Until Dawn PC Recompilation

Until Dawn (2015) — Native PC Recompilation

The original PlayStation 4 version of Until Dawn is now playable from start to finish on Windows — natively, without console emulation.

This project aims to bring the original Until Dawn (2015) to PC, running natively on Windows with its original x86-64 code and our own custom Vulkan renderer.

Development is ongoing. A full play-through was completed on the development PC with WIP 0.1.3 (later versions have so far been tested in shorter sessions), but the port is not yet a polished or consistently smooth experience.

This is an unofficial fan project and is not affiliated with Sony Interactive Entertainment or Supermassive Games. See the Disclaimer.

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Contents

• Download
• Features
• System requirements
• Installation
• Controls
• Known issues
• Compatibility testing
• Reporting bugs
• How it works
• Modding & technical documentation
• Source code
• Future development
• License
• Disclaimer

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Download

Download the latest release from the Releases page

Current version: v0.2.1 (v0.2.1, work in progress): shaders prepared before the game starts (a progress screen on the first start, from a shader list that comes with the program and your own game files), a renderer hang while textures load fixed, faster shader handling. Download UntilDawn_0.2.1.zip from the release's Assets list (the "Source code" archives hold this repository — documentation and source code — not the program). Release notes: docs/releases/v0.2.1.md · previous: 0.2.0 (collectibles and the arm during item inspection, black mouths, garbled X prompts, freezes from log writes), 0.1.5, 0.1.4, 0.1.3.

The download contains the program, a hardware compatibility tester and documentation, but no game files.

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Features

What is implemented in v0.2.1:

Game

• A complete play-through from the prologue to the end credits has been achieved on the development PC (with WIP 0.1.3).
• Saves work and are kept next to the program in savedata\.
• The pre-order bonus chapter "The Road Not Taken" (UDAWNDLC00000001) works if you have it: an extra section in Chapter 2 and two extra Mystery Man clues.
• Movie skipping: the intro logos, the "Previously on Until Dawn" recaps, the butterfly-effect tutorial, the movie that opens the prologue and the Chapter 1 bus ride can be skipped with the game's own Skip prompt (press any button, then Cross / Enter). On the tutorial and the prologue movie the prompt's text still shows as boxes. Since 0.2.0 a skip also stops the sounds posted since the movie started (meant for music that kept playing; not yet confirmed in play).

Graphics

• Custom Vulkan renderer; the game renders at the PS4's 1920×1080 and is shown in a resizable window.
• Windowed or borderless display modes, configurable window size.
• Choice of graphics card (gpu) and presentation mode (present_mode, since 0.2.0); in auto mode the program switches to a safer mode by itself if frames take very long to reach the screen.
• Configurable frame-rate cap (60 FPS by default). A 60 FPS cap does not mean the game currently runs at 60 FPS consistently.
• The renderer runs on its own thread alongside the game (since 0.1.4; renderer_thread = 0 switches back).
• On-disk shader cache (Cache\), with shaders (graphics and, since 0.1.5, compute) compiled in parallel in the background.
• Shader preparation (new in v0.2.1): before the brightness screen, the shaders the game will need are compiled behind a progress screen (Esc / Circle skips it): on the first start those in pipelines.udm (a list of shader locations and settings, read together with your own game files; no game code is included), later also everything earlier sessions needed.
• Lower memory use (since 0.1.5): the game's many small memory heaps are committed in steps as the game uses them, and the renderer's video-memory copies are sized to your graphics card.

Controllers and input

• DualSense (PS5), DualSense Edge and DualShock 4 (PS4) over USB or Bluetooth, with no extra software: buttons, touch pad (swipes and click) and motion sensors. DualSense and DualShock 4 have both been gameplay-tested. Motion-control drift during some “Don't Move” sequences remains a known issue.
• Xbox-style controllers (XInput, including DS4Windows / Steam virtual pads), with vibration.
• Keyboard and mouse, including mouse aiming.

