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Sonic Adventure 2

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Revision as of 17:42, 13 April 2021 by Mew90 (talk | contribs)
Sonic Adventure 2
Sonic Adventure 2 cover
Developers
Sonic Team
Publishers
Sega
Release dates
Windows November 9, 2012
Taxonomy
Monetization 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 2 on HowLongToBeat
Sonic Adventure 2 on IGDB
Sonic Adventure 2 guide on StrategyWiki
Sonic Adventure 2 on MobyGames
Sonic Adventure 2 on Wikipedia
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 platforming 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, and is historically notable for being one of the last games released for the Dreamcast, was released during the 10th Anniversary of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and the final first-party game developed by Sega before became a third-party company and leaving the console market. Sonic Adventure 2 restructures and streamlines the gameplay elements from its predecessor, featuring "Team Hero" (Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles) and "Team Dark" (Shadow, 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 missing and/or changed content 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.[1]

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 missing or altered elements from the Dreamcast version or address issues with the PC version; see modding for recommendations and how to setup MainMemory's SA2 Mod Loader to ease mod installation.

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

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Publisher website
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows
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.
Windows

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

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Config\Keyboard.cfg[Note 1]
<path-to-game>\Config\UserConfig.cfg[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/213610/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\resource\gd_PC\SAVEDATA\[Note 1]
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/213610/pfx/[Note 2]
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.
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.
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
Unstable, may cause crashes.[citation needed]
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.[Note 3]
Do not force FXAA, see the talk page.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Always enabled.
60 FPS
Must run at 60 FPS, higher/lower will impact gameplay.
120+ FPS
Game's speed is bound to frame rate. Cap the frame rate to 60 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

Launcher control settings.
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.[3]
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

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

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.[4] An issue ticket can be found on the Mod Loader's GitHub repo.

Issues fixed

Troubleshooting guide for common issues with the PC version of Sonic Adventure 2.

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.[5]

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 with Knuckles or Rouge are missing on integrated graphics with application optimization mode enabled.
Disable Application Optimal Mode from the integrated GPU control panel[6]

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]
  1. Download Special K.
  2. Copy SpecialK32.dll to the installation folder.
  3. Rename SpecialK32.dll to d3d9.dll.
  4. Start the game and then exit.
  5. Open d3d9.ini in the installation folder.
  6. Change TargetFPS to 60.0.
  7. Change RefreshRate to 0.

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

Manually create config files[7]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. If no files are present, create files named Keyboard.cfg and UserConfig.cfg.
  3. 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" />
  4. Start the game from <path-to-game>\sonic2app.exe.
  5. If everything works you can change UserConfig.cfg values to desired ones. You may also want to bypass launcher.

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]
  1. Download SA2 Mod Manager from here.
  2. Extract the contents of SA2ModLoader.7z to <path-to-game>.
  3. 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 an unofficial 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. A DualShock 3 variant is also available.
  • 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:

  • Fixed SFX Volume - The PC version's sound effects are much louder than previous releases, drowning out the music and some voice over lines.
  • 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.
  • 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, 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.[9] 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.
  • Ripple Fix - Fixes and restores the original Dreamcast version's water ripple effects.
  • 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 Fix - Fixes a minor issue with Cutscene Revamp that causes Knuckles's and Rouge's respective character themes to cut short during their introduction cutscenes.
  • 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 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.
  • 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.

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
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 3 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 8600
ATI Radeon HD 3650
256 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible
Sound (audio device) DirectX compatible sound card


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
  2. 2.0 2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/213610/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (213610) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.
  3. LOD adjustment and the "AA Fix" are not necessary.

References

  1. Sonic Adventure 2 (2012) - Sonic Retro - last accessed on 2020-12-23
  2. Verified by User:AmethystViper on 2019-12-13
  3. Verified by User:AmethystViper on 2020-12-24
  4. Verified by User:SirYodaJedi on 2019-12-19
    It might be due to one of my mods, because uninstalling the mod loader worked reliably. Doesn't explain how rebooting the PC helped though.
  5. Verified by User:SirYodaJedi on 2019-12-09
  6. SA2 Troubleshooting Guide (SA2) (Tutorial), section 2.1 - GameBanana - last accessed on 2020-12-23
  7. Game doesn't launch :: Sonic Adventure™ 2 General Discussions
  8. Verified by User:AmethystViper on 2019-12-12
  9. Miscellaneous Improvements and Dreamcast Textures (Sonic Adventure 2) (mods) - GameBanana - last accessed on 2020-12-20