Emulator

Pardon my mistake.
The world is Act 3, not Act 2 as stated in the first paragraph

I encountered similar issues as well, but I forgot the specifics as to what I was using at the time that I got the black screen.

But all I remember is that every time, I could get Sonic to accellerate very quickly - and the screen would go black for no reason with the music still playing. The odd part is that you can press start and open up the pause menu, but doing so doesn't seem to get the image back.

While i was playing, i noticed: it mainly happens when you use a Wisp. The game runs perfectly fine here with all plugins, full speed (DX 9 is the best one here), just some times, it gets the black screen out of no were. I tried to activate wireframe, but there is nothing behind the black screen, all 3D geometry pops out (unlike when its normal, were you can see the 3D wireframe normally). Also, if i press start and restart the level the game starts to work again normally until it happens again.

Reattempted to run the game in OpenGL mode to see if it would fix the issue.
No go, the issue persists regardless of the mode I set.

Well, I have the exactly same problem with the black screen in Direct X 11. The issue persists in this plugin in too. Anyone can fix it?

Just a little info i forgot to say: I tested with JIT IL that has the Sonic unleashed fix and no go, It still hangs, specially with the spiky wisp. But, i tested with my "favorite" revision, R3200, with includes Sonic unleashed fix in both JIT and JIT IL and guess what: despite the graphic bugs and the sound crackling, the game NEVER ends up with a black screen! So my guesses are, whatever is causing the snow level in the newest SVN's (remember: only with Jit IL activated Sonic unleashed can get in game in all levels, but the snow level in the newest SVN's hangs, see sonic unleashed issue 398 for more information) to freeze is causing Sonic colors to black screen too! Hope this helps with anything.

We can fix it in the newest SVN?

I helped Skid try to find a solution to the blackscreens, and I think we found one.

Try enabling XFB (don't enable Real XFB since it'll make the game look blurry, but it'll correct a few graphical issues that the game would normally have without it). Then see if you get anymore blackscreens. If you don't, then there's your fix for this issue. If you see blackscreens even with XFB, report back here.

And make sure you're using the the TP projection hack if you plan on using the DX9 plugin, or else the HUD or many of the 2D graphics won't show up.

Well my friend, even with the XFB on, the problem continue.

I'd just registered an account to comment that I was able to go trough there using a savestate and trying a few things.

• By touching the "?" or "by luck" (reloading the savestate) several times until the music goes out seems to help.
• The best solution: hold X when you touch the floor, so you keep sliding. By this, you avoid black screen, but music tends to disappear.

Attached, a screenshot.

This doens't work either, but with the Pink wisp

Works for me, but then, the issue happens more often as you play. You need savestates and A LOT of patience/pray for this game.

When music (not sounds) stops playing, you know that the black screen will appear soon (at any move that sounds very loud I think). If you manage to finish the level, the game hangs right after that with...guess what: yep, a black screen.

Issue 3481 has been merged into this issue.

Skidau,why did you erase my issue? its not the same have you seen the picture? it turns black not all but we cant play the game like that we dont see anything.In this issue i cant see what's the problem is i dont see black screen it all.

Are you serious? They're both about black screens during gameplay - it's the same issue. Read the comments on top of looking at the pictures and you'll see that. :)

have you tried the "Sonic and the Black Knight" projection hack?

Marcel, we get the same problem, with any projection hack, with any game extra configuration, in all plug-ins, etc.

wespipes69,yeah but jusmailuck did not show the black screen it shows the game and then he says that the black screen apear but i dont see any black screen at least i atached the pic with the black screen cap and the only things visible are the bars and another thing but in the game we cant see anything if everyone understood the issue good.
Here is the correct example:

My mistake i did not see the attach file down jajaja but its strange why i did not see it before?.

My mistake. I simply took a screenshot of the exact moment before the blackscreen...
But yes, Lordhell's image is what I'm sure we all see.

As of now, I've tested pretty much every configuration on my SVN.
Sadly, nothing has worked. Attempted the TP projection hack with another rev., but still to no avail.

Yes,but you should put the correct pic as i do because in your pic we cant see the problem in my pic shows perfectly what's the problem is.If i said something wrong please say it im from Argentina and my english is not that good enough im working on it.

If it helps for testing, the fastest way I can reproduce this consistently:

1. start game
2. immediately do a jump + X to smash the ground

Resulting behavior is always a black screen.

