Sonic Adventure 2

Sonic Adventure 2

Developers
	Sonic Team
Publishers
	Sega
Release dates
Windows	November 9, 2012
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Adventure, Platform
Vehicles	Automobile, Track racing
Art styles	Cartoon
Themes	Contemporary
Series	Sonic Adventure

Sonic Adventure
Subseries of Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic Adventure DX	2003
Sonic Adventure DX (2011)	2011
Sonic Adventure 2	2012
Sonic Adventure DX (Steam)	2014

Sonic Adventure 2 is a cartoon third-person platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega, and was released for PC on November 9, 2012. It is the sequel to Sonic Adventure.

The game was originally released worldwide on June 23, 2001 for the Dreamcast. It is historically notable for being one of the last games released for the Dreamcast and the final first-party game to be developed by Sega before becoming a third-party company after leaving the console market. It was also released during the 10th Anniversary of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Sonic Adventure 2 restructures and streamlines the gameplay elements from its predecessor, featuring "Team Hero" (Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles) and "Team Dark" (Shadow, Dr. Eggman, and Rouge) with platforming, mech shooting, and treasure hunting Action Stages, all played in sequential order.

The game was later ported to the GameCube in 2002 as Sonic Adventure 2: Battle as an updated version of the game, featuring an expanded multiplayer mode and readjusted gameplay elements. Despite being ported to newer hardware, it also has simplified fog, missing vertex and colored lighting, and some content that are changed or missing compared to the original Dreamcast version. See TCRF for details and this video for cutscene-related changes. Similarly to Sonic Adventure DX and its subsequent ports, the 2012 PC port of Sonic Adventure 2, as well as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, was based off the GameCube version, with the expanded multiplayer and Chao Karate content from Sonic Adventure 2: Battle being locked behind a separate DLC purchase.

The game's physics and speed are tied around 60 FPS, meaning slowdowns on lower end machines and speedups with high refresh-rate displays. Various mods are available to restore original features from the Dreamcast version and address issues with the PC version; see Moddifications for recommendations and how to setup MainMemory's SA2 Mod Loader to ease the installation of mods.

General information

Official developer site

Sonic Retro - A huge fan site for everything Sonic the Hedgehog. Mods for all the games can be found here

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Steam
Publisher website (unavailable)

All versions require Steam DRM.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle	Unlocks the Battle Mode, extra versus characters and maps, and Chao Karate.

Essential improvements

Bypass launcher

Use the -q command line argument
If configuration files are missing, it will load the launcher regardless of the command line argument.

Skip company logos and intro cutscene

Enable Skip Intro in SA2 Mod Loader
See instructions for installing SA2 Mod Loader here. Go to the Options tab, and check Skip Intro from the Misc. section. Click the Save button to apply the changes. The game should now boot directly into the title screen upon launch.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Config\Keyboard.cfg <path-to-game>\Config\UserConfig.cfg
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/213610/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\resource\gd_PC\SAVEDATA\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/213610/pfx/

Chao Garden is saved to the file SONIC2B__ALF

Game progression is saved to numbered SONIC2B__S## files; one file per slot.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud

Video

In game general settings. Options clockwise starting from the bottom: Vibration, Save/Load, Erase save, main menu theme, speech language and Stereo/Mono.

Launcher general settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			A few cutscenes are pillarboxed to 4:3; use the Cutscene revamp mod to remove the black bars.
Multi-monitor			Use Flawless Widescreen to fix spanned HUD.
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Use SA2 Mod Loader.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Force in GPU control panel. Nvidia users can force SGSSAA in Nvidia Profile Inspector without any compatibility bits. Do not force FXAA, see the talk page.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Always enabled. Every loading screen needs to run at monitor's refresh rate or else it will crash.
60 FPS		The game must run at 60 FPS as game speed is tied to framerate.
120+ FPS		Fullscreen Mode is capped 60 Hz. See Run the game at screen refresh rate. If the display runs higher than 60 Hz in Windowed mode, use the frame-limit mod.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

