I AM AWARE I MESSED UP THE AGE OF SONIC UNLEASHED, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO COMMENT THE SAME THING 20 TIMES OVER I am also aware that Vulkan exists. I did not talk about it it because it forces you to play at 880x720 which looks awful, at that point just play on an Xbox. 6:55 to clarify, you need to look up “Sonic Unleashed Xenia Patch” on Google and download it first. I should’ve been more specific in the video lol
I think the HDR fix for this game alone makes it the definitive version. In a lot of areas i found that the colour palette of unleashed looked a little too warm, and the HDR fix just makes everything pop so much i love it.
I’m pretty sure the series X version has HDR, but you need a 4K tv for that, but mine can only output a max of 1080p, and there wasn’t a 1080p patch for unleashed on series X like they did for generations on series X
@@jackhumphries1087series s and x are great but it's even lower than 1080p, it's 880x720p, which means that it's 720p stretched horizontally to fit a standard 1280x720 aspect ratio
Can we please stop pretending that hdr and 4k are life changing upgrades? While they can be "nice" they just don't make enough of a change to make anything definitive. No one is staring at individual pixels long enough for it to make any real difference. Sick of people treating 1080 to 4k like it's 480 to 1080. Nowhere near as noticeable. Hdr is also not much different from putting a color filter on your monitor or TV. Again these things can be nice bur aren't game changers
@@brenscott5416 Maybe you don't think they are big upgrades but to some people they are massive, when you get HDR to look right it can be incredible. 4k is also really nice, especially if you're sitting closer to your screen, such as a computer monitor.
@@freeedleo as I said they can be nice, bur they aren't game changing like people keep saying. 90% of people can't even tell the difference. Reminds me of when oled came out and people lost their shit, like ya it's nice but the difference is subtle enough to be nearly Inconsequential. My annoyance comes from how oversold it is for how slight a change it comes out to. My plasma screen from 2000 really doesn't look much different from what people call "definitive upgrades". All honesty that plasma screen has features modern tvs lost for the worse. Bringing back features like backlight control would be a definitive upgrade
I venture to guess the reason why it's still 720p on series s/x is because the team working on it also ran into the flashbang and texture issues and couldn't be bothered to fix it. So keeping it at 720p was the easiest and cheapest way to go.
Possibly but I doubt it. Microsoft would have the tools to fix it unlike us. That and their emulator simply works different than Xenia. I wish we could customize the resolution on Xbox so we could see if it does flash bang
@@PieStudios Microsoft ain't spending that much time and money for a 2008 game that many don't care for, Sucks but it's true. And yeah, I feel like Unleashed sadly was meant to only run at 720p, above it just creates problems which sucks.
Well there is xbox one x enhancements for sonic generation so u can play at 4k and make it 60fps aswell woth fbs boost on series s and x. So they coulddo it for unleashed if they wanted to@@SantiagoMonroy5
For people who use even older gpu like me - use Vulkan on Xenia as it eliminates the crashes. I was able to 100% the game with my 750ti, so no need to worry.
Been playing unleashed for a while on xenia and I barely get any crashes only like once in a while. I'm able to play the game with no problems and achieve 60fps.
@@itsnotyboii D3D12 And Vulkan have what’s called a render path Open Xenia canary config.toml in notepad In the Xenia-Canary.config.toml Using Ctrl + f Will open a window called “Find” In the “find what” box Type vulkan Change the Direction to “Down” Click “Find next” twice This will take you to render_target_path_vulkan = “” Type fsi in the quotes to “fsi” It should now look like render_target_path_vulkan = “fsi”
@@itsnotyboii I also recommend deleting the config file after every update, so there will be no conflicts between an old config file and new version of canary. I realized this when my settings weren’t working properly.
The Graphics Device Lost Error happens only when you use D3D12 as the renderer, because the emulator is still pretty unstable. It has nothing to do with your specs as far as I'm aware. Using vulkan will fix it, however vulkan causes some graphical errors. If you see stuff like grass stretching out enough to cover your screen pressing F5 should fix it, but other graphical glitches are vulkan related that you just can't fix.
Exciting to see just how far Unleashed on PC has come over the past few years. I think the Series X/S version is still going to stay my preferred way of playing for the time being (just generally prefer a more stable experience and my none of my screens go beyond 1080p anyways), but I can't wait for the day I can load it up on my computer and cut out the console entirely.
Unleashed is probably my favorite sonic game next to adventure 1. I think the game runs at something lower than 720p which is why it looks so blurry, it just gets upscaled to 720p for most tvs to recognize the signal. So this game can really use a facelift.
I wanna add my lil bit of perspective. Though its notably less stable, the Steam Deck is a pretty decent way to play the game based SOLELY on the portability aspect. I have a gap in between classes, and sometimes I pull out my Steam Deck and play some Sonic Unleashed. While there is some stuttering at moments, and some clear bugs, it's surprisingly playable, and manages to mostly hover in the 40-60fps range. It's not the DEFINITIVE way to play, but if you're looking to take the game on the go, the Steam Deck works pretty well for that. It isn't too good on the battery, though I remember being surprised at how it didn't drain it as fast as officially supported steam games.
Wanted to provide some clarification on the Xenia portion. Yes, playing on the DX12 renderer does allow you to play at 1440p but it crashes very frequently which makes it nearly impossible to play the game from start to finish. And then of course there are the visual bugs. Playing using the Vulkan renderer is definitely the way to go. There aren't any crashes or any noticeable visual bugs. Just make sure the 1280x720 patch is disabled and you have the render target path for vulkan is set to "fsi" in the xenia canary config document (this removes the weird werehog fur glitch and green dots) . Unfortunately the game is locked to default resolution but you get consistent framerate with no drops. Shader caching will cause it to freeze pretty frequently at times on a first playthrough but to my knowledge, there's no way around that. But you can also get FPS as high as 110 by tuning the vsync cap in the config file. Yeah the resolution still sucks but this is definitely the best way to play Unleashed if you don't want to fork out 300+ dollars for an xbox.
