Questshock

An open source project to play the classic 1994 System Shock on a VR headset, built on top of Shockolate, a cross-platform port of the original game.

1. Design principles

• Standalone-headset-only. The game must run entirely on the headset itself - no PC required, whether tethered or streamed (not PCVR). Any feature or dependency that assumes a host PC is out of scope.
• OpenXR-first. Favor OpenXR-standard APIs over vendor-specific ones (e.g. Meta's Oculus Mobile SDK) wherever there's a choice, so the port isn't locked to Meta Quest and can work across other standalone, Android-based OpenXR headsets (e.g. Pico) too.

2. Layout

• engine/ - a vendored snapshot of the Shockolate engine source. Built via Docker; see "4. Desktop build" below.
• build-image/ - the Dockerfile (and supporting scripts) for the engine build environment. Every third-party dependency the engine needs to compile (SDL2, SDL2_mixer, the fluidsynth-lite MIDI synth, a MIDI soundfont) is fetched and built once into this image - compiling engine/ itself needs no network access.
• build-image.sh / run-image.sh / upload-image.sh - build the image, run it to compile the engine, and push it to a registry, respectively.
• res/assets/ - where you place your own purchased copy of the game (see "3. Game assets" below); res/assets/extract_assets.sh extracts it into ss_ee/.
• res/run.sh - the launcher script, copied into dist/ on build.
• Makefile - targets:
  • all (default) - alias for dist.
  • build-image - builds the Docker build-image (./build-image.sh). Only needed once, or after build-image/ changes.
  • engine - compiles engine/ (the vendored Shockolate snapshot) via the build-image, offline. Always re-run by the targets below, so dist/package/apk stay in sync with the current engine/ source.
  • assets - preflight check only: fails with a pointer to res/assets/extract_assets.sh if the purchased game assets (see "3. Game assets" below) haven't been extracted yet.
  • dist - assembles dist/, a self-contained runnable copy of the game, out of the compiled engine and the extracted assets (depends on engine + assets). See "4. Desktop build" below.
  • package - builds a versioned, redistributable dist/shockolate-<version>-linux-<arch>.tar.gz that omits the proprietary game assets (ships res/GET_ASSETS.txt in their place). See "4.1. Packaging a distributable build" below.
  • apk - builds dist/questshock-<version>-android-arm64.apk for Android-based OpenXR headsets. Unlike every other target, this needs network access at build time (Gradle/AGP's own dependency resolution). See "5. Android / Quest build" below.
  • clean - removes all build output (dist/, build/, compiled engine artifacts, and the staged Android project files).
• android/ - the Quest app (Java SDLActivity glue, Gradle project). android/engine-patches/ holds the patches needed to build engine/ as an Android shared library instead of a desktop executable - applied to a scratch copy at build time; engine/ itself is never modified. android/gl4es-src/ similarly vendors GL4ES (see "6. License" below), with android/gl4es-patches/ applied to a scratch copy at build time (same as engine/) and compiled from source alongside it, not prebuilt. See "5. Android / Quest build" below for what each patch does.

3. Game assets

System Shock's game data is not included in this repository and cannot be redistributed - you need to own a copy. Buy System Shock: Enhanced Edition on gog.com, download the offline installer (a .exe), and drop it into res/assets/. Then run res/assets/extract_assets.sh, which pulls the classic game's data and sound files out of the installer (it's an Inno Setup package; the actual game data lives inside it in a zip-format sshock.kpf) into res/assets/ss_ee/. That script needs innoextract and unzip; if they aren't installed locally it falls back to running the extraction in a throwaway Docker container instead.

If you already have the game installed instead (on Windows, or via Wine/Proton on Linux), you don't need the installer or the script at all - just copy its res/data/ and res/sound/ folders directly into res/assets/ss_ee/data/ and res/assets/ss_ee/sound/. That's exactly the same layout extract_assets.sh produces, so make dist/make package/make apk pick it up the same way either way. This one copy of game assets feeds both the desktop build and the Android/Quest build below.

4. Desktop build

Builds and runs Questshock natively on Linux (your dev machine, or any Linux box) - useful for local development and testing without a VR headset at all. For the VR-headset build, see "5. Android / Quest build" below instead.

