Introduction

What Is TS2 Redux?

TS2 Redux is a fan-made project which aims to fix and enhance the port of TimeSplitters 2 (TS2) contained in the 2016 game Homefront: The Revolution, which was hidden away as an unlockable easter-egg.

This port of TS2 is rendered natively on PC/console in full HD, including up to 4K, with native widescreen and mouse/keyboard/gamepad support. It uses high-quality assets and lossless audio for music and sound-effects. This port of TS2 is the only "HD remaster" of TS2 currently in existence.

Normally, the version of TS2 included in Homefront is limited to just 2 playable story missions: Siberia and Chicago. Players would have to play through Homefront's campaign for several hours until they reach an arcade cabinet located in the game. The player walks up to the cabinet and interacts with it, which triggers TS2 to load and take over their screen until they exit and resume playing Homefront's campaign.

This project, TS2 Redux, unlocks all of TS2 permanently, fixes several game-breaking bugs, adds quality-of-life enhancements, and adds extra content.

It's worth noting that this PC port of TS2 was not finished by the original developers, so there are a few rough edges that we're still working on smoothing out (see the To-Do / Known-Bugs section below).

For more information on the history and evolution of this TimeSplitters port, see the Backstory section below.

Features

• Full Game Permanently Unlocked
  • All story missions
  • Arcade - both Custom and League modes
  • Challenge mode
  • Cheats menu & all minigames unlocked by default
• Game-Breaking Bugs Fixed
  • NeoTokyo cutscene crash fixed. NeoTokyo can now be played!
  • Reaper spawn crash issue fixed. Return To Planet X can now be played!
  • Rain-on-camera glitch fixed. No more black squares flickering on screen while playing rainy maps like NeoTokyo and Compound.
• UI and Menu Fixes
  • Menus adjusted to fit on screen properly. Stretched elements (character images, icons, etc) also fixed.
  • New high-resolution textures for menus added. Logos, header images, and more.
  • Options menu restored and working. Can now access player profile statistics screen.
  • Various tweaks to the menus to get them to look closer to the console versions.
• Custom TS2 Launcher
  • Load straight into TS2, skipping Homefront's intro animations and menus entirely.
• Homefront Ripper
  • Deletes any of Homefront's game files not needed to play TS2. Reduxes game size from 46GB to 2.5GB!
• Save/load Player Profile.
  • Normally the game doesn't keep track of your achievements in Arcade League and Challenge modes. This fixes that, allowing you to save and load your progress and stats.
• 2 Hidden Levels Unlocked
  • Dam and Western are playable in Arcade Custom mode. These are special multiplayer versions of the maps Siberia and Wild West from story mode.
  • All deathmatch-related modes, like Vampire and Gladiator, can be played in these levels.
• Chemical Plant (TS1) Map Added
  • The developers inadvertently included a half-working version of the TimeSplitters 1 map "Chemical Plant" in the game's files. It is now fixed and playable in Arcade. This classic TS1 map was never available in the console ports of TS2.
• New High-Resolution Textures
  • Many in-game textures have been recreated in higher resolutions to helps this almost 20 year old game look a bit less pixelated on HD displays.

Mods and Cheats

Numerous mods and extra cheats are added. These mods are optional and can be enabled/disabled on-the-fly.

When you launch TS2, a black window will appear showing you the button combinations to press on your keyboard to toggle each mod. Press Shift+F1 to see even more keyboard commands.

