Saints Reborn is the new name of the SaintsRowPC project. Nothing else has changed: old links to the SaintsRowPC repository lead here, and existing installs keep updating as before.
An unofficial native Windows port of Saints Row (Xbox 360, 2006). The game's PowerPC code is statically recompiled to x86-64 with the ReXGlue SDK, so it runs as a normal Windows program rather than under an emulator.
This repository contains no game code or data. You build the game yourself, on your own PC, from your own disc.
Saints Reborn is a fan project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Volition, THQ Nordic, Deep Silver, Plaion or Microsoft.
Fully playable from start to finish. The intro videos, character creator, the whole story, side missions and free roam all work, with sound. Co-op is built in: play the story or free roam together over LAN, by direct IP, or online with a join code. The game runs at 60 FPS and above with the bundled 60 FPS mod (or at its original 30), renders at 2x its original resolution by default, and has its own Pause > Options menu for resolution scale, shadows and mouse sensitivity. Keyboard and mouse are fully supported, the on-screen button prompts switch between controller and keyboard pictures to match what you use, and there is a first-person view (V). Older PCs are covered too: CPUs without AVX2 automatically get a compatible build, and laptops with two graphics chips use the faster one.
- Some textures on the character flicker slightly while rotating them in the character creator.
- Only the disc version this port was made with is supported. Setup warns if
your
default.xexis different.
Download SaintsReborn-Setup.exe from the
latest release, run
it, choose your .iso or a folder with your game files (the one with
default.xex and packfiles in it), and press Install.
Setup downloads the build tools it needs: clang, CMake, Ninja and Microsoft's C++ headers and libraries. That is about 1.5 GB, all kept in one folder, and no Visual Studio is needed. Windows only asks for permission if the Visual C++ runtime is missing. Setup then builds the game and adds a Saints Reborn shortcut. The first build takes 10–60 minutes, depending on your CPU.
To update, run Setup again or use the Update Saints Reborn shortcut. Only what changed is rebuilt, and your saves and mod list are kept. Installs made with the old Setup can be updated the same way.
Co-op and multiplayer are built in, so they don't appear in the mod loader's list. They are always on.
Coming soon: Setup will build the game on Linux, and you'll play it with Proton.
- Your own Saints Row (Xbox 360) disc, dumped to an
.isofile. - Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) and a GPU with Direct3D 12 support.
- Visual Studio 2022
(Community or Build Tools, both free) with the Desktop development with
C++ workload and these individual components:
- C++ Clang Compiler for Windows
- C++ CMake tools for Windows
- Git for Windows.
- About 15 GB of free disk space and 16 GB of RAM. The first build takes 30–90 minutes depending on your CPU.
- Download this repository to a short path, for example
C:\SaintsReborn. - Run
setup.bat. - Select your Saints Row
.isowhen asked.
When it finishes, the game is in the dist folder. If a step fails, fix the
cause and run setup.bat again; finished steps are skipped. See
docs/BUILDING.md for what each step does and for
troubleshooting.
Run dist\WhompaysModLoader.exe to pick mods and play, or dist\saintsrow.exe
to play directly.
An Xbox controller works as on the console. Keyboard and mouse controls follow Saints Row 2 on PC:
| On foot | In a vehicle | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Move | W A S D | Accelerate / brake | W / S |
| Camera | Mouse | Steer | A / D |
| Attack / secondary | Left / right mouse button | Drive-by | Left mouse button |
| Jump / sprint | Space / Shift | Handbrake / nitrous | Space / Shift |
| Action, enter vehicle | E | Exit vehicle | E |
| Reload, pick up weapon | R | Look left / right / back | Z / C / X |
| Kick / crouch | F / C | Hydraulics | Ctrl |
Everywhere: hold Q for the weapon wheel (point with the mouse), Esc or M for the pause menu and map, Tab for back, the arrow keys for the D-pad, Enter and Backspace for A and B in menus. In the pause menu the mouse pans the map, the wheel zooms and the left button sets a waypoint; Q and E switch tabs. A mouse click skips cutscenes. When tagging, move the mouse in circles the way the arrows show.
| Key | Effect |
|---|---|
| F11 | Fullscreen / window |
| F10 | Frame rate cap: 30, 60, 90, 120 or off (above 30 needs the 60 FPS mod) |
| F1 | Frame rate counter |
| V | First person view on foot, swimming and in vehicles (switches back by itself in shops, cutscenes and scripted scenes). Settings: dist\core\FirstPerson\mod.ini |
Input is ignored while the game window is not focused. Saves and profile data
are stored in dist\game. Setup makes the keyboard button pictures from your
own game files (see tools/glyphgen); if that step
fails, the game shows controller buttons.