This really looks like a collision issue, as the black screen always happens after performing a ground smash (Sonic does this with a very high horizontal velocity).
I confirm that spamming jump + X is the best way to experience this bug - I always manage to get a black screen in 2-4 tries (oddly enough, the bug rarely happens on the first smash).

By the way jusmailuck don't worry be happy jajaja no really,were all humans we all make mistakes.

I didn't interpret it as a collision issue (though it very well may be); rather, I thought that if the sudden graphic load was large enough, it would result in a blank screen.

I came to the same conclusion as xatnys, while it may very well be caused by the jump smash from an extended height... it only seemed to happen because at that height, it causes a bigger "splash effect."

Likewise, using the Spike ability causes a blackscreen after a second or two of movement, most likely due to the trail it leaves. I recently tested it by jumping around in the form.

If you jump in the spike form, there is no pink trail of effects, and thus no blackscreen. You can actually smash through blocks and not blackscreen this way... unfortunately, the moment you start moving, the blackscreen effect becomes very likely.

I think that this may be a core issue because:
a) there is no geometry behind the black screen
b) the game is still be running, but there is nothing the player can do
c) you can go into the menu and restart the level as normal.
All of the above happen in many game engines when the player falls through level geometry into the void below.
It looks like certain actions in the game trigger a bug in the emulator (instruction inaccuracy perhaps?) which makes the player fall out of the game world, but is not critical enough to make the game hang.

Youre right i hope the guys fix this,and dont let the game like they did with Skies of arcadia,resident evil code veronica,mario galaxy's and others.

Well, just found something interesting while messing with Spikes.

Starlight Carnival Act 2 - Sonic Colours [PAL]

Sonic disappears just before a black screen, perhaps the spikes do make Sonic fall through level geometry after all.

First screenshot shows the test area.
Second screenshot is set just before the black screen is triggered.
Third Screenshot shows that Sonic has disappeared.
Fourth Screenshot is a blackscreen.

This was taken with Dolphin r6418 x64

Forgot to add this, a gif version of the above happening.

It seems like Sonic somehow triggers a glitch which screws up his current location on the level, transporting him to a completely remote location where you cannot do anything.

There's a slightly similar bug on Wind Waker, only on JITIL the camera would occasionally shoot off into the distance, whilst Link was still in the same place.
This however, happens on JIT and JITIL.

I can confirm that Rupeeclock is right about Sonic being transported to a random location.

This can be witnessed in 2P Game Planet mode. If one player triggers a blackscreen and the second player hits the assist/catch up button, the camera is moved to a random area of space showing the two Sonics falling endlessly. If either Sonic does a downward slam at this stage then they die.

Also, another place this often happens is when getting an A or higher on a level, Sonic will disappear from the score screen and be unable to interact with the environment.

Okay, I think that puts the nail in the coffin as far as what occurs. Hopefully there's enough anecdotal evidence for devs to figure out what is going on and how to approach it.

Dont worry to play this game anymore the site of the emulator its closed.Fuck!!!!,why,why you guys decide to close.

Cristalbelial, the project is not suddenly finished.
The official site used to be a place where regular SVN builds would be released, and have a discussion forum, but those SVN builds became depreciated when mamario began his unofficial site offering automated SVN builds.

The Google Code is not going anywhere pal, relax.

Thank good,i open the site and this time works again!!!,because about 2 days ago didnt open.Hey guys can you put a hand in Skies of arcadia legends? im dying to play that game again and especial the gamecube version because hey have the clones of the chars and the dreamcast version dont have that.I will apreciate if you can fix the sound and of course sonic colours and donkey kong sound.

Like I theorised and binarysplit confirmed, it truly is a teleport bug and I made this video as proof.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXnqOXWm_Eo

You can reproduce the teleport glitch on Sonic Simulator Stage 7-1 very easily, just by walking to the far-left invisible wall, then jumping and dashing forward.

I tried disabling Dual Core, which seemed to make it a bit more stable, but the pink spikes would eventually still cause the fault.

Also, I noticed that disabling idle skipping seemed to speed it up a bit, this game seems to behave somewhat differently, does it maybe have it's own method of frameskip?

Issue 3605 has been merged into this issue.

