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Sonic R/Technical information/Windows PC

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Fixing startup crash

Sonic R's startup code attempts to divide a value by the time elapsed for a given function. On reasonably fast computers (basically anything with a CPU newer than Pentium 4), this results in a division by zero. This can be fixed with a simple binary edit.
Sonic Retro
[source]

(Note: This hack assumes you're using the original executable without network support. The network version doesn't seem to work on NT-based Windows systems to begin with.)

In a hex editor, go to offset 0x70584. Replace these bytes:

2e ff 15 8c 05 95 00

with these bytes:

b8 31 00 00 00 90 90

Next, go to offset 0x705A0. Replace these bytes:

2e ff 15 8c 05 95 00

with these bytes:

b8 01 00 00 00 90 90

What this does is it disables the function calls to get the system time and replaces them with known values that are guaranteed to work on modern systems.

RAM locations

These values are absolute from base of RAM; a value of 0x400001 is equal to sonicr.exe+0x000001.

Global variables

TODO: Find and add the remaining 2004 variables.

Address (2004) Address (1998) Data Type Description Notes
0x504278 Dword CD Check 1 if CD present, 0 if not. Largely useless after game boots.
0x540064 Dword Pointer AI RAM Location Memory address of the current level's AI data (copied into RAM from the AI file.)
0x625BFC Word Current File Used by fread()
0x5EDD24 0x630144 Dword Windowed Crashes the game when not 0 on the 1998 release.
0x630148 Dword Native Software Render Mode Probably related to ancient software 3D drivers for Windows 95.
0x675907 Array (10 bytes) Function Key States Array of F1-F10, 0 being unpressed and 0x80 being pressed.
0x68AF34 Dword Sound Test Selection Selection for the Sound Test option on the Options menu.
0x68AF38 Dword Music Test Selection Selection for the Music Test option on the Options menu.
0x68AFB8 Dword 1P Ready Controls whether or not the player has selected their character. If less than 4 players, the unused players are automatically set to 1.
0x68AFBC Dword 2P Ready
0x68AFC0 Dword 3P Ready
0x68AFC4 Dword 4P Ready
0x6d9A38 Dword Seconds Since Race Start Used to control camera position, and "READY SET GO!" indicators, among other things.
0x75349C 0x6DD860 Dword Render Mode 0 if ? (makes D3D not load new textures), 1 if standard D3D, 2 if DDraw
0x461520 0x6E9898 Dword X Resolution Sometimes forcing this to a value w/ Cheat Engine and toggling the resolution back and forth will make this resolution stick. It usually does not.
0x461524 0x6E989C Word Y Resolution
0x6E98B4 Dword Color Depth Possible values 8 and 16. D3D is always 16.
0x6E98DC Dword Visible Screen Width Width of screen excluding borders added in options.
0x7AF280 0x6E9908 Dword No. of Game Windows Number of windows to show. Don't set to higher than there is screen space for; exit level, set, and reenter level instead.
0x7344EC 0x6E991C Dword 2P HUD Split style 0 is horizontal, 1 is vertical. Doesn't seem to effect anything besides HUD elements and borders, actual window positions are determined by something else.
0x6E9958 Float Camera Angle Float? A float of some sort determining some sort of camera angle.
0x6E9C90 Dword Viewport X X-position of camera.
0x6E9C94 Dword Viewport Y Y-position of camera.
0x6E9C98 Dword Viewport Z Z-position of camera.
N/A 0x6E9CDC Dword Current FPS How many frames the game renders in a second. Does not count frames skipped by user choice. (2004 version uses kernel32:sleep() for waiting instead so it doesn't use this.)
0x6E9D00 Dword Frames Rendered Lifetime Probably the frames rendered since the game first starts.
0x6EAD30 Dword # Parts in course Range 0-until it crashes. Tells the game how many level parts it should render. Typical values ~500-~1000, depending on the complexity of the level.
0x753504 0x713060 Dword Model Count Number of character models. Should be 10 on vanilla copies of the game.
