Sonic Heroes Console Differences

I'm not entirely sure Sonic '06 does frame-skip to compensate for the refresh rate in SD. When I first got a PS3 in 2011 along with the game, I had a TV which only allowed for AV input. The FMVs played as you describe but besides that I played through the game, knowing no different. However, when I bought a new television with HDMI compatibility the game definitely seemed to run much faster at 60Hz than before when using 50.
This wasn't a one-time switch experience either as, at the time, I would race through stages alongside a friend using an EasyCAP which, once again, only allowed for SD AV input which meant back to 50Hz. He had a capture device with component support and the difference in speed was very noticeable. Even within sections which required no player input, he would already be in the lead. After having switched back and forth between 50Hz and 60Hz with Sonic '06, I've noticed even the timer was not correct when using the lower frequency.
I could dig out my old cables and look into it again but I'm pretty sure that 50Hz Sonic '06 does not behave accordingly to its faster refreshing counterpart. This could also explain why the FMVs stutter as they do.

 

How do the iOS/Android and PC versions of All-Stars Racing Transformed hold up? Has anyone made a comparison to those? And what about the PlayStation Network version of Sonic Heroes for that matter? How does it compare to the GameCube?

 

PSN version of Heroes is the PS2 one. Nothing special or different about it.

iOS Transformed is based around the Vita one, but with silly paywalls and daily play activities. PC version however is the best version of the game to play for being better than the main console releases. The ONLY thing it lacks is the fifth player function from the Wii U.

 

I actually completely forgot that the PS3 version of Unleashed ran with an unlocked frame-rate! I remember thinking at the time that I should hold on to it, as the then rumours about the PS4 suggested it would still use the same processor, albeit massively more powerful. I thought if so, it might be able to run the game via backward compatibility, but with something approaching a good frame-rate, ahaha. Those turned out completely false of course, and thankfully the trade in value on the game was, at the time, the same price as the 360 version, so I wandered in to my local CeX and handed over one and took the other. :|

It's been so long since I've touched the game, I completely forgot this! I mean, I was never sure of it, but always kind of suspected it... but soon got an HD monitor and left that thought behind me. How bizzare. I always assumed the 50hz frame-skipping was done by the console itself. Maybe it is, but Sega forgot to set a flag to enable it? Thinking about it, there is one other game that behaves abnormally on PS3 when in 50hz, that being Dynasty Warriors 7. It runs at 480p60, something that PAL PS3s ordinarily refuses to do. So maybe there is a little more to this than I thought.

 

I also recall playing the Rayman Origins demo on both TVs and the music which plays when grabbing the King Lum played much more slowly in SD.
This has deviated far from Heroes differences now, oops.

 

So the PSN Heroes is just a straight-up PS2 port? With same framerate and circular shadows? Nothing added that makes it comparable to GameCube?

...Okay, nevermind. I've just checked a few YT videos. Yup, it's all just like in the original PS2 version.

 

Specifically, it is an emulation of the PS2 version. Any PS2 or PS1 game you can buy on PSN (with the exception of HD ports like Ico HD or Shadow of the Colossus HD) is emulated, much like Nintendo's range of virtual console games. Much cheaper to throw an ISO and emulator into a package together than to port said game to a new architecture.

 

There's one more thing that's bothering me. Which version of Sonic 4 (both episodes) is the best? Xbox, PS3, PC or iOS/Android?

 

I don't think those ports suffer any changes between versions. If anything the PC version is better because you can set a high resolution. The android version has a low and high graphic version that will download depending on your specs, something about needing Tegra 2.

 

Yeah, I know about the Android because my tablet can't handle the high graphic version, so I'm pretty much stuck with the inferior version there. And it's Tegra 3.

But if the Steam version is considered the best version for both episodes, then I'm good.

 

PC version hands down. Those can at least be modded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSWaK5l3T70

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coT90KVK1gc

Credit to NicoCW, he may have given up on his Sonic 4 remixes, but I find them fantastic for the game.

 

On the topic of Sonic 06, I made this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xDLGZitSQ4


As far as it vs PS3, the PS3 has less lag, but the console has displaying things far off, this includes shadows and level geometry. It lags a tiny bit less at regular 720p resolution, but I don't really thing it lags due to graphical effects, I just think it's something that's unoptimized seeing as you can stand at certain spots in a level and have the game slow down to a crawl when there's nothing going on graphically.

 

No kidding, the only mod I downloaded for Episode I was one that made Sonic not shiny. It's amazing how much nicer that simple change was. Episode II has the much more impressive Classic mod. But really, the only version of Episode I that stands out is the iOS version considering its changes in levels, since it's the same as the leaked prototype that prompted Sega to delay the game. I don't remember hating the levels when I played that version, but they were very gimmicky. Not like their replacements were much better.

 

Sheesh. Mario Kart 8 is a much more visually-impressive game and it never slows down from 60fps in single-player or 2-player at 720p. And people say the Wii U is at the same level as the PS3 and 360.

Before anyone says anything, the Wii U version of Transformed is a direct port of the 360 version with no optimizations to make use of the GPGPU like Mario Kart 8 does.

 

Man, that water shader I can live with not having because it always looked pretty cheap and shitty anyway. What really pisses me off is the lack of the proper lighting in the first two parts of Sky Deck:

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv9pY1BqGH4[/media]

Sure, most of the time the shading from the DC version is kinda take it or leave it as well (it tends to make things look more washed-out and sometimes kinda cheap) but I do quite enjoy the effect they got here.

 

I got to see that first hand recently as I was fixing some things in SADX:FE and needed to check the SA1 for reference. The lighting in DX makes Sky Deck look so uninteresting in comparison. I also sorta prefer the texture work in the Dreamcast version too. As far as I could tell, there weren't very many new textures added to the DX version, but they just sorta swapped things around a bunch (strictly in terms of Sky Deck).

 

It did look cheap and shitty, but it still looked hella better than it did in the PC version.

 

Honestly I'd rather have something like the underwater light texture patterns that Big has in his stages, which looks quite nice irrespective of the shader

 

I agree, and that underwater light effect looked much better on the Dreamcast.

Instead of having the distortion effect happen throughout the whole body of water, it would make more sense for it to just happen on the surface, like in Half-Life 2. Therefore, just like in real life, the only rippling you will see when underwater is whatever's above the surface of the water, or whatever's in the water when above the surface.

 

First of all. Thanks for taking the time to reply to my curiosity about the Sonic PS3/360 games (and you're right, they won't be last gen until I've finished my backlog!)

In regards to All Stars Racing, I heard the original first game had some framerate problems on the 360 version that had to be patched, wheras the PS3 version ran at a stable 30fps right from the get go. This was where I heard people say "Sumo prefers the PS3" on forums here and there. I wish I had both versions to try to see how true that is..

Although very interesting to hear that Transformed seems to run better on 360. Thank god for Digital Foundry comparing all the releases!