Audio lag/skipping in Super Smash Bros Brawl

[Animedude5555]

I now have the most "bleeding edge" latest version available for download (nightly release from tonight). This is lag that did NOT exist in the older version (3.5 r-367). It's as if the emulator has to drop some audio samples just to keep up with the overall framerate of the game. But this problem didn't exist in the previous version of Dolphin, so I KNOW that my computer isn't too wimpy to handle emulating this game. In fact the ONLY reason I upgraded to the latest version of Dolphin was because the older version would not properly handle Brawl's writing to the SD card. When I started Brawl in the old version it would keep saying that it was writing a blank save file to the card the first time I ran Brawl, like it should, but then NEVER actually wrote the file. I waited like 10 minutes and it wouldn't complete the write. And when I started the game again, it again said it needed to write an initial blank save file, because it never properly wrote it the first time, so it was as if I was starting the game for the very first time, each time I ran it. So to play it I had to tell it to NOT use game saves (so I'd just lose any progress I'd make). Now in the latest version of Dolphin, that's no problem, but now I'm instead confronted with ABSOLUTELY CRAPPY AUDIO. For every 10th (approximately) of a second of audio that plays, the next 10th (approximately) of a second is blank audio. It sounds like listening to music that's amplitude-modulated with a square wave at a rate of 5hz (approximately). I can't even play the game like this. I'm considering downgrading my version of Dolphin to the previous version. Even if I can't save the game, at least the sound is tolerable! As it is now, the game is unplayable with crap audio like this. And I can't find ANY combination of settings in the settings menus that make this version of the emulator handle the audio like the old version of the emulator.


I think you guys are gonna need to make a "Brawl compatability mode" for Dolphin, so it will use optimizations in this mode tailored SPECIFICALLY for the playing of the game Super Smash Bros Brawl.

[LordVador]

I can't find ANY combination of settings in the settings menus that make this version of the emulator handle the audio like the old version of the emulator.

With latest versions you need to run games full-speed to get the sound to work properly (due to new AX-HLE). If you can't then the sound will stutter.
With your CPU you're more likely to reach full-speed with old versions. Latest ones being more demanding

[JMC47]

But this problem didn't exist in the previous version of Dolphin, so I KNOW that my computer isn't too wimpy to handle emulating this game.

Says the person with an integrated graphics chip according to the profile. The only reason you didn't notice the audio hiccups before is because the old audio was asynchronous. You're going to have trouble running Brawl full speed on an i3 without a graphics card.

There were some problems with it writing a save file for long periods, but you're using developmental builds. There are some additions that have unknown side-effects. So what if it takes a while writing a save file or doesn't? Report it so it can get investigated and fixed instead of bitching about it on the forum.

If you truly believe it isn't a framerate problem, post an audio dump that shows what's going on. And please confirm you're not dropping frames. The only way the developers can investigate problems is if they can reproduce it. I strongly doubt you're getting audio lag during full speed on your computer.

[Animedude5555]

I can't find ANY combination of settings in the settings menus that make this version of the emulator handle the audio like the old version of the emulator.

With latest versions you need to run games full-speed to get the sound to work properly (due to new AX-HLE). If you can't then the sound will stutter.
With your CPU you're more likely to reach full-speed with old versions. Latest ones being more demanding

Thanks. That answers my question. I guess I'll stick with the older version. At what point by the way did AX-HLE get implemented? Since now the sound no longer plays in async mode (as the person below you in the comments mentioned), what is the latest version of the emulator that still handles sound this way? I'd like to use the latest version of the emulator that is still functional with sound on my computer.

[oliverfrancisco]

Go to the download page, and then go to the ax-hle branch.

[pauldacheez]

oliverfrancisco, that doesn't help at all, he's looking for the old HLE. v_v

The last build with the old AXWii HLE is 3.5-1124: https://dolphin-emu.org/download/dev/d95...74e37b159/
The last build with the old AX HLE for GameCube games is... plain 3.5, actually. (Okay, yeah, there's 3.5-3 and 3.5-33, but the former's really no different from 3.5 and the latter was reverted for very good reasons, e.g. it broke Dolphin on OS X.)

[LordVador]

At what point by the way did AX-HLE get implemented?

New AX-HLE has been implemented since 3.5-78 for GC games. And since 3.5-1154 for Wii games

[Animedude5555]

At what point by the way did AX-HLE get implemented?

New AX-HLE has been implemented since 3.5-78 for GC games. And since 3.5-1154 for Wii games

Are you talking about the development version, or the "stable release" version. I went further down the page from the dev versions, and found a release version. The stable release version had no revision number. It just had a version number. Version 3.5. This is the equivalent to which dev version/revision? By the way. This stable version DOES work with SD cards, and it also doesn't have the sound stuttering problem with HLE (if I go to LLE though and use the DSP nand dump files though, it goes back to stuttering, but HLE is good for most games it seems). So far this "stable release" version seems to be the most overall dependable.

[mbc07]

You can always use a build from the timestrech branch or use the latest development version with OpenAL audio backend. However, your CPU is a bit weak for Dolphin...

[pauldacheez]

The stable version is still gonna have SD card issues/crashes. That issue was fixed *very* recently.

3.5 stable is equivalent to 3.5-0. It also has tons of bugs that have been fixed in current development builds.

Also, the old HLE is gonna cause crashes. I'd recommend you find a faster computer to run Dolphin on if possible, so you don't get any stuttering on current builds.