0x753678 0x713064 Dword Model Limb Count Number of movable parts in all character models. Should be 115 in vanilla copies of the game.
0x7BCB70 0x713068 Dword Model Vertex Count Number of vertexes in all character models. Should be 3349 in vanilla copies of the game.
0x7AF07C 0x713070 Dword Model Polygon Count Number of polygons (tris and quads) in all character models. Should be 1917 in vanilla copies of the game.
0x7535DC 0x713074 Dword Model Frame Count Number of total animation frames for all characters. Should be 15974 in vanilla copies of the game.
0x8F6C28 Dword Footstep/Shadow texture page Offset for textures used in character footsteps and shadows.
0x8F6C38 Dword Pause Menu/MP Number Texture Page Offset for textures used in pause menu and multiplayer-specific HUD elements.
0x8F6C3C Dword HUD texture page Offset for textures used in HUD elements.
0x8F6C48 Dword Menu Texture Page Offset for textures used in menu screens.
0x8FB35C Dword Draw Distance 2 Unknown use
0x8FB360 Dword Draw Distance 3 Unknown use
0x8FB364 Float Draw Distance Fog Controls fog distance, but not render distance.
0x8FB68C Dword Frames Rendered Scene Frames rendered since the start of the race/menu/etc.
0x8FB690 Dword Frames Rendered Lifetime Frames rendered since the start of the game.
0x8FB80C Dword Frame Limiter Multiplier How many frames to skip before rendering another one. 0 is 30FPS, 1 is 15 FPS, etc.
0x8FB8E4 Dword Demo Mode Tells if the game is currently in demo.
  • 0 - No demo
  • 1 - Title screen demo
  • 2 - Replay demo
0x7AF13C 0x8FB8EC Word Current Course Current course. Changing during gameplay WILL crash game. Note that Factory and Ruin are swapped from their in-game menu order.
  • 0 - Invalid
  • 1 - Resort Island
  • 2 - Radical City
  • 3 - Reactive Factory.
  • 4 - Regal Ruin.
  • 5 - Radiant Emerald.
0x769F24 0x8FB950 Dword Game Mode The current HUD/game mode.
  • 0 - GP Mode
  • 1 - Multiplayer
  • 2 - Time Attack
  • 3 - VS. Challenge
0x769F28 Word Sum Of Emeralds Collected The emeralds have an assigned value (1 or 2). The sum of the collected emeralds is stored here.
0x7BCB80 0x8FB954 Dword Time Attack Submode The current time attack submode
  • 0 - Normal
  • 1 - Reverse
  • 2 - Tag 4
  • 3 - Balloon Hunt
0x8FD444 Dword Game Difficulty Difficulty of game. Range 0-2.
0x8FD448 Dword Ghost On/Off Toggles time attack ghost saving/loading. 0 is off, 1 is on.
0x8FD44C Dword Weather Option Chosen weather conditions.
  • 0 - Random
  • 1 - Clear
  • 2 - Rain
  • 3 - Snow
0x8FD450 Dword Catchup On/Off Toggles rubber band AI (although it seems largely ignored if difficulty is not on hard.) 0 is off. 1 is on.
0x8FD454 Dword Guide On/Off Toggles the trail of sparkles in time attack mode showing you where to go. 0 is off, 1 is on.
0x8FD458 Dword Minimap On/Off Toggles the minimap in the corner. 0 is off, 1 is on.
0x8FD45C Dword 2P Split Option Changes which way the subscreens in 2 player mode are oriented. 0 is Horizontal, 1 is Vertical.
0x8FD468 Dword Screen Y Resolution Option The number shown on the resolution option. Does not actually modify the resolution.
0x8FD46A Dword Screen X Resolution Option
0x8FD46C Dword Color Depth Number of bits of color information. Can be 8 or 16. Only option in D3D mode is 16.
0x8FD470 Dword Alpha Blending On/Off DDraw only. Toggles between mesh-style transparency and actual alpha blending
0x8FD474 Dword Unused Option Probably unused, but it is saved/loaded like all the other options.
0x8FD478 Dword Interlace On/Off DDraw mode only. Toggles whether or not to skip every other line. 0 is off, 1 is on.
0x8FD480 Dword Draw Distance Option for the draw distance. In D3D mode this can go up to the max value, but doing go in Ddraw mode will make frames take years to render.
0x8FD484 Dword Window Size of the screen. 4 is full resolution, 0 is smallest size.
0x8FD488 Dword Track Shading On/Off DDraw mode only. Toggles whether or not to tint the track.
0x8FD490 Dword Unknown Option No idea what this does, but it seems to be referred to by everything.
0x8FD494 Dword Stereo On/Off Toggles stereo sound. Considering all the sound effects are mono, this might be an attempt at 3D sound.