I'm fine with the low res, however, the DX12 renderer seems to be quite better if anything, mainly because you technically get no graphical issues. On Vulkan you get grass explosions, blurry hub-worlds, blurry cutscenes, and every time you boost you can't see anything. And the medals and boss attacks are invisible in Vulkan API. I have an AMD GPU, but this emulator is too broken to play--
Got this working on steam deck recently using the definitive sonic steam deck guide, it works well on the xenia canary build provided at 40 fps consistently and even with mods! My only problems were at first the AMD grass explosion but one of the mods fixed it in a stage and mainly in another but the only other problem is vertex explosions (which kinda freak me out) but luckily binding a back trigger to f5 fixes it usually so sonic unleashed should be pretty much playable all the way through! (Or you can grab a 100% save file)
5:00 The reason the game keeps crashing with the 1060 is because that the Direct3D 12 driver crashes the game on Direct3D 12. The game works wonderfully with Vulkan though
I really can’t wait for the day Sega ports this game to steam so I can finally play this game in all its glory, and they’ll get hella money for the next game
I'll probably be playing Sonic Unleashed on my dinky PS3 either till the day I die or SEGA releases a PC port, but this was a very interesting watch. I'm glad so many people are still interesting in playing this game after so many years; it really is one of the best Sonic games out there
I have an i5-12400 and 1650 Super and Unleashed is for the most part 60 FPS at 720p with 0 crashes on Vulkan and if you never tab out rare crashes on DirectX 12, and around 30-40 FPS on 1440p. Sad fact is I'm probably not getting an upgrade until like 4-5 years from now.
Honestly I’d try to sell your 1650 on eBay and buy something better. If you bid smart you could maybe even get a 1070. I was able to get a 1070 for $80 by sniping a bid
The reason why your framerate dropped to the nearest multiple the first time in an area and didn't again is due to a performance dip as the emulator compiled the shader cache, so the next visit was better performance as it didn't have to do that.
Also, it's worth noting that Xenia does have FSR, which can help with playing the game at better image quality without getting flashbanged by playing at higher resolutions. Just press F6 and it'll bring up the menu, where you can also apply FXAA and adjust the sharpness of FSR if you'd like
@@PieStudios It does mostly just sharpen the image, and in no way it replicates a higher resolution like 4k or 1440p...but in games where trying to resolution scale might lead to certain issues (like here), it is worth bringing up that it does have the option present. It sure as heck looks way better than the native 720p it'd otherwise run at, and if one wishes to not deal with the flashbangs at all or if their GPU isn't performant enough to run at those higher resolutions, FSR, while certainly not looking like a native 1440p or 4k image, definitely provides a good improvement. I just went ahead and tested it again on my 1440p monitor, and I won't say it looked like true 1440p, but the resulting image was still acceptable. Please do try it if you haven't, I've known that Xenia uses FSR1, but when I first tried it the results honestly impressed me, I thought it'd look so much worse. But above all it's a worthwhile alternative for cases like these (I had to use FSR for other games such as The Darkness due to a similar issue, as well), whether you resolution scale or use FSR, you are making a sacrifice somewhere, and at that point it's a choice of what the user values more. Given that, I just thought it was worth mentioning.
xenia's come such a long way, it's great to see gonna probably set it up on the steam deck! native res works just fine there ofc, and i saw a video showing it can hold 40 fps pretty solidly
I have sonic unleashed on Xbox 360 for the series X and that runs a lot smoother then PC with Emulation software . I also ask : WHY WOULD YOU PLAY SONIC UNLEASHED ON PC INSTEAD OF CONSOLE ?
Last time I tried to play it on Xenia, the world would mutate into an unholy conglomerate of polygons, then crash. I just bought a used 360 and had a great time.
I bought a Series S on Black Friday sale literally last Black Friday, and a large reason for buying one was so that I could play Sonic Unleashed with smooth frames… because I originally had it on PS3, so… 😅 And I have a laptop. That I use for studying. At university. It's an olden one from early 2020 with Intel processor, so that thing can't even run Dolphin without framedrops because the CPU is too weak and the laptop doesn’t have a dedicated graphics card. And I wasn't about to burn through $2500+ for a stationary + monitor setup when I literally need a new study laptop soon. So, Series S it was - that was my Christmas present for myself last Christmas 🤣
I think it’s important to state that if you want the best possible unleashed experience on RPCS3 you need some beefy specs, but theres plenty videos of people playing at 4k with perfect performance. Xenia is much better for lower specs
While I would agree, even with an i9 you can’t maintain 60 FPS. While on Xenia, it’s much easier to maintain a 60 FPS lock as long as your hardware is halfway decent.
I played the game on it's entirety on xenia with direct12 API running into a few texture bugs on windmill isle act 1, and jungle joyride act 1, but nothing to worry about. My PC: Ryzen 9 3900 RX 580 8GB 32GB RAM In terms of perfomance: 1280x720 60 FPS 1920x1080 35-40 FPS 2560x1440 28-30 FPS I played the game like it would play on xbox series x, which is great considering that i don't have one. The only parts of the game where i experienced fps drops where on empire city hub world and jungle joyride act 1.
4:17 O- Old? Bro, I just realized my PC is ancient. Intel i7 2nd gen with a GTX 560, 8 GB of DDR3 ram, and 1.5 TB of HDD storage. Ancient, but it still works. It even runs CS2 (not very well, but I'm able to get 30 fps with graphics that still look passable)
Your CPU (R5 5500) is not good for SU on RPCS3, only good for playable games, not ingame titles You have two options 1.- Upgrade your CPU to AM5, which means, you need a new Mobo and RAM (GPU is fine) and buy a Ryzen 7 7800X3D, is super good for gaming and the emulation 2.- Wait for the Ryzen 9000 (Zen 5) will arrive next month (July) SU in super unplayable on Xenia, as the progress of the emulator is slow, better not expect anything, for the moment, rpcs3 is the only emulator that you can play SU stably (no crashes/freezes) I know it runs like ass, but it is better than nothing, greetings
My PC's CPU (while not amazing or even great,) is a bit competent whereas my GPU is kind of trash, so RPCS3 (a CPU based emulator) ran a lot better than Xenia (a GPU based emulator), so I could get around 20-50 FPS at 1080p (and higher with lower resolutions like 900p, 720p, and even some absurd ones like 360p), whereas Xenia consistently ran at 18-25 fps at 720p with input delay and muddied colors 💀.