Although it does not resolve the issue, Watermark tightness seems to be a factor.
Low watermark (50) causes the bug much sooner, high watermark (999999) delays the inevitable.

r6554 seems to have impacted the blackscreen issue, using the Pink Spikes ability does not cause the bug nearly as soon as it used to.

Performance is also vastly improved.

Added a work-around in r6563 for the game running in JIT mode. The ps_mul instruction is causing this, maybe in the tri_op function:

http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/source/browse/trunk/Source/Core/Core/Src/PowerPC/Jit64/Jit_Paired.cpp?spec=svn6563&r=6563#158

r6563 doesn't appear to resolve the issue, but instead introduces some graphical regressions (or at least since r6554, the last I tested).
I tested all kinds of configurations but I was still able to reproduce the black screen issue in the same areas.

Committed another workaround in r6565 (disabling ps_sum). I used the the Sonic Simulator test case to test this. It's a bit harder to confirm as the black screen does not occur 100% of the time (happens maybe 1 in 3).

This should fix the black screen in every level of Sonic Colours.

The graphical glitches like lines or stuttering are not fixed by r6565.

r6565 does appear to fix the black screen issue, time will tell though if the issue persists.

i have an BIG problem in this game
sonic colours
well i got it darker screens because when i enable eurgb60pal mode it only type
sega but normal and dosen't type sonic team!
and i got it 5 fps in menu 30 fps in higher revs menu 27 in-game 3 fps
is there any fix ????????????????

The black screen is fixed at least in the first stage when you touch the first checkpoint and after that you jump and hit the floor.At least that is fixed in 6565 version.

6565 Dosen't fixes me anything!
WHY!!!
and no frameskipping????
IMPOSSIBLE

You still have black-screens? You're sure you updated to r6565?
Frameskipping doesn't seem to work on Sonic Colours because it appears to handle framerate in its own way, instead disable idle-skipping and you'll get a performance boost.

Make sure EuRGB60 is enabled (for EU version at least?) and disable anti-aliasing as the game doesn't seem to like that.

Also update to r6573 and you should have normal graphics.

Im still wondering why is not working on youre pc,give me youre specs.
My cpu is:
Asus p5kpl am-se
Intel core 2 quad q8400 2.66 ghz
Ram 2gb ddr2 800
geforce 8500 gt 1gb.
Maybe if you have a better card graphic you should have problems but i dont know.
By the way im using opengl plugin.

enigmaen i cant give you a pic of the game because is fixed at least in my cpu is working well with all in low res all because of my videocard as you can see.

Yeah i'm sure
i have rev 6565
i already disabled anti alias
eurgb60 pal mode i enable it IT'S GETS A BLACK SCREEN
eurgb60 pal mode i disable it THE GAME WORKS BUT DARKER

i'm don't know what happening
Wait
in rev 3993
the game is now in dual core is make it 3 fps menus
and 0 fps and a crash
i disabled idle skipping not give me a boost it's slowdown the game
is this is pal or ntsc problem???
in higher revs dual core is slow down the game
any fixes
dark screens
black screens

I think the ntsc-u makes sense!

So sad i cant remember what version i have if Ntsc or pal maybe thats the problem,you didnt give me youre specs of your cpu.

My specs
Intel(R) D CPU 3.06GHz
3.07 GHz 896 MB of Ram

P.S When i run dolphin it types me
sse2 sse3 Geniue intel 1 core

and i have
mmx sse sse2 sse3

if you have ntsc u version
it's types Sonic Colors
in pal version it's types
Sonic Colours

enigmaen,im an idiot jajaja i play the games at least 5 times a day and i forget that jajaja.
And about your specs are fine i dont know whats the problem.Your videocard is?.
After the english exam i will upload a pics of my config maybe i can help you in somehing.

My video card
is NVIDIA GeForce 7100 / NVIDIA nForce 630i

My video card
is NVIDIA GeForce 7100 / NVIDIA nForce 630i

Maybe that's is the problem remember that i have nvidia geforce 8500 gt 1gb maybe thats the reason a dont have the issue of black screen,my uncle install the alone in the dark 5 in his cpu but when he hit the exit button it turns black and in my cpu it works just fine.My uncle have an integrated video card ati 4250 maybe the game dont run with integrated cards,but is not your problem im saying that you have to change the video card for best performance,in my cpu the game runs well but i have to put all in low resolution to play the game well.If that emu dont fix the issue you have maybe is the card but i dont know,i will give you my config of the emu anyway.Wish me luck in the test byes.