Launcher control settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		Mouse not used at all.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		XInput only. Controller must be selected from configuration launcher.
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Controller buttons cannot be remapped, however a mod exists to change the placement of context-sensitive actions.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts		Xbox 360 variant. See Better Buttons for an alternative or Xbox One Buttons for Xbox One prompts (if using HD GUI: SA2, set Button Prompts Style to Vanilla+Custom within SA2 Mod Loader).
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers		Not supported natively. Use Steam Input as a workaround.
PlayStation button prompts		See the DualShock 3 variant of Better Buttons for DualShock prompts (if using HD GUI: SA2, set Button Prompts Style to Vanilla+Custom and Compatability Mode to True within SA2 Mod Loader). for DualSense Button use this DualSense Button Mod
Light bar support
Adaptive trigger support
DualSense haptic feedback support
Connection modes	Wired, Wireless (Bluetooth) V2 controller tested.

Generic/other controllers		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Additional information
Controller hotplugging		Only for the selected input input device from the configuration launcher can be hotplugged, otherwise the game will prompt a "Reboot Now/Later" to change devices. If the controller was not plugged in from the initial launch of the game, it will switch to keyboard instead and request a reboot of the game.
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M		Only for the selected input input device from the configuration launcher is usable when launching the game.

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		Based on system configuration; otherwise not configurable. Tested with 7.1 surround sound. No centre and LFE channels, just a 4.0 quadraphonic mix.[citation needed]
Subtitles		On by default.
Closed captions		Idle Chatter mod is not captioned.
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Text language is selected from launcher, dialogue language is selected from in game settings.

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English				Dubtitles only, use Sonic Adventure 2 Retranslated if playing with Japanese audio and English subtitles.
German
French
Italian
Japanese
Spanish				Castilian.
Russian				Fan localization by «Sonic and all Characters/Joker Studio».
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation of the "Sonic Adventure 2 Retranslated" mod. Mod created by «Luks_18»

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		2	Other player can use keyboard or controller if enabled in the config file. "Battle" DLC adds 21 battle maps to multiplayer.
LAN play
Online play		2	Use Sonic Adventure 2: Battle Network.

Issues unresolved

Steam API Compatibility (Controllers)

When using any controller under the Steam Controller API, analog sticks are treated as digital keyboard keys and will be considered as 100% analog for all values beyond the dead zone.^{[citation needed]}

Menus don't render

On AMD cards, menus won't render if the resolution exceeds 4579 x 3965, on either axis.^{[citation needed]}

FXAA breaks the game

Forcing FXAA through the graphics card control panel will cause the game to stop responding.^{[citation needed]}

Game freezes and hardlocks when trying to load a stage

This issues is related to the SA2 Mod Loader. Rebooting the computer with the mod loader uninstalled seems to help temporarily. An issue ticket can be found on the Mod Loader's GitHub repo. Another potential solution is to to launch SA2 Mod Loader, click "Uninstall loader" to disable the mod loader, launching the game normally via Launcher.exe and exiting the game, and then re-launching the Mod Loader and clicking "Install Loader" to re-enable it.

Issues fixed

Game crashes after the Sonic Team logo

Using a Vulkan Wrapper[citation needed]
Go to dxvk's project page. Download the latest release. Open it using a ZIP program, and go to the X32 folder. Copy d3d9.dll and paste it into <path-to-game>

Fixing crashes[citation needed]

If the game is crashing only in fullscreen mode, an easy workaround is to use a borderless fullscreen tool to make windowed mode fill the entire screen. The SA2 Mod Loader offers an option to do that. If the game is crashing in both fullscreen & windowed mode: Disable any framerate limiters; Sonic Adventure 2's loading screens rely on uncapped FPS in order to load properly.[citation needed] Disable any overlays (e.g. Steam Overlay, GeForce Experience). For Nvidia cards, open Nvidia Control Panel, click Manage 3D Settings, Program Settings, and add sonic2app.exe. Set V-Sync to On and set Preferred refresh rate to Application-controlled, then click Apply.

Game freezing for few seconds randomly

Fixing crashes[citation needed]
For Nvidia cards, open Nvidia Control Panel, click Manage 3D Settings, Program Settings, and add sonic2app.exe. Set Power management mode to Prefer maximum performance, click Apply.

Missing or broken graphical effects

Some effects such as rain, fire, smoke, footprints, and dirt from digging as Knuckles or Rouge are missing on integrated graphics with application optimization mode enabled.