# 1. Build the engine build-image (once, or after build-image/ changes)
./build-image.sh

# 2. Get your own copy of the game data (see "3. Game assets" above), then:
res/assets/extract_assets.sh

# 3. Compile the engine and assemble dist/
make dist

# 4. Play
dist/run.sh

make dist always recompiles the engine from the current engine/ source (via run-image.sh), so a fresh build-image plus a re-run of make dist is all that's needed after pulling engine changes.

4.1. Packaging a distributable build

make package builds dist/shockolate-<version>-linux-<arch>.tar.gz: the compiled binary, its runtime libraries, shaders, a default MIDI soundfont, license information, and res/GET_ASSETS.txt in place of the actual game data (which the tarball never includes). Version comes from the current git tag (push a vX.Y.Z tag to drive a release); without one it builds an untagged 0.0.0-dev+<sha> placeholder. make apk (see "5. Android / Quest build" below) is versioned identically, via the same build-image/version.sh.

A Gitea Actions workflow (.gitea/workflows/build.yml) builds this package on every push, using the build-image as its container (so no extra setup is needed in CI beyond the image itself), and publishes the resulting tarball to dl.ladkau.de.

5. Android / Quest build

make apk builds dist/questshock-<version>-android-arm64.apk - an immersive OpenXR app (see android/app/src/main/cpp/xr_session.c) that can be sideloaded onto any Android-based VR headset with OpenXR support (Meta Quest, Pico, etc. - see "1. Design principles" above), not just one vendor's store. The game's own rendering is unchanged (still a flat, 2D render, no stereo 3D scene), but instead of running as a Home-hosted 2D panel it's now shown as a single head-tracked quad floating in front of the viewer in an otherwise empty space. There's no controller-driven interaction yet (that's ongoing work - a laser-pointer-driven menu and on-screen keyboard); for now, play with a Bluetooth mouse/keyboard connected to the headset same as before. (Only tested on Meta Quest so far - the steps below use Quest-specific tool names where relevant, but the same adb install flow applies to any Android headset with USB debugging enabled.)

5.1. Installing and playing

1. Install the APK with SideQuest (or adb install).
2. Launch it once. It'll ask for storage permission, then create /sdcard/questshock/ and extract its own bundled files (shaders, a default MIDI soundfont) there - res/data/ and res/sound/ are deliberately left missing, since that's the proprietary game data.
3. With the headset connected to a PC, use SideQuest's file browser (or any MTP file manager) to copy your own res/data/ and res/sound/ (see /sdcard/questshock/GET_ASSETS_QUEST.txt, extracted in step 2, for exactly what's needed and where it comes from) into /sdcard/questshock/res/.
4. Launch it again.

5.2. Building natively in Android Studio

make apk always compiles the engine and links the APK inside the Docker build-image - convenient for CI/CLI builds, but Android Studio can't attach a debugger to (or get IDE code-intelligence for) a build that happens inside a container it isn't running.

To have Android Studio compile and deploy android/ itself instead:

./run-image.sh bash build-image/prepare-android-project.sh --host-paths

This stages everything make apk normally stages (scratch, patched copies of engine/ and android/gl4es-src/; the Android SDL2/SDL2_mixer/fluidsynth-lite/openxr prebuilts; bundled assets) - the same as build-apk.sh's own prep step - except it writes android/engine.properties with paths that resolve on your host filesystem, and additionally exports the prebuilt libraries (otherwise only present inside the image, at /opt/prebuilt/android) to build/android-prebuilt/ so they're visible outside the container too. gl4es itself is compiled from its scratch copy as part of Android Studio's own native build (a CMake subdirectory of engine/'s build, not a separate prebuilt step), so android/gl4es-src//android/gl4es-patches/ changes are picked up by a normal rebuild here - no need to re-run ./build-image.sh first, unlike build-image/Dockerfile changes. Re-run this script whenever engine/, android/engine-patches/, android/gl4es-src/, android/gl4es-patches/, or the prebuilt-library versions in build-image/Dockerfile change (the Gradle build already does this automatically for you via its stageEngine task, so this manual re-run is mainly useful for confirming staging succeeded on its own).

Then, in Android Studio, use File > Open and select the android/ directory itself (the one containing settings.gradle - not the repo root, and not android/app/) to open it as a project (JDK 17, NDK 26.1.10909125, and SDK Platform/Build-Tools 34 installed, matching build-image/Dockerfile and android/app/build.gradle) and build/run normally - no Docker involved for this part.

