Conduit full speed on old build

[MayImilae]

Try some old builds, like 4.0.2 and 3.5. If it works on an old build, try to find the build where it was broken. That is remarkably helpful for the developers.

[davew_uk]

Quote:Try some old builds

The config file I posted works for both 3.5.x and 4.x - they have the same problem with the frame rate limiter. Interestingly enough the vbeam hack *doesn't* work in 3.5 however and so I can't get full speed in splitscreen mode, and not even half speed in singleplayer. That might be a CPU limitation, or maybe they changed how the vbeam hack works, I don't know.

EDIT: I've updated my settings several times, see my last post in this thread for the final version with all game modes working at acceptable speeds

[davew_uk]

Sorry to flog this dead horse a bit more. I've reported the bugs I found as requested: http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/issues/detail?id=7132&thanks=7132&ts=1396006717

..and I also managed to fix the single player!
In addition to the INI file settings posted, Idle Skipping needs to be OFF and VBeam needs to be on. Both can be added to the INI file.

Code:

[Core]
gfxbackend = Direct3D
SkipIdle = False
VBeam = True
[EmuState]
EmulationStateId = 4
[Video_Hacks]
EFBAccessEnable = False
EFBCopyEnable = True
EFBToTextureEnable = False
EFBCopyCacheEnable = True
EFBEmulateFormatChanges = False
UseXFB = False
DlistCachingEnable = True
[Video_Settings]
SafeTextureCacheColorSamples = 128
EFBScale = 7
FastDepthCalc = True
EnablePixelLighting = False
DisableFog = False
[Wii]
DisableWiimoteSpeaker = 1

That's my final version, I'm done with this and moving on. It does slow down on certain multiplayer maps and when there's a lot going on in single player - but that's my weak processor rather than any bug I think.

[davew_uk]

Tried this in the latest revisions just to see how the emulator has moved on.

In 4.0-3247, it runs absolutely great - I just needed to turn off Idle Skipping and set EFB->RAM and the game runs at a solid 100% speed even on my ancient PC. However the sound is absolutely terrible - garbled, glitchy, incorrect pitch, you name it. It has to be played with the sound off quite frankly unless you like listening to digital distortion. Nothing I have tried seems to be able to fix this.

In almost any build *after* 4.0-3247 however it crashes when entering gameplay. The menus are fine, however.

[DJBarry004]

If the sound is "garbled" then it´s not running at 100% speed...

[davew_uk]

I can assure you that it is.

[Shonumi]

It's not entirely impossible that an audio regression popped up. Verify that everything is in order (game runs fullspeed, screenshot it just in case) and pass it along to the Issues page on Google Code. If the audio is being distorted, perhaps it can be fixed soon.

[drhycodan]

It crashes during gameplay in the newest revisions? Can someone else confirm this?

[davew_uk]

I haven't narrowed down the *exact* revision that causes the issue yet but I might have a go today.

I already reported a bug for this game's strange timing issues. It seems that they use some measure of the time it takes a frame to be rendered to determine the frame rate - if your computer is fast enough it'll try and render at 60fps, which then in turn slows down the emulation (but the game thinks it is still running fullspeed!).

If you artificially slow down the rendering (setting vsync every other frame, increasing the IR/AA, EFB->RAM instead of texture etc.) then it drops to a max of 30fps. The audio, however, seems to have some weird timing issue also. With the old audio frame limiter, once you had the game running fast enough you could engage the audio frame rate limiter in any build up to 2233 (though classic controller was broken from 1961 onwards and not fixed till after) and get a steady 75% speed with rock solid audio. I played the game for a long time like this before switching back to my old faithful 3.5-1124 (last build before async audio removed) where I can get anything from 75%-100% speed with rock solid audio.

So to get this game to run properly I have to do one of two things that Dolphin developers hate. Either use vbeam/audio frame rate limiter OR async audio. The good news is that going forward, with the newer builds, the performance is so much dramatically better that it can be run completely hack-free. The bad news is that the emulation of this particular game is still broken in terms of the sound and only works up to somewhere around 4.0-3247.

[davew_uk]

OK, I narrowed down the exact revision that causes Conduit 2 not to work any more - it is 4.0-3254