Sonic Heroes

Sonic Heroes
Developer(s)	Sonic Team
Publisher(s)	Sega
Series	Sonic the Hedgehog
Platform(s)	GameCube
Release date(s)	JP December 30, 2003 NA January 5, 2004 EU February 6, 2004
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer (2)
Input methods	GameCube Controller
Compatibility	4 Playable
GameIDs	G9SP8P, G9SJ8P, G9SE8P
See also...	Dolphin Forum thread Open Issues Search Google Search Wikipedia

Sonic Heroes is yet another installment in the Sonic series for the Nintendo GameCube. In Sonic Heroes, three characters (in teams, of which there are 4) travel together at once, each with unique abilities which the player can utilise to defeat enemies or tackle obstacles.

Problems

Black Areas

Black areas appear on the screen in-game on all backends. As of 4.0-1474, the core problem was been addressed, however problems may still appear if Scaled EFB Copy is active when using an internal resolution above 1x Native. To avoid this error, use 1x Native, or disable Scaled EFB Copies and use 2.5x or 3x Native internal resolution. See issue 267 and the April Dolphin Progress Report.

Black areas

File:Sonic Heroes clear areas.png

Proper Emulation

Emblem Counter Glitch

When getting a new emblem, the numerical graphic will appear fine at first, but later appear corrupt when the number increases. Setting Texture Cache Accuracy to Safe solves this issue.

Controller Issues

In two player mode, the in-game controls for pressing A, B, X and Y act as if they are set to turbo-mode (holding the button down means the button is repeatedly turned on and off very quickly). This makes gameplay very difficult due to not being able to jump high enough, rapid scrolling through the characters in the team, and so on.

Corrupt Text

Some of the text on the saved data loading screen is corrupt in OpenGL. Use D3D to avoid this bug. Fixed by 4.0-1474. See issue 6481.

Configuration

Only configuration options for the best compatibility where they deviate from defaults are listed.

Graphics

Config	Setting	Notes
Scaled EFB Copy	Off	Avoids "Black Areas" issue in 2.5x and 3x Native
Texture Cache Accuracy	Position 1 (Safe)	Solves Emblem Counter glitch

Version Compatibility

The graph below charts the compatibility with Sonic Heroes since Dolphin's 2.0 release, listing revisions only where a compatibility change occurred.

r6758

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5.0-21646 (current)

Δ

Δ

Δ

Δ

Δ

2.0 (r5384)

Compatibility can be assumed to align with the indicated revisions. However, compatibility may extend to prior revisions or compatibility gaps may exist within ranges indicated as compatible due to limited testing. Please update as appropriate.

Testing

This title has been tested on the environments listed below:

Test Entries
Revision	OS	CPU	GPU	Result	Tester
r6758	Mac OS X 10.6.8	Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.13GHz	nVidia GeForce 9400M	Working well at about 20-30 FPS; about half-speed. Small shadow glitch. Rapidfire buttons glitch not present. When EFB scale is set to 1x, shadow glitch disappears and also speed goes up 10-20 FPS.	Ac
r6798	Windows	Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550	nVidia GeForce GTX 465	Black areas appear on the screen in-game unless the Direct3D11 plugin, the EFB scale is set to 1x, and anti-aliasing is turned off. Dolphin Emulator Sonic Heroes rendering bug (R6798)	soundspark
r7367	Windows 7 x64	AMD Phenom II 720 BE @ 3.2GHz	ATI Radeon HD 4850	Working good at 50 FPS. EFB Scale set to 1 and EFB Copy set to texture.Using DX11 Plugin	ultramann
3.0-416	Linux Slackware 13.37 x86_64	Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.3GHz	nVidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti	Consistent 60 FPS. Fully playable with no major issues. On OpenGL the black areas can be eliminated by setting Render to Main Window, Auto Adjust Window Size, turning IR to 1x, then switching to Auto (Window Size) in-game. Using fullscreen, anti-aliasing, or EFB Copies -> RAM brings the black areas back.	Shonumi
3.5-1387	Windows 8 x64	AMD Phenom II X4 965 @ 3.4GHz	AMD Radeon HD 6850	Constant 60 FPS. Runs perfectly, no problem.
3.5-2319	Windows 7 x64	Intel Core i3-2330 M @ 2.2GHz	Intel HD Graphics 3000	Playable, 40~60 FPS during gameplay, it slows down while selecting your team, the audio gets chopped when there are lots of actors around. Can be played with Anti-Aliasing set to 4x, but the ground may look weird. Weird AI glitches (cannons not working properly, wrong jump aim...) and some 3D models just go missing randomly making you fell at some random place, but there are few chances of these occurring.	Oddlyoko2K

Gameplay Videos

Dolphin Emulator 4.0.2 - Sonic Heroes (1080p HD) - Nintendo GameCube

Dolphin Emulator Sonic Heroes rendering bug (R6798)