Command Line Graphics

[Tomkun]

Hi,

Would anybody be so kind as to tell me how to use the command line correctly? I can load games up no problem, but I would like to be able to specify which graphics back0end to use; specifically I'd like to run Skyward Sword using Direct3D11 and everything else using Direct3D9.

I've read:
http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/showthread.php?tid=9371
and
http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/showthread.php?tid=4873

But they seem to be out of date from when Dolphin used plugins. Starting Dolphin with the /h suffix tells me that to change back end I need to use:
/V, video_backend=<str>

But what is <str> and do I need the comma? directx11, Direct3D11, DirectX11 and every other permutation I've tried don't seem to change anything. If anybody could give me a hand, I'd be very grateful.

[Garteal]

A <str> means that you have to input a string there.
A string is surrounded by quotes like these: "".

In the end, it should look something like this:
Dolphin.exe /V "Direct3D11"

Note: Make sure that you write the backends as following: Direct3D9, Direct3D11, OpenGL. It is case-sensitive, so you'll have to input them specifically.

[Tomkun]

Thank you Garteal,

After trying all the combinations of things I could think of, it was the quote marks that I missed. By the way, is this information actually available anywhere? I searched a long time for it but could not find anything.

[Axxer]

(09-20-2012, 11:30 PM)Tomkun Wrote: By the way, is this information actually available anywhere? I searched a long time for it but could not find anything.

There are some threads that I have seen that touch on the matter, but they are very hard to find. The search function on the forums isn't the greatest (it doesn't support any sort of semantics recognition AFAICT, which makes finding things difficult unless you have a keyword).

[Tomkun]

That's what I thought, but thanks for confirming it's not just me. Perhaps a wiki page or something would be in order? I'd gladly do one if somebody could furnish me with all the info.

Also, I did notice that if I call dolphin with:

Dolphin.exe /V "Direct3D11"

It will switch to the Direct3D11 back-end *permanently*, not just for that session. That might not be the behaviour that people were expecting, so it's worth taking note of.

[Axxer]

Quote:It will switch to the Direct3D11 back-end *permanently*, not just for that session. That might not be the behaviour that people were expecting, so it's worth taking note of.

Interesting. I did not know that.

I think that changing the back end from command line would be unnecessary if there was a game ini option for it. I don't know how complicated that would be to add, but if a dev pointed me to the right area of the code I could try haha. I'm not very familiar with Dolphin's code so I'll have to do some research if I plan on doing that (which could be difficult depending on how much code needed to be changed).