Serious Sam: Next Encounter

Serious Sam: Next Encounter
Developer(s)	Climax Studios
Publisher(s)	Global Star Software
Platform(s)	GameCube
Release date(s)	NA April 12, 2004 EU April 30, 2004
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer (4), Co-op (4)
Input methods	GameCube Controller
Compatibility	5 Perfect
GameIDs	G3BP54, G3BE9G
See also...	Dolphin Forum thread Open Issues Search Google Search Wikipedia

Serious Sam: Next Encounter is a spin-off first person shooter in the Serious Sam series of video games. The game is a first-person shooter featuring both single and multiplayer modes. The single-player story mode sends the player through various historical settings to face off against legions of monsters. The two multiplayer modes consist of a deathmatch mode and a co-op version of the story mode.

Emulation Information

16:9

Serious Sam: Next Encounter has a native 16:9 display option, but it requires enabling it in its internal options and setting Dolphin's Aspect Ratio graphics setting to "Auto". Using the widescreen hack with this title is not recommended.

Problems

Splitscreen Issues

In 2-Player splitscreen with widescreen mode enabled, Player 2's screen is black if EFB is not set to RAM and Defer EFB Copies are off, and even if it is set to RAM, the resolution of Player 2's view is significantly less than Player 1's. 3/4-Player splitscreen is not affected and displays/scales properly.

Save Screen Hang

The emulator will get stuck into the save screen right before level loading. To fix the this, disable the memory card in slot A, or try other revision. Appears to be fixed as of 5.0.

Enhancements

Blotchy Textures

Some textures are not intended to be displayed in an 24b format, which can cause banding across gradients or otherwise blotchy colors. Disabling Force 24-bit color fixes the issue.

24-bit color on

24-bit color off

60Hz PAL

In the PAL-Version the 60Hz mode cannot be activated at startup. Use this Gecko code to force the 60Hz mode.

$60Hz
041BF648 38000000

Configuration

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

Graphics

Config	Setting	Notes
Force 24-Bit Color	Off	Fix blotchy textures
Store EFB Copies to Texture Only	Off
Defer EFB Copies to RAM	Off	Fixes splitscreen issues. Not necessary in single player.

Version Compatibility

The graph below charts the compatibility with Serious Sam: Next Encounter since Dolphin's 2.0 release, listing revisions only where a compatibility change occurred.

r3142

r7120

5.0

Δ

5.0-20495 (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
3.0-226	Kubuntu 11.10	AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE	NVIDIA GeForce GT 440	Perfect, full speed.
3.0-716	Windows XP	Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2 GHz	NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140m	Laggy, Save screen hang.	989Nintendo898
3.5-33	Windows 7 x64	Athlon II x2 250	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660	Good, fullspeed on most levels. D3D9, Native x3, Skip Alpha Pass.
4.0-9045	Windows 10 x64	Intel Core i7-4790k	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980	Perfect, D3D12, Native x3, Note: Disable "Force texture filtering" to prevent blurry textures.	MDA
5.0-6197	Windows 7 x64	Intel Core i7-6700k	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060	Perfect, OpenGL, Native x3. Only issues appear to be with splitscreen, as listed above. Otherwise no issues.	Star-X

Gameplay Videos

Dolphin Emulator 4.0-4557 - Serious Sam: Next Encounter (1080p HD) - Nintendo GameCube

NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV running Serious Sam: The Next Encounter (1080p HD) - Nintendo GameCube

Serious Sam: Next Encounter Gameplay using Dolphin Emulator!