• Infinite health (invincibility)
• Infinite ammo
• Bodies don't disappear after dying (story mode only)
• Disable auto-lookahead (camera doesn't return to center when moving)
• Freeze time
  • Prevents the game from processing A.I. movement.
  • Use this sparingly in short bursts, because it can lead to crashes, especially when moving into a new area in a level.
• Static-crosshair aiming (for controller users)
  • This makes the crosshair stay fixed in the center of the screen when using a gamepad (Xbox controller, etc), just like basically every modern first person shooter.
• NeoTokyo Pedestrians in Arcade.
  • Replaces most military characters with the civilians from NeoTokyo. This also shortens their names to fit in the character menus.
  • Compatible with the "Unusable Characters in Arcade" mod.
• Simple Ammo Counters
  • Changes most types of ammo to be shown as numbers on your HUD instead of bullet/shell images.
• Centered Weapons
  • Places all two-handed guns in the center of the screen and all one-handed guns as close to the center without clipping as possible.
• Unusable Characters in Arcade
  • Replaces Stone Golem, Wood Golem, and Sentrybot with their larger Story Mode versions.
  • Gargoyle is also replaced with X-Ray Skel, and Trooper Black is replaced with Gasmask Special.
  • Compatible with the "NeoTokyo Pedestrians in Arcade" mod.
• Team Thief Mode
  • Allows you to enable or disable teamplay in Thief. Only Red and Blue teams can be chosen.
• Low Definition Models
  • Changes most guns and some characters to use lower-definition models, making them appear blockier and cruder-looking.
• OneHit StoryMode Player Death
  • You will die from any source of damage in Story Mode, no matter how little it is. Enemies are unaffected.
• Unfair Bots
  • Story Mode enemies have high health, rapid fire weapons, and incredible accuracy. You are unaffected.
• All Enemies are [CHARACTER]
  • Replaces almost all Story Mode enemies with the character of your choice.
  • Some hats will clip into larger characters or hover over shorter characters.
  • Unique enemies like the Portal Daemon and Barrel Robots are unchanged.
• All Rockets
  • Almost every weapon is replaced with the Rocket Launcher in Story Mode or Arcade.
  • You can dual-wield Rocket Launchers as well.
  • Some objective-related weapons are unchanged.
• All Bricks
  • Almost every weapons is replaced with the Brick in Story Mode or Arcade.
  • You can dual-wield Bricks as well.
  • Some objective-related weapons are unchanged.

Screenshots

Main menu. New menu items, high-res logo, modern gamepad icons Note: the Network menu doesn't work yet and isn't visible in public releases of the mod

TS2 on Xbox (emulated), for reference

TS2 Redux on PC (at 1080p)

Texture example: Diamondplate - Top: new / Bottom: old

Texture example: Crate - Left: old / Right: new

Texture example: Game mode icons - Left: old / Right: new

Weapon crosshairs - Left: old / Right: new

Chemical Plant map (from TimeSplitters 1)

Chemical Plant map (from TimeSplitters 1)

Installing and Uninstalling

How To Install

To install, follow these steps:

1. Download the latest version of TS2 Redux from the project's GitHub page: https://github.com/HFTSRedux/TS2Redux/releases
2. Extract the ZIP file you just downloaded. Extract it to any folder on your PC.
3. Double-click the batch file named "TS2_Redux-Installer.bat" and follow the on-screen instructions.

That's it! After using the installer, the mod will be loaded the next time you start the game.

Optional: Custom TS2 Launcher

Want to have a fancy TS2 launcher that skips Homefront's menu and boots right into TS2? The installer script (included with this mod) has an option that creates a TS2-themed copy of your Homefront game executable.

Optional: Reduce Homefront's Size

The installer script (included with this mod) has an option that removes as much of Homefront's game files as possible, leaving just enough for TS2 to work. This reduces the game's size from 46GB to 2.5GB. Homefront's main menu will still work, which is useful for changing video settings, but you won't be able to play any missions/levels in Homefront.

Once the process is done, all of the non-TimeSplitters files will be moved into a folder called "ripped" located in Homefront's game folder. Once you test to make sure your game runs and works, you can delete this "ripped" folder.

Removing TS2 Redux

To remove this mod, do the following:

1. Open a file explorer window and browse to your Homefront game folder.
2. Delete these files and folders:
   • Bin64/dinput8.dll
   • Bin64/TS2Redux/*
   • Bin64/TimeSplitters2.exe
   • gamehf2/ts2_redux.pak
   • gamehf2/ts2_neotokyo_fix.pak

If something goes wrong and you want to start completely over, you can use Steam's "Verify integrity" feature to re-download Homefront and restore it back to its original state.

To-Do / Known-Bugs

There are several features that are either not present in TS2 Redux or are still being worked on.

• Multiplayer / networking support. LAN and online multiplayer is not currently available. This is a very complex feature to add and our team is still working on this.
  • Are you a networking guru? Join our team! Message any member of the Redux-Tech group in the TimeSplitters Online Discord server: https://discord.gg/fBnFZBYht5.
• Restore the rain-on-camera effect (when you look up to the sky on a level with rain and water droplets appear on camera).
• Lighting glitches, such as light from gunfire lighting up walls far from the player. Also present when characters are on fire.
• Crash on character select screen
  • When picking your character, if you wait too long or browse through too many characters, the game will crash. We're close to fixing this one, but it's a complex problem that will take time.

Reporting Bugs / Feedback

Did you find a new bug? Let us know!

