
                  /                                \
     Windows: D3D11 / Vulkan / D3D12        Android: Vulkan

The original BigFile loader, Jade engine, compiled AI, Bink decoder and Xbox Direct3D code remain in the lifted program. reSOT replaces kernel services, memory, threads, input, audio and video, and translates the NV2A pushbuffer to host GPU rendering. Both targets share a runtime, with independently verified target-specific behavior selected at build time.

The generated C lives in source/<target>/gen/, sorted by kind of code and published alongside the executable descriptions, host layers and tools. It is regenerated from the user's own checked XBE and is never edited by hand.

Source layout and documentation

Path	Contents
source/xbox-demo/, source/xbox-retail/	Target facts, seed lists, entry hooks and generated C
port/windows/	Windows host, launcher, options, diagnostics and resources
port/android/	Android native host, Gradle app, launcher, installer and touch controls
port/game/	Shared manual overrides and mouse/touch menu bridge
port/render/	Native shader compiler and cache support
port/third_party/xboxrecomp/	Vendored recompiler and shared Xbox runtime; local changes marked RE-SoT
port/third_party/extract-xiso/	ISO extraction used by the launchers
tools/	Build, run, setup, analysis and regression tools
docs/	Validation, technical studies, licensing and screenshots
Assets/, research/, bin/, build*/, logs/	Private game files, analysis or local outputs; ignored

• Validation and observed results
• v0.3.0 release notes
• Recompilation pipeline and target evidence
• Windows/Android parity
• Vulkan performance and rendering studies
• Post-processing and remaining effect work
• Regression tests
• Licensing and provenance

Contributing and licence

Read AGENTS.md first. Keep demo and retail evidence separate; do not commit game files, Xbox images, extracted assets or local executables. Publish generated C with the project, regenerate it through the tools, and record tested behavior and remaining limits in the validation log.

reSOT's own files are MIT. The vendored runtime includes MIT and LGPL-2.1-or-later components; extract-xiso carries its own BSD-style licence. The game, its assets and the generated game/XDK code belong to their owners and are not covered by reSOT's MIT licence. Locally built executables embed the user's checked Xbox image and are for the owner of the original game. See LICENSE and LICENSING.md.

Prince of Persia is a trademark of Ubisoft. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Ubisoft or Microsoft.