Disable Application Optimal Mode from the integrated GPU control panel

Run the game at screen refresh rate

Fullscreen mode is limited to 60 Hz, even if the screen refresh rate is set higher than that.

Set screen refresh rate and 60 FPS cap[citation needed]
Download Special K. Copy SpecialK32.dll to the installation folder. Rename SpecialK32.dll to d3d9.dll. Start the game and then exit. Open d3d9.ini in the installation folder. Change TargetFPS to 60.0. Change RefreshRate to 0.

Launcher crashes when trying to start the game, No resolution options available

Manually create config files

Go to the configuration file(s) location. If no files are present, create files named Keyboard.cfg and UserConfig.cfg. Copy and paste following to files. Keyboard.cfg: <?xml version="1.0" ?> <Setup Layout="0" /> <Players> <Player InputWay="1" Vibrate="0"> <key index="83" /> <key index="65" /> <key index="73" /> <key index="79" /> <key index="5" /> <key index="52" /> <key index="56" /> <key index="54" /> <key index="25" /> <key index="16" /> <key index="37" /> <key index="23" /> <key index="4" /> <key index="37" /> <key index="27" /> <key index="67" /> </Player> <Player InputWay="0" Vibrate="0"> <key index="22" /> <key index="18" /> <key index="0" /> <key index="3" /> <key index="102" /> <key index="98" /> <key index="101" /> <key index="99" /> <key index="66" /> <key index="104" /> <key index="37" /> <key index="76" /> <key index="105" /> <key index="37" /> <key index="28" /> <key index="111" /> </Player> </Players> UserConfig.cfg: <?xml version="1.0" ?> <Configs FullScreen="1" Display="0" Res="22" Width="640" Height="480" RefreshRate="60" Language="0" Analytics="0" /> Start the game from <path-to-game>\sonic2app.exe. If everything works, then change the values in UserConfig.cfg to desired ones. Bypassing the launcher is also recommended afterwards.

Planted Trees in the Chao Garden appear as saplings despite being fully grown

This fix requires SA2 Mod Loader.

Instructions
Download and install SA2 Mod Loader. Download the Enhanced Chao World mod. In the mod manager, tick and enable the mod, then click Configure and toggle any preferred features of the mod. The tree scaling fix is not listed as it is a part of the mod.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c
Shader Model support	3.0

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Moddifications

Modding essentials

How to install SA2 Mod Manager
Download SA2 Mod Manager from here. Extract the contents of SA2ModLoader.7z to <path-to-game>. Run SA2ModManager.exe, click the Install loader, then go to the Options tab and adjust settings as desired. Notes Eases installation and configuration of mods without replacing installation files.

Featured websites

• MainMemory's mods - Features a number of useful mods, including models converted from the Dreamcast version.
• GameBanana - Hosts a large number of user-created mods for Sonic Adventure 2.
• SF94's Sandwich - Features a small number of mods such Sonic Adventure 2: Battle Network and Stache Fix.
• Sonic Community Hacking Guide on Sonic Retro

Featured mods

Bugfixes/Improvements:

• Action Remap - Remaps the "Light Speed Dash" to the Y button, so that you don't unintentionally use the "Somersault" and "Bounce Bracelet" moves while trying to use the "Light Speed Dash".
• Subtitles Fix - Fixes various typos and grammar issues in the subtitles, and improves the French translation.
• Render Fix - Fixes some of the rendering oddities of the PC version, focusing on the GameCube models.
• Stache Fix - A texture replacement for Sonic and Shadow that fixes a rendering issue on their face.
• Level Oddity Patch - Fixes misplaced level objects, making "Perfect" ring collection possible.
• Black Market Sound Fix - Replaces the duller sounding menu sounds from the Chao Garden's Black Market with ones that sound closer to the GameCube version.
• Improved Waypoints (Chao Gardens) - Permits chao to wander around more of the Hero and Dark gardens.
• Menu Overhaul - Overhauls and revises the menu system of the game while removing unnecessary clutter and discrepancies. This mod however causes some of the main menu descriptions to not properly reflect the rearranged menu options, but an unofficial fix is a available. Only English and Japanese localizations are currently supported.
• HD GUI: SA2 - Updates many GUI and HUD elements with higher resolution ones, along with optional tweaks. Recommended with Menu Overhaul.
• Better Buttons - Replaces the stock Xbox 360 prompts with ones from Sonic Generations. A DualShock 3 variant is also available.
• Console HUDs - Adds the ability to change the controller prompts for the in-game HUD, menus, and tutorials to match the Dreamcast, GameCube, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 versions of Sonic Adventure 2.
• Chao Lobby Fix - Fixes some geometry sorting bugs in the Chao Lobby.
• SA2 Error Message Fixes - Removes the prompts to restart the game when a controller is disconnected or the internet connection is lost.
• No Model Tinting - Fixes a bug introduced by the Gamecube version where some models are greyer than intended
• Tails vs Eggman 1 Texture Fix - Fixes a visual bug in the stage in both single player and 2P mode where the skybox gets imprinted on the ship's towers.
• Tails Cyclone Fix - Fixes Tails' model at the end of Route 280 to appear more accurate to his in-game model.