Usability

• Checks the required game files and executable versions at startup and reports missing or incompatible files.
• Checks your CPU and graphics card at start and explains any missing requirement.
• Settings in a simple Config\settings.ini, recreated with defaults if deleted.
• Session logs in Logs\ (the current session plus the five before it).
• Included hardware compatibility tester (compat\run_compat.bat).

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System requirements

These are the requirements the program checks for. Compatibility reports have now been received from several different PCs (see Tested hardware), but there are still no verified minimum specifications. A passing compatibility test does not guarantee that gameplay is free of bugs.

	Requirement
OS	Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit
CPU	x86-64 with AVX, F16C, BMI1, LZCNT, POPCNT, MOVBE and SSE4.2 — in practice Intel Core 4th generation (Haswell, 2013) or newer, or AMD Ryzen (or Excavator) or newer. Older Pentium/Celeron and pre-Ryzen AMD CPUs cannot run the game's code.
Memory	16 GB recommended. The program warns below 12 GB. Keep Windows' page file on (the default).
GPU	A Vulkan 1.3 driver supporting VK_EXT_external_memory_host and VK_KHR_push_descriptor, plus the features and limits checked at startup. Gameplay has been verified on the development NVIDIA GPU, and WIP 0.1.3 renders the same on an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT; compatibility tests have also been run on additional NVIDIA GPUs. Players have run WIP 0.1.4 on a GTX 1660 Ti and an RTX 5050 Laptop GPU; WIP 0.1.5 and 0.2.0 have so far been played on the development NVIDIA GPU only. Laptops with two GPUs can have problems (see Known issues). Intel graphics are untested.
Disk	About 50 GB for the game files, plus up to about 1 GB for the shader cache.
Game	A decrypted dump of Until Dawn for PS4, CUSA02636, with the 01.03 update applied, made from your own legally obtained copy. Other regions and versions are refused.

Tested hardware

The results are from WIP 0.1.2 and 0.1.3 unless noted. The table distinguishes full gameplay verification from a hardware compatibility test. A compatibility test checks CPU features, Vulkan support and shader behaviour; passing it does not mean that the entire game has been played or that all scenes render correctly.

CPU	GPU used for compatibility test	Driver	OS	Memory	Result
Intel Core i9-12900KF	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti	617.42, 621.01	Windows 11	64 GB	Full play-through; 66/66 compatibility checks passed
Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU	617.42	Windows 11	32 GB	66/66 compatibility checks passed
AMD Ryzen 7 5700G	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti	610.88	Windows 11	24 GB	67/67 compatibility checks passed
AMD Ryzen 5 7500F	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080	617.42	Windows 11	32 GB	67/67 compatibility checks passed
AMD Ryzen 7 5700X	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070	596.49	Windows 11	16 GB	63/63 compatibility checks passed
AMD Ryzen 5 9600X	AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT	26.8.1	Windows 11	32 GB	All compatibility checks passed with WIP 0.1.3; graphical corruption in WIP 0.1.2 fixed in WIP 0.1.3 (confirmed); WIP 0.1.4, 0.1.5 and 0.2.0 not yet tested
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090	617.14	Windows 11	32 GB	67/67 compatibility checks passed
AMD Ryzen (model not reported)	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080	617.42	Windows 11	56 GB	67/67 compatibility checks passed
Intel Core i5-9400F	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti	616.92	Windows 11	16 GB	66/66 compatibility checks passed (WIP 0.1.4); gameplay confirmed, with shader compilation freezes

Gameplay reports with WIP 0.1.4: Intel Core i5-9400F + GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (playable, with occasional crashes from the memory corruption described under Known issues); AMD Ryzen 5 220 + GeForce RTX 5050 Laptop GPU with Radeon 740M integrated graphics (long presents and "device lost" crashes when the integrated GPU drives the screen; WIP 0.2.0 contains a fix for the "device lost" part that has not been tested on that laptop yet — see Known issues).

