Hacking Sonic Adventure DX on Steam

As I've said before, I am unwilling to do any research into the Steam version. As for your fullscreen problem, it should be as simple as setting "screen" to 0 in sonicDX.ini, or using the SADX Mod Manager's config editor.

 

A bit of a shame, given that the Steam version somehow manages to be the one in more dire need of fixing up.

 

That's... kind of the reason why I'm not touching it? Aside from the tediousness of doing all the research over again.

 

It'd be great if there were a little utility that compares the files from the Steam version to the old PC version, then just converts the whole thing over to the old PC version. I wonder how big a content patch that'd be.

 

I disagree -- the biggest flaw unique the Steam version are mostly along the lines of resolution -- the music is all ADX (finally) and some of the shaders that were missing in the older version have made it in (the cave in Lost World is sufficiently dark!). Furthermore, it renders in windowed mode correctly without hacks and doesn't crash when switched away from in fullscreen. Sure, there seems to be some missing chao data, too, but is this really that much of an issue?

Sure, the lack of support for controllers that aren't XInput is disappointing, but using x360ce is not a much more inelegant solution than the workarounds necessary to use an XInput controller in the older version (which didn't even implement the x-axis camera control outside of the keyboard controls).

 

It is theoretically possible to get the 2004 version to play ADX music, I just haven't figured out how yet.

 

It's not so much a simple patch as it is you pirating the 2004 version with my hack, SADX Fixed Edition, thrown in in some (most) cases, and throwing it on top of the Steam version and hoping for the best.

And to add to what MainMemory said, some of the good things can be theoretically backported to SADX 2004, it'll just take time to figure out. Much less effort than rediscovering EVERYTHING about a semi-botched version of the game. Don't get me wrong, I like the ADX audio, DirectX 9, and xinput support too, but it's not worth the time and effort if it could potentially be reimplemented with less of both.

I do agree that the resolution is one of the most glaring issues with it though. But good luck fixing it! I managed to increase it, but that doesn't account for the scale, FOV, and that stupid border. Windowed mode is still broken though, just less so. I swear Sega doesn't know how to size a window. Play it in a window at say 720p, alt printscreen it, crop the image to the window content, and tell me that's the resolution it should be.
Also happens with Sonic CD, SA2, and more!

 

Shame. And it only takes half a dozen lines of OpenGL code( probably the same with D3D) to make the game render at arbitrary resolutions, while keeping the HUD scale and everything, and touching the window from inside with a fixed aspect ratio.

 

Does the Steam version have any real advantage?

At some point I read the 2004 version will only do 50fps but that may have been misinformation.

 

DirectX 9, native looping ADX audio (now available in the 2004 version plus additional video game formats as supported by vgmstream), and native xinput support (which can be implemented into the old version I'm sure).

Assuming xinput gets hacked into the 2004 version, the only thing it has going for it at that point is DirectX 9, which isn't too big of a deal. So no, not really.

There is some truth to that. It DOES run at 60FPS, but on certain configurations it would have really weird framerate problems. Back on Windows XP, I simply couldn't get it up to 60FPS... unless I was running Windows Media Player in the background. And coincidentally, it would run anywhere from 30 to 50FPS without it. These days, it's not a problem (unless you happen to still be on XP and in fact have the issue).

 

Wow, thank you for that detailed response. Love the progress on SA2 multiplayer by the way.

Is there a detailed "fix your steam version of SADX" guide anywhere? I used to know one but it got taken down and then the associated download links no longer worked.
To first replace your steam version with the 2004 version, then to get the ADX, XInput etc etc.


I know there's a new mod manager (MainMemory is on a roll) and I'd love to use it for that sweet 1920x1080 borderless window.

 

It also has the shadow effect in the middle part of Lost World working (although that effect isn't used anywhere else -- it'd have been welcome in the middle part of Final Egg)

 

Things the Steam version does have:

• E-101mkII and ZERO's model files
• Game Gear games
• Textures
• ADX format music (if you plan on never turning off the mod loader)

Things that the Steam version doesn't have:

• WMA format voices
• WAV format sound effects
• MPG format videos
• sonic.exe
• DLL files (CHRMODELS.DLL, ADV00MODELS.DLL, etc)

Even if you can find an archive containing only the missing files, you'll still be downloading a significant chunk of the game's data. I think you might as well just download the whole game. The only thing I can provide to you is the sonic.exe file, which you should use instead of the copy you get with the rest of the game's files, to ensure compatibility with the mod loader.

 

I do have the Israeli version of Sonic Adventure DX 2004 (actually been meaning to add the boxart to the wiki but can't figure out how) should I install it to my Steam directory and then replace the exe?

 

I've never heard of an Israeli version, I'm guessing it's the European build with SecuROM though. It'll work fine if you replace the EXE, although I don't know what you expect to get from installing it in the Steam folder.

 

I thought doing that would give me the files I need.

I'm trying to combine the 2 versions, basically have the 2004 version but still have Steam thing it's the steam version.

I've done it before.

Edit: Just going full 2004. I own it, seems silly to hold myself back.

 

That too. This is probably a stretch, but it would be pretty cool if we could implement DirectX 9 into the older version and just throw those shaders in there =P