Audio/Visual enhancements:

• Volume Controls - Adds configurable volume settings for background music, sound effects, and voice overs, while fixing the poor sound mixing of the PC version by restoring the original Dreamcast volume levels, fixing sound effect errors, and implementing 3D positional audio.
• Highest Quality Textures - Replaces the textures with their highest-quality versions.
• Dreamcast Characters - Dreamcast character models converted for the PC version. This results in consistent model quality between cutscenes and gameplay when used in conjunction with Cutscene Revamp, as most cutscenes use these models by default in the vanilla game.
• Dreamcast Characters and Effects - Similar to the above but also restores visual effects from the Dreamcast version used by each character.
• Dreamcast Enemy Textures - Restores the original Dreamcast textures for the enemies.
• Dreamcast Beetle - Restores the original enemy model of the Beetle robots. Intended to be used with the Dreamcast Enemy Textures mod above.
• Dreamcast Shield Hunters - Restores the original Dreamcast version of the G.U.N. Hunters and Shield Hunter enemies.
• Dreamcast Boss Texture and Effects - Restores many of the higher quality Dreamcast textures and effects from the Dreamcast version.
• DC Shadows - Restores the missing shadow effects from the Dreamcast version.
• DC+ Models - Versions of the higher-quality GameCube models edited to give the characters pointy ears, like Yuji Uekawa's original artwork.
• Misc. Improvements and Dreamcast Textures - Attempts to restore some of the missing effects and modified textures to their Dreamcast counterparts, as well as restoring the original item and enemy placements of City Escape, however, the modified City Escape stage in this mod can cause issues. The White Jungle Fog fix is also available independently.
• Presentable Eggman Stages - An attempt to fix the lighting issues of the PC version of Dr. Eggman's Iron Gate and Lost Colony stages to resemble their GameCube counterparts, with the option to restore the Dreamcast fog effects and an experimental red alarm tint for the former.
• Eggman Lighting Fix - An alternative to the above, which fixes the lighting of Eggman's stages to resemble their GameCube counterparts while restoring the directional light from his Egg Walker.
• Ripple Fix - Fixes and restores the original Dreamcast version's water ripple effects.
• Kart Stage Water Fix - Fixes the broken water texture in the kart racing stages caused by the fog effects introduced in the GameCube version by removing them to closely resemble the original Dreamcast version.
• Better Shadows - The vanilla game draws shadows from very low-poly models of the characters; this mod enables the shadows to be drawn from the higher-poly models instead.
• Rouge's Eye Animation Fix - Fixes a bug with Rouge's eye texture when climbing along walls sideways.
• Restored G.U.N. Logos - Fixes a transparency sorting issue with the G.U.N. robots that causes the G.U.N. logo to be missing. This mod also features an option to restore the transparency effects of the Artificial Chaos enemies from the Dreamcast version, but the floating variant have buggy transparency effects and are disabled by default as a result.
• Cutscene Revamp - Overhauls the game's Story Mode cutscenes by fixing various issues, importing assets, and workarounds so they appear closer to the original game. This also features tweaks such as 16:9 widescreen cutscenes and restoring the Dreamcast intro.
• Cutscene Revamp Music Fixes - Fixes some music issues with Cutscene Revamp.
• Transforming Scene Volume FIX - Corrects the volume levels for the transformation scene's music in the Final Story when using Cutscene Revamp.
• Dreamcast Chao Garden - Restores the original Dreamcast version of the Chao Garden into the PC version.
• Dreamcast Chao Garden Textures - Replaces the Chao Garden's textures with those from the Dreamcast version, when possible without editing geometry.
• HQ Chao Sounds - Replaces Chao sound effects with higher quality recordings from Team Sonic Racing and adds some other music improvements.
• Crispy Green Hill - Integer upscales Green Hill's textures (with some cleanup), to give a point-sampled aesthetic akin to that on the Sega Saturn.
• GameCube Textures - Replaces the textures of the game with ones leftover from the GameCube port.
• Neuro AI HD Texture Pack - Enhanced HD-quality textures upscaled 4x by Gigapixel AI using neural networks.
• Clean Loading Screen Ring - Removes the visible compression artefacts from the spinning ring sprite on the loading screen, using the BC1Smooth2 ESRGAN model.
• "Unstretched" Stage Select ARK - Makes the Space Colony ARK portion of the Stage Select screen appear unstretched similarly to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions by resizing the image to 4:3 during the transition between the Earth and ARK portions.
• Dreamcast Credits Images - Restores the original credits screenshot images from the Dreamcast version while using the higher poly GameCube models.

