Running Silent Hill 2 DC On PCLinuxOS

by Alessandro Ebersol (Agent Smith)

After barely surviving the first game, you return to Silent Hill ...

Silent Hill 2 is the second episode of the survival horror game franchise Silent Hill. The game was released in late 2001 for the PlayStation 2 and was ported to the Microsoft Xbox later that year, and then the PC the following year (2002).

While the game takes place in the homonymous city of the series, it is not a direct sequel to the events and characters from the first game, and occurs at an unspecified date between this and the third game. This episode focuses on a new character, James Sunderland, who enters the city after receiving a letter written by his late wife Mary, saying she is waiting for him in their "special place" in Silent Hill.

The PC version

The PC version of Silent Hill 2 was released in December 2002, made by Creature Labs and published by Konami. The PC version is equivalent to the Xbox version and the PS2 version "Greatest Hits," including the Mary scenario and the extra ending. In Europe, it had the same caption in the label PS2 Platinum. Additional features include the ability to save anywhere, QuickSave and Quickload, and a movie menu to view trailers of Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3, and any movie in the game, once it has been seen by the player.

How to install it in PCLinuxOS?

You will need Winetricks. In Winetricks select the Default Wine prefix.

Select "Install a Windows DLL or Component."

Now, look for DirectX9 (d3dx9_36) and mark it for installation.

Now, you’re ready to do the game installation.

The game comes on three (3) CDs. To install it correctly, the CDs have to be copied to the hard drive. I recommend the desktop area, as it will be more viewable, and will be temporary..

1. Create three (3) folders on your desktop: CD1, CD2 and CD3


2. Copy the entire CD1 to the CD1 folder.


3. Copy the entire CD2 to the CD2 folder.


4. Copy the entire CD3 to the CD3 folder.


5. Now, rename the folder CD1 to CD_ROM.


6. Run setup.exe from the game, and start installing normally.


7. It will then ask to put the CD2.


8. Here's the catch: rename the folder CD_ROM back to CD1, and the folder CD2 to CD_ROM.


9. Press OK in the game installer.


10. It will continue installing normally.


11. When asked to change the CD's, the only thing that you will do is rename the folders. That is, when the installer asks for CD3, rename the CD3 folder to CD_ROM and so on.


12. Ok, installation finished.

The program prompts to install DirectX8 during installation. Refuse to install this and move on. It is not necessary, and the game runs very well, especially since you installed DirectX9 before installing the game.

Playing Silent Hill 2 on modern computers

Silent Hill 2 was created in a time when computers with more than one core did not exist. Therefore, it does not run right on multicore machines. To be able to run SH2 in today's computers, you must use a utility, SH2Proxy.

What does SH2Proxy do?

• Allows windowed mode
• Custom Resolution
• Borderless game window
• Game window positioning
• Performs with different parameters (defined in a cli or in an .ini file)
• Automatically sets the game to run in only one core. (core affinity)

And, it can be configured in an .ini file, sh2proxy.ini

The utility can be downloaded here, and you must replace the sh2pc.exe program, which is in /home/~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files /Konami/ Silent Hill 2.

The game runs well even on modest hardware. Minimum video memory to run is 32MB of VRAM.

It has some glitches with Intel video cards, but it is nothing that prevents the game from running.

Have fun in the foggy haunted city.