5.3. Testing cycles in Android Studio

Once the project above is open, iterating against a real headset works the same as any other Android Studio project:

1. Enable Developer Mode on the headset (via its companion phone app - for Quest, the Meta Horizon app's Devices/Developer Mode toggle) and turn on USB debugging once prompted. Connect the headset to your development machine with a USB cable (Wi-Fi debugging via adb connect works too, once paired once over USB).
2. Confirm it's visible with adb devices - it should also show up in Android Studio's device dropdown.
3. Press Run (or Debug, to attach breakpoints in both Java and, via Android Studio's "Dual"/"Native" debugger, the C code under android/app/src/main/cpp/ and the staged engine/ sources) - Android Studio builds, installs, and launches the app on the headset directly. No manual adb install or SideQuest step needed for this loop.
4. /sdcard/questshock/ (game assets, extracted shaders/soundfont) persists across reinstalls from Android Studio, so this loop doesn't require re-copying res/data//res/sound/ on every iteration - only a full uninstall or wiping that directory clears it.
5. Use Android Studio's Logcat pane to watch output live; both the Java side and the engine's own logging (see android/engine-patches/08-android-logcat-output.patch) are tagged QuestShock, so filtering Logcat by that tag shows everything questshock-specific without gl4es/OpenXR loader/system noise (drop the filter to see those too).
6. Only re-run prepare-android-project.sh manually (see above) after changing engine/, android/engine-patches/, android/gl4es-src/, android/gl4es-patches/, or the prebuilt-library versions in build-image/Dockerfile - the Gradle build's stageEngine task does this automatically otherwise, so plain Java/C++ edits under android/app/src/main/ just need another Run/Debug press.

5.4. Engine/gl4es patch reference

android/engine-patches/ (applied to a scratch copy of engine/) and android/gl4es-patches/ (applied to a scratch copy of android/gl4es-src/) are both plain, numbered patch files applied in order at build time - engine/ and android/gl4es-src/ themselves are never modified. What each one does:

android/engine-patches/:

• 01-android-shared-lib.patch - Android has no standalone executables (Java loads a shared library via JNI), so this builds CMakeLists.txt's main target as a SHARED library on Android instead of the desktop systemshock executable, folding in the Android-native glue sources (ANDROID_EXTRA_SOURCES).
• 02-android-opengl-es.patch - replaces the desktop find_package(OpenGL) with add_subdirectory()-building gl4es from source (translates the engine's desktop GL calls to GLES/EGL), so it rebuilds incrementally alongside the engine instead of needing a full build-image rebuild per gl4es change.
• 03-android-gles-context.patch - requests a GLES 3.2 context instead of a desktop GL core profile (Quest's Adreno GPU supports it, and 3.2 has GL_UNPACK_ROW_LENGTH/GL_CLAMP_TO_BORDER as core, avoiding workarounds needed on GLES 2.0).
• 04-android-opengl-es-render.patch - swaps a few gl4es rough edges (its shader-rewrite-based glPointSize/alpha-test/point-sprite emulation) for real GLES-native equivalents: a custom pointSize uniform, a shader-side alpha discard, and native point-sprite rasterization.
• 05-android-audio-driver.patch - forces SDL2's older OpenSL ES audio backend instead of AAudio, because AAudio only allows one open playback device and the engine opens two (cutscene audio plus Mix_OpenAudio for SFX/MIDI).
• 06-android-resize-event.patch - makes the engine react to SDL_WINDOWEVENT_RESIZED, not just SIZE_CHANGED, since Android's SDL backend only ever sends the former for surface-driven resizes.
• 07-android-logcat-link.patch - links Android's log library.
• 08-android-logcat-output.patch - routes the engine's own log.c (INFO/DEBUG/WARN/ERROR) through __android_log_vprint so it reaches logcat, instead of stdio (which Android never captures).
• 09-android-no-window-resize.patch - skips the desktop-only SDL_SetWindowFullscreen/SetWindowSize/SetWindowPosition calls on Android, since there's no real desktop-style window to resize and calling them desyncs SDL's cached window size from the real surface.
• 10-android-openxr-cmake.patch - wires up the OpenXR loader plus EGL as link/include dependencies for the CMake build.
• 11-android-openxr-present.patch - the core OpenXR present-path hook: redirects SDLDraw()/opengl_swap_and_restore() to submit into the XR swapchain (via xr_frame_begin()/xr_frame_end()) instead of the normal window, for both the GL-rendered 3D path and the plain software-composited path (splash screen/cutscenes/menus).

android/gl4es-patches/:

• 01-android-cmake-subdirectory.patch - since gl4es is now add_subdirectory()'d straight into the engine's own CMake configure (via engine-patches/02 above) rather than built standalone, this skips gl4es's desktop-style output-directory/link_directories() setup and its libGL.so.1 SONAME versioning on Android, since AGP's native packaging needs a plain libGL.so and CMake's own default naming already produces that correctly.

