Shadow the Hedgehog
| Shadow the Hedgehog | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Sonic Team |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Series | Sonic the Hedgehog |
| Platform(s) | GameCube |
| Release date(s) | NA November 15, 2005 EU November 18, 2005 JP December 15, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | Platform, Action-adventure, Third-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, Multiplayer (2) |
| Input methods | GameCube Controller |
| Compatibility | 4  Playable |
| GameIDs | |
| See also... |
Dolphin Forum thread |
Shadow the Hedgehog is a 2005 video game developed by Sega Studio USA, the former United States division of Sega's Sonic Team. Featuring the titular fictional character Shadow the Hedgehog from Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series, the game was revealed at the March 2005 Walk of Game inauguration of Sonic, the series' main character. Shadow the Hedgehog is the third game (and the last in the Sonic series) developed by Sega Studio USA, which was merged back into Sega's Japanese division in early 2008.
Problems
2 Player Mode
If using the 'Safe' Texture Cache Accuracy mode, the left screen will only render bloom. Using either the Center option or 'Fast' in the Texture Cache Accuracy slider will prevent the issue. If you still wish to use 'Safe' you must disable Store EFB Copies to Texture Only to fix the issue.
If using the 'Fast' Texture Cache Accuracy mode, the right screen will cyclically have bloom artifacts/bleed upon multiple stage loads.
It is recommended to use the Center option to avoid both of these issues.
Intro Movie Cutscene Skips Frames
If using the 'Fast' Texture Cache Accuracy mode, the Intro Movie will drop frames near the end when the "Shadow the Hedgehog" game title letters appear. Use the Center option or 'Safe' to fix this.
Enhancements
Consistent FPS
Shadow the Hedgehog has some minor slow down at the GameCube's native clock speed, resulting in some 40-50fps sections. To get consistent target framerate, enable "Clock Override - Enable Emulated CPU Clock Override" with a value of 150% if your CPU can support it. If audio crackling is encountered, the value is too high for your hardware.
120 FPS
Shadow the Hedgehog supports the VBI Frequency Override feature.
If using the VBI Frequency Override, you should keep CPU Clock Override at 100%.
To use it, you must apply this gecko code:
NTSC-U
$120 FPS [dreamsyntax] 041E1F54 38000078 041E1F94 38000078 *Requires VBI Frequency to be adjusted to target framerate in Dolphin
PAL
$120 FPS (PAL) [dreamsyntax] 041E22AC 38000078 041E22EC 38000078 *Requires VBI Frequency to be adjusted to target framerate in Dolphin *Affects 60Hz mode only
Using GameCube IPL will prevent > 60 FPS. Ensure Config -> GameCube -> Skip Main Menu is checked.
For any frame rate with VBI Frequency Override, replace 078 in 38000078 with the desired value FPS as a hex integer (ex 0x78 = 120) for both lines.
Known Issues with > 60 FPS
- Pause menu cursor movement SFX will play faster at higher framerates
- Collision math is affected - Most noticeable on steep slopes (Ex: Westopolis start and end slopes, Space Gadget near Hero Orb) - You will be in falling state on such floors in 120 FPS
Objects using framerate rather than deltatime, so they will be very fast at higher framerates:
- UpDownReel
- Death Ruins Slingshot Plant
- Generic Platform - Linear platforms use framerate. Slerp/Lerp platforms use deltatime.
- Digital Circuit Search Light
- Rocket
Widescreen
Using the built-in Dolphin Widescreen Hack on its own without the below patch causes clipping issues. Using it in addition to the patch below, in Stretch To Window mode, will work without clipping issues.
NTSC-U & PAL
A UI-fixed widescreen patch is available for the NTSC-U and PAL regions: Widescreen-ShadowTH Patch (NTSC-U and PAL only)
A gecko code only version for NTSC-J. Not as complete as the above, will result in normally hidden UI being drawn on the screen. Use the above patch instead if compatible with your game.
NTSC-J
$16:9 Widescreen F6000001 80008180 D0030004 C01F0074 D2000000 00000003 3DC03F40 91C20000 C2220000 EC110032 D0030004 00000000 E0000000 80008000 F6000001 80008180 C0830068 FC600050 D2000000 00000002 3DC04000 91C20000 C0820000 00000000 E0000000 80008000
Game Halting / Out of Memory Fix
Shadow the Hedgehog regularly can exceed the 24MB RAM system limitation, due to the vast amount of objects in the game. Setting the Config → Advanced → Memory Override Slider to greater than 24MB is *not* sufficient for this game, as it has a memory limiter set to 24MB in the \sys\bi2.bin file. You can patch this file to use more than 24MB RAM, unlocking the RAM added by the slider to actively effect the game's max heap size.
To do this, use your favorite hex editor and patch bytes 4 through 8 to all be 00 in the \sys\bi2.bin file.
A demonstration of this can be found in this video.
Infinite Rings AR Codes Causes Loop
The Action Replay code for Infinite Rings for Player 1 prevent completing the "Circus Park" "Hero Mission", which requires the player to collect 400 rings to complete. With the Infinite Rings code enabled, one begins the level with 999 Rings, causing the level to automatically complete and loop. To solve the problem, simply disable the code. For the NA version of the game, you can instead use the below alternate code that sets a minimum number of 20 for the Rings, rather than forcing the number to 999:
$Always at Least 20 Rings P1 2C57670C 00000014 0457670C 00000014
HD Texture Pack
Configuration
Only configuration options for the best compatibility where they deviate from defaults are listed.