Uhh, i got a question. Why do I need to keep re-installing the mods everytime i wanna play with them? if i just click "launch sonic unleashed", it's vanilla
Also there is a lot of visual bugs like werehog looks really glitchy at times And loading screen too Other then that I can't believe I'm saying this But Sonic Unleashed is actually playable now on Xenia 😍
I remember seeing this game at toys r us in my elementary days. If I had listened to my parents and even teachers about doing my homework and doing a good job with it, I can see myself begging my parents to buy this game for me! I just never got to play this game years later. But at 22, nearing at 23, I've actually gotten invested into playing it! I also remembered my friends in middle school talking about this game at our lunch table. The friends I made might've forgotten me since I have long ago moved, but they'd be happy to know that I'll play it soon!
With Xenia from my experience, Almost ALL games, Will lag for a while when you start playing them, A example is Forza Horizon 1, first launch the emulator is going to say "Compiling Shaders" for awhile, But once you play the game for awhile, The game should balance out, Note that this only happens when you first enter a new area/stage, so you can close the emulator and re open it later with 0 issues, besides just hardware limitations. EDIT BECAUSE IM A DUMB BITCH: I installed Generations and ran a Xenia Patch, After playing some stages 2-3 times, I got a solid 50-60 FPS, The slowdown I noticed was when I saw "Shader Compiling" in the bottom corner but after it finished my frames went back up
I played with rpcs3, it had framerate issues but was playble completely from start to finish without any glitches or crashes (only 2 times), but i didnt know how to make the graphics better😅
Xenia is pretty good, but you need a high-tier PC for it to run pretty well. But sometimes the game just crashes for no reason and sometimes the game will just not work for no reason as well. I was able to finish the first night and day stage and then after the night stage the game kept crashing, so, I wouldn't really recommend Xenia. Perhaps you have a pretty good PC and you don't mind the game occasionally crashing. I think Xenia will become a lot more playable in 2 or 5 years, so just wait and stay updated about the emulator.
sure on the PC emulator you can get great graphics in HD 4K but it pales in comparison to the original console because the constant crashing of the emulator you'll be at the end of the level and it will crash and you'll have to beat it again and again and again. and this on my p.c which is roughly the same as yours in the video.
Xenia always crashes for me so I have to use rpcs3. I don't know what's going wrong, but the spike traps in the tutorial level get all messed up looking and then it crashes.
I find it insane that Sega has not done a PC port for Sonic Unleashed yet. It would be neat if we eventually got a remaster or something, but if we get Sonic Colors "Ultimate" situation, maybe emulation will remain the best option. By the sounds of things it seems like Series X is still the definitive experience of Sonic Unleashed as long as you are alright with low resolution graphics. Triple Buffering v-sync leading to 40fps gameplay and occasional flash bangs, as well as exploding vertices for the grass if you have an AMD GPU sounds like it has too many issues as of right now to be "definitive." If you have a high-end PC with with an Nvidia PC though that might be definitive. You would be able to get a consistent 60fps and the grass won't freak out in the one level. Flash bangs do sound pretty annoying though, but it can at least be mitigated.
I think you could fix the grass problem on xenia by pressing F5. I have a gtx 960 and sometimes get a very similar behavior on Sonic 06 (usually in Flame Core with Knucles' textures), and F5 fixes it most of the time
On Xbox Series, the 60 FPS patch causes bugs, including one of the DLC stages not being beatable and I cannot imagine it to be entirely bugfree on Emulator either, even tho fans appearently fixed a few of the issues through mods. I would probably play in 30 FPS regardless for that reason. Though I am still hesitent to give the game another shot after I tried last time after it was "supposedly entirely fixed on this build already, you guys" and then it horrifically crashed on the first quickstep section like always. 2:10 Wait, wait. What? And I assume there is no way to instead just use normal VSync, yes? That sounds kinda bad, isn't triple buffering why certain retrogames had really bad native input latency? I wouldn't want that in a game like this.
It really imo is not worth downloading all kinds of stuff and mods and go through all the hastle to play the game on PC for a few more graphics updates. Just playing on a Series X/S is still the best way to play and even at 720 the game still looks great and with the 60fps boost it helps the game a lot. Plus not having to go through a lot of hoops and the headaches PC has.
I *think* if you want to avoid crashes and screen tear, you should also switch the API to Vulkan. I had constant crashes with the default API (DirectX 12) and chose to set it to Vulkan one day and that made it work for the most part (sometimes it can still crash anyways, but it doesn't happen as often). Also, not sure about the 60 FPS patch, because last time I've tried that, it caused some softlocks in Rooftop Run Night Act 1 where the giant rolling barrels don't roll downhill correctly and get stuck on terrain.
@@ABlob most special effects are completely missing and the boost smears the screen, at least for me It could be different depending on if you’ve got an AMD or Nvidia GPU
@@PieStudios Hm, the one thing about the Vulkan API that is upsetting is how every optional collectible (records, dokuments) have visible particle effects but an invisible model. The rest is kind of fine to me. The boost should smear the screen because it's motion blur though, right...? And I have an Nvidia GPU, haven't tried playing on an AMD's GPU yet at all.
Question, do I have to set Xenia it self also at 1440p or 4k to run Sonic Unleashed at 1440p or 4k? Or do I just have to set the mod manager in 1440p or 4k?
Also I'm not sure If I'm getting 60fps Nvidia fps counter says I'm at 30 and tried with and without patch file Made no difference Do I need a different patch file or do I need to install the patch with the mod manager?