The Core Ultra 9 system also detected Intel integrated graphics as usable, but the compatibility test ran on the RTX 5070 Laptop GPU, so this does not verify gameplay on Intel graphics. The AMD Radeon graphical corruption reported in WIP 0.1.2 is fixed in WIP 0.1.3 (confirmed on the RX 9070 XT); see Known issues. Reports from additional AMD and Intel systems are especially welcome — see Compatibility testing.

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Installation

1. Download and extract

1. Download UntilDawn_0.2.1.zip from the Releases page.
2. Extract it to a folder you can write to, for example D:\Games\UntilDawn_WIP. Don't use Program Files: the program keeps its settings, logs, shader cache and saves in its own folder.

UntilDawn_0.2.1\
  UntilDawn.exe            <- start the game
  pipelines.udm            <- the shader list for the first start (v0.2.1; keep it next to UntilDawn.exe)
  Config\settings.ini      <- settings
  Game\                    <- put your game files here (or set game_dir)
  compat\                  <- hardware compatibility tester
  README.txt  INSTALLATION.txt  CHANGELOG.txt  Controls.txt  KNOWN_ISSUES.txt  THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.txt

2. Add your game files

You need a decrypted dump of CUSA02636 with the 01.03 update applied on top of the base game, made from your own legally obtained copy of the game. The program uses these parts of it (other files can stay; they are ignored):

eboot.bin
all_programs.prx
sce_sys\param.sfo
localcachepink\lumps\
localcachepink\streams\
Movies\
audio\

The simplest method is to copy your game files into the release's Game folder, so that Game\eboot.bin exists.

To avoid copying the files, you can also point the launcher at your existing game folder: open Config\settings.ini and set game_dir to the folder containing eboot.bin:

game_dir = D:\PS4\CUSA02636

Replace D:\PS4\CUSA02636 with your own game folder. An optional directory-junction setup is documented in docs/INSTALLATION.md.

Optional DLC: if you own "The Road Not Taken", copy its UDAWNDLC00000001 folder from your own copy into the game folder, next to eboot.bin.

3. Start the game

Double-click UntilDawn.exe. At every start it checks your game files (all 7,634 of them, and the version) and your CPU and graphics card, and tells you in plain words if something is missing or wrong.

The program creates Logs\, Cache\, savedata\ (your saves) and temp0\ itself when it runs.

Settings (frame-rate limit, windowed / borderless, window size, renderer thread, GPU choice, presentation mode) and troubleshooting: docs/INSTALLATION.md.

Updating from 0.2.0: copy the new UntilDawn.exe, the new pipelines.udm, compat\ud_compat.exe and the text files over your old folder, but do not overwrite Config\settings.ini, savedata\ or Game\. Saves, settings and Cache\ carry over; the new setting shader_preparation uses its default (on) when it is not in your file. The first start shows a "Preparing shaders" screen while the shaders are compiled (Esc or Circle skips it).

Updating from 0.1.5 (or earlier): copy the new UntilDawn.exe, compat\ud_compat.exe and the text files over your old folder, but do not overwrite Config\settings.ini, savedata\ or Game\. Saves and settings carry over; the new settings (gpu, present_mode, heap_slot_mb, heap_slot_reuse) use their defaults when they are not in your file. Every shader is translated anew in 0.2.0, so the old Cache\ no longer matches (you can delete it) and the first-play-through shader pauses return once.

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Controls

Controllers, keyboard and mouse all work at the same time. Full list: docs/CONTROLS.md.

