I figured the likely reason why there's little in the way of modding for the 2010/11 edition of SADX was due to the common thought of "Steam wrap EXEs around in their own protection blanket, so fat chance" (and that's if they didn't get a version which uses Starforce DRM instead, such as what GreenManGaming used to sell before they replaced it with the Steam version). As it turns out though - and like I did mention a while back - at least two stores sell a clean version of the game, free of all DRM woes. Those would be Amazon.com and GamersGate. In case many were thinking "well I already have this game/got burned by my last purchase of this game, so I can't be chewed", allow me to serve a big purpose and provide the clean EXE for you. Just to be on the safe side, I've included the config.exe file from the same download as well. /> Bon appetit, programming elite!
You would be incorrect then. If I wanted to I could have made a hackable Steam exe just like I did with SA2. The reason nobody is modding the 2010/2011 version is because the 2003/2004 port is in most cases better. Even though the code and data is mostly going to be the same, it would still take a long time to re-find everything in the Steam version.
I understand why many would find the older release to be a lot better, having playtested and compared the two quite recently. However, I reckon what I'm providing could still help someone out there who may well feel the need to fix everything Sega could never be bothered to fix, and don't forget that the new version is easier and more common to obtain with each passing day than the old one. I'm sure someone would one day love to see/make a version of the game with unrestricted widescreen/HD *and* proper XInput gamepad support under one roof, without having to juggle EXEs and controllers (or heaven forbid, drivers) if you're not lucky enough to get a multi-switch controller like the Logitech one I mentioned in the other thread. (And let's not forget the rumble! No-one really seems to know how to get it working in the 03/04 version to date.)
the 2011 release also doesn't silently crash in the event of a popup window from another program taking focus
I'm not sure if this pertains to the EXE specifically, but something I've noticed with my non-Steam copy of the game is that there's noticeable frame skipping if Windows Media Player is not open while playing. If I open it and leave it running in the background, though, then the game runs at a perfect 60 FPS. Any clue what's causing this? Could it be the fact that some of the music and voice tracks are .wma files?
Speaking of FPS, I have noticed that the '04 version runs much smoother than the '11 version, despite it supposedly being locked to 50fps. The later version behaved more akin to the Dreamcast original in terms of frames, despite my PC being a fairly meaty beast bought only last November or thereabouts. Maybe that's something Mr Awesome Patcher could fix as well!
If by "some" you mean everything that isn't strictly a sound effect... Seriously though, I used to have this issue too. I have no idea what was going on, but it always fixed the problem. Maybe Sintendo is on to something. ... I keep seeing people say this, but nobody's been able to back it up. Even the EU version I have doesn't run at 50FPS. I have a feeling this is all started with windows media player shenanigans.
I've found a solution of sorts to the border problem *and* getting it to run in your monitor's native resolution. It won't be proper HD sure, but it'll do for now. 1) Download this Direct3D 9 wrapper. 2) Extract it into your SADX (2011) directory. 3) Open d3d9.cfg in a text editor of your choice and adjust the 'resX' and 'resY' values to match your monitor's resolution. 4) Download BubblegumBalloon's Sonic Adventure DX config tool, extract it into your SADX directory, and run it. 5) Choose a full-screen setting of 640x480, 800x600 or 1440x900 and save it. Now when you run the game, the combination of the screen settings and the wrapper should make it use your native resolution and discard the border. Only problem with this is that it also causes some obvious "popup" issues with various objects at certain angles. Doesn't happen under the real resolutions, so it could be a wrapper issue.
Ummmm. The only issues are controller issues and a configuration tool that doesn't work. And the game does not require steam to run. It can be ran without steam. Just click on the executable. The game installs on steam under your steam directory under: Steam\SteamApps\common\Sonic Adventure DX\ No DRM woes here. Sonic Adventure 2 requires steam to run and will open steam if not running.
The config tool issue is only because the Steam version forgets to install a crucial registry value needed for settings and saved games to be preserved at all. Not sure if it's been fixed since then, but since this is Sega we're talking about, I doubt it. The Amazon/GamersGate version, however, uses a clean installer that *does* install everything necessary to make the config tool work from the start, without needing to search for solutions. Which is nice. Really? I was under the assumption that most (if not all) games distributed through Steam were protected with a wrapper so that people couldn't just copy/archive the game's files and effortlessly spread them through torrents. =P Granted, I haven't seen any kind of DRM-free version of this to date. Probably makes more of an effort to integrate Steam into itself than SADX-11 does.
If you use the decrypted SA2 exe which removes Steam's wrapper it simply fails to run if Steam is not running. I could probably remove the Steam API calls from the code, but I would rather not, because that would be enabling piracy of a game that is still being sold. And the Steam release of SADX does have DRM on it as well. It even kills the disassembler.
Then one only needs the fix for the bugs in the steam version with the regedit and enter the right values to make it work and any file that is needed for it to work. Cool fact: If you want to use noclip in Half-Life 2, play offline mode. You need to start steam than set it to offline mode, the application restarts and unlocks that. You will not get any achievements because of the potiential to cheat, but go back online if you those trophys but then you can't use noclip.
Hmm, the 2004 version feels smoother because of an issue with the Steam version of SADX. The core clock (frequency) of PC CPUs varies depending on the load, with the Steam version of SADX, as the core clock goes down, framerate drops start happening. In the case of the Steam version, at first it didn't have this issue, but a patch that was released like a couple months after release introduced this issue (the only patch released for the Steam version). No idea if the other digital versions or if the retail 2011 version have the same issue. When they added that patch to the Steam version, as soon as I noticed the framerate drops, I used the windows "previous versions" feature to recover the original executable, so, if anyone here has the Steam version and wants a fix for framerate drops, here's the original executable. http://www.dropbox.com/s/xw5yrkbosncwq48/Sonic%20Adventure%20DX.exe