The 1060 crashed a lot because it's discontinued and can't get the drivers that fix the crashes. Also, correction, every console uses 880 by 720 not a normal 1280 by 720, which looks worse.
Probably with nvidia video cards it will not be possible to achieve a normal resolution for the game, because either you change to vulcan with the inability to increase the resolution (or I did not find one), or wait for crashes
3:10 the grass exploding happens to me as well and I have an i7-1255u laptop Tried it on another PC and same thing so it must be a problem with emulating the game
Could a Ryzen 3 3250 with Radeon graphics run unleashed? Also, would using dolphin be an alternative to Xenia? because I already have a few games on Dolphin.
my very old pc (i3-4150 2 cores 4 threads, GTX 750 Ti, 16 GB RAM) plays the night stages fine on Xenia, they run better than the original 360, but the day stages are much more demanding and they run like the 360 did; I tried RPCS3 but the fps are horrible, due to my weak cpu
So first of all, i HIGHLY recommend to play Unleashed on the Developer Build called "Xenia Canary" since it is more stable on that Version. If you encounter something like this on 3:15 u might just press F5 and most of the time it should fix the issue. You can also press F6 to enable "Anti-aliasing" by Nvidia and "Resampling and sharpening" by AMD. This just makes the game look less Blurry and more sharp (this doesnt really affect the Performance). So I dont really see the point of going up with the resoloutin since its causing many issues and I think it looks pretty with these things enabled :D
The Xbox One X actually is better than the 360 version: the frame rate doesn't drop as often and doesn't drop as low. From what I can see the game NEVER drops lower than 20 FPS, even in Adabat Day.
im havin trouble with xenia because it says i need a xbox 360 basically and i dont have the game i just wanna download it or emulate it and i dont have a workaround
Nice video. The best way to play Sonic Unleashed is to use the SonicGMI loader on Sonic Generation PC. It's a 1 click MOD that replaces Generation's levels with the unleashed' ones. (Levels of Sonic 2003 are also available with a simple click)
I AM AWARE I MESSED UP THE AGE OF SONIC UNLEASHED, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO COMMENT THE SAME THING 20 TIMES OVER
I am also aware that Vulkan exists. I did not talk about it it because it forces you to play at 880x720 which looks awful, at that point just play on an Xbox.
6:55 to clarify, you need to look up “Sonic Unleashed Xenia Patch” on Google and download it first. I should’ve been more specific in the video lol
your not wrong
How do I get sonic unleashed on my Laptop legally 😭
@@lil_s24 legally you buy your own xbox 360 copy of the game and dump the xex file onto ur pc
you can fix the age of sonic unleashed in the description
@WindPearl I forgor 💀
I'm going to be in my 40s begging Sega to port Unleashed on PC
Im already in my 40s....begging Sega to port Unleashed on PC
god, i'm turning 27 next month and i've been doing just that since gens came out on pc. turning to dust as we speak
me too, and i'm 18 rn
By the time you're older emulating it would be seamless and every piece of hardware would probably be able to hit bare a minimum of 1440p 240fps.
@@RaziMemeGod Xenia and RCPS3 would probably be 100 times better by then 😆
I think the HDR fix for this game alone makes it the definitive version. In a lot of areas i found that the colour palette of unleashed looked a little too warm, and the HDR fix just makes everything pop so much i love it.
I’m pretty sure the series X version has HDR, but you need a 4K tv for that, but mine can only output a max of 1080p, and there wasn’t a 1080p patch for unleashed on series X like they did for generations on series X
@@jackhumphries1087series s and x are great but it's even lower than 1080p, it's 880x720p, which means that it's 720p stretched horizontally to fit a standard 1280x720 aspect ratio
Can we please stop pretending that hdr and 4k are life changing upgrades? While they can be "nice" they just don't make enough of a change to make anything definitive. No one is staring at individual pixels long enough for it to make any real difference. Sick of people treating 1080 to 4k like it's 480 to 1080. Nowhere near as noticeable. Hdr is also not much different from putting a color filter on your monitor or TV. Again these things can be nice bur aren't game changers
@@brenscott5416 Maybe you don't think they are big upgrades but to some people they are massive, when you get HDR to look right it can be incredible. 4k is also really nice, especially if you're sitting closer to your screen, such as a computer monitor.
@@freeedleo as I said they can be nice, bur they aren't game changing like people keep saying. 90% of people can't even tell the difference. Reminds me of when oled came out and people lost their shit, like ya it's nice but the difference is subtle enough to be nearly Inconsequential. My annoyance comes from how oversold it is for how slight a change it comes out to. My plasma screen from 2000 really doesn't look much different from what people call "definitive upgrades". All honesty that plasma screen has features modern tvs lost for the worse. Bringing back features like backlight control would be a definitive upgrade
I venture to guess the reason why it's still 720p on series s/x is because the team working on it also ran into the flashbang and texture issues and couldn't be bothered to fix it. So keeping it at 720p was the easiest and cheapest way to go.
Possibly but I doubt it. Microsoft would have the tools to fix it unlike us. That and their emulator simply works different than Xenia. I wish we could customize the resolution on Xbox so we could see if it does flash bang
@@PieStudiosno it's not, it's because unleashed has an internal cap of resolution and Microsoft was the one doing the fps boost, not sega
@@PieStudios Microsoft ain't spending that much time and money for a 2008 game that many don't care for, Sucks but it's true.
And yeah, I feel like Unleashed sadly was meant to only run at 720p, above it just creates problems which sucks.
the actual game resolution on xbox 360/series is 880x720
Well there is xbox one x enhancements for sonic generation so u can play at 4k and make it 60fps aswell woth fbs boost on series s and x. So they coulddo it for unleashed if they wanted to@@SantiagoMonroy5
For people who use even older gpu like me - use Vulkan on Xenia as it eliminates the crashes. I was able to 100% the game with my 750ti, so no need to worry.
