Audio Stutter and frame latency

[WarJack]

Hello all, I am running Dolphin on my Samsung S8 and am having some issues currently with its performance quality. As of right now the audio stutters and the frame rates are low. With the processor and RAM/ROM this phone has, I have little doubt that it just can't run the games for GC. Please advise if you have any info on tuning and optimizing the settings to run these ROMs properly. Thanks in advance.

[JosJuice]

(02-16-2018, 01:27 AM)WarJack Wrote: With the processor and RAM/ROM this phone has, I have little doubt that it just can't run the games for GC.

There is no phone that can run all GameCube games well. If you have the Snapdragon version of the S8, it should be able to run some games well, but you're a lot worse off if you're using the Enoxys version.

Anyway, if you want the best performance, use the default settings except play around with different values for the Emulated CPU Clock slider (not over 100%).

[WarJack]

(02-16-2018, 02:31 AM)JosJuice Wrote: There is no phone that can run all GameCube games well. If you have the Snapdragon version of the S8, it should be able to run some games well, but you're a lot worse off if you're using the Enoxys version.

Anyway, if you want the best performance, use the default settings except play around with different values for the Emulated CPU Clock slider (not over 100%).

That makes little sense to me due to the Gamecube only has 43MB of un-unifid RAM XD

[JosJuice]

(02-16-2018, 02:54 AM)WarJack Wrote: That makes little sense to me due to the Gamecube only has 43MB of un-unifid RAM XD

The performance bottleneck is the CPU speed (and the low quality of graphics drivers on Android). The amount of RAM isn't a problem at all.

[JMC47]

You're so very mistaken about emulation that it's kinda hard to even start explaining...

The GameCube/Wii has a lot of pieces of equipment, timings, and various features that just work on the original console. Dolphin has to emulate those features, some of which may be very expensive and slow. Integer Math on the GPU is just something that is on the GameCube, but, modern GPUs are not very fast at doing that. We also have to emulate various rounding behaviors of the GameCube CPU that just worked on console. Sometimes it can take hundreds of instructions to get the same answer that only takes one instruction on the GameCube.

Also, the GameCube has shared GPU/CPU RAM access, and it's actually very difficult to efficiently emulate GPU effects that the CPU has access sending things from the GPU to the CPU and back to the GPU is incredibly slow, at least in comparison to what it'd be on the GameCube.

Basically, your phone would have no problem running the games if they were designed for your phone. But they weren't, they were designed to run on a particular piece of hardware. If Dolphin doesn't spend a lot of resources accurately portraying that hardware, the games won't even run. Emulating the quirks and features of the GameCube is expensive, and, you end up with the fact that phones simply aren't at the point where they can comfortably run GameCube games.

[WarJack]

(02-16-2018, 03:05 AM)JMC47 Wrote: You're so very mistaken about emulation that it's kinda hard to even start explaining...

The GameCube/Wii has a lot of pieces of equipment, timings, and various features that just work on the original console.  Dolphin has to emulate those features, some of which may be very expensive and slow. Integer Math on the GPU is just something that is on the GameCube, but, modern GPUs are not very fast at doing that.  We also have to emulate various rounding behaviors of the GameCube CPU that just worked on console.  Sometimes it can take hundreds of instructions to get the same answer that only takes one instruction on the GameCube.

Also, the GameCube has shared GPU/CPU RAM access, and it's actually very difficult to efficiently emulate GPU effects that the CPU has access sending things from the GPU to the CPU and back to the GPU is incredibly slow, at least in comparison to what it'd be on the GameCube.

Basically, your phone would have no problem running the games if they were designed for your phone.  But they weren't, they were designed to run on a particular piece of hardware.  If Dolphin doesn't spend a lot of resources accurately portraying that hardware, the games won't even run.  Emulating the quirks and features of the GameCube is expensive, and, you end up with the fact that phones simply aren't at the point where they can comfortably run GameCube games.

That clears a lot of things up, but beginning with the condescension hurt a little. Appreciate the info.

[WarJack]

(02-16-2018, 03:01 AM)JosJuice Wrote: The performance bottleneck is the CPU speed (and the low quality of graphics drivers on Android). The amount of RAM isn't a problem at all.

Got it. I think that clarifies the issue, could you do me a favor and look at my other thread as well? It could possibly be the same issue just manifesting in a different manner, but I need to know. Thanks for your help!

[JMC47]

The reason I took time to give an answer is that you didn't sound like an unintelligent user, just one not knowledgeable in the matter. We get these questions a lot, and many users aren't able to even comprehend that emulation is strenuous.