XC2 Recomp

XC2 Recomp

XC2 Recomp is a static recompilation of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Nintendo Switch, 2017) into a native x86-64 application for Windows and Linux (docs/architecture.md). It is a fork of XCX Recomp, itself a fork of TotK Recomp by Valiantsin Dzerakh. Most of the documentation still describes XCX.

Status

Early development. The game boots to the title screen and runs New Game through the opening battle into Goldmouth with sound, text and input. It runs at 60 fps by default; the limit goes from 30 to 360. The game resolution starts at the console's 1280x720 and goes up to about 3040x1710 (larger sizes are scaled down to fit the game's memory), and the 3D render scale is either the game's dynamic one or fixed. See Known issues.

Report problems as issues, following CONTRIBUTING.md.

Features

• Native code, not emulation
• Update 3.0.1 and all seven add-on content packs
• The American and European release (one title, 0100E95004038000, so the same files); the Japanese release (0100F3400332C000) is recognised and installs into its own folder once its reference hashes are in tools/data (docs/installer.md)
• Built from your own NSP files and prod.keys by the XC2-Setup installer
• In-game settings menu (F1) and performance overlay (F10)
• Keyboard, mouse and gamepad
• AMD FSR 1 scaling when the window is bigger than the game picture; bilinear is the other option
• Mods for Switch emulators and Atmosphere, in a mods folder next to xc2.exe (docs/mods.md)

Planned

• Custom aspect ratios, including ultrawide
• VRR

Known issues

• Above 1280x720 at a shape other than 16:9 (ultrawide), the interface is still laid out for 16:9.
• The far cloud sea's texture jumps from frame to frame when the camera moves, at any frame rate and resolution.
• The data the GPU reads is copied when each frame is submitted, so props do not slide or flicker above 30 fps. This takes about 1.3 GiB of extra memory; memory = import in xc2.ini saves it but makes every frame wait for the GPU to finish the one before it (about 25 % slower). Integrated GPUs on machines with less than 12 GB of memory, and Linux, use import by default.

Installing

Requirements: Windows 10 or later, or Linux 6.7 or later with glibc 2.34, an x86-64 CPU with AVX2, a GPU with Vulkan 1.3 and VK_EXT_external_memory_host, about 25 GiB free during setup (20 GiB after).

1. Download XC2-Setup-<version>-windows.zip from Releases and unpack it.
2. Start XC2-Setup.exe. If SmartScreen warns about an unsigned app, choose More info, then Run anyway.
3. Pick your game files, the language and an install folder, and press Start. The setup builds the game once.
4. Play xc2.exe from the install folder.

On Linux, download XC2-Setup-<version>-linux.AppImage instead, make it executable and start it; the steps are the same and the game is xc2 in the install folder (docs/installer.md, "Linux release").

To update, run a newer XC2-Setup.exe on the same folder; saves and settings are kept. Settings are in the in-game menu and in xc2.ini (xc2.ini.example describes most of them). Controls: docs/controls.md.

Credits

XC2 Recomp builds on the projects below. What was taken from each, with its license, is listed in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

• TotK Recomp by Valiantsin Dzerakh, the project XCX Recomp is forked from
• LAS Recomp
• MacNativeGames
• d2r-mobile and nxnative
• SavageWindRecomp
• Ryujinx
• deko3d
• hactool
• SDL 3, Dear ImGui, AMD FSR 1, Vulkan Memory Allocator, libopus, libvpx, Zstandard
• The 60FPS mod for XCX DE 1.0.1 by Fl4sh_ and StevensND
• Kenney for the Input Prompts icon pack (CC0), whose Xbox, PlayStation and keyboard icons the XC2 button prompts are made from
• Switchbrew and the Switch homebrew community

License

The project's own code is under the MIT License; third-party code keeps its own license (THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md). The license grants nothing for Nintendo's game.

XC2 Recomp is an independent, non-commercial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Nintendo Switch are trademarks of Nintendo; Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was developed by Monolith Soft.

Building from source

docs/building.md lists the toolchain and the steps. Everything the build writes stays under build\ and generated\, which git ignores; run tools/check_content.py before a commit. Testers: docs/tester-guide.md.

Most of the code and documentation is written by AI coding agents (Claude Code) under the maintainer's direction; the maintainer plays every build and decides what is merged. AGENTS.md holds the rules they work under.