Graphics
| Config | Setting | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Store EFB Copies to Texture Only | Off | Fixes 2nd player screen. Not necessary in single player. |
| Vertex Rounding Hack | On | Address higher IR rendering issues |
Version Compatibility
The graph below charts the compatibility with Shadow the Hedgehog since Dolphin's 2.0 release, listing revisions only where a compatibility change occurred.
Testing
This title has been tested on the environments listed below:
| Test Entries | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revision | OS | CPU | GPU | Result | Tester |
| 3.0 | Windows 7 | Intel Core 2 Duo @ 3.5 GHz | NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 | Plays almost perfectly. Some small graphical issues. Plays at full speed at 2x internal resolution. Sound stutters during cutscenes with Dsound backend, no stuttering with Xaudio, however sometimes the audio is a little bit too fast, which leaves some parts of cutscenes without sound. No other problems. | S1dology |
| 3.0 | Windows XP | Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.53 GHz | ATI Radeon HD 3600 | Plays fine, but the gameplay is slow (36-40FPS - 60-70% speed at 1x internal resolution). Cutscenes run at full speed in sync with the audio. The introductions in 2 Player mode somethimes get glitchy. Notably, the textures on the characters randomly get colored a mixture of their usual colors for a few moments during the levels (Sonic gets purple, Shadow gets brown etc.) | 7th Scale |
| 3.0-458 | Mac OS X 10.6.8 | Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.13 GHz | NVIDIA GeForce 9400M | Plays perfectly fine, but is really slow. Cutscenes are a nightmare. 2P graphics are fine but it runs at 5FPS. | Ac |
| 3.0-505 | Windows Vista | Intel Pentium @ 2 GHz | Mobile Intel 4 Series Express Chipset Family | The introduction CGI cutscene plays perfect with a small amount of stutter on the sound. The menu lags and the sound is choppy, so listening to music via the options menu is a pain. The game itself is playable at about 15-20FPS, and the cutscenes aren't TOO bad, but the sound on them plays faster than the cutscene itself, causing half of the cutscene to be silent. | Mchccjg12 |
| 3.0-758 | Windows 7 | AMD Athlon II 4X 635 @ 3 GHz | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 | Unplayable. 4X AA, 16X AA, 1920x1080 widescreen. | ALLEN2 |
| 3.0-774 | Windows 8 | Intel Core i7-860 @ 2.8 GHz | NVIDIA GeForce GT 440 | Runs almost perfect. Cutscenes and their audio are sometimes not in sync, but other than that, runs at 100%. | miroppb |
| 3.5 | Windows 7 | Intel Core i7-920 @ 2.67 GHz | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 | Plays great, between 40-60FPS depending on how much is going on (3x native resolution). Cutscene audio does go out of sync. Changing to DSP LLE fixes this, however the audio begins stuttering, and the framerate takes a big hit. Switching the video backend to OpenGL didn't fix the stripes around the top and left sides of the screen. | MongMaster |
| 3.5-1624 | Windows 7 | Intel Core i7-2600K @ 3.4 GHz | Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7950 | The game itself is bug-free in my eyes, however, it does require a good CPU, my 2600k, with no texture or resolution changes, does stutter alot. Not sure if it's wrong settings or too weak processor. | 23732 |
| 4.0-8076 | Windows 8.1 | Intel Core i5-3210M @ 2.5 GHz | NVIDIA GeForce 610M | The game can be demanding on the GPU at times but will run full speed whenever it can. | wildgoosespeeder |
| 5.0 | Windows 10 | Intel Core i3-6100 @ 3.7 GHz | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 | Runs great, never goes below 60 FPS during gameplay except during loading screens which go to the one digits and cutscenes which are locked at 30 FPS. | Bens0 |
| 5.0-17885 | Windows 10 | Intel Celeron N3450 @ 1.1 GHz | NVIDIA GeForce 920MX | Native 1x cpu clock=49%, run in 30-60 FPS. | JayYeaR |
| 5.0-17995 | SteamOS 3.4.4 | AMD Custom APU 0405 @ 2.4 GHz | AMD Custom GPU 0405 | Good experience with stable 60 fps most of the time. Scenes with large numbers of explosions bring the game down to ~20-30 fps which is especially noticeable in the earlier levels. No game breaking issues however and the game can be played all the way through. | KasimAhmic |
Gameplay Videos
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- Sonic Team (Developer)
- Sega (Publisher)
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Series)
- North America (Release region)
- Europe (Release region)
- Japan (Release region)
- 2005 (Initial release year)
- Platform (Genre)
- Action-adventure (Genre)
- Third-person shooter (Genre)
- Single-player (Game mode)
- Multiplayer (Game mode)
- 2 (Players supported)
- GameCube Controller (Input supported)
- 4 stars (Rating)
- Store EFB Copies to Texture Only (Config Required)
- Vertex Rounding Hack (Config Required)
- Tested On (Release): 3.0
- Tested On (OS): Windows
- Tested On (CPU): Intel
- Tested On (GPU): NVIDIA
- Tested
- Tested On (GPU): ATI
- Tested On (OS): macOS
- Tested On (GPU): Intel
- Tested On (CPU): AMD
- Tested On (GPU): AMD
- Tested On (Release): 4.0
- Tested On (Release): 5.0
- Tested On (OS): Linux
- Untested for 2500+ revisions
- GameCube games
- Games with texture packs
- Games with Dolby Pro Logic II support
- Supports VBI Frequency Override
- Games with RetroAchievements support