0x8FD498 Dword Vocals On/Off Toggles vocals in the soundtrack. This is done by adding 6 to the current sound if it's a song.
0x8FD49C Dword SFX Volume Volume of the sound effects. Range 0-8, 0 being off (or really quiet, not sure) and 8 being maximum.
0x7AF1B4 0x8FD4A0 Dword Music Volume Volume of music in the game. Range for 1998 is 0-1. Range for 2004 is 0-8.
0x901C10 Dword Pause Screen Selection Selection on the Pause menu.
  • 0 - Continue
  • 1 - Retry
  • 2 - Retire
0x7C1BC0 0x901C30 Byte Game Paused Whether or not the game is paused. When the game is pause the only thing that happens is that it renders things and checks for input, so it's really useful for debugging.
0x5F388C Dword Screen Transition Speed In units of "Screen Transition Coverage"/frame
0x7BCB28 0x901C44 Dword Screen Transition Coverage (Maxes out before -255) How much of the screen the wobbly inverted oval thing covers. In the negative, for some reason.
0x901C48 Dword Screen Transition State State of the screen transitions.
  • 0 - not transitioning
  • 1 - fading out
  • 2 - fading in
0x901C70 Dword No. Characters Tagged/Tokens Range 0-5.
0x901C78 Dword Emerald Collected Number of the last emerald collected by P1.
0x901C84 Dword Victory screen timer Time remaining until the victory screen fades out and kicks you to results. Range 1-infinity, 0 being regular gameplay.
0x901CC4 Dword Time Until Race Start Time remaining until the game starts. Also controls "READY" "SET" "GO" indicators, etc. Counts down.
0x901CC8 Dword GO! image size Size of the "GO" image before the race starts. Setting this too high makes it upside down and small, for some reason.
0x4A3608 0x9020D8 8 bytes (2 bytes * 4 players) Controls Bitfield
  • 3 - LBrake
  • 6 - Camera
  • 7 - RBrake
  • 8 - Spindash/Accelerate
  • A - Jump
  • B - Start
  • C - Up
  • D - Down
  • E - Left
  • F - Right
0x902140 Dword Camera X Position X-position of camera.
0x902144 Dword Camera Elevation Elevation of camera from water level. Negative values not allowed.
0x902148 Dword Camera Z Position Z position of camera
0x90214E Dword Camera X-Z Rotation X-Z Rotation of camera from 0-4096.
0x902152 Word Camera Tilt Tilt of camera relative to the player. 0 is forward, - is down. + is up.
0x752828 0x92528C Dword Options Screen Selection Selection on the Options screen and usually anything else vertical, also rotation of main screen icon.
0x925298 Dword Character Select Sonic Icon Texture Y Offset On character select screen, setting this from 0 is 40 changes the Sonic icon to Super Sonic, but not the actual selected character. Setting to 80 changes the icon to Tails, 120 to Knuckles, 160 to Amy, and 200 to a blank. Cannot change value with arrow keys unless the values are set to exactly 0 (Sonic) or 40 (Super Sonic) though.
0x7B7D48 0x9252B4 Dword Main Menu Option Selection for the Menu screen and usually anything else horizontal.
0x9252B8 Dword Horiz-Menu Screenpos Loc Current location on screen of the selector on the menu. Range 0 to 320.
0x752858 0x9252BC Dword Horiz-Menu Screenpos Dest Where the selector plans on going.
0x9252DC Dword 1P Controller Type Type of controller used in multiplayer. Format is 0x000A000B, where A is 0 for keyboard and 1 for joystick and B is the port number of joystick or key binding for keyboard.
0x9252E0 Dword 2P Controller Type
0x9252E4 Dword 3P Controller Type
0x9252E8 Dword 4P Controller Type
0x8607BC 0x94BCF4 Dword Weather Current weather, regardless of option. Ignored in Time Attack mode for some reason.
  • 0 - clear
  • 1 - rain
  • 2 - snow
  • 3+ - clear
0x85EB78 0x94BCF8 Dword Time of Day Time of day. Mostly effects graphics.
  • 0 - sunrise
  • 1 - day.
  • 2 - sunset.
  • 3 - night.
0x5D359C Array (51 32-bit pointers) Texture Buffer Pointers Offsets to malloc'd texture page buffers in RAM. Changes do not effect output until sent to GPU.
0x6260A4 Dword No. of texture pages loaded
0x752BE0 Array (10 Dwords) Character lock array
  • 0 - Unlocked
  • 1 - Locked
  • 2 - Hidden

