Soulcalibur II

Soulcalibur II
Developer(s)	Namco Bandai Games, Nintendo Australia
Publisher(s)	Namco Bandai Games
Series	Soulcalibur
Platform(s)	GameCube
Release date(s)	JP March 27, 2003 NA August 27, 2003 EU September 26, 2003
Genre(s)	Fighting
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer (2)
Input methods	GameCube Controller
Compatibility	4 Playable
GameIDs	GRSPAF, GRSEAF, GRSJAF
See also...	Dolphin Forum thread Open Issues Search Google Search Wikipedia

Soulcalibur II (ソウルキャリバーII, Sōrukyaribā Tsū) is a fighting game developed and published by Namco and the third installment in the Soul series. Soul Calibur is the name of the holy sword, created to battle the evil sword Soul Edge, which the games' story-lines revolve around.

Emulation Information

16:9

Soulcalibur II 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 "Force 16:9". Using the widescreen hack with this title is not recommended. Aspect ratio randomly swaps between wide and letterbox on auto in the menus.

Problems

Missing Lens Flares

Since at least 5.0, lens flares may not appear when the sun is in the background of certain stages. This can be fixed by unchecking "Store EFB Copies to Texture Only" in graphics configuration. See issue 10475.

Missing Fade Effects

Fade-in effects for the game's title screen, as well as fade-in, fade-out transitions between matches in arcade mode, are missing. See issue 8429. Fixed by 5.0-7151.

Enhancements

HD Textures

Soulcalibur II 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	Needed for lens flare effects

