Key points
- This port, as well as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, was based on the GameCube version, which has simplified fog, missing vertex and colored lighting, and some missing and/or changed content compared to the original Dreamcast version; mods can fix some of these problems.[1]
- Game physics and speed are tied around 60 FPS, meaning slowdowns on lower end machines and speedups with high refresh-rate displays.
- The two-player Battle Mode, extra versus characters and maps, and Chao Karate from Sonic Adventure 2: Battle are locked behind a separate DLC purchase, similarly to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 version.
General information
- Official developer site
- Sonic News Network - A massive wiki for the Sonic the Hedgehog universe
- Sonic Retro - A huge fan site for everything Sonic the Hedgehog. Mods for all the games can be found here
- Steam Community Discussions
Availability
- 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[2]
|
- If configuration files are missing, it will load the launcher regardless of the command line argument.
|
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
Save game data location
- Chao Garden is saved to the file
SONIC2B__ALF
- Game progression is saved to numbered
SONIC2B__S##
files; one file per slot.
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.
Input
Launcher control settings.
Audio
Audio feature |
State |
Notes |
Separate volume controls |
|
|
Surround sound |
|
Based on system configuration; otherwise not configurable. Tested with 5.1 surround sound.[citation needed] |
Subtitles |
|
On by default. |
Closed captions |
|
|
Mute on focus lost |
|
|
Localizations
- Text language is selected from launcher, dialogue language is selected from in game settings.
Network
Multiplayer types
Issues unresolved
- On AMD cards menus won't render if the resolution exceeds 4579 x 3965, on either axis.[citation needed]
FXAA breaks the game
- Enabling FXAA will cause the game to stop responding.[citation needed]
Game freezes and hardlocks when trying to load level
- This issues is related to the Mod Loader. Rebooting the PC with the mod loader uninstalled seems to help temporarily.[3] An issue ticket can be found on the Mod Loader's GitHub repo.
Issues fixed
Game crashes after the Sonic Team logo
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.[4]
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.
|
Sound effects are too loud
- The PC version's sound effects are much louder than previous releases, causing them to drown out some voice over lines.
Install the Fixed SFX Volume mod[5]
|
Get the mod here.
|
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[6]
|
- 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.
<?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>
<?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 you can change
UserConfig.cfg values to desired ones. You may also want to bypass launcher.
|
Fix Pumpkin Mountain Skull Spitting Flame, Digging, Missile and Footsteps Effects (Graphical Effects Bug)
Fixing graphical effects[7]
|
For some reason, with some graphical cards, some graphical effects in the game are missing by default, like the Skull Spitting Flame in the Pumpkin Mountain, the digging effect when digging with Knuckles or Rouge, the smoke effect from the missile, and even the stepping on dirt effect.
- One solution for this is to change the main executable file name (sonic2app.exe) to Launcher.exe, and for some reason, it fixes theses issues. It is advised to make a backup of these two files before doing this.
This is not a bug, it is a optimization issue related to integrated graphics cards, it can be fixed simply by going to your graphics card settings and disable any optimization settings. It is highly advised that you do not alter sonic2app.exe or launcher.exe! There is a video demonstrating this on this tutorial - https://gamebanana.com/tuts/13152
|
Other information
API
Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
Direct3D |
9.0c |
|
Shader Model support |
3.0 |
|
Executable |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
Windows |
|
|
|
Modding
Modding essentials
How to install SA2 Mod Manager[8]
|
- 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
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 a temporary fix is a available.
- 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.
- 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.
Audio/Visual enhancements:
- Highest Quality Textures - Replaces the textures with their highest-quality versions.
- Dreamcast Characters - Dreamcast character models converted for the PC version.
- Faithful Models Pack - Versions of the higher-quality GameCube models edited to give the characters pointy ears, like Yuji Uekawa's original artwork.
- Disable Upgrade Models - Disable or show upgrade items on characters.
- Misc. Improvements and Dreamcast Textures - Attempts to restore some of the missing effects and modified textures to their Dreamcast counterparts.
- 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.
- 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.
Miscellaneous:
- Sonic Adventure 2 Retranslated - A fan-translation of the original Japanese script into English. Recommended when playing with Japanese voice-overs.
- 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 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.
- 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.
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.
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 sound card |
DirectX compatible sound card |
Notes
References