An option to load a rom completly to ram?

[Manaplayer]

Hello,
the subject line says what is the thema.
For me, using an hdd i'm using an script to load a rom to ramdisk to let the hdd sleep while i'm playing.
The hdd have always to reload a part of the rom, so it's waiking over and over again when i'm not using a ramdisk.
Why not using an optional feature to load the rom completly to ram?

[mbc07]

Because it wouldn't have any difference. Even the slowest HDDs easily surpasses the speeds of the GameCube and Wii disc drives, and Dolphin emulates disc access timings as close as possible to avoid issues with the games or desyncs when in Netplay...

[Manaplayer]

(07-20-2021, 08:53 PM)mbc07 Wrote: Because it wouldn't have any difference. Even the slowest HDDs easily surpasses the speeds of the GameCube and Wii disc drives, and Dolphin emulates disc access timings as close as possible to avoid issues with the games or desyncs when in Netplay...

What I mean by that is the thing that a hard disk has to turn on again and again to reload parts from rom. If there was an option to load the rom completely, the problem would be solved.

And that only as an option for systems that have enough ram free for it.
What is chosen in the settings is up to everyone, right?

[mbc07]

It's probably easier to configure your HDD APM settings so it doesn't go into standby too often, but whatever. Perhaps try posting at the Feature Request thread and hope someone picks up your suggestion?

[ForkWNY]

With SSD/NVMe hard drives widely available, I agree that loading a ROM into RAM doesn't make sense since modern solid state drives are magnitudes of order faster than Wii or GameCube disc drives. If you're using a mechanical hard drive (consider upgrading to solid state), disable spin-down/sleep in your APM or power settings.

[hansschmucker]

(07-23-2021, 02:02 PM)ForkWNY Wrote: With SSD/NVMe hard drives widely available, I agree that loading a ROM into RAM doesn't make sense since modern solid state drives are magnitudes of order faster than Wii or GameCube disc drives. If you're using a mechanical hard drive (consider upgrading to solid state), disable spin-down/sleep in your APM or power settings.

It may very well be the case that I'm having a very specific issue here but ... I'm in the same boat as the original poster. I keep my games on a Windows RAID and for some reason this keeps causing problems with SSX3 (basically it pauses for half a second from time to time). For now I've chosen the same road as the OP and created a RAMdisk and a script, but like the OP said, it would be useful for some of us who don't usually keep their old games on their primary disc but still want to play them from time to time without copying them over each and every time.

Not saying that this is a big issue, but it would be nice to have for some of us.

[mbc07]

Like I said some months ago, ask for this in the Feature Request Thread and see what happens. You might find someone willing to implement that, although I personally think the chances are pretty slim, considering the trade-off between usefulness and effort required to implement the feature...

[Kolano]

(07-20-2021, 08:53 PM)mbc07 Wrote: Because it wouldn't have any difference. Even the slowest HDDs easily surpasses the speeds of the GameCube and Wii disc drives, and Dolphin emulates disc access timings as close as possible to avoid issues with the games or desyncs when in Netplay...

Those with their ISOs on NAS may appreciate this option. I know it resolved stuttering in DuckStation for me.