Hi
Like you, I have GTX 750ti graphics
I finished Unleashed, but the crash problem bothered me a lot
I thought Unleashed was unable to finish without a 100% save file
@@deedeelee2524
You can finish it, but it needs patience, it crashes in some places
New updates may reduce this problem
Been playing unleashed for a while on xenia and I barely get any crashes only like once in a while. I'm able to play the game with no problems and achieve 60fps.
@@SBGamingPlus
What is your graphics card?
Xenia canary build + vulkan api = success
+ Vulkan FSI = greater success
@@sonicthomasgamer what is Vulkan FSI and how to enable it?
@@itsnotyboii D3D12
And Vulkan have what’s called a render path
Open Xenia canary config.toml in notepad
In the Xenia-Canary.config.toml
Using Ctrl + f
Will open a window called “Find”
In the “find what” box
Type vulkan
Change the Direction to “Down”
Click “Find next” twice
This will take you to render_target_path_vulkan = “”
Type fsi in the quotes to “fsi”
It should now look like
render_target_path_vulkan = “fsi”
@@itsnotyboii I also recommend deleting the config file after every update, so there will be no conflicts between an old config file and new version of canary.
I realized this when my settings weren’t working properly.
@@sonicthomasgamer I think you've deleted some of your comment while editing it :")
The sonic unleashed art style looks like a Pixar movie. I am glad they kept it. I bought an xbox x just to play it
The Graphics Device Lost Error happens only when you use D3D12 as the renderer, because the emulator is still pretty unstable. It has nothing to do with your specs as far as I'm aware. Using vulkan will fix it, however vulkan causes some graphical errors. If you see stuff like grass stretching out enough to cover your screen pressing F5 should fix it, but other graphical glitches are vulkan related that you just can't fix.
I’ve never had that error on my newer PCs which is why I thought it was due to the age of the 1060, my bad
@PieStudios 3060 user here, nah, it's an emulator issue. Just use Vulkan and it fixes it.
Vulkan has graphical issues tho, which is why I don’t use it
@PieStudios Use Xenia Canary
@@PieStudiosWhats the new PC? I’ll be getting a 4070 Super in a couple months so I’m wondering if it’ll be strong enough
Exciting to see just how far Unleashed on PC has come over the past few years. I think the Series X/S version is still going to stay my preferred way of playing for the time being (just generally prefer a more stable experience and my none of my screens go beyond 1080p anyways), but I can't wait for the day I can load it up on my computer and cut out the console entirely.
Unleashed is probably my favorite sonic game next to adventure 1. I think the game runs at something lower than 720p which is why it looks so blurry, it just gets upscaled to 720p for most tvs to recognize the signal. So this game can really use a facelift.
Yep, it doesn't use 1280 by 720, it uses 880 by 720
You did absolutely amazing.
This video is a very good explanation of how to play one of my favourite childhood games again on my PC. Thanks for the video! I appreciate it!
Glad I could help!
I wanna add my lil bit of perspective.
Though its notably less stable, the Steam Deck is a pretty decent way to play the game based SOLELY on the portability aspect. I have a gap in between classes, and sometimes I pull out my Steam Deck and play some Sonic Unleashed. While there is some stuttering at moments, and some clear bugs, it's surprisingly playable, and manages to mostly hover in the 40-60fps range.
It's not the DEFINITIVE way to play, but if you're looking to take the game on the go, the Steam Deck works pretty well for that. It isn't too good on the battery, though I remember being surprised at how it didn't drain it as fast as officially supported steam games.
It's still crazy that Sega hasn't released it on PC all this time
Love the "Whole Pack-a Robots" reference xD
Wanted to provide some clarification on the Xenia portion. Yes, playing on the DX12 renderer does allow you to play at 1440p but it crashes very frequently which makes it nearly impossible to play the game from start to finish. And then of course there are the visual bugs.
Playing using the Vulkan renderer is definitely the way to go. There aren't any crashes or any noticeable visual bugs. Just make sure the 1280x720 patch is disabled and you have the render target path for vulkan is set to "fsi" in the xenia canary config document (this removes the weird werehog fur glitch and green dots) . Unfortunately the game is locked to default resolution but you get consistent framerate with no drops. Shader caching will cause it to freeze pretty frequently at times on a first playthrough but to my knowledge, there's no way around that. But you can also get FPS as high as 110 by tuning the vsync cap in the config file.
Yeah the resolution still sucks but this is definitely the best way to play Unleashed if you don't want to fork out 300+ dollars for an xbox.
I'm fine with the low res, however, the DX12 renderer seems to be quite better if anything, mainly because you technically get no graphical issues.
On Vulkan you get grass explosions, blurry hub-worlds, blurry cutscenes, and every time you boost you can't see anything. And the medals and boss attacks are invisible in Vulkan API.
I have an AMD GPU, but this emulator is too broken to play--
Got this working on steam deck recently using the definitive sonic steam deck guide, it works well on the xenia canary build provided at 40 fps consistently and even with mods! My only problems were at first the AMD grass explosion but one of the mods fixed it in a stage and mainly in another but the only other problem is vertex explosions (which kinda freak me out) but luckily binding a back trigger to f5 fixes it usually so sonic unleashed should be pretty much playable all the way through! (Or you can grab a 100% save file)
I use rpcs3 on Linux and Unleashed runs perfectly well on 60fps for most of the time, except the jungle section in the island levels.
"Sonic Unleashed is about to turn 17 years old""
STOP MAKING ME FEEL OLD.
haha
4:53 a whole pack of robots? 🤭
yo thanks man, i had been trying to run sonic unleashed for so long, and this 30 second tutorial was way better than the 30 minute ones :D
Glad I could help!
