PH3games specializes in the engineering aspects of game development.
We provide renowned high-quality ports, as well as consulting related to performance aspects: optimization, parallelization, refactoring and tuning.
Some of our previous projects
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox
With a massive city in a single loading zone, and rapid traversal options, all on Falcom's
custom engine, porting the excellent Ys IX: Monstrum Nox to PC and Stadia was our biggest
engineering challenge yet.
Not only did we invest a lot of time and effort into making various aspects of the
game work as intended at arbitrary framerates rather than just the originally targeted 60 FPS,
we also added full ultrawide resolution support, and a slew of graphics settings. However,
perhaps the most fundamental aspect of our work was performance optimization, with CPU performance
increasing two-fold from our initial beta versions to the final release build, at identical
quality levels. We documented and shared some of the work it took to get to this result with the community
in a "behind the scenes" piece.
While it took some time after the release, we also
implemented a full local co-op mode in the
game, which goes far beyond the experimental Ys VIII option in terms of polish and feature set.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV
With Trails of Cold Steel IV being the final entry in its (sub-)series, we focused on providing the
- by now - very sizeable feature set expected by its fans on PC. However, we still added
some more minor QoL and niche features beyond that, such as the ability to select a specific
fullscreen refresh rate or disabling the automatic switching of button prompts for Steam controller
users.
While the audio quality of the Opus codec we use in this and all our recent projects should be
transparent for the vast majority of listeners, for the most discerning audiophiles in the
audience we also released a
lossless optional audio pack as free DLC.
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana
The PC port of Ys VIII was not without its issues originally, with a sequence of studios
and consultants hired to try and improve the situation. PH3 games was the last in this line,
building on the earlier work to provide a PC version which has now climbed from mixed results
to a very positive reception on Steam.
In addition to significant graphics, performance, input and stability improvements,
our patch for the game
also included an experimental 2-player cooperative mode.
Following this successful PC patch, we also worked on porting Ys VIII to Google Stadia,
our first project targeting this platform. While we had to overcome a few challenges, players
on Stadia
loved the performance and quality of the final result.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III
In the Trails of Cold Steel III porting project, we had our first opportunity to work with
NIS America on a full PC port. We implemented all the
features that made our work on its prequel stand out, while also ensuring that the game still
runs well despite the higher performance target of the original hardware.
One particularly noteworthy improvement in ToCS3 compared to our earlier releases is its asset
compression. We investigated various options in order to provide the best possible balance between
on-disk size and loading speed for the majority of our users, and
documented the results.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II
After our work on Trails of Cold Steel I, we were provided with the opportunity to take on
the complete PC porting project for its sequel from the start. Over the course of this project,
we implemented all the PC-specific features of the ToCS1 port, added additional voiced lines by
partially reverse-engineering the existing asset conversion pipeline, and also implemented
full platform support for both Steam and GoG Galaxy features.
ToCS 2 is currently rated overwhelmingly positive on Steam, with many reviews pointing
out the quality of the port.
Rez Infinite
For Rez Infinite, we were contacted by Enhance Games to provide additional technical QA
and feedback for the PC and VR versions, on a small scale and rapid timeframe.
We examined all modes of the game and provided some feedback regarding
controls and performance, which was implemented in the final release.
We also identified a specific rendering bug in the classic VR mode.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel I
For Trails of Cold Steel, we were contacted by XSEED to investigate the
performance and loading times issues of an existing PC port in development.
After extensive profiling, we improved loading times and performance significantly,
but noted that far better results could be achieved by migrating to a DX11 renderer.
XSEED gave the green light, and we took over the port, moving to a new renderer and
implementing a number of additional features for the PC version: trSSAA, unlocked FPS,
HBAO+ ambient occlusion, higher quality shadows, LoD settings, a smart turbo mode,
and ultrawide aspect ratio support.
ToCS 1 is currently rated overwhelmingly positive on Steam, with many reviews pointing
out the quality of the port.
Testimonials from our partners
I first reached out to Peter to help with a difficult project due to his sterling reputation as a hobbyist programmer,
but I was quickly impressed by his professionalism and responsiveness. On two separate occasions where the originally
contracted team had essentially stated it was impossible to increase the performance any further, Peter was able to
optimize the titles significantly with barely any support or additional tools. Our confidence in his abilities grew
even more once we gave him a full project from start to finish, which he delivered on schedule with quality that exceeded
our already high expectations of his work.
I cannot recommend Peter highly enough for anyone wanting the best running PC game possible.
Ken Berry, Executive Vice President, Xseed Games
Peter absolutely earns his reputation as THE gold-standard when it comes to PC Gaming -- and it's a nice bonus that he's also such a pleasure to work with.
Mark MacDonald, VP of Production, Enhance Games
Contact us
Please contact us at games@ph3.at if you are interested in discussing a project. We look forward to hearing from you!