Graphical Problems -Sonic Adventure 2

[Kakkoii]

Hey guys, great emulator you have here, just want to report a few problems I've encountered and hopefully they'll be of some use.

First off, the game is a self-boot GDI image of Sonic Adventure 2. The first problem is one which actually disrupts the game so it's pretty important. When you get to the King Boom Boo boss stage with Knuckles, you have to hit the ghost behind him to let in the sunlight, and King Boom Boo turns into a shadow in which you have to get Knuckles on top of and dig him out, which is the only way you can beat him. However, in my situation, you cannot see the shadow therefore making it impossible to beat the boss, as shown in the screenshot below.



The second problem which is not really important as it doesn't really disrupt gameplay but just want to report it anyway. On most of the levels there seems to be tearing of colours related to the textures onto the screen. I've noticed however when you're in the chao garden that doesn't happen, so either it could be a refresh rate issue because the chao garden runs very smoothly because it's such a small and simple level, or it could just be a compatibility problem with my graphics card which can't be fixed. I've also noticed that it happens mainly when the camera is close to an object or the "ground". Here is the problem I managed to capture on the City Escape level.



Now here are the important specs of my PC:
Intel Pentium 4 2.93GHz
512MB RAM
Saphhire ATi Radeon 9550 128MB AGP Graphics Card with Catalyst Control Center Version 2007.0322.2238.38535 and CCC drivers 7.7.

Settings of NullDC:
Dynarec Enabled
CP pass Enabled
Power VR > Versioned Textures Enabled, 640x480, full screen disabled

PowerVR Plugin = NullPVR
GDROM Plugin = Image Reader Plugin
AICA Plugin = Chankast's AICA

Tested with two different self-boot GDROM images, yielding same results.



Feel free to request any other information.

[PsyMan]

Both "problems" are known.

The shadow issue is not really a problem. The game just uses Modifier Volumes to generate shadows and Modifier Volumes are not emulated. This is the reason that various games miss shadows.

As for the second problem... this is a little more complicated.
nullDC uses depth processing that most older cards don't seem to like. This is true for ATi cards before the x1XXX series as well as for old nVidia cards (Geforce 4 and older?).
This problem depends on limitations of the video card (and its drivers) in conjunction with the limitations of the graphics API used by the graphics plugin and the game you're trying to run.
Most newer ATi cards (including yours) don't encounter any problems unless a game tries to do something too "extreme" when it comes to depth processing. Unfortunately Sonic Adventure 2 does some very nasty stuff and the result can be seen in the screenshot you posted.

[Kakkoii]

Thanks for the reply. I only really care about the shadow issue because it makes it impossible to complete the game, is there a way to make modifier volumes emulated or at least make the Ghost shadow appear?

[PsyMan]

Making the shadow appear means that mod vols must be emulated. My suggestion is to wait for BETA 2 and see if the shadows are there or not.