Version Compatibility

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

2.0

r7625

r7687

3.5-644

Δ

5.0-20164 (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
2.0	Windows 7	Intel Core i5-750	ATI Radeon HD 5870	Youtube3D : Soul Calibur 2 3D.HD720p (dolphin + iz3d driver)	BlackSharkfr
r7228	Kubuntu 11.10	AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE	NVIDIA GeForce GT 440	Perfect
r7283	Windows 7	Intel Core i7	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260	Perfect
r7486	Windows 7	Intel Core i5-760 @ 2.8 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460	Perfect constant 60FPS in HD	momosnake7
r7625	Windows 7	Intel Core i3-530	AMD Radeon HD 6850	Major problems in r7625 and up (to at least r7671). Worked perfectly in r7623.	Yoshimitsu
r7687	Windows Vista	Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T @ 2.26 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce 9400M	Runs constantly with 60FPS but has texture glitches in menu and in game particles	Samake03
r7719	Windows 7	Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 @ 3 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT	Many graphical issues with DX9 and DX11. OpenGL recommended	Sanitarium026
3.0-201	Windows 7	Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.7 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti	Perfectly ~50FPS with 3D9, 4X native, Anti-Aliasing 4X SSAA, anisotropic 16X , Use JIT-IL (experimental), EFB : Texture, and Force 16/9 without Widescreen Hack, set 16/9 in the game options	Sanitarium026
3.0-735	Windows 7	Intel Core i7-2670QM @ 2.20 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M	Perfect. NTSC-U is running great thus far with 9x SSAA, 1x Anisotropic and Per-Pixel lighting while fullscreen at 1920x1080 Resolution on JIT-IL (Experimental), EFB to RAM with Cache enabled. Only occasional slowdowns when stuff on screen gets too busy.	Phazon Lord
3.0-873	Windows 7	Intel Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz	AMD Radeon HD 6900	Game does not run. Fiddled with settings with no results.	CaptainOblivious
3.5-290	Windows 7	Intel Core i3-2350 @ 2.3 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce 410M	Game does not run with JIT recompiler (in mode 50Hz only) otherwise no problem with OpenGL anyway.	Dratal
3.5-367	Windows 7	Intel Core i5-3210m	NVIDIA GeForce GT 620m	Runs perfect at a constant 60FPS with 4x AA and 1.5x resolution. OpenGL seems to work best.
4.0.2	Windows 7	AMD Phenom II X4 975 BE @ 4.12 GHz	AMD R9 290	Tested with D3D11, DSP LLE, Skip idle, Virtual EFB, OpenMP texture decoder, EFB to texture, fullscreen running at 1680x1050, increased internal resolution to 2.5x native (1600x1320), scaled EFB copies, all other hacks/options disabled. Runs fine, no visible glitches, sounds is crystal, however, experiences slowdowns and regularly drops downwards of ~41FPS depending on how much is going on on-screen. NTSC version tested. Using progressive scan grinds the game down to approximately 30FPS (heavily slowed-down).	incassum
4.0.2	Windows 7	AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE @ 3.6 GHz	AMD Radeon HD 5870	Tested with D3D11, DSP LLE, Skip idle, Virtual EFB, OpenMP texture decoder, EFB to texture, fullscreen running at 1920x1080, increased internal resolution to 3x native (1920x1584), scaled EFB copies, hide mouse cursor, all other hacks/options disabled. Runs fine, no visible glitches, sounds is crystal, however, experiences slowdowns and regularly drops downwards of ~41FPS depending on how much is going on on-screen. NTSC version tested. Using progressive scan grinds the game down to approximately 30FPS (heavily slowed-down)	incassum
4.0-4492	Ubuntu 14.04	Intel Core i3-3220 @ 3.3 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650	Perfect with default settings. Graphics and cutscenes/replays all look great and in-game after one or two matches of minor stutter it stabilizes out to a smooth 100% consistently. Widescreen Hack also works well for this game though it may cause stage lighting issues. I was able to complete all of Weapon Master mode across multiple revisions without any problems.	Xerxes
4.0-8863	Arch Linux	Intel Core i7-4712MQ @ 3.2 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M	Smooth Game @ 60FPS. 2.5x IR	HowardTheDolphin
4.0-8992	Windows 10	Intel Core i5-4690K @ 4.1 GHz	NVIDIA Geforce GTX 660 Ti	Perfect at constant 60FPS. Direct X11, DSP LLE, Resolution x3, 4x MSAA, Anisotropic 16x, Scaled EFB Copy, Force texture filtering, Per-pixel lighting, Skip EFB Acess from CPU, Ignore Format Changes, Store EFB copies to texture only, Texture cache accuracy=Fast, Disable External Frame Buffer(XFB) and Disable Bounding Box.	Caso Aislado
5.0-3408	Windows 10	Intel Core i7-7700k	NVIDIA GeForce 980 Ti	Perfect aside from missing transition effects. Auto resolution also kept switching back and forth between 4:3 and 16:9 randomly so I just set force 16:9.	IceStrike256
5.0-5209	Windows 10	Intel Core i3-3220 @ 3.3 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060	Needs EFB to Texture Only disabled to display lens flares.	Xerxes

Gameplay Videos

Dolphin - Soul Calibur 2 Gameplay (360p)

(60FPS) Dolphin Emulator 4.0-4057 - SoulCalibur II (1080p HD) - Nintendo GameCube

Youtube3D : Soul Calibur 2 3D.HD720p (dolphin 2.0 + iz3d driver) (Squeezed split-screen. 1440p60.)

• Soul Calibur 2 On Dolphin Emulator GameCube v3.0 Full HD (1080p)
• Dolphin Emulator 4.0 - SoulCalibur II (1080p HD) - Nintendo GameCube
• Soul Calibur 2 - All Exhibition Theaters - Dolphin 3.0 - 1080p 60fps
• Soulcalibur II - NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV - Dolphin Emulator (1080p60. 4.0-8727.) - Nintendo GameCube
• Soul Calibur II on Dolphin 5.0-3408 (1080p60)
• Soulcalibur II - Dolphin 5.0 - 5K Internal Res - Gamecube Emulator - Taki Gameplay - HD.1080p 60ᶠᵖˢ