PS4 button	Keyboard / mouse	Xbox controller
Left stick	W A S D	Left stick
Right stick (camera)	I J K L, or the mouse with mouse aiming on (M)	Right stick
Cross	Enter or Space	A
Circle	Esc or Backspace	B
Square	Q	X
Triangle	E	Y
L1 / R1	1 / 3	LB / RB
L2 / R2	Z / C (right / left mouse button with mouse aiming on)	LT / RT
D-pad	Arrow keys	D-pad
Options	Tab	Menu
Touch pad click	T	View
Touch pad swipes	F (left), G (right), R (up), V (down)	— (use the keyboard)

DualSense and DualShock 4 controllers work like on the PS4, including the touch pad and the "Don't move" motion moments.

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Known issues

The most important ones — full list in docs/KNOWN_ISSUES.md:

• Occasional crashes — not fixed yet. Now and then the lowest byte of a pointer in the game's memory is set to zero, and the game crashes later when it follows that pointer. It happens on the development PC and on players' PCs with every version so far, including in testing of 0.2.0; WIP 0.2.0 does not fix it. The writer has now been caught: it is the game's own code finishing an object whose memory overlaps another object still in use (two of the game's allocations overlap). Saves are kept. Fixing it is the top stability priority.
• Characters occasionally deform ("explode") for a frame or two (most likely the same problem).
• Laptops with two GPUs (an NVIDIA GPU plus integrated graphics that drive the screen): very slow frame presentation, "device lost" crashes and flickering UI in some menus were reported with 0.1.4 (issue #2). WIP 0.2.0 contains a fix for the program's part of the "device lost" hang and can switch to a safer presentation mode by itself, but it has not been tested on such a laptop yet. Also try Windows' Graphics settings → UntilDawn.exe → "High performance", or the laptop's discrete-GPU (MUX) mode.
• Graphical bugs: flickering spots on the R2 choice cards, flickering subtitles, a see-through strip in the black bar of the character introductions for a few frames, a slight lighting effect on Chris's glasses (not yet checked), the main-menu character animating too fast, light squares on Emily's eyes and dark squares on a wall in the prologue, totem visions that lose their background or UI, a red flash in the Episodes menu, smeared text at the start of the end credits, and the Skip prompt's "Skip" text as white boxes on the butterfly tutorial, the prologue's opening movie and later recap clips.
• Shader-compilation pauses the first time new content appears (see the note under Installation): on a new install up to about 12 seconds even on the development PC, longer on CPUs with few cores; once per content.
• Frame-rate drops: the frame rate still varies by scene, and is similar to 0.1.5. On the development PC (RTX 3090 Ti) light scenes often reach 60 FPS, busy scenes run at about 30–45 FPS, and the heaviest scenes (the "stranger" shots in the prologue) at about 22–29 FPS, lower during shader-compilation pauses. The default 60 FPS cap is a limit, not a guaranteed frame rate.
• WIP 0.2.0's changes have only been played on the development PC (NVIDIA). If 0.2.0 crashes or stutters where 0.1.5 did not, please report it. renderer_thread = 0 in Config\settings.ini (the renderer on the game's thread) is still available for freezes and stutters; it does not prevent the memory-corruption crashes.
• No vibration or light bar on DualSense / DualShock 4 yet (Xbox controllers vibrate). Keys cannot be remapped yet.
• Fixed in WIP 0.2.0: the character's arm and the picked-up clue or totem vanishing during item inspection (issue #3) and, by the same fix, Mike's lantern arm coming apart in Chapter 5; black mouths in Chapter 2 and later after the prologue; striped / garbled X button prompts; a white flash on the character introduction cards; freezes of a second or more caused by log writes; a random crash at start-up. Changed in WIP 0.2.0, not yet confirmed in play: game data loaded after about 25–30 minutes invisible to the GPU; the aiming reticle shown as a red square; music that kept playing after a skipped movie; the "device lost" hang on laptops with two GPUs.
• Improved in WIP 0.1.5: memory use (about 8.2 GB in RAM instead of 12.7 GB on the development PC's test route). Fixed in WIP 0.1.4: hair that looked hazy or see-through.
• Fixed in WIP 0.1.3 (still fixed): the false "missing files" message w