Sonic Riders

Sonic Riders

Developers
	Now Production
	Sonic Team
Publishers
	Sega
Engines
	Sega NN Graphics Library
Release dates
Windows	November 16, 2006
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Racing
Vehicles	Hovercraft, Motorcycle
Art styles	Anime, Cartoon
Themes	Sci-fi
Series	Sonic the Hedgehog

Warnings

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see Availability for affected versions).

Key points

Most of the fixes documented in this article target the DRM-free executable and will not work with other versions.

No in-game quit option. Must use Alt+F4 to quit.

3-4 player modes from the console versions are absent on the PC version and can only be played with up to 2 players.

Unfavorable to the console versions in many ways, including missing graphical elements (such as the heat wave effect in Egg Factory), characters' pupils being stationary in Story Mode cutscenes, FMV playback occasionally being choppy, and several in-game lines being excluded.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc v4 DRM. 3 CDs.
Retail		Sonic PC Collection. 1 DVD.

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

Demos

A demo is available here.

Essential improvements

Tweakbox for Sonic Riders

Work-in-progress, all-in-one mod that adds online multiplayer, widescreen support (without patching the game's executable file), controller support and more.

Requires Reloaded II. Installation instructions are available on the mod's GitHub page, website and this YouTube video.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Save\Config.ini

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Save\Game Data*\save.dat

Video

External graphics and sound settings

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			Use Sonic Riders HD Resolution Patch or WSGF Widescreen Patch (has aspect ratio adjustments)
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen			Use Sonic Riders HD Resolution Patch or WSGF 21:9 Patch (has aspect ratio adjustments)
4K Ultra HD			Use Sonic Riders HD Resolution Patch or WSGF Widescreen Patch (has aspect ratio adjustments)
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Toggleable on/off.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS		Optional 30, 15, and 10 FPS caps available.
120+ FPS		Capped at 60 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Field of view (FOV)

Change FOV with Cheat Engine[citation needed]
Download and install Cheat Engine. Download the WSGF attachment. Use the included Cheat Table file to adjust the FOV values.

Change FOV with hex edit[citation needed]

Open d3dx9_25.dll with a hex editor such as HxD. Go to offset 0x3F9A9. Replace bytes 00 00 80 BF with bytes representing your float value multiplier at a negative value (default multiplier is -1.0). Remember to invert the byte order to Little Endian. Notes Use this online float to hex converter. If the code is replaced with the command to jump to allow the extending of vertical fov at 0x3F9A9, replace bytes 00 00 80 3F at 0x1F8F3A with bytes representing your float value multiplier in a positive value (default multiplier here is 1.0). FOV multiplier values lower than -0.75 or 0.75 will also cause blue clipping on geometry.

Input

External gamepad settings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Launcher only works with Keyboard & Mouse.
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers		Lacks native support. Use DS4Windows as a workaround.
DualShock button prompts
Light bar support
Connection modes	unknown

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback		Despite a vibration option being available in the Options menu, it does not seem to work when enabled.
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

• 

  External keyboard rebinding

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Sliders for BGM and SE/VOICE available in the external launcher.
Surround sound		Supports up to 7.1.
Subtitles		Limited to cutscenes in Story Mode only; cannot be disabled. Voiced dialogue during races, such as pre and post-race lines and play-by-play commentary, are not subtitled.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

In-game text language settings

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Russian				Fan text translation by "Falling Forward". Fan audio localization by "Best Blast Team".
Spanish				Castilian.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		2	Versus The PC version supports 4 player gameplay like the console versions without issues. However, the developers decided to disallow 4 players in the game's menu code and did not implement reading of inputs for players 3 and 4 (their input data is still stored). Through hacking, playing 4 players is possible.
LAN play
Online play
Asynchronous multiplayer

Issues fixed

Game Lags when Rendering Lots of Particles (e.g. End of Red Canyon)

Set CPU Affinity to single core.
Open Task Manager. Go to the Details tab. Right Click SonicRiders.exe Press Set Affinity Check CPU 0, Uncheck all other boxes. Note: The real fix is to hijack the Direct3D device creation; disable the D3DCREATE_MULTITHREADED flag (unused) and enable the D3DCREATE_DISABLE_PSGP_THREADING flag.

Infinite Loading Screen When Loading Race

Use decompressed game files.
Download Uncompressed Sonic Riders Assets. Extract to the Data directory of the game.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium III 1.0 GHz or AMD equivalent	Intel Pentium 4 1.4 GHz
System memory (RAM)	128 MB	256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	3 GB
Video card (GPU)	Direct3D compatible video card 64 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible
Sound (audio device)	DirectSound compatible
Other	Windows compatible keyboard and mouse

Windows 98: Second Edition (SE) and Me also launch the game, but are not officially supported.