The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
1 recomp and 1 mod
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Shagg88/Athelas
A native Windows port of the US Xbox release by static recompilation with XboxXBE-Recomp, shipped inside the Athelas launcher alongside the Two Towers port and ROTK Fix, a patch for the same game’s PC version. It adds up to 240 fps, with fixes for slowdowns and vanishing enemies at high frame rates, widescreen and ultrawide, sharper text and menus (using the PC version’s if you also have it installed), keyboard and mouse, and two-player co-op on one PC or online by streaming. Its author states it was made with help from Claude.
You needYour own US copy of The Return of the King for Xbox, as an .iso image or extracted. Plus 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 and a DirectX 12 graphics card.
ROTK Fix
Shagg88/Athelas
A fix for the PC version of The Return of the King that comes inside Athelas, the launcher that also carries the ports of the Xbox versions of The Two Towers and The Return of the King. A d3d8.dll and a dinput8.dll next to the game route its graphics through DXVK (Vulkan) and its 3D sound through DSOAL and OpenAL Soft, which brings back its EAX reverb. It adds widescreen and ultrawide without stretching the HUD, any resolution, 60 to 240 fps at normal game speed, anti-aliasing, filtering and sharpening, Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch controllers with remappable buttons, two-player co-op on one PC or online by streaming, full-screen cutscenes, texture packs, achievements, and gameplay options such as the game’s own cheat codes, all off by default. It doesn’t touch the game’s copy protection. Its author states it was made with the help of Claude.
You needYour own US copy of The Return of the King for PC, installed. Plus 64-bit Windows 10 or 11, or Linux and Steam Deck through Proton; a Vulkan 1.3 driver is recommended.
Installs with
Questions
Can you play The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King natively on PC?
Yes, though unfinished. The catalog has 1 recomp, already playable.
What do I need to play it?
Your own copy of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Windows). Recompendium only links projects that don’t distribute the game, and each entry says which version or region you need.
Which one is the most popular?
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, with 170 stars on GitHub.