[Guide] Adding Silent Hill 2 to Steam, and Making It Look Nice

[The-King-of-Toasters]

Here's a simple comparison video to show the changes:

This is a more detailed tutorial for the first step in the guide I wrote here. The bulk of the work is attributed to the the SteamGridDB and the creators that upload covers there, you rock!

Steps

1. Adding the game to Steam.
2. Renaming the library entry and setting the icon.
3. Preparing the library images.
4. Setting the library images.

Step 1

• Open Steam. In the menu bar, select Games -> Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library.
• In the new window, select browse, go to the folder where Silent Hill 2 is installed and select sh2pc.exe:
  
• In the previous window, select Add Selected Programs.

Step 2

• In the library view, search for "sh2pc" or "Play Silent Hill 2: Director's Cut"
• Right click the entry on the left and select Properties
• Select Choose Icon. The file selection window should be in the game's install folder.
• Set the file type to All Files and select sh2.ico:
  .
• In the properties, rename the game to "Silent Hill"

Step 3

SteamGridDB has a host of images for Silent Hill 2. There are three sections that we need to pick from:

Grids

Vertical box art/Big Picture Mode icon.

Heroes

Long, horizontal images used as the game's background image.

Logos

High res image of the game's logo.

Feel free to pick the ones you like the most. For this guide, I'm picking the first from each. I recommend renaming the images to cover, background and logo to make the next section easier.

Step 4

• Go to the Library View and scroll down the game grid until you see the (blank) cover for Silent Hill 2.
• Right click it and select Manage -> Set Custom Artwork. Select the cover image in the file picker.
• Select the game from this screen. Right click the black background at the top and select Set Custom Background. Select the background image in the file picker.
• Right click the background again and select Set Custom Logo. Select the logo image in the file picker. Feel free to move it anywhere you want, I've scaled it down a touch and put it in the bottom left corner.

That's it! Everything should look nice now.

[The-King-of-Toasters]

Technical Addendum

All images are in are JPEGs or PNGs. Each types follows a standard format:

• Grid images are usually box art photos, in a 2:3 ratio. The most common size is 600x900px.
• Hero images are wide banner images that are blurred at the bottom and cut off at the top depending on the window size. The have a 96:31 ratio, and the largest I've seen them is 3840x1240.
• Logo images should be the highest quality images of the logo.

The grid images can also be in APNG format, which means you can make some pretty impressive covers like this.

So, I propose creating custom images for the enhanced edition project and put them in a zip file. This would cut out all the downloading steps and make it simpler for users. Bonus points if you can include a nice APNG cover. I'd think James on the handrail at the start would be a good pick.

[Iuna-fox]

Edit: Fixed with newest update

[ivanproff]

This no longer works with Steam, having the game on Steam just launches it directly instead of through Steam itself; meaning that my controller no longer works for the game (instead spam clicking if it's plugged in) and the Steam overlay/FPS counter is unavailable. This only stopped working with their most recent major update (reinstating shiny objects and upgrading static images).

Try running steam as admin

[Polymega]

This might have something to do with Xidi. See here:

• Xidi need Visual Studio 2022 Runtime, and it doesn't work on Windows 11 for ARM #732
• Xidi Broken on Linux/Steam Deck #725
• Application Error (0xc0000142) #729

If you upgraded/installed Xidi, can you temporarily remove dinput8.dll from the game's directory and see if it launches for you then?

[Iuna-fox]

This no longer works with Steam, having the game on Steam just launches it directly instead of through Steam itself; meaning that my controller no longer works for the game (instead spam clicking if it's plugged in) and the Steam overlay/FPS counter is unavailable. This only stopped working with their most recent major update (reinstating shiny objects and upgrading static images).

Try running steam as admin

As of the newest update it works again, the spam click of the Switch Pro-Controller is gone so long as you run it via Steam. Running the application regularly will still result in the old issue.

[JoonasPitk]

It appears all SteamGridDB links in Step 3 are dead, 404.

[Felipefpl]

This mod has any conflict with the director's cut version of the game? It doesnt say anything about that in the site or even here on github.

[JoonasPitk]

This mod has any conflict with the director's cut version of the game? It doesnt say anything about that in the site or even here on github.

While your question is off-topic to this thread, the install instructions on the website say Director's Cut is compatible.