Player struct

Game keeps an array of 5 structs for each of 5 racers. For the 1998 release, this starts at 0x8FD4F4 For the 2004 release, this starts at 0x7B7388

Offset P1 Address Data Type Description Notes
0 Dword X Position 0 is center of map. Goes up by large amounts.
4 Dword Y Position 0 is water level. To go up, subtract. You can't go down.
8 Dword Z Position 0 is center of map. Goes up by large amounts.
C Dword YZ Rotation Max is 4096. Slowly reverts itself if not locked into extreme values.
10 Dword XZ Rotation
14 Dword XY Rotation
18 Dword Ring Count Max 999. Adding more makes the game subtract back down.
1C Dword Animation Frame?
20 Dword X Position Mirror [???] Not sure what these are for.
24 Dword Y Position Mirror [???]
28 Dword Z Position Mirror [???]
2C Dword X Speed Higher values = faster speed. Goes negative, too. Given in relation to world, not player.
30 Dword Y Speed
34 Dword Z Speed
38 Dword Ground Height Y position of ground below you
40 Word In Water? 0 = No, 1 = Yes.
42 Word Time Until Sink The higher this is, the longer it takes Sonic/etc. to sink. Instead they just kind of splash through the top of the water ala the shallow water in Super Mario Kart.
44 Dword Forwards Speed RO Momentum in terms of the character.
4C Dword Distance on Track [?] Used to calculate race rankings. As such it isn't calculated in Time Attack mode. Goes up by large amounts the further along the track you go. Does not take lap number into account if you've forced it to another number, weirdly enough.
50 Word Lap 1 Time 1 is ~1/60 of a second. Causes Game Over once the sum of Laps 1-3 reaches 212400 (1 hour).
54 Word Lap 2 Time
58 Word Lap 3 Time
5C Word Current Place (Center/Player) Range 1-5. Game won't yell at you if it isn't so, but it'll crash on results screen if not in range 0-6.
5E Word Current Lap (Center/Player) Range 0-3. Setting to 3 instantly loads results screen.
64 Word Most Recent Item Seems to only effect the icons that shows you what item you got.
  • 0 - Nothing
  • 1 - Speed Shoes
  • 2 - 5 Ring
  • 3 - 10 Ring
  • 4 - 20 Ring
  • 5 - Water Shield
  • 6 - Electric Shield
  • Above - Garbage graphics.
66 Word Item Get Cooldown Time Affects how long until the item box can be used again, and also how long the icon is on screen.
68 Word Water splash timer [?] Setting this and water depth to highish values causes a ôburrowingö effect. Strange.
6A Word Depth into water Range 0-6. 6 is fully submerged, 0 is on land.
6C Word Pressing Forward Changes to 0x0000FFFF when the forward key or the accelerate/back key is pressed.
70 Word Camera XZ Rotation Range 0-4096. Not sure what the difference between this and the global one is, as they're both obeyed.
72 Word Ground Flag 1 = on ground, 0 = in air.
74 Word Tails/Knuckles flight mode When Tails/(Metal) Knux, set to 0xFFFF when jumping up in air, 2 when flying/gliding, and 0 when falling/on ground.
96 Word Time in air Time spent flying in air. Tails stops flying around 62.
98 Word Current Animation Animation sequence being played.

Note that some of these animations crash with Amy, Robotnik and some of the metal characters. Also some animations after 7 crash on the character select screen.