1:00 Happy to see my Colorful Battle UI mod out in the wild :)
5:00 The reason the game keeps crashing with the 1060 is because that the Direct3D 12 driver crashes the game on Direct3D 12. The game works wonderfully with Vulkan though
I really can’t wait for the day Sega ports this game to steam so I can finally play this game in all its glory, and they’ll get hella money for the next game
I'll probably be playing Sonic Unleashed on my dinky PS3 either till the day I die or SEGA releases a PC port, but this was a very interesting watch. I'm glad so many people are still interesting in playing this game after so many years; it really is one of the best Sonic games out there
I have an i5-12400 and 1650 Super and Unleashed is for the most part 60 FPS at 720p with 0 crashes on Vulkan and if you never tab out rare crashes on DirectX 12, and around 30-40 FPS on 1440p. Sad fact is I'm probably not getting an upgrade until like 4-5 years from now.
Honestly I’d try to sell your 1650 on eBay and buy something better. If you bid smart you could maybe even get a 1070. I was able to get a 1070 for $80 by sniping a bid
@@PieStudiosyeah, this. a 1650 and a 12400 is RIDICULOUSLY mismatched, just a massive gpu bottleneck
Rpcs3 with avx512 will run 60 at 1430p with the rpcs3 patches. Because 12400 is good for rpcs3 not Xenia if you have GTX 1650.👍
@@D2firetech doesn't alder lake (12th gen) have potential issues running AVX 512 though?
@@DDRWakaLaka I don't think so, they should try and see if it works
The reason why your framerate dropped to the nearest multiple the first time in an area and didn't again is due to a performance dip as the emulator compiled the shader cache, so the next visit was better performance as it didn't have to do that.
thank you so much for linking the flashbang mod, not sure why most guides dont include it!
My first ever sonic 3d game ❤❤ I played the ps2 version.
Also, it's worth noting that Xenia does have FSR, which can help with playing the game at better image quality without getting flashbanged by playing at higher resolutions. Just press F6 and it'll bring up the menu, where you can also apply FXAA and adjust the sharpness of FSR if you'd like
It’s FSR1 which is literally just a sharpening filter. Heavy pass
@@PieStudios It does mostly just sharpen the image, and in no way it replicates a higher resolution like 4k or 1440p...but in games where trying to resolution scale might lead to certain issues (like here), it is worth bringing up that it does have the option present. It sure as heck looks way better than the native 720p it'd otherwise run at, and if one wishes to not deal with the flashbangs at all or if their GPU isn't performant enough to run at those higher resolutions, FSR, while certainly not looking like a native 1440p or 4k image, definitely provides a good improvement. I just went ahead and tested it again on my 1440p monitor, and I won't say it looked like true 1440p, but the resulting image was still acceptable. Please do try it if you haven't, I've known that Xenia uses FSR1, but when I first tried it the results honestly impressed me, I thought it'd look so much worse. But above all it's a worthwhile alternative for cases like these (I had to use FSR for other games such as The Darkness due to a similar issue, as well), whether you resolution scale or use FSR, you are making a sacrifice somewhere, and at that point it's a choice of what the user values more. Given that, I just thought it was worth mentioning.
xenia's come such a long way, it's great to see
gonna probably set it up on the steam deck! native res works just fine there ofc, and i saw a video showing it can hold 40 fps pretty solidly
I have sonic unleashed on Xbox 360 for the series X and that runs a lot smoother then PC with Emulation software . I also ask : WHY WOULD YOU PLAY SONIC UNLEASHED ON PC INSTEAD OF CONSOLE ?
The resolutiin is better I played Unleashed on series x with fps boost and it looked like crap
Fun fact: sonic unleashed ps3 isn't capped at 30 fps so you could reach 60fps on 720p, 1080p is actual 720p upscaled and sometimes could lag
Last time I tried to play it on Xenia, the world would mutate into an unholy conglomerate of polygons, then crash. I just bought a used 360 and had a great time.
I bought a Series S on Black Friday sale literally last Black Friday, and a large reason for buying one was so that I could play Sonic Unleashed with smooth frames… because I originally had it on PS3, so… 😅
And I have a laptop. That I use for studying. At university. It's an olden one from early 2020 with Intel processor, so that thing can't even run Dolphin without framedrops because the CPU is too weak and the laptop doesn’t have a dedicated graphics card.
And I wasn't about to burn through $2500+ for a stationary + monitor setup when I literally need a new study laptop soon. So, Series S it was - that was my Christmas present for myself last Christmas 🤣
Sadly I'm not an Xbox gamer but this video was truly helpful and useful to the viewers. Excellent job on the video!
bro said mid range
It is
I think it’s important to state that if you want the best possible unleashed experience on RPCS3 you need some beefy specs, but theres plenty videos of people playing at 4k with perfect performance.
Xenia is much better for lower specs
While I would agree, even with an i9 you can’t maintain 60 FPS. While on Xenia, it’s much easier to maintain a 60 FPS lock as long as your hardware is halfway decent.
I played the game on it's entirety on xenia with direct12 API running into a few texture bugs on windmill isle act 1, and jungle joyride act 1, but nothing to worry about.
My PC:
Ryzen 9 3900
RX 580 8GB
32GB RAM
In terms of perfomance:
1280x720 60 FPS
1920x1080 35-40 FPS
2560x1440 28-30 FPS
I played the game like it would play on xbox series x, which is great considering that i don't have one. The only parts of the game where i experienced fps drops where on empire city hub world and jungle joyride act 1.
4:17 O- Old? Bro, I just realized my PC is ancient.
Intel i7 2nd gen with a GTX 560, 8 GB of DDR3 ram, and 1.5 TB of HDD storage.
Ancient, but it still works. It even runs CS2 (not very well, but I'm able to get 30 fps with graphics that still look passable)
good video m8
2:43 relatable moment
Your CPU (R5 5500) is not good for SU on RPCS3, only good for playable games, not ingame titles
You have two options
1.- Upgrade your CPU to AM5, which means, you need a new Mobo and RAM (GPU is fine) and buy a Ryzen 7 7800X3D, is super good for gaming and the emulation
2.- Wait for the Ryzen 9000 (Zen 5) will arrive next month (July)
SU in super unplayable on Xenia, as the progress of the emulator is slow, better not expect anything, for the moment, rpcs3 is the only emulator that you can play SU stably (no crashes/freezes) I know it runs like ass, but it is better than nothing, greetings
My PC's CPU (while not amazing or even great,) is a bit competent whereas my GPU is kind of trash, so RPCS3 (a CPU based emulator) ran a lot better than Xenia (a GPU based emulator), so I could get around 20-50 FPS at 1080p (and higher with lower resolutions like 900p, 720p, and even some absurd ones like 360p), whereas Xenia consistently ran at 18-25 fps at 720p with input delay and muddied colors 💀.
which CPU are we talking about?