Join our the TimeSplitters Online Discord server and leave a message describing the issue you experienced under the redux-bugs channel.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. I have a copy of Homefront: The Revolution for Xbox/PlayStation. Can I use this mod?
   • No. This mod is for the PC version of Homefront only. It is not possible to add custom files to the console ports of Homefront. Console players can still use the unlock codes to unlock the full game.
2. Do I need to buy Homefront even if I'm only interested in playing TS2?
   • Yes. The TS2 Redux project only tweaks your existing copy of Homefront. This project does not contain the core game files to play TS2.
3. Where can I get a copy of Homefront?
   • Directly from the Steam store OR buy a Steam key from GamesPlanet.com (usually cheaper)
4. Does the Steam version work for this?
   • Yes.
5. I'm only interested in playing TS2. Do I need to keep Homefront's game files on my computer?
   • Yes and no. The port of TS2 within Homefront is not a standalone program. It's embedded inside of the Homefront game executable. In order to run TS2, Homefront must be able to run. You can, however, delete most of Homefront's game files reducing the total size of the game from ~46GB down to just ~2.5GB. Use the installer batch script (included with this project) to perform this step.
6. How do I change my video display settings?
   • Use Homefront's settings menus to change video output settings, among other settings (including mouse sensitivity).
7. Do I play through TS2 in order to unlock characters and levels like in the console ports?
   • No. Everything is unlocked by default. This includes all characters, story missions, arcade levels, challenge modes, cheats, and minigames (playable from the Temporal Uplink weapon).
8. I want to help!
   • Join us on the TSO Discord server (click here) and message a member of the Redux Tech Team to inquire further.
9. Is this any different than playing TS2 in an emulator?
   • There are a advantages and disadvantages to this port compared to playing TS2 using an emulator in Xemu (Xbox), Dolphin (GameCube), or PCXS2 (PS2). People have created mods for some of the console ports of TS2 that increase texture resolution, inject mouse/keyboard input, among other things. The overall experience of playing TS2 Redux on PC compared to playing in an emulator is very similar, except TS2 Redux (PC) does all this natively. TS2 on PC also includes high-quality audio, the TS1 map Chemical Plant, proper widescreen support, and more.

Disclaimer

This is a fan-made project made by a small group of TimeSplitters fans over the course of several months. This project is not related to or endorsed by Free Radical Design, Eidos Interactive, Dambuster Studios, Deep Silver, or any other companies related to the development or publishing of TimeSplitters and/or Homefront: The Revolution.

Great effort was made during the development of this project to respect the intellectual property rights of the game developers and publishers behind these two games. This project intentionally avoids distributing game files from Homefront and does not allow people to play Homefront/TS2 without owning the game.

For more information about Homefront: The Revolution, visit its official website here: https://www.deepsilver.com/en/games/homefront-the-revolution/

Backstory

Origins

The TS2 port found in Homefront was originally destined to be its own game as part of a project to port the game to PC, with work beginning as far back as 2008. The development studio behind TimeSplitters, Free Radical, was focused on other games at the time, including Haze and Star Wars Battlefront III. Free Radical shut down in late 2008 and was bought by Crytek to become Crytek UK. In 2014, Crytek UK shut down and the the game they were working on at the time, Homefront: The Revolution, was transferred to a new development company, Dambuster Studios, who would continue development of the game.

The entirety of TS2 was included because it was faster to include the whole thing instead of taking the time to create a bespoke version just for this minor easter-egg. So, the menus in TS2 were altered to only show 2 story mode levels and all of the other parts of the menu were hidden or removed. Again, this updated PC port was originally meant to be its own game, but was never finished and was eventually bundled into Homefront, starting as "an office joke".

"Started as an office joke, like they all do." - Matt Phillips via Twitter

Supposedly, this port of TS2 has received continued development beyond the half-working version found in Homefront. Dambuster Studio employees are supposedly have a much more polished version of the game (complete with networking support), which may eventually be released as an official remaster.

The Hunt to Unlock TS2

After Homefront: The Revolution was released in 2016, dataminers discovered that even though only 2 campaign missions in TimeSplitters 2 were playable, the entirety of TS2's game files were present in Homefront's files. This discovery sparked a multi-year long easter-egg hunt to try to unlock the rest of the game.

Theories were crafted and ideas were tested in-game for countless hours as players tried to crack this elusive easter-egg. Some players experimented in-game while others inspected Homefront's game executable looking for any clues as to how to trigger the full game to become unlocked. There was even an alternate reality game (ARG) conducted by a supposed employee at Dambuster Studios (the studio behind Homefront) which gave players a series of cryptic and obscure clues with the idea that once solved the unlock codes would be revealed.