  • 0 - Running
  • 1 - Jumping
  • 2 - Standing
  • 3 - Skid right
  • 4 - Skid left
  • 5 - Hit by bomb/Falling
  • 6 - Victory
  • 7 - Lose
  • 8 - Recover from left skid.
  • 9 - Recover from right skid.
  • 10 - Duck
  • 11 - Recover from duck
  • 12 - Alternate running?
  • 13 - Falling forwards?
  • 14 - Falling forwards?
  • 15 - Falling
  • 16 - Springing
  • 17 - Stretching
  • 18+ - Character specific?
9C Dword Animation Frame (??) Frame of the animation being played. May or may not be a pointer.
A0 Dword Loop Mode If this is 1 while not on a loop, Sonic will just randomly warp across the terrain until he goes out of bounds and crashes.
A4 Dword Current Collision Layer Determines which floors/walls the character should listen to during collision detection.
B0 Word Above Geometry Is 1 if the player is above some sort of level geometry, 0 if on flat ground or water.
B2 Word Above Geometry Mirror
B4 Word Slope RX Rotation of the current slope along the global X axis.
B6 Word Slope Magnitude Intensity of current slope. Independent of X/Z.
B8 Word Slope RZ Rotation of the current slope along the global Z axis.
BC Dword Loop ?
C0 Dword Loop XZ Pos Location left/right while on a loop.
C4 Dword Loop Distance Distance completed on the loop.
C8 Dword Loop ?
CC Dword Loop XZ Momentum Left/Right movement momemtum.
D0 Dword Loop Momentum Forwards/Backwards momentum on the loop.
D4 Word Drift Direction? 0xFE00 if drifting right, 0x0200 if drifting left. Unknown purpose.
EA Word Sound FX Set this to a SFX ID to play a sound effect only heard by that player
F0 Word Always 1 Not sure what this is for.
F2 Word Identity Effects everything besides the character model, including animations, icons, control, etc. Range 0-9.
11C 0xA4 (164) Bytes AI Area Start Wiped at beginning of each round. Seems to be used by AI.
1E0 Dword Player Model Range 0-9, 0 being Sonic, 9 being Super Sonic.
1EC Dword Running Animation Animation frame being played. Range 0-maximum frame count for the player. Probably corresponds with the loaded files.
1F4 Word Number of Balloons Balloons popped in Time Attack Balloon mode. Range 0-255. Setting to 5 instantly loads results screen.
204 Dword Last Balloon Timer? Value is usually zero, but setting to max starts a countdown that is set to zero when a balloon is popped.

Total length: 0x71C bytes

Character models

Model format

File alternates between vertices, triangles and quads until a vertex count of 0xFFFF is reached. In the event there are no tris or quads in a section, the section is simply skipped. Stored as CHARNAME_?.BIN in /BIN/OBJECTS/CHARNAME

Description Length
Vertices
Number of Vertices in Part Word
For each vertex...
X Word
Y Word
Z Word
Unknown 9 bytes
EOL (always 0x80) Byte
Total: 16 bytes
Triangles
Number of Tris in Part Word
For each tri...
Vertex No. of Point A Word
Vertex No. of Point B Word
Vertex No. of Point C Word
Texture Point TA-X Byte
Texture Point TA-Y Byte
Texture Point TB-X Byte
Texture Point TB-Y Byte
Texture Point TC-X Byte
Texture Point TC-Y Byte
Null Dword
Total: 16 bytes
Quads
Number of Quads in Part Word
For each quad...
Vertex No. of Point A Word
Vertex No. of Point B Word
Vertex No. of Point C Word
Vertex No. of Point D Word
Texture Point TA-X Byte
Texture Point TA-Y Byte
Texture Point TB-X Byte
Texture Point TB-Y Byte
Texture Point TC-X Byte
Texture Point TC-Y Byte
Texture Point TD-X Byte
Texture Point TD-Y Byte
Null Dword
Total: 20 bytes
End of File (0xFFFF) Word

Animation format

Stored as ?AN#.BIN in /BIN/OBJECTS/CHARNAME

Description Length
# of parts to move (global) Dword
For each part until EOF...
Transformation TX Dword
Transformation TY Dword
Transformation TZ Dword
Rotation RX Dword
Rotation RY Dword
Rotation RZ Dword
Total 24 bytes

Texture format

Tools for editing textures can be found here, with source code here.

RAW files, PLY files

These files only contain raw image data, in RGB888, without any information about width or height. The file size can be one of the following values.

File Size Width Height
21504 32 224
23040 96 80
49152 128 128
196608 256 256
368640 320 384
638976 1664 128
921600 640 480

256 files

These files begin with 256 palette entries, in RGB888. Then there are two 2 byte values indicating the width and height.

Following that is the image data, in 8bpp.

Track format

Research incomplete.

Geometry file

Stores track geometry, starting position for each character, the finish line location, results screen stuff, the time trials guide path, and presumably the accelerator path as well. Shares same format as 3D icons on menu/title screen.

The geometry portion is split up into two parts: the track parts and the decoration parts. The track parts can contain rings. I'm not entirely sure why this distinction exists.

Faces on the track portion seem to simply assume that it uses 4 vertices in order. (EX: Part 1 uses vertices 1-4, Part 2 uses 5-8, etc.)

After all the visible parts come 7 sections of X/Y/Z coordinates used by the game for various purposes.

The first section appears to be every valid path on the track. Might be used for lap-keeping.