Uhh, i got a question. Why do I need to keep re-installing the mods everytime i wanna play with them? if i just click "launch sonic unleashed", it's vanilla
Also there is a lot of visual bugs like werehog looks really glitchy at times And loading screen too Other then that I can't believe I'm saying this But Sonic Unleashed is actually playable now on Xenia 😍
btw. you don't want to turn on the 1280x720 patch on with Vulkan, only with DirectX. It's hella bugged with Vulkan
this is a great video, thankkkksss
Weird that the HP couldn't handle Frontiers, my GTX 1060 can run it at max settings without even the slightest hitch, it looks stunning
I remember seeing this game at toys r us in my elementary days. If I had listened to my parents and even teachers about doing my homework and doing a good job with it, I can see myself begging my parents to buy this game for me! I just never got to play this game years later. But at 22, nearing at 23, I've actually gotten invested into playing it! I also remembered my friends in middle school talking about this game at our lunch table. The friends I made might've forgotten me since I have long ago moved, but they'd be happy to know that I'll play it soon!
I don't know if you'll see this but I was wondering what microphone you were using during the recording. It sounds amazing!
With Xenia from my experience, Almost ALL games, Will lag for a while when you start playing them, A example is Forza Horizon 1, first launch the emulator is going to say "Compiling Shaders" for awhile, But once you play the game for awhile, The game should balance out, Note that this only happens when you first enter a new area/stage, so you can close the emulator and re open it later with 0 issues, besides just hardware limitations. EDIT BECAUSE IM A DUMB BITCH: I installed Generations and ran a Xenia Patch, After playing some stages 2-3 times, I got a solid 50-60 FPS, The slowdown I noticed was when I saw "Shader Compiling" in the bottom corner but after it finished my frames went back up
Sega, this guy is one of many people going to great lengths to play this game on an HD 60 fps system. just port the damn game already.
I played with rpcs3, it had framerate issues but was playble completely from start to finish without any glitches or crashes (only 2 times), but i didnt know how to make the graphics better😅
sonic unleashed is about to turn 16 not 17, it released in 2008
Xenia is pretty good, but you need a high-tier PC for it to run pretty well. But sometimes the game just crashes for no reason and sometimes the game will just not work for no reason as well. I was able to finish the first night and day stage and then after the night stage the game kept crashing, so, I wouldn't really recommend Xenia. Perhaps you have a pretty good PC and you don't mind the game occasionally crashing. I think Xenia will become a lot more playable in 2 or 5 years, so just wait and stay updated about the emulator.
Or use vulkan
sure on the PC emulator you can get great graphics in HD 4K but it pales in comparison to the original console because the constant crashing of the emulator you'll be at the end of the level and it will crash and you'll have to beat it again and again and again. and this on my p.c which is roughly the same as yours in the video.
Use vulkan
Xenia always crashes for me so I have to use rpcs3. I don't know what's going wrong, but the spike traps in the tutorial level get all messed up looking and then it crashes.
Use canary with vulkan api
The best way is still rpcs3, it’s just you need an extremely beefy pc.
Use xenia canary with vulkan
Bets game soundtrack ever
Play it on series s/x and then get an upscaler like the photofast one and then you have stability and graphics. Maybe a bit expensive but very simple.
even bros old pc is still better than mine
I find it insane that Sega has not done a PC port for Sonic Unleashed yet. It would be neat if we eventually got a remaster or something, but if we get Sonic Colors "Ultimate" situation, maybe emulation will remain the best option. By the sounds of things it seems like Series X is still the definitive experience of Sonic Unleashed as long as you are alright with low resolution graphics. Triple Buffering v-sync leading to 40fps gameplay and occasional flash bangs, as well as exploding vertices for the grass if you have an AMD GPU sounds like it has too many issues as of right now to be "definitive."
If you have a high-end PC with with an Nvidia PC though that might be definitive. You would be able to get a consistent 60fps and the grass won't freak out in the one level. Flash bangs do sound pretty annoying though, but it can at least be mitigated.
You sure you were playing Unleashed? With all those graphical glitches it looked like Colors Ultimate
Rest in peace Playstation 2 and Wii versions... they never get any recognition.
Yeah cuz they’re MID
@@PieStudios They're a special kind of mid! xD This is still a great video.
I think you could fix the grass problem on xenia by pressing F5. I have a gtx 960 and sometimes get a very similar behavior on Sonic 06 (usually in Flame Core with Knucles' textures), and F5 fixes it most of the time
On Xbox Series, the 60 FPS patch causes bugs, including one of the DLC stages not being beatable and I cannot imagine it to be entirely bugfree on Emulator either, even tho fans appearently fixed a few of the issues through mods. I would probably play in 30 FPS regardless for that reason. Though I am still hesitent to give the game another shot after I tried last time after it was "supposedly entirely fixed on this build already, you guys" and then it horrifically crashed on the first quickstep section like always.
2:10 Wait, wait. What? And I assume there is no way to instead just use normal VSync, yes? That sounds kinda bad, isn't triple buffering why certain retrogames had really bad native input latency? I wouldn't want that in a game like this.
I find it baffaling that Unleshed can still lag your game even with the modorn day hardwear and its nearly 17 years old
It really imo is not worth downloading all kinds of stuff and mods and go through all the hastle to play the game on PC for a few more graphics updates. Just playing on a Series X/S is still the best way to play and even at 720 the game still looks great and with the 60fps boost it helps the game a lot. Plus not having to go through a lot of hoops and the headaches PC has.
