Making SADX better: A guide for modding the game with fixes and enhancements.

Overview

A simple and easy to follow guide that walks you through how to fix issues with SADX on PC with a simple mod installer.

Introduction

Sonic Adventure is a great game, Even today the game is still lauded as one of the best Sonic titles and one of the best 3D Sonic games. It’s still fun playing nearly 23 years later. Sure, some things might have not aged well, but overall, it’s a great time. However, this will not be a review of the game, but instead how to fix the game on PC. The steam port of Sonic Adventure DX might be fine for most people, but it’s really rough and has many issues. I will be going over what these issues are and how to fix them with the Sonic Adventure DX mod installer, a simple and lightweight program that installs recommended mods, a mod manager and a new configuration menu. In this guide, we will be discussing the issues of SADX on PC, how the mod installer works, how to install the mod installer, and some other recommended and fun mods. Use the table of contents if you want to get to a specific section. Let’s begin!

The Issues

– Hit or miss optimization. Ran fine for me without mods but I’ve heard people had issues.
– Retained bugs from previous versions. An example is on the first image on the steam page of SADX. If Sonic reaches top speed the texture on the bottom of his shoe and the buckle on his shoe will switch.
– Crashes can be frequent. I think the game has crashed once for me but I have seen MANY with way more crashes.
– The only aspect ratio available is 4:3, which, while not a problem for some, can be annoying
– Issues with 60fps are present. The original Dreamcast version was running at 30fps, but in SADX it runs at 60fps. This is an improvement although some game logic wasn’t updated for 60fps. Some examples are that animations play faster, and a certain enemy disappears faster.
– Worse textures compared to the DC version. You might not notice but the textures are fairly worse. Things like banding are here too.
– MUCH WORSE LIGHTING. Lighting just got absolutely massacred in the port. Everything looks way
worse and it really becomes apparent after seeing the original DC version.
– New set of bugs in this version, the most infamous probably being that you can clip through a pathway in the first level.
– Removal of some effects and transparencies, for example stretchy shoes, which were used to simulate motion blur.
– Worse audio, at least in the original 2004 version. The audio was converted to WMA, which resulted in noticeably worse audio. This was fixed in the Steam version however.
– Unnecessary changes, for example some plants were changed, a transparency on a pool chair was changed, and in some places, decorations were removed. These may seem like nitpicks, but it’s still weird these were changed.

and many many more…..

What does the Mod Installer Do?

“What exactly does the mod installer do?” you may ask. Well, like the title suggests, the mod installer, installs recommended mods that greatly improve the experience as well as a new configuration menu and a mod manager by MainMemory. (kudos to them!) The mod installer also downgrades the game to the 2004 PC version. This might sound strange and might even sound bad, but it does this so that you can actually install mods, so don’t worry. This also means that the 2004 PC version of the game is also compatible with the mod installer, so if you have that old version lying around, you can use it. (you can also use the old 2011 version with the mod installer as welI). The mod installer is also not region locked, meaning you can use it even if you have a Japanese or European copy of SADX for example. If your antivirus picks this up as malicious, it’s not, it is a false positive and the reason it gets picked up is that it downloads files over the internet. Don’t worry. There are also two seperate versions of the mod installer, an online and offline version. If you want to use as little Internet traffic as possible, get the web version. If you need to use the installer on a computer without Internet access, get the offline version. The offline package is refreshed automatically every Sunday around midnight (UTC).

How to Fix the Issues (and more!) with the Mod Installer

Now, while that might seem like a long list of issues, don’t fret! They can be fixed! The best way to fix these is with the SADX mod installer by PkR, which you can find here: [link]. The mod installer is a safe and small program which can be used online and offline. The installer will walk you through some recommended mods, all of them I recommend using besides the SADX style water texture and Dreamcast Models as those are up to personal preference, so choose what you want here, although I do use the DC models. (P.S, the “Dreamcast Conversion” mod does not add the Dreamcast character models, so you will have to install those.) Once it finishes installing, you can go straight to playing! If you want to configure your game, select “Configure Sonic Adventure DX”, and you’ll see a nice and clean config menu! Selecting the “mods” button in the config menu will allow you to view and configure your mods through the mod manager. You can disable certain mods from there too. Tweak them to your liking!

Other Cool Mods You Should Try

Here are a few other mods that the mod installer does not include that I think are cool. To install mods, extract the zip, rar, or 7z to your preferred location. (windows includes a zip extractor but it’s not great. I recommend 7zip[www.7-zip.org], a free and open source extractor). take the folder inside the archive and move it to your Sonic Adventure DX mod folder. To get there, hit “browse local files” on Steam and you’ll see it.