The second section is both the intro camera path and the accelerator path. It consists of 360 x/y/z coordinates, where the first 180 are the camera intro keyframes and the last 180 are the accelerator path.

No clue what the third section is. Made up of 4 points (in Radical City, at least.)

Fourth section is the primary path, excluding shortcuts and ring gate paths. Possibly used for boost and lap-keeping.

Fifth section are the player locations for the start of the race and the victory sequence at the end.

Sixth section appears to be positions for the camera to stay stationary during replay mode.

Seventh section is listed as one byte too long and does not seem to be positional data. It could be some important meta-data like results screen icon.

Description Length
Length of header Dword
Header (unused by game) Length of header * 128 bytes
No. of track parts Dword
For each track part...
X-position Dword
Y-position Dword
Z-position Dword
Effects viewing angles of parts somehow. Dword
Number of points Dword
For each point...
X-position Word
Y-position Word
Z-position Word
Red tint Word
Green tint Word
Blue tint Word
Total 12 bytes
Number of faces
For each face...
Texture page (in order loaded by game) Byte
Null Byte
Texture Point TA-X Byte
Texture Point TA-Y Byte
Texture Point TB-X Byte
Texture Point TB-Y Byte
Texture Point TC-X Byte
Texture Point TC-Y Byte
Texture Point TD-X Byte
Texture Point TD-Y Byte
Unused Word
Total: 12 bytes
0x0000 (only if rings are on part) Word
For each ring (if last word was 0x0000)...
X-position Dword
Y-position Dword
Z-position Dword
Total: 12 bytes
Ends with 0xFFFFFFFF
Number of decoration parts Dword
For each decoration part...
Effects viewing angles of parts somehow. 16 bytes
X position Dword
Y position Dword
Z position Dword
Unknown 6 bytes
Number of triangles Dword
For each tri...
Point A Word
Point B Word
Point C Word
Texture Point TA-X Byte
Texture Point TA-Y Byte
Texture Point TB-X Byte
Texture Point TB-Y Byte
Texture Point TC-X Byte
Texture Point TC-Y Byte
Texture page Dword
Total: 16 bytes
Number of quads Dword
For each quad...
Point A Word
Point B Word
Point C Word
Point D Word
Texture Point TA-X Byte
Texture Point TA-Y Byte
Texture Point TB-X Byte
Texture Point TB-Y Byte
Texture Point TC-X Byte
Texture Point TC-Y Byte
Texture Point TD-X Byte
Texture Point TD-Y Byte
Texture page Dword
Total 20 bytes
Number of points Word
For each point...
X-position Word
Y-position Word
Z-position Word
Red tint Byte
Green tint Byte
Blue tint Byte
Null byte Byte
Total 10 bytes
Number of track path points Dword
For each track path point...
X Dword
Y Dword
Z Dword
Total 12 bytes
Number of intro camera keyframes Dword
For each intro camera keyframe...
X Dword
Unknown (possibly time) Dword
Z Dword
Total 12 bytes
Number of (Unknown part 3) Dword
For each (Unknown part 3)...
Unk 1 (Possibly X) Dword
Unk 2 (Possibly Y) Dword
Unk 3 (Possibly Z) Dword
Total 12 bytes
Number of primary path points Dword
For each primary path point...
X Dword
Y Dword
Z Dword
Total 12 bytes
Number of player start/end locations Dword
For each player start/end location...
X Dword
Y Dword
Z Dword
Total 12 bytes
Number of replay camera positions Dword
For each replay camera position...
X Dword
Y Dword
Z Dword
Total 12 bytes
Number of (Unknown part 7) + 1 Dword
For each (Unknown part 7)...
Unk 1 Word
Unk 2 Word
Unk 3 Word
Total 6 bytes
No special ending

Collision file

Contains collision data. Located in /BIN/EXTRAS. Massively over engineered.

Notes

There exist only two types of collision objects (not counting loops, ring gate activation points, etc.): floors and walls. Really steep slopes are just really steep floors. Ceilings are just the bottom of floors you can't walk on. (Best example is the big ramp upwards in Regal Ruin; the same collision data is used when you're on top of the ramp as when you're underneath it jumping up.)

Memory variable 0x8FD598 (for player 1) is a variable that lists the current "collision layer" the player is on. This starts (usually, depends on level) at 0. It increments when you walk or jump onto a floor that is on top of another floor. Likewise, it decrements when you fall or walk off a floor on top of another floor. (Example: Rock overhang in Resort Island. The ramp up to the overhang is layer 0. The overhang itself is layer 1, as it's overtop of layer 0 (the path below). The arrow sign on the overhang is layer 2, as it's over both the overhang and the path.)

