I think I'm narrowing down what's going on here, and it's weird.
So I've tested a few games out now, and the stuttering happens in the following games:
Super Mario Sunshine, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Mario Kart Double Dash, Mario Kart Wii and Sonic Riders
The stuttering does not happen in the following games:
Sonic Heroes, Sonic Adventure 2, Crazy Taxi, F-Zero GX
At first, I thought maybe this was a problem that only effected first-party Nintendo games. I'd hoped Dolphin's logging console could shed some light on things, so I played Super Mario Sunshine until I ran in to the first big stutter (usually only takes a couple minutes, tops). The log didn't register anything out of the ordinary; certainly nothing tied to when the emulator stutters.
I was, however, getting some "PerfQuery.cpp:44 E[Video]: Flushed query buffer early!" errors. I had started to write a reply about that here, when I realized that wasn't really a clean test because I had a bunch of Gecko codes turned on to enable widescreen, give me infinite water, force Yoshi to be green, etc. In particular, I wondered if the errors were tied to the widescreen code, so I went through and turned everything off and relaunched the game, paying attention to the log
No change -- some basic Filemon warnings that every game gives you (presumably just notifying you of disc access), and that "PerfQuery.cpp:44 E[Video]: Flushed query buffer early!" error whenever certain parts of the horizon in Delfino Plaza were on screen.
But here's the thing: I played for almost ten minutes and the game never skipped a beat. No stuttering.
Hm. So what's the common thread, here? Disabling widescreen, maybe? No, wait
Super Mario Sunshine: Widescreen, Green Yoshi, Infinite Water enabled through Gecko codes
Donkey Kong Country Returns: Classic Controller enabled through Gecko codes
Mario Kart Double Dash: Unlock Everything through Gecko codes
Mario Kart Wii: Turn off items through Gecko codes
Sonic Heroes: No Gecko codes available
Sonic Adventure 2: No Gecko codes available
Crazy Taxi: No Gecko codes available
F-Zero GX: No Gecko codes available
I scrambled to find a non-first-party game to test with Gecko Codes turned on, and landed Sonic Riders (code: Infinite Air). And sure enough, by the second lap of the first race... there's that stutter.
I'm going to have to test more games, but I'm definitely feeling like the culprit here is turning on Gecko cheats.
So I've tested a few games out now, and the stuttering happens in the following games:
Super Mario Sunshine, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Mario Kart Double Dash, Mario Kart Wii and Sonic Riders
The stuttering does not happen in the following games:
Sonic Heroes, Sonic Adventure 2, Crazy Taxi, F-Zero GX
At first, I thought maybe this was a problem that only effected first-party Nintendo games. I'd hoped Dolphin's logging console could shed some light on things, so I played Super Mario Sunshine until I ran in to the first big stutter (usually only takes a couple minutes, tops). The log didn't register anything out of the ordinary; certainly nothing tied to when the emulator stutters.
I was, however, getting some "PerfQuery.cpp:44 E[Video]: Flushed query buffer early!" errors. I had started to write a reply about that here, when I realized that wasn't really a clean test because I had a bunch of Gecko codes turned on to enable widescreen, give me infinite water, force Yoshi to be green, etc. In particular, I wondered if the errors were tied to the widescreen code, so I went through and turned everything off and relaunched the game, paying attention to the log
No change -- some basic Filemon warnings that every game gives you (presumably just notifying you of disc access), and that "PerfQuery.cpp:44 E[Video]: Flushed query buffer early!" error whenever certain parts of the horizon in Delfino Plaza were on screen.
But here's the thing: I played for almost ten minutes and the game never skipped a beat. No stuttering.
Hm. So what's the common thread, here? Disabling widescreen, maybe? No, wait
Super Mario Sunshine: Widescreen, Green Yoshi, Infinite Water enabled through Gecko codes
Donkey Kong Country Returns: Classic Controller enabled through Gecko codes
Mario Kart Double Dash: Unlock Everything through Gecko codes
Mario Kart Wii: Turn off items through Gecko codes
Sonic Heroes: No Gecko codes available
Sonic Adventure 2: No Gecko codes available
Crazy Taxi: No Gecko codes available
F-Zero GX: No Gecko codes available
I scrambled to find a non-first-party game to test with Gecko Codes turned on, and landed Sonic Riders (code: Infinite Air). And sure enough, by the second lap of the first race... there's that stutter.
I'm going to have to test more games, but I'm definitely feeling like the culprit here is turning on Gecko cheats.