# Pinyon Shift: a ShiftGlue static recompilation of Forza Horizon for PC

> Builds a native port of the Xbox 360 release of Forza Horizon by translating its PowerPC executable ahead of time into C++ with ShiftGlue, the author’s fork of ReXGlue, and compiling it on the player’s machine from their own disc. A renderer written for this game runs its GPU commands on Vulkan, and some translated library code, such as FMOD Ex DSP units, is replaced by independently written native code checked against the translated original. README presents it as a playable preview with rendering bugs and slowdowns.

- Type: Case study
- Targets: Game
- Category: Independent reconstruction cases
- Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
- Sources reviewed: 2026-10-19
- Added to the catalog: 2026-10-28
- Original resource: <https://github.com/arcanite24/pinyon-shift>
- Primary source: <https://github.com/arcanite24/pinyon-shift/blob/9331e453e9850d0fcc1c1606dee95db834a9d317/README.md>
- Catalog page: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/pinyon-shift-forza-horizon-recomp-case/>
- Record JSON: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/pinyon-shift-forza-horizon-recomp-case/record.json>
- Chinese version: [简体中文](https://awesomerea.org/zh/resources/pinyon-shift-forza-horizon-recomp-case/index.md)

## Requirements & limits

- Reviewed at the 2026-10-17 head, tagged v0.6.0; the repository was created on 2026-08-25. It holds the launcher, build tools, host code and configuration, and README says it contains no game, assets, generated translations or prebuilt executable; the v0.6.0 Windows launcher archive holds only the launcher and a source archive. This is static recompilation with native replacements, not recovered authored source.
- Requires an ISO dumped from the user’s own USA retail disc (serial MS-2505, title ID 4D5309C9) or an unmodified folder extracted from it; setup checks its exact size and SHA-256 against config/supported-dumps.json and rejects unknown dumps. Owned DLC packages are verified before import, and the Rally and 1000 Club add-ons need the optional title update v4 build.
- Players need Windows 10/11 x64, x86-64 Linux including SteamOS, or macOS 13+ on Apple silicon, with a Vulkan 1.3 GPU; NVIDIA is tested, while AMD and Intel are not yet qualified. The launcher installs pinned build tools and builds the game locally, which takes 20–60 minutes and about 30 GB the first time; the Windows source path needs Visual Studio 2022 C++ Build Tools 17.1+. An Android 13+ arm64 build is a developer alpha cross-compiled on the PC.
- CI checks the repository boundary, runs release-tooling and host tests, builds the launchers and cross-builds the Android runtime, all without the game. Scripted render-test routes, golden frame replays and README’s performance figures, such as a 119 fps median at 1x on an RTX 4080, come from the project’s local runs.
- BSD-3-Clause covers only independently authored material. docs/LEGAL.md says it grants no rights to Forza Horizon, Xbox software, ReXGlue or user-supplied content, and bars committing generated translations, hand translations of disassembly or decompiler output, and data copied from the executable. README states no affiliation with Microsoft, Xbox, Turn 10 Studios or Playground Games. CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md agent instructions bar AI attribution in commits.

## Primary sources

1. <https://github.com/arcanite24/pinyon-shift/blob/9331e453e9850d0fcc1c1606dee95db834a9d317/README.md>
2. <https://github.com/arcanite24/pinyon-shift/blob/9331e453e9850d0fcc1c1606dee95db834a9d317/docs/LEGAL.md>
3. <https://github.com/arcanite24/pinyon-shift/blob/9331e453e9850d0fcc1c1606dee95db834a9d317/docs/BUILDING.md>
4. <https://github.com/arcanite24/pinyon-shift/blob/9331e453e9850d0fcc1c1606dee95db834a9d317/config/supported-dumps.json>
5. <https://github.com/arcanite24/pinyon-shift/blob/9331e453e9850d0fcc1c1606dee95db834a9d317/.gitmodules>
6. <https://github.com/arcanite24/pinyon-shift/blob/9331e453e9850d0fcc1c1606dee95db834a9d317/.github/workflows/ci.yml>
7. <https://github.com/arcanite24/pinyon-shift/blob/9331e453e9850d0fcc1c1606dee95db834a9d317/docs/PERFORMANCE.md>
8. <https://github.com/arcanite24/pinyon-shift/blob/9331e453e9850d0fcc1c1606dee95db834a9d317/src/guest_native/fmod_dsp.cpp>
9. <https://github.com/arcanite24/pinyon-shift/blob/9331e453e9850d0fcc1c1606dee95db834a9d317/docs/releases/0.6.0.md>
10. <https://github.com/arcanite24/pinyon-shift/blob/9331e453e9850d0fcc1c1606dee95db834a9d317/CLAUDE.md>
11. <https://github.com/arcanite24/pinyon-shift/blob/9331e453e9850d0fcc1c1606dee95db834a9d317/LICENSE>
12. <https://github.com/arcanite24/shiftglue-sdk/tree/79d3e6fae4b79e00def48a595c80f0eaa47fd2b6>
13. <https://github.com/arcanite24/pinyon-shift/releases/tag/v0.6.0>

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## About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources.
Original editorial content: MIT. Linked projects, papers and assets retain their own rights and licenses.