Unless otherwise noted, all values are 2 byte word values.

Header

The first 0x5C bytes are reserved for a header. In this header are the offsets to 10 sections and 13 variables (in that order), all stored as 4-byte DWORDS. To reach a certain section, one simply reads the Nth DWORD and jumps ahead to that DWORD's value.

Variables

1-5, 7, and 8 are unused in the game apart from (most likely) leftover dead code.

6 is the number of loop objects in the level. This is used when reading data from section 6.

9 is the number of objects in section 9. This is used when reading data from section 10.

10-13 are hard course limits. It is impossible to pass these.

   All maximums are multiplied by 4096 when compared with player XYZ.
   Minimums are multiplied by 32, added to maximum, decremented, and then multiples by 4096. (Why?)
   Also I may have swapped Minimum and Maximum. As they're not real coordinates, it's hard to tell.
   10: Max X
   11: Max Z
   12: Min X
   13: Min Z

Note: The coordinates have the form [block][major][minor][precise]. The levels are split into blocks labelled -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, which correspond to FE,FF,00,01,and 02, and those blocks are further split into 0-255 (left to right), and those blocks are further split into 0-255 (left to right). A coordinate can look like FF1af44e, which would correspond to block -1 (FF/block), at position 26 (1a/major), sub-position 244 (fa/minor), sub-sub-position 78 (4e/precise).

Section 1

Main heightmap. This is used to determine what height the character should be at over a certain point.

Note that there exists some sort of mask to determine what is and isn't valid terrain. If you walk off the mask, you will drop to the water level, regardless of any existing heightmap data. Likewise if the heightmap is below the water level (or missing, not tested) the game will attempt to eject you from the floor at the last valid angle you stood on.

Description Length
X Word
Height Word
Z Word
Total 6 bytes

To get offset from Section 2, you might be able to use raw Section 2 value and add to Section 1 pointer.

Section 2

Possibly rotation data for the points from section 1. Most likely 4 bytes in length. Unknown contents.

To get offset from Section 3, compute [Sec2 + [Sec3_Val] * 14], where ? is one of 2, 4, or 8.

Section 3

Some sort of 2D point map. Unknown (but important) purpose.

Description Length
Unk. 1 Word
Unk. 2 Word
X Word
Z Word
Total 6 bytes

To get this from Section 9, compute [Sec3 + ([Sec9+?] & 0xFFF) * 0x10 + {2, 4, 8}]. (Not sure what ? is. Choose one of 2, 4, or 8.) Only use highest 2 bytes of result. (right-shift 0x10)

Section 4

Undeniably related to walls in some way, shape, or form.

16 bytes (8 words) in length.

The first two words, when edited, seem to cause walls to disappear from some places and reappear (at seemingly intentional places, such as both ends of the high path around Resort Island's volcano thing) in other places.

3rd word (+04) is 2^(current layer).

+06 and +08 are related to X/4096 and Z/4096, respectively.

+0C is compared to (X-06)^2 + (Z-08)^2 to change code branching path.

To get an offset from Section 9, compute [Sec4 + (Sec9 & 0x0FFF) * 16]

Section 5

Appears to be a wallmap, but I cannot confirm this. It appears (when rendered) to be the outlines of the higher up portions of the level.

Description Length
X Word
Height Word
Z Word
Total 6 bytes

To get an offset from Section 4, compute [Sec5 + [Sec4_Val]*6 + 6]. The (+6) may be optional.

Section 6

Loop metadata. Unknown format and structure size.

Section 7

Loop point information. Should be X/Y/Z like the others, but rendering it like that causes a lot of garbage data to appear. (Despite this, the loop fits in perfectly with all the other collision data.) Attemping other structure sizes doesn't make the garbage disappear; garbage is possibly metadata read using information from section 6.

Section 8

Structure size is probably 16 bytes or a factor of 16 bytes.

This is a look-up table that converts player X and Z coordinates to Section 9 offsets.

To get a Section 9 offset, compute [Sec8 + ((Z/4096 - MaxZ) / MinZ * 32 + ((X/4096 - MaxX) / MinX))]. Add that value to the Section 9 start.

Section 9

Structure size is 4 bytes.

This is the primary look-up table. Most other non-XZ tables are indexed by the contents of this table.