Unfortunately, this combined effort didn't lead to any significant progress towards unlocking the full game. There were numerous moments of hope along the way, but ultimately the actual unlock codes were never discovered by the small but dedicated community of easter-egg hunters. There was some success in hacking the game's memory to force it load into different story missions beyond Siberia and Chicago, but the vast majority of progress was made only after the unlock codes were revealed.

Unlock Codes Revealed

The unlock codes were eventually revealed in April 2021 in a Twitter thread started by the developer who worked on the TS2 port, Matt Philips. Philips revealed that the entirety of the game was unlockable through a series of button presses (with basic multiplayer support too), but he had since lost the unlock codes. A few days later, another Twitter user, Xbox principal software engineer Spencer Perreault, replied in the thread and shared the game's unlock codes for the first time to the public (technically the codes were shared a day or two priot to that, but Twitter hid this tweet as spam).

This sparked a frenzy of activity as word about the unlock codes spread through the TimeSplitters fanbase. Suddenly, people who had no interest in Homefront were buying copies of this 5-year old mediocre military shooter just to play an HD remaster of a 2-decade old shooter game from 2002. For the first time in TimeSplitters' history, the game could be played natively on PC in HD with proper mouse/keyboard support.

The Redux Tech Team Forms

The port of TS2 in Homefront was never actually finished. Since only the first two levels were intended to be playable, many major bugs were left in. Work began by the TS2 modding community to fix these game-breaking bugs so that this unique version of the game could be played properly. A small group joined to form the Redux Tech Team, the team behind this project.

This project is called "TS2 Redux" in honor of the internal name given to the PC port of TS2 by the original developers.

News Articles

• Polygon: TimeSplitters 2’s 4K port has been locked inside the Homefront sequel for years - April 9th 2021
• Kotaku: Someone Recovered The Code To Unlock A Full Version Of Timesplitters 2 In Homefront: The Revolution - April 9th 2021
• Eurogamer: Homefront's missing unlock code to make TimeSplitters 2 fully playable has been found - April 9th 2021

PlayStation & Xbox TS2 Unlock Codes

Consoles players cannot install TS2 Redux to their consoles, but they can still unlock and enjoy TS2 in its entirety by entering in codes using their controller.

Instructions

1. Play through Homefront 2 until you reach the Restricted Zone, the final chapter of the storyline. This may take several hours to do.
2. Locate the arcade cabinet easter egg, walk up to it, and activate it. If you don't know where the arcade cabinet is, watch one of the guides on YouTube to see how to find it. Once you interact with the arcade cabinet for the first time, a new menu option will appear on Homefront 2's main menu under Extras titled "TimeSplitters 2" where you can easily launch TS2 from then on.
3. Start TimeSplitters 2. The game's title will appear and you will then see the main menu with "Story" and "Quit".
4. Enter one of the codes below (from the Codes section) while on the main menu.

Unlock Codes

Reminder- if you're on PC and using TS2 Redux, you don't need these codes.

Tips For Using Unlock Codes

• You can enter multiple codes in a row (you're not limited to just one at a time).
• You do not have to enter the codes fast. The game does not seem to have a time limit on how fast codes must be entered.
• The game does not accept code presses while on the TS2 "Loading" screen. When switching from the main menu to the story mode missions screen, there is a loading screen in between. While this loading screen is present, make sure you don't press any buttons until it's done loading.
• Switching between different menus does not interrupt a code. The same code can be performed across different menu screens without the code resetting. In other words, you can start entering a code on the TS2 main menu, then go into story mode menu and back and the code will still work. If a code causes you to exit out to the Homefront 2 menu, that is okay. Just go back into TS2 and your code should still be accepted.

Credits

This project was made possible by the hard work and enthusiasm of several TimeSplitters fans.

Redux Tech Team

• DevilDwarf - Numerous patches (menus, bugfixes) and research
• Fanoto - Technical insight and numerous patches (menus, bugfixes) and research
• RyanUKAus - Modding efforts, research, and technical insight
• Scotch - Textures, icons, appearance mods, scripts, and documentation
• Skibbles - Networking and community leader
• Yossarian The Assyrian - Mods development, including porting several of his mods from console TS2 ports to TS2 Redux on PC

Special Thanks

• Matt Phillips for his work on the Homefront TS2 port
• Jalex
• LastLight - Admin of the TimeSplitters Online Discord community
• Spencer Perreault for revealing the TS2 unlock codes
• TanFlo1997 for creating the Dambuster Studios Easter-Egg Hunt Discord server
• XeNTaX Game Research Forum for technical information about Homefront