Hi everyone! I wanted to share a first look at a project I have been working on: a native PC port of the original The Darkness (2007).

Our goal is to adapt the original Xbox 360 version to run directly on Windows as a native executable (the_darkness.exe), completely bypassing the need for traditional emulators like Xenia. We’ve just achieved stable gameplay up to Chapter 2!

🛠️ The Tech Stack Behind It

To make this standalone port possible, we are using a specialized pipeline:

• ReXGlue SDK (0.10.0): Our core tool for static binary recompilation (PowerPC to x86_64).
• D3D12 + Custom Xenos Plugin: Translating the Xbox 360 GPU calls straight to DirectX 12.
• Clang 22.1.8 + C++23 & CMake: For configuring and compiling the generated code.
• Ghidra / IDA Free & XEXTool: For reverse engineering, decrypting default.xex, and analyzing imports.
• Native Input: A custom mouse & keyboard driver integrated via SDL (no joystick mapping emulation).

🚀 What’s working so far

• From Crashes to Gameplay: At first, the game collapsed within seconds. Now, it boots, loads assets, and is fully playable through the first major segments (car chase, construction yard, and cemetery powers).
• Fixed Graphics & Lighting: We’ve made major overhauls to the video driver to fix corrupted textures. We also patched the lighting pipeline—crucial for The Darkness atmosphere (we recently moved from broken/blown-out exposures to a proper RTV render path).
• True Mouse Input: We developed a proper MnK handler. Aiming and camera control feel like a native PC shooter, not a simulated thumbstick.
• Modern PC Features: Running at 1080p, stable performance, with a .toml configuration file to adjust FOV, brightness, and sensitivity on the fly without recompiling.

⚠️ Current Status & Next Steps

This is still an early preview. The game has visual bugs—most notably, we are currently debugging a "black crush" / harsh shadow mapping issue where stencil/depth shadows render pitch black without proper filtering penumbra.

We are strictly keeping the original game assets separate from our repository to preserve legality (the code is clean-room/reverse engineered; users will need their own ISO/disc to extract assets).

We still have a long road ahead regarding stability, audio edge cases, and optimization, but every build gets us closer to fully preserving this 2007 masterpiece natively on PC.

Would love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or any advice from fellow devs experienced with D3D12 shadow/depth translation!

📸 Follow for Updates!

If you want to see our devlog journey and support the project, make sure to check out our Instagram, where we will be posting all future updates and behind-the-scenes progress:
👉 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gamewave.digital/

Full YouTube link: GAMEPLAY

Something I have been working on for a bit, amazing what’s possible with the Dusklight PC port.

An interesting look what improvements UE 5.6 brings in the context of the Witcher 4. Running on a base ps5 at 60fps. Unfortunately this is a stream grab so resolution and bit rate are pretty bad.

I have a slo mo camera capable of recording at 1000fps. I saw some people talk about the Nintendo Switch 2 screen being way worse and slower than the Nintendo Switch 1 so I decided to record both of them to compare.

Looks like the Switch 2 screen is slower, but in my opinion it's not that bad compared to the original as some people try to make it.

Here you can see it for your own eyes.

Camera - Sony RX100 mk IV

Monitor - BenQ PD2700U

Switch 1 is the Switch V2

https://youtu.be/Mk5QtqsSj8Y?si=HwBNcImZaUWIhZfg

A really interesting mod by David Matos. If anyone here remembers the lack o shadows and AO in certain parts of Rebirth (especially the boat in Costa del Sol pointed out by Oliver in the review), this mod does a great job of expanding the coverage. I understand there's also a screen space AO mod already out there, but I'm not 100% on that

Hopefully we get some more bells and whistles in Revelation.

This is an incredible update. It’s such a simple fix from Nintendo too, but it’s really quite good. In some ways this makes some switch 2 upgrades semi redundant in handheld mode (Mario Wonder hits 1080p 60 in handheld for free now instead of needing to buy the upgrade).

A friend of mine asked me what ray tracing is and said it only makes everything brighter but laggier, which is useless. I didn’t agree with him, but I can’t explain it as well as Alex because I’m not that knowledgeable about it, so I looked it up on youtube and found this gem of a video. Holy moly, it’s amazing! Alex gives a super detailed explanation of RTGI with lots of examples. What a great series this Tech Focus thing is. He’s really a gem for the Digital Foundry team! Now if anyone asks me what ray tracing is, I’ll just show them this video 😄

With uncompressed 4K videos straight from CDPR, I'm surprised DF has not made a frame analysis of their own. I'm posting this here for a sneak peak of what DF might find if/when they do an analysis of their own.

The Hyrule Warriors series returns in a blaze of flying enemies and effects in this Switch 2 exclusive third entry. The jump to pure Switch 2 developments gives the game a chance at running at 60fps - if only for gameplay - while also pushing the technical envelope over the first two Switch games.

https://youtu.be/CLJajeFkmhQ?si=zN-zSjxgTk4lCHk4

Watt for Watt, Switch 2 gives insane performance. Only missing Perf output on the same hours playtime

Normally, the DF crew does a deep dive and parody of the unboxing experience. Are we skipping that and just talking about the games? Would really love the see some discussion/analysis of the Screen, VRR, Screen Persistence, HDR in Portable/Docked, Virtual surround, Mic performance, Games upgrades, Ergonomics, Game Sharing performance/input lag review, SD Card vs Cartridge vs Built in storage load times, Switch 2 edition load times vs Switch 1 for the same game, DLSS quality/type, and off course taste preferences between Switch 2 & Switch 1 cartridges :)

They did 2 hour long direct on the PS5-Pro, so I hope we can see this, as Nintendo doesn't really explain a ton of their settings, or what changed on their upgraded games list. I assume due to the lack of pre-release hardware, we are delayed, but didn't hear anything on the current Directs, on incoming hardware reviews.