Update 8 - Happy New Year! news - Dreamcast Conversion mod for Sonic Adventure DX

Update 8 for Dreamcast Conversion is now available!

Hey there!

Dreamcast mods have seen a lot of new developments lately, so I decided to finish this year with a major update. As usual, there are three ways to get the latest versions of Dreamcast mods:

1) If you are getting mod updates through the Mod Loader, you're already up to date! But be sure to check out new mods that aren't included in this modpack, such as SonicFreak94's Onion Skin Blur mod, or the newly added DLC mods.

2) If you are installing DC Conversion for the first time, you can use my installer to set up the Mod Loader, SADXFE, DC Conversion, DC character models and other mods. There's also an offline version of the installer, which includes all mods and tools necessary to set up the DC mods on any version of SADX without downloading anything (or you can make it redownload the Mod Loader and some mods if they've been updated recently).

3) If you want to install the mods manually, you can still download the full package here. Be sure to install the mods in the correct order! Check the install guide for more details.

Information for manual install users: this update of DC Conversion uses a slightly different folder structure for compatibility with the installer. The Time of Day (TrainDaytime) mod has been moved from "OptionalMods" to the root of the mods folder, all other DC mods go into the "DC Conversion" folder (SADXStyleWater and RevertECDrawDistance are still in "OptionalMods"), and the DLC mods have their own separate subfolder in the mods folder. If you want to make your mod installation compatible with my installer, please follow the same folder structure. The archive for manual install has the proper folder setup, so you can just copy it as-is.

Having issues? Check out the troubleshooting guide.

It's been a while since the last major update, so let's catch up on what happened with the DC mods after Update 7:

• I've recreated all of the available Sonic Adventure DLCs as SADX mods! You can read more about SA1 DLCs and my mods in this article. The DLC mods are now included in the main package.
• The installer has been updated with new mods, new options, support for automatic updates and an easy-to-use profile system. You can also get alternative icons for sonic.exe! My favorite is the recreation of the SA1 VMU icon made by McAleeCh. The SADX sonic.exe icon is actually the memory card save icon from SADX Gamecube, so McAleeCh's icon can be considered a "legit" Dreamcast version of the EXE icon.
• A big highlight of this release is character effect restorations in the DC General mod. Now Sonic's spindash trail has a "rainbow" effect, Knuckles' punch and Maximum Heat Attack have also been restored/recreated. The Light Speed Dash glow has also been adjusted to look a lot more like in the original game, though it's still not exactly the same. My experiments with Sonic's running "motion blur" effect prompted SonicFreak94 to create his own version of it, which became the Onion Skin Blur mod. This mod isn't included in DC Conversion (you can get it by using the installer though), but I strongly recommend checking it out!
• You've probably heard about problems with transparent things in SADX, which, lighting aside, have always been the main obstacle to restoring the Dreamcast look of the game. SADX has a draw queue system to help it render transparent models, it doesn't always work very well but recently I've been able to take advantage of it and fix many long-standing issues. For example, the mirrors in Twinkle Park 3 no longer disappear when rotating the camera, the sky in Red Mountain, Sky Chase 1/2, Sky Deck and on the Egg Carrier has proper layering with transparency, and the light beams at Eggman's Mystic Ruins base now look a lot better. There are also a lot of smaller fixes, such as this, this and this, and many more.
• I've restored some cool special effects, such as the original water ripple, skybox blending in Sky Deck and lighting transitions when entering pinball areas in Casinopolis.
• SADX has some problems with menu textures when the Mod Loader is enabled. Some menu items get cut off or disappear, and shadows may get strange looking edges. I've fixed the most obvious menu problems, and the fix is now integrated into the DC Branding mod.
• There've been some really cool contributions to the HD GUI mod by Sonikko, which include a new file/character select background and high quality level title cards.
• I've updated the DC Branding mod with a much higher quality version of the intro movie using files from Dreamcast and Gamecube versions. Yeah it's weird, but for some reason out of all versions of the game the Gamecube version has the best quality intro movie, so I combined it with the Dreamcast version's Sonic Team and Sonic Adventure logos.
• A lot of minor bugfixes and accuracy updates. See Changelog for more information.

I think this is a pretty good amount of new stuff to end the year. Have fun playing the game with Dreamcast mods, and Happy New Year!

PkR

P.S. I've received 3 donations (about 20$ in total) since I started accepting them in November, which I think is really cool. If you like my work, any small donation will be appreciated. But of course this is completely voluntary, I'm already super happy you're playing the game with my mods!