Silent Hill 2 (2024) @ 60fps is not something I thought would be possible on the Deck.
Just before I acquired my Steam Deck (LCD) a few months back - I'd finally committed to a playthrough of Silent Hill 2. I'd had problems upon launch but after a few updates and some tweaks, years later it instantly became one of my all-time favorite titles, especially in this modern age of slop.
Originally I thought to install 'Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition' on my Deck, just to have a smoothly-performing variant of this gem. Ultimately, instead I chose to try to get the 2024 remake working and "playable," what I discovered instead is nothing short of a miracle.
> Using "ECLIPSE Steam Deck Graphics Optimization" from Nexusmods, I'd already gotten to a playable enough framerate, locking to 30-45 fps would've definitely been enjoyable enough. A definite improvement from the base ~25fps the game performs "OoTB" with.
> In conjunction with the former, I also applied OptiScaler to the game; Using FSR 3.1.5 + XeFG I've gotten the game to sit at a solid 60fps with miniscule amounts of input-delay. Of which is borderline unnoticeable due to the nature of the game's movement.
While I recommend, if you've got the means, to play this game on a PC with atleast med-high graphics settings running @ 1080p 60fps.
I cannot understate the insanity of this feat even being possible. If you've played Silent Hill 2, and wish to take it on-the-go I cannot recommend this enough.
Graphics settings used are as follows:
---------------------------------------
Screen Mode - Windowed
Resolution - 1280x720
Raytracing - OFF
Frame Rate Cap - Unlimited
Frame Gen - OFF
Vsync - OFF
Supersampling - FSR 3.1 (Performance Preset)
---(ADVANCED QUALITY SETTINGS)---
Anti-Aliasing - FXAA
Resolution Scaling - 66%
Shadows - Low
Textures - Low
Shaders - High
Effects - Low
Seperate Translucency - OFF
Lens Flare - Low
Occlusion - Disabled
Global Motion Blur - OFF
SSAO - On
SSR - On
SSS Quality - Low
Image Sharpening - Medium
(I also recommend using the "90s" Graphic Mode as it hides most of the artifacting I'd originally experienced, while including a vignette that fades the letterbox of 720p smoothly.)
!!! For OptiScaler, the only mandatory settings are as follows !!!
Auto-Exposure > ON
HudFix > ON
(Do not try FSR-FG as it causes a solid white image on startup)