– DX Characters Refined[gamebanana.com]: Fixes issues with the original SADX models. Use if you prefer SADX models over the Dreamcast ones.
– Uekawa Accurate Colors[gamebanana.com]: Makes the colors of the models more like the artwork done by Yuji Uekawa.
– No Gloss[gamebanana.com]: This removes the shininess or “gloss” from the character models. Only works if you are not using Dreamcast models. Load this last in the mod loader if you would like this to apply to custom models.
– Fixes, Adds, and Beta Restores[gamebanana.com]: This mod adds a bunch of content to the PC version, even some cut content is added too. This mod fixes a few things too. In the mod manager, load it AFTER the Dreamcast Conversion and BEFORE any Autodemo mods.
– AI HD FMVs[gamebanana.com]: I highly recommend this one. All the FMVs are upscaled to 1080p using Topaz AI Gigapixel neural network. The FMVs look so good in 1080p!
– DiscordSADX[gamebanana.com]: This mod lets your friends see where you are and what you’re doing in Sonic Adventure DX. It’s pretty neat.
–Physics Swap[gamebanana.com]: This mod lets you swap physics on characters. It’s a fun novelty and can be absolutely insane. To change the physics, use the mod manager’s “Configure” button.
– Sonic Adventure Retranslated[gamebanana.com]: This mod that, as the title suggests, retranslates Sonic Adventure. I like the new translation quite a bit actually, it feels just as good as the official translation. This is recommended to be used with the Japanese voice-overs
–16:9/Unstretched Flashacks[gamebanana.com]: Replaces the original low-resolution 4:3 flashback images from Amy’s and Gamma’s cutscenes with faithful, higher resolution versions that are re-rendered to 16:9 with added black bars to avoid stretching on wider aspect-ratios. There are two versions of this mod: one that uses Amy’s original Dreamcast character model, and the other uses her higher-poly DX character model. These mods are all available on GameBanana and you do not need an account to download any mods.

Miscellaneous Section and Tips

UPDATE YOUR MODS!!! Check your mod manager often and update if you need to. If it asks you to overwrite a DLL or something of the sort, select yes. A lot of issues stem from being on older versions, so if you are having issues make sure you update! Also, you are not tied down to the mods installed via the installer, there are more mods you can get from GameBanana. Here is a link to SADX’s GameBanana page: [link]. Head to the “Other cool mods to try” section to see some mods I like. Try out mods and experiment! There are many cool and fun mods out there, even mods that change entire levels. It’s also worth noting that a good amount of the mods installed with the installer can be configured. Just select the mod you wish to configure, and select “Configure…” and boom, loads of options open up. Configure them as you wish! Finally, there is a “Codes” section in the mod manager. A lot of them are sort of like cheats, but there are some pretty useful codes in there too, like being able to hude the HUD, which is awesome for screenshots! Even an option for 60fps cutscenes, although this does speed the cutscenes up. Again, if you have any questions please comment them down below and I will do my best to help you out! Have fun!

Conclusion

Sonic Adventure DX is a great game, unfortunately blemished on PC by the shoddy port. These mods easily make the game the best version of Sonic Adventure to date. I hope this guide allows you to enjoy the game just as much as I did when I played all those years ago. A huge thank you to PkR for making the installer and thank you to all the other talented mod creators who made the mods in the installer. If you have any issues or questions, comment down below and I will do my best to help you. Also, if you have any suggestions for this guide comment them down below and I will try to add them in. Thank you so much for reading, and have fun with the game! (P.S, this guide is for Windows only, and the way to do this is with an EXE file. There is a way to use Lutris[lutris.net]to install mods, and probably a way to do that with Wine[www.winehq.org] too, but I don’t have much experience with that, so your mileage may vary. if you have questions with Linux or MacOS i might not be able to help you out there!! Try the forums of your distro, head over to https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/ or https://www.reddit.com/r/macgaming/, and try asking on steam!!) EDIT: thank you so much to the people catching errors and suggesting mods! it’s a big help

Resources on SADX Faults + Additional Help

Here are a couple resources about SADX issues if you would like to see even more of them. Sonic YouTuber Cybershell has a really great video on the subject as well where he goes over the cons of SADX. His video is basically info from PkR’s (creator of the installer) really detailed Dreamcastify project which outlines the faults of SADX. If you need some more help, the PCGamingWiki is a great place to go. They have articles for the Steam version of SADX, the 2011 version, and the 2004 version. Those will be linked if you would like to learn more on the subject.PkR Dreamcastify:
[link]
PCGamingWiki SADX (Steam) Article:
[link]