Typically only the last 3 nybbles (& 0x0FFF) are used.

See the descriptions for the other sections for how this is used.

Section 10

Seems to contain ring gate activation points. Possibly contains points for other objects; this is untested.

(Note: this may be wrong)

Description Length
X Word
Y Word
Z Word
Index Word
Total 6 bytes

AI files

Contains path data for the computer opponents. Located in /AI. Does not contain anything needed for time trials/multiplayer.

Split up into 5 sections.

(Reporting segment size as how many calls to fread() the code makes per section loop)

Section 1 is 0x2000 2 byte segments. This appears to be the input sequence for every AI. Replacing just this section with the bytes from another level made the AI appear think it was on the other level.

Section 2 is 0x80 4 byte segments. This may be the time to wait between inputs. Zeroing out this section resulted in the AI taking every action needed to move around a level within a smaller area/quicker time.

Section 3 is 0xE00 1 byte segments.

Section 4 is 0x400 1 byte segments.

If the course is Resort Island, Section 5 is 0x320 * 1 byte. If the course is Radiant Emerald, Section 5 is 0xA0 * 1 byte Otherwise, Section 5 is 0x280 * 1 byte.

Contents need additional research.

Save files

These files can be found in the .\save directory with filenames in the format r##.sav
This is an incomplete listing of the locations inside these files:

Offset Type Description
4 Byte Resort Island Unlocked (def. 1)
  • 0 - Locked
  • 1 - Unlocked
  • 2 - 1st Place
8 Byte Radical City Unlocked (def. 1)
C Byte Reactive Factory Unlocked (def. 1)
10 Byte Regal Ruin Unlocked (def. 1)
14 Byte Radiant Emerald Unlocked (def. 0)
18 Byte Sonic Unlocked (def. 2)
  • 0 - Hidden
  • 1 - Locked
  • 2 - Unlocked
1C Byte Tails Unlocked (def. 2)
20 Byte Knuckles Unlocked (def. 2)
24 Byte Amy Unlocked (def. 2)
28 Byte Robotnik Unlocked (def. 1)
2C Byte Metal Sonic Unlocked (def. 0)
30 Byte Tails Doll Unlocked (def. 0)
34 Byte Metal Knuckles Unlocked (def. 0)
38 Byte Eggrobo Unlocked (def. 0)
3C Byte Super Sonic Unlocked (def. 0)
40 Byte Blue Emerald Collected
  • 0 - Not Collected
  • 2 - Collected
44 Byte Green Emerald Collected
48 Byte Purple Emerald Collected
4C Byte Yellow Emerald Collected
50 Byte Orange Emerald Collected
54 Byte Red Emerald Collected
58 Byte White Emerald Collected

sonicr.inf

This file, located in the main folder, stores various settings. Note that despite the extension inf, it is not an actual inf file, and should NOT be opened with Notepad.

Offset Type Description
0 Byte Difficulty
  • 00 - Easy
  • 01 - Normal
  • 02 - Hard
4 Byte Ghost Toggle
  • 00 - Off
  • 01 - On
8 Byte Weather
  • 00 - Random
  • 01 - Clear
  • 02 - Rain
  • 03 - Snow
C Byte Catch Up Toggle
  • 00 - Off
  • 01 - On
10 Byte Guide Toggle
  • 00 - Off
  • 01 - On
14 Byte Map Toggle
  • 00 - Off
  • 01 - On
28 Byte Color
  • 08 - 8-bit
  • 10 - 16-bit
18 Byte 2P Split
  • 00 - Horizontal
  • 01 - Vertical
2C Byte Alpha Blending
  • 00 - Off
  • 01 - On
34 Byte Interlace
  • 00 - Off
  • 01 - On
3C Byte Draw Distance
  • 00 - Very Near
  • 01 - Near
  • 02 - Medium
  • 03 - Far
  • 04 - Very Far
  • 10 - Max. Draw Distance
40 Byte Screen Size
  • 00 - Very Small
  • 01 - Small
  • 02 - Medium
  • 03 - Large
  • 04 - Full Screen
44 Byte Track Shading
  • 00 - Off
  • 01 - On
50 Byte Stereo Toggle
  • 00 - Off
  • 01 - On
54 Byte Vocals Toggle
  • 00 - Off
  • 01 - On
58 Byte SFX Volume (00-08)
5C Byte Music Toggle
  • 00 - Off
  • 01 - On

References


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