Miscellaneous:

• Disable Upgrade Models - Disable or show upgrade items on characters.
• Sonic Adventure 2 Retranslated - A fan-translation of the original Japanese script into English. Recommended when playing with Japanese voice-overs.
• Sonic Adventure 2 Retranslated+ - Adds English subtitles for the Japanese FMVs and cutscenes that lacks them.
• SFDs with Subtitles - Adds English subtitles to the game's FMVs based on unused text found in the game's event files.
• President Scene in Dark Story - Adds a cutscene involving Dr. Eggman negotiating with the President from the Hero Story into the Dark Story.
• E0022 After Knuckles VS. Rouge - Rearranges the cutscene involving Sonic in the Ark's control room to play after defeating Rouge to improve the flow of the Hero Story.
• Restore SOAP ads - Restores the various references to SOAP in City Escape, Radical Highway, Downtown Race, and the kart racing stages, without adding incidental GameCube button prompts.
• No Battle - Removes the "Battle" branding from the game if the Sonic Adventure 2: Battle DLC is installed and reverts the menus and intro cutscene to the original Dreamcast version.
• No Loading Screen Tips - Removes the gameplay tips that appear during a loading screen which may not be readable by default due to the faster loading times of the PC version.
• Loading Screens Are Stupid - An alternative to the above, which removes Omochao, gameplay tips, the spinning ring sprite on the loading screens to make them resemble the Dreamcast and GameCube versions.
• Character Select Mod - Allows players to play as other characters in stages they weren't intended for by pressing certain buttons while loading a stage.
• Higher Draw Distance - Increases the rendering draw distance for most objects. Not recommended for gameplay.
• Idle Chatter SA2 Edition - A port of the similarly named Sonic Adventure DX mod for Sonic Adventure 2 that adds the ability to hear what the player's character has to say about the current stage. The function is mapped to Right on the D-pad due to the Input Mod not being available for Sonic Adventure 2.
• Chao World Extended - adds new contents to the Chao Garden, while bringing back unused contents and adding a variety of ways to get a new kind of chao

Co-op Story Mode

By using Cheat Engine after launching the game, you can enable co-op play at 2 players for the Story Mode, only possible on PC port.

Address 0043D6EB must be set as 3D898989898989, Address 00439703 as 9090 and Address 01934BE4 as 1 for having Shadow as P2 (or : 0 - Sonic / 1 - Shadow / 2 - Mechless Tails/ 3 - Mechless Eggman/ 4 - Knuckles/ 5 - Rouge/ 6 - Mech Tails / 7 - Mech Eggman)

SA2 Save Utility

A utility designed to modify save files for the game. Can be downloaded here.

SA2 Save Converter

A utility that can convert main game and Chao Garden save files from the GameCube, Xbox 360/PlayStation 3, and PC versions to another platform. Can be downloaded here.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP	Vista, 7
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz AMD Athlon 64 3000+	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
System memory (RAM)	1 GB	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	3 GB	6 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 8600 ATI Radeon HD 3650 256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible	Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB of VRAM DirectX 11 compatible
Sound (audio device)	DirectX compatible