Dolphin is providing issues, not sure if emu, system or game is to blame

[Designopolis]

I recently downloaded Dolphin to play my copy of Wind Waker with the praised "Widescreen Hack" and a 360 Gamepad. In doing so, I have hit several (seemingly) similar issues that have limited my ability to play the game, despite online documentation leading me to think WW is usually more stable in emulation than this.

Lets run down my system, as well as my attempted remedies.

Processor: i7-950 @ stock (3.06 GHz) speeds
Video Card: GTX 470
RAM: 12GB 1600 G.Skill (only 8 functioning due to a BIOS issue I can only remedy with an RMA I have not bothered with -- THANKS ASUS!)
Windows 64x Home Premium
Asus Xonar STX

I have used both the 32x and 64x of Dolphin 7719, and the 64x version of Dolphin version 3.0. On top of this I have used two NTSC (my own region) and one PAL copy of Wind Waker. No combination of these 6 options in any way alleviates any of the errors I am receiving. These errors are as follows:

1. Game freezes on startup. The 5 lines of yellow text detailing Dolphin's initiation up top indicate this, as the freeze always happens at the same time: right when the third and fourth lines (referring to loading the iso) are just about faded out. Happens roughly 50% of the time, but if it doesn't I can usually make it past the start screen and into the game without incident.

2. Significant slowdown, remedied with some configuration settings. Usually caused by a setting that likes to set itself on that the config info popup says should only be used with Twilight Princess.

3. In game freezes. Always accompanied by the same audio glitch, of a short (<.5 second) buzzing sound repeating evenly and continuously once a second. Oddly enough, this freeze does not need a Dolphin or game restart to remedy; loading a prior savestate clears it sufficiently. However, it is frequent enough that getting to the forest on the first island without a few of them is impossible, so this is not a proper remedy if better emulation stability for WW exists out there.

4. Dolphin crashes upon exit. When exiting Dolphin, it instead crashes to the tune "Dolphin.exe has stopped working..." Not sure if this is odd or not, but if not it is obviously not a real issue.

I tried switching out the DSP dump with my friend's, which also provided no change to the situation. No online config settings online are of complete assistance as they all seem to differ significantly in the options I find available to me (either in options being gone, added, or moved to other parts of the configuration menus), leading me to think they are probably in reference to an older version of Dolphin than the one I am using now. I also have good reason to suspect my system is not to blame, due to the save state anomaly mentioned above as well as the Wiki listing several systems similar to or weaker than my own running games without issue, even a game like WW (which I am told needs significant processing support to emulate).

I have no other games on hand right now to test decisively to see if it is or is not an issue specifically with WW; unfortunately, the game discussion board will not let me post new threads. I believe my account registration screwed up, as I was not prompted to enter a registration code nor will the system send me a new one when I ask, leaving me unable to use some "registered users only" material. Any assistance would be much appreciated, assuming this is in fact a documented issue and I just haven't been able to find it due to the sheer scope of issues presented when searching for cases of a game freezing or having audio malfunctions.

Note by neobrain: Don't use custom fonts, kthxbai.

[NaturalViolence]

4. Dolphin crashes upon exit. When exiting Dolphin, it instead crashes to the tune "Dolphin.exe has stopped working..." Not sure if this is odd or not, but if not it is obviously not a real issue.

This is an issue with recent versions of dolphin.

3. In game freezes.

This is completely normal for this game. Everybody gets these crashes, though they are infrequent. They tend to happen at the end or beginning or cutscenes or boss fights. If you are getting them often and at random on the other hand, that would be not be normal.

2. Significant slowdown, remedied with some configuration settings. Usually caused by a setting that likes to set itself on that the config info popup says should only be used with Twilight Princess.

1. Game freezes on startup. The 5 lines of yellow text detailing Dolphin's initiation up top indicate this, as the freeze always happens at the same time: right when the third and fourth lines (referring to loading the iso) are just about faded out. Happens roughly 50% of the time, but if it doesn't I can usually make it past the start screen and into the game without incident.

I haven't experienced either of these problems with this game.

I would recommend you try and older revision like 6505 first, or even 2.0.

[Designopolis]

Thanks. I'll try 6505, however