WWE All Stars Recomp

An unofficial Windows version of WWE All Stars (Xbox 360, 2011). The game's PowerPC code is translated ahead of time to native x86-64 with ReXGlue, and a native Vulkan renderer draws the game's own Direct3D 9 calls. It is not an emulator you load a disc into: the game runs as a normal Windows program, and the launcher copies the game files from your disc image once.

This repository and its releases contain no game files. You need your own Xbox 360 disc image of WWE All Stars (USA/Europe) and its Title Update 2, both dumped from your own console. DLC is optional and comes from your console too. The launcher checks every file and refuses anything else.

Download the latest release · What works · Install · FAQ · Build from source

_{The full match on YouTube, Chris Jericho vs CM Punk, recorded on Windows 11 with an RX 7900 XT}

What works

The game runs at its original 60 frames per second, on the Steam Deck too. Anything not listed above may still crash; an issue with the session log attached helps fix it.

What the PC version adds

A native renderer

The Native renderer intercepts the game's Direct3D 9 calls and draws them with Vulkan, instead of emulating the Xbox 360 GPU. It is the default. The emulated renderer from ReXGlue stays available as Emulated, as a fallback and as a reference.

Native adds image options the console never had:

Shaders built before you play

Setup converts the game's shaders once, then builds every pipeline the game is known to use before the first match, on all CPU cores. On GPUs with graphics pipeline libraries, a pipeline that wasn't built ahead is linked from prebuilt parts instead of compiled on the spot. The game paces itself at an even 60 Hz, and with Lock to display on it times its frames to your display when the refresh rate is a multiple of 60.

Settings inside the game

Press F4, or click both sticks, to open the PC SETTINGS page over the game. It is also a row in the game's own OPTIONS menu. Display mode, VSync, sharpening, texture filtering, sound and vibration change at once; the rest apply at the next start. The launcher and the game share one settings file.

Enhanced vibration

The Xbox 360 game rumbles only for aerial hits. Enhanced vibration, the default, gives every hit a pulse sized by the kind of move, plus finishers landing on you, slams to the mat, your own hits connecting, reversals and critical health. Original keeps the console's behaviour, and a strength setting scales both.

60 fps entrances

On the console, wrestler entrances and the arena intro run at 30 fps. The PC version plays them at 60, crowd included. On by default; the GRAPHICS tab turns it off.

Unlock everything

An option on the GAMEPLAY tab opens every wrestler, arena, attire, Create a Superstar move, entrance and Fantasy Warfare match at once. Your save is never changed by it: what you really earn while it is on is still saved, and turning it off (then restarting) brings back your own progress.

Online Player Match (experimental)

The game's own Xbox LIVE menus work again against a game server that stands in for Xbox Live and THQ's servers. Player Match is the mode that works today. Turn it on in the launcher, pick a player name, and choose Xbox LIVE > Player Match in the game. Matches connect directly when they can and go through the server's relay when they can't, so nobody has to open ports. You see the matches of players on the same release. The server keeps your player name, an ID made for your install and your addresses, in memory only. It is in server/, and anyone can run one and point the launcher at it.

DLC and Title Update 2

The port is built on Title Update 2, the game's last update, because the DLC wrestlers need it. Add the DLC packs you bought on the launcher's DLC page; each pack is checked block by block before it is installed.

A launcher that sets everything up

The launcher verifies your disc image and update, copies the game files, prepares shaders and pipelines. It also repairs a damaged install, opens the newest log for a bug report, makes desktop and Start menu shortcuts, picks the GPU, and tells you when a new release is out (it only checks, it never downloads).

Also: Alt+Enter switches between window and fullscreen, and F12 saves a screenshot next to the session log.

Play it

You need:

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit (tested on Windows 11)
• A graphics card with Vulkan support and an up-to-date driver
• About 8 GB of free disk space
• Your own WWE All Stars disc image (.iso), the USA/Europe Xbox 360 release
• Title Update 2 for it, dumped from your own console
• Optional: DLC packs you bought, dumped from your own console
• A controller is recommended

Steps:

1. Download the latest WWEAllStarsRecomp-<version>-<commit>-win-x64.zip from Releases.
2. Extract the whole zip to a normal folder, for example C:\Games\WWEAllStars. Don't run it from inside the zip, and avoid Program Files.
3. Open WWEAllStarsLauncher.exe. If Windows SmartScreen says "Windows protected your PC", choose More info, then Run anyway. The launcher isn't code-signed, so this happens once.
4. Choose your .iso (or drop it on the window), then Title Update 2, and optionally DLC. Setup copies and verifies everything and prepares the shaders. It takes a few minutes and happens once. Your files are only read, never changed.
5. Choose Play.

Where Title Update 2 is: on your console's drive or USB stick, the file tu00000005_00000000 in Content\0000000000000000\54510866\000B0000, or a file whose name starts with TU_ in the console's Cache folder. The launcher also takes a folder with it inside (a whole USB Content folder works) or a zip, 7z or rar.

Updating: your saves are in userdata. Copy that folder into the new version's folder.