5.5. Debugging notes

5.5.1. The menu quad rendering the game instead of itself

While building the OpenXR menu (android/app/src/main/cpp/xr_menu.c, MenuOverlay.java), the menu's composition-layer quad consistently showed the game's own live rendering instead of the menu's content, even though every diagnostic (FBO bindings, swapchain/layer submission, texture upload, viewport/scissor state) checked out correct in isolation.

Root cause: the menu's blit was a normal glDrawArrays call routed through gl4es (the GLES/EGL translation layer the engine's desktop-style OpenGL calls go through on Quest). gl4es's fixed-pipeline emulation (fpe.c) decides whether to substitute its own generated shader for whatever program is bound by checking fpe_IsEmpty() - an all-zero-bytes check over its internal fixed-function state struct. But fpe_ReleventState() unconditionally sets one field of that struct, alphafunc, to a nonzero sentinel (FPE_ALWAYS) whenever alpha testing is disabled - which is true for essentially every draw call in this codebase. That means fpe_IsEmpty() could basically never be true, so gl4es was always substituting its own shader (reproducing the game's last-used texture/fixed-function state) for the menu's draw call, regardless of which program, textures, or GL state the menu code set up around it.

Fix: stop routing the menu's blit through gl4es's draw pipeline entirely. It's now a real (non-gl4es) GLES3 glBlitFramebuffer() - a pure hardware pixel copy with no shader/program/vertex-array stage at all - copying directly from the menu's own offscreen texture into the swapchain image. With no draw call and no shader involved, gl4es's fpe.c has nothing to intercept.

Two earlier, more plausible-looking theories were investigated and ruled out first: forcing the real (non-gl4es-shadowed) GL program to bind (real_glUseProgram), and disabling GL_TEXTURE_2D on every texture unit around the draw (an earlier, incomplete read of the fpe_IsEmpty() condition). Both were red herrings - neither touches the alphafunc field that was actually keeping the substitution permanently active.

Finding this took about a week of calendar time (2026-07-26 to 2026-08-01) spread across several sessions, mostly because each hypothesis required a full edit-rebuild-deploy-retest cycle on real Quest hardware to falsify (there's no way to reproduce gl4es's Android-only codepath on desktop). Most of that time went into working through gl4es itself - which is not this project's code - since the bug's actual trigger (a single always-nonzero struct field) sits well below the project's own layer boundary and doesn't show up in any of the local GL state that the menu's own code controls.

6. License

The original tooling in this repository (the Docker build image, build scripts, Makefile, asset extraction script, and the Quest app in android/ - aside from org/libsdl/app/, see below) is licensed under the MIT License.

android/app/src/main/java/org/libsdl/app/ is copied from SDL2's own android-project template and is zlib-licensed, same as SDL2 itself.

The Android build also bundles GL4ES (lib/arm64-v8a/libGL.so in the APK, compiled at APK build time from the vendored snapshot in android/gl4es-src/, patched via android/gl4es-patches/ the same way engine/ is - see below), which translates the engine's desktop-style OpenGL calls into GLES/EGL and is MIT-licensed.

It also bundles the Khronos Group's own OpenXR-SDK loader (lib/arm64-v8a/libopenxr_loader.so, prebuilt unmodified into the build image), which is Apache 2.0-licensed.

The vendored engine snapshot in engine/ is Shockolate, which is licensed under the GNU GPLv3 (see engine/LICENSE) - it is included unchanged and is not relicensed by this project's MIT license. Any build or distribution of the compiled engine must comply with the GPLv3.

The game assets extracted into res/assets/ss_ee/ are proprietary, copyrighted game data owned by their respective rightsholders - they are never committed to this repository (see .gitignore) and must be supplied by each user from their own legitimate purchase.

NOTICE.txt at the repository root summarizes the above and is bundled into the release tarball by make package (see "4.1. Packaging a distributable build" above) - keep the two in sync.