Options, set by creating a file next to saintsrow.exe:
| File | Effect |
|---|---|
res_scale.txt |
Internal resolution scale: 1 (720p), 2 (default) or 3. |
start_windowed |
Start in a window instead of fullscreen. The file can be empty. |
mouse_sensitivity.txt |
Mouse sensitivity, 1.0 by default. |
fps_cap.txt |
Frame rate cap. F10 writes it for you. |
ram_cache_mb.txt |
Memory for caching reads from the game's packfiles, in MB (0 turns it off). The default depends on your RAM. |
gpu_queue.txt |
How many GPU command buffers may be queued, 4 by default. 0 waits for every buffer (slower, for troubleshooting). |
gpu_max_lag.txt |
How far the GPU thread may fall behind the game, in microseconds, 4000 by default. 0 means no limit. |
gpu_timing |
An empty file with this name logs the GPU time per frame by kind of work (draws, render target copies, texture loads, resolves, uploads) every 2 seconds. |
replay_thread.off, upload_batching.off, upload_check.off, bg_verify.off, direct_resolve_off, direct_resolve_skip_memory.off, rt_fast.off, texture_lookup_cache.off, keep_cross_transfers, msaa_tiling |
Troubleshooting: each empty file turns one performance optimization off. Only useful when looking for the cause of a graphics problem. |
Saints Reborn comes with Whompay's Mod Loader. Run
dist\WhompaysModLoader.exe to turn mods on or off and change their load
order, then press Play. Mods can replace game files, run Lua scripts, or load
C/C++ code that hooks the game's functions. See
modding/README.md to use or make mods.
The ReXGlue SDK translates every PowerPC function in the game's executable to C++ and reimplements the Xbox 360 kernel, GPU (on Direct3D 12), audio and input. This repository adds the Saints Row-specific parts:
| Path | Contents |
|---|---|
config/saintsrow_manifest.toml |
Recompiler configuration: ABI helpers, functions static analysis misses, mid-function hooks |
project/src/stubs.cpp |
Game-specific replacements for recompiled functions and kernel calls |
project/src/main.cpp |
Program entry: memory setup, window, runtime |
project/src/render_fixes.cpp |
Rendering setup changes for PC (single-pass rendering) |
project/src/kbm.cpp, project/src/glyphs.cpp |
Keyboard and mouse controls; controller / keyboard button prompts |
tools/glyphgen |
Makes the keyboard button pictures from your game files during setup |
project/src/wml, project/launcher |
Whompay's Mod Loader and its launcher |
modding |
Mod API header, examples and documentation |
patches/rexglue-sdk.patch |
Changes to the SDK that the game needs |
tools/xiso_extract |
Xbox disc image (XDVDFS) extractor |
scripts/setup.ps1 |
The build script behind setup.bat |
docs/HOW_IT_WORKS.md explains the individual fixes.
Bug reports and fixes are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md.
This project distributes only original source code, configuration files and a patch to the BSD-licensed ReXGlue SDK. It does not include, and must not be used to distribute, any part of Saints Row: no disc images, game files, recompiled code or built executables. Dump your own disc. Requests for or links to game files will be removed.
The project's own code is released under the Apache License 2.0. If you share, re-upload or build on it, you must keep the NOTICE file and credit it as Saints Reborn by Whompay. The SDK and the libraries it downloads during the build are covered by their own licenses; see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md. "Saints Row" is a trademark of its owner and is used here only to name the game this project works with.
- Saints Reborn by Whompay: the project itself.
- ReXGlue SDK by Tom Clay and contributors.
- Xenia by Ben Vanik and contributors, which the SDK is derived from.
- Volition, for the game.