I *think* if you want to avoid crashes and screen tear, you should also switch the API to Vulkan. I had constant crashes with the default API (DirectX 12) and chose to set it to Vulkan one day and that made it work for the most part (sometimes it can still crash anyways, but it doesn't happen as often).
Also, not sure about the 60 FPS patch, because last time I've tried that, it caused some softlocks in Rooftop Run Night Act 1 where the giant rolling barrels don't roll downhill correctly and get stuck on terrain.
The vulkan renderer is broken for this game so I didn’t bother
The 60 FPS patch used to be bad but it’s actually really good now
@@PieStudios What? Vulkan works for me, what's broken about it?
graphically, for example, the motion blur also affects sonic and totally blurs him out, and some graphical bugs@@ABlob
@@ABlob most special effects are completely missing and the boost smears the screen, at least for me
It could be different depending on if you’ve got an AMD or Nvidia GPU
@@PieStudios Hm, the one thing about the Vulkan API that is upsetting is how every optional collectible (records, dokuments) have visible particle effects but an invisible model. The rest is kind of fine to me.
The boost should smear the screen because it's motion blur though, right...?
And I have an Nvidia GPU, haven't tried playing on an AMD's GPU yet at all.
how is it going to be 17, its not even 16 yet
if you dont want to play on the emulators you can buy sonic generations and install the project unleashed mod
pressing F5 on the Keyboard fixes most of the grass bugs in the game.
I also played the sonic generations with mods that put sonic unleashed maps, is the Best way tô play without problems
Hopefully Sega remastered this game
Series S plays at 1080p AFAIK (source: my eyes)
Yeahhhhh that’s not true
Bro the game is gonna be 16 years old when 8 november hits. You saying 17 just for the shock value. O.o
nah, he probably looked it up. when you look up how old sonic unleashed is on google, it says it's 16 years old.
@@pulse27 www.google.com/search?q=sonic+unleashed+release+date&oq=sonic+unleashed+release+date
Sonic is the whole reason I prefer PS over Xbox, Cuz I played sonic unleashed at the age of 6 on ps3
You think you could link your xenia config in the description? I don't want to go and mess something up on the config.
Question, do I have to set Xenia it self also at 1440p or 4k to run Sonic Unleashed at 1440p or 4k? Or do I just have to set the mod manager in 1440p or 4k?
Also I'm not sure If I'm getting 60fps Nvidia fps counter says I'm at 30 and tried with and without patch file Made no difference Do I need a different patch file or do I need to install the patch with the mod manager?
The 1060 crashed a lot because it's discontinued and can't get the drivers that fix the crashes. Also, correction, every console uses 880 by 720 not a normal 1280 by 720, which looks worse.
Use Vulkan. It didn't crash a single time to me
@@paulo547 I don't use Vulkan because I have a newer Nvidia card on the latest drivers so it doesn't crash as much.
@@RaziMemeGod Well, do whatever you want.
Probably with nvidia video cards it will not be possible to achieve a normal resolution for the game, because either you change to vulcan with the inability to increase the resolution (or I did not find one), or wait for crashes
3:10 the grass exploding happens to me as well and I have an i7-1255u laptop Tried it on another PC and same thing so it must be a problem with emulating the game
For me the game ran at like 50 fps on my laptop. It can do 60 in the hub worlds but it playing a level the game ran around 50 ish.
Could a Ryzen 3 3250 with Radeon graphics run unleashed? Also, would using dolphin be an alternative to Xenia? because I already have a few games on Dolphin.
you'd be playing what's arguably a different game. unleashed on ps2 and wii wasn't really the same game as the version in 360 and ps3
@@DDRWakaLaka Which one offers a better experience tho? Also would I even be able to run the game properly the Vega graphics aren't really powerful 😅
Bro you got ryzen 5 7600
That processor is damn good.
I have the same performance problem in rpcs3 only if it is on fullscreen
Then use borderless gaming
How'd you get the Werehog fur to look better? For me it looks kinda glitchy.
my very old pc (i3-4150 2 cores 4 threads, GTX 750 Ti, 16 GB RAM) plays the night stages fine on Xenia, they run better than the original 360, but the day stages are much more demanding and they run like the 360 did; I tried RPCS3 but the fps are horrible, due to my weak cpu
Wait so there’s no way to fix the exploding grass if you have AMD? I can’t even get past the first level without that happening on Xenia.
So first of all, i HIGHLY recommend to play Unleashed on the Developer Build called "Xenia Canary" since it is more stable on that Version. If you encounter something like this on 3:15 u might just press F5 and most of the time it should fix the issue. You can also press F6 to enable "Anti-aliasing" by Nvidia and "Resampling and sharpening" by AMD. This just makes the game look less Blurry and more sharp (this doesnt really affect the Performance). So I dont really see the point of going up with the resoloutin since its causing many issues and I think it looks pretty with these things enabled :D
The AMD grass explosion can't be fixed with F5. Also, increased resolution looks noticeably better than FXAA.
Best way to play?
The Windmill day demo on my PS3.
Rip the PS2 and Wii version
The Xbox One X actually is better than the 360 version: the frame rate doesn't drop as often and doesn't drop as low. From what I can see the game NEVER drops lower than 20 FPS, even in Adabat Day.
im havin trouble with xenia because it says i need a xbox 360 basically and i dont have the game i just wanna download it or emulate it and i dont have a workaround
Also, is there nothing to do if you pc doesn't support AVX?
Just get a xbox series x or s, they both have backwards compatibility
If only there was a way to turn off the annoying werehog music that plays whenever you fight enemies on console 😢
Nope, unless you mod the game or use PC.
@@artistanthony1007 how do you mod a game on Xbox series X?
Nice video. The best way to play Sonic Unleashed is to use the SonicGMI loader on Sonic Generation PC. It's a 1 click MOD that replaces Generation's levels with the unleashed' ones.
(Levels of Sonic 2003 are also available with a simple click)