If something is off

FAQ

Is this an emulator? No. The game's code was translated to x86-64 ahead of time and runs as a Windows program. ReXGlue provides what the Xbox 360 would (the kernel, audio, input), and the Native renderer replaces the GPU emulation. The Emulated renderer is still there as a fallback.

Is this piracy? Where do I get the game? No game code or data is in this repository or its releases; the port only runs with a disc image, update and DLC you dumped from your own Xbox 360, and the launcher checks them. This project won't link to any download, so please don't ask for ISOs in the issues.

How is it different from Xenia? Xenia emulates the whole console and translates the game's code while it runs. Here the code is translated once, ahead of time, and the Native renderer draws the game's Direct3D 9 calls with Vulkan directly. Xenia's code still matters: ReXGlue's runtime and the Emulated renderer come from it.

Why do I need Title Update 2? On the disc version the game switches DLC loading off. Building on the update makes DLC work, and it's the game's final version.

Does it run on Steam Deck or Linux? Yes on the Steam Deck: add the launcher to Steam as a non-Steam game and run it through Proton on SteamOS. It plays at 60 fps on the Low preset, which the game picks on a Deck by itself. Desktop Linux hasn't been tested yet.

Was AI used? Yes, a lot. I'm a software engineer, and most of the code and the docs were written with Claude Code, an AI coding agent. I steered the work, played and tested every change, and decided what ships. The measurements, investigations and decisions are written down in docs/, so anyone can check them.

Build from source

This is for developers. Players only need the release zip.

You need Visual Studio 2026 Build Tools (Desktop development with C++, which includes CMake, Ninja and the Windows SDK), PowerShell 7, Python 3 and Git. Copy your disc image into the repository folder and Title Update 2's default.xexp into assets/ next to default.xex, then run these in PowerShell 7:

# Pinned LLVM and ReXGlue, SHA-256 checked
pwsh ./scripts/bootstrap.ps1
# ReXGlue sources at the pinned revision, with this project's patches
pwsh ./scripts/prepare-vulkan.ps1

# Verify the disc and extract its files into assets/
python scripts/inspect_disc.py "WWE All Stars (USA, Europe).iso" --extract-all assets

# Translate the game's PowerPC code (base executable + Title Update 2) to C++
pwsh ./scripts/build.ps1 -Action Codegen
pwsh ./scripts/build.ps1 -Action Configure
pwsh ./scripts/build.ps1 -Action Build -Jobs 16

# The launcher, and the player zip in out/release/
pwsh ./scripts/build.ps1 -Action Launcher
pwsh ./scripts/package.ps1 -Jobs 8

The build accepts only the known executable (SHA-256 521c2325…6892) and Title Update 2 (a6a45704…ed6a). package.ps1 fails if any game-derived file ends up in the zip.

pwsh ./scripts/build.ps1 -Action Configure -Variant v3o2 -CMakeArgs '-DWWE_GAME_ARCH=x86-64-v3'
pwsh ./scripts/build.ps1 -Action Configure -Variant thin -CMakeArgs '-DWWE_GAME_LTO=thin'
pwsh ./scripts/build.ps1 -Action Build -Variant thin -Jobs 10
pwsh ./scripts/capture.ps1 -Variant thin

How it works

1. inspect_disc.py reads the disc image and extracts default.xex and the game data. Codegen applies Title Update 2's patch to the executable.
2. ReXGlue translates the PowerPC code to C++. wweallstars_manifest.toml lists the functions its automatic pass misses, each with the evidence for it.
3. The generated code links against the ReXGlue runtime: the Xbox 360 kernel, audio, input and a Vulkan GPU backend derived from Xenia.
4. The Native renderer in src/native hooks the game's statically linked Direct3D 9 and draws with Vulkan, using shaders converted by a patched XenosRecomp.
5. patches/ holds this project's changes to the runtime and the shader converter: frame pacing, live settings, the online client, DLC content, Title Update loading and audio fixes among them. The build applies them.

The design decisions are in docs/adr and the investigations in docs/research.

Credits

• ReXGlue, the recompiler and runtime this port is built on
• Xenia, which ReXGlue's runtime and GPU backend come from
• XenosRecomp by hedge-dev, the shader converter
• wwe-svr2011-pc by KaikoClanworth1, where the scripted input, the session script and parts of the shader converter and in-game settings patches started; used with the author's permission
• nex-go by Pretendo Network, which the game server uses for the game's online protocol
• AMD FidelityFX CAS, for sharpening
• Anton and Barlow Condensed (SIL Open Font License), the launcher's type
• SVR2011-Recomp, this project's sibling

Legal

This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by WWE, THQ, Yuke's or Microsoft. This repository contains no game code or data; the build generates the code from a disc image you own. Do not share the gamedata or updatedata folders, a disc image, the update or DLC packs.

The game and the launcher are under the BSD 3-Clause license in LICENSE. The game server in server/ is under the AGPL-3.0 (server/LICENSE), because of nex-go. ReXGlue's license is in third_party/, and the release zip carries the licences of every component in its licenses folder.