Well ....
it's really hard to change a videocard
because i'm not from america or europe

is there any speed hack?

HEY!
i found a fix for this issue!!!!!!

If you found a fix, then you should share it, not just declare it.

I agree with Rupeeclock.

OK
It's a savestate do you want it?

It can't be an ATI issue. I have a 5870 ATI card, and the game works perfectly. I advice you to download a brand new version of the emulator and configure it from 0, as this game is CLEARLY fixed (the blue screen is, the bad EFB scaling however is not). Try to update the video drivers too, and if possible, download the Catalyst driver with OpenCL embedded. My old computer, P4 3.2 @3.8 Ghz with an AGP 7600GS can run this game totally "fine" (slow, but without black screen).

Oh, i'm sorry, i only noticed now that you are using an integrated graphics card. I'll test with my friends computer, as it has an integrated ATI card. Sorry about the misread. However, do what i sad, just to be shure.

This issue well spikes crash actually is fixed by revision 6600! But when you starting game you have to be lucky

Yup, NTSC version doesn't always work. Sometimes requires a few restarts.

Uh, r6678 seems to break everything. I tested Sonic Colors, Sonic Adventure 2, Super Mario Sunshine, NSMBwii and M&M's Adventure. 3D graphics in all these games are broken. Only Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 remained untouched.
6677 revision works fine though.

r6678 only changes the OpenGL plugin, have you tried the Direct3D9 plugin?

Does it matter what did I use? That's a regression! You broke OpenGL plugin guys XD
I always use OpenGL cause it's most stable for me. Direct3D9 has shitty graphics and DirectX11 has texture glitches and randomly crashes all the time. So you see.

You said "r6678 broke everything", if Direct3D9 has not been affected by the changes, not everything has been broken, has it? :)

Okay, okay. You win XD
But OpenGL is broken regardless.

OpenGL is the default video plugin, so it is supposed to be the best at the moment (in fact for me it is so)...strange that r6778 broke so many games in OpenGL, but it did it:-/

Anyway, if r6678 broke something, you should be posting it there, not here.

OpenGL is the default, but for most people Direct3D9 is usually better, but some systems or operating systems are not D3D9 compatible.

This game works for ATI cards and windows x64 bit
Someone said that
but from now i have a savestate to escape blackscreen
i don't know why the frameskipping works in game
but when you jump and see red lock on cursor
and taking any wisp power or boost the game hangs
in frameskip

This issue at least in my geforce gt240 is not happen anymore maybe there's something wrong in your emulator in my cpu works great.

Hey guys I'm new here...so...its not the iso that makes the gameplay got sucks and it because the emulator right?...
Now I need one of you guys help me....
And yeah I have the same problem like you guys especially that black screen...it happen when I used spike wisp....but not only the spike wisp....when I ran to some place including the 2D part...the black screen apear more often....but not that often anyway....so I need your help...how to settle this problem....anyways...thanks for the participates.....but I really need your help guys....cuz I really want to play sonic colors...

Hey guys I'm new here...so...its not the iso that makes the gameplay got sucks and it because the emulator right?...
Now I need one of you guys help me....
And yeah I have the same problem like you guys especially that black screen...it happen when I used spike wisp....but not only the spike wisp....when I ran to some place including the 2D part...the black screen apear more often....but not that often anyway....so I need your help...how to settle this problem....anyways...thanks for the participates.....but I really need your help guys....cuz I really want to play sonic colors...

Use Dolphin SVN 7027.
And do This Setting ▼

nk_xin
I can see the MG 1 y 2 do you have that bug that the sound dissapear between 3 mins of gameplay?.

Can confirm that this issue is still present in 4.0-709 64 bit. Makes levels such as Planet Wisp impossible to complete.

I can corroborate that issue, got to the Red Spike wisp section in the first Planet Wisp level, using 4.0-714, got the black screen issue.

Please test this build as well. I completed Planet Wisp with it.

https://dl.dolphin-emu.org/prs/pr-757-dolphin-latest-x64.7z
https://dl.dolphin-emu.org/prs/pr-757-dolphin-latest.dmg

@tilkax: Why was this marked as FixedInPR? JMC's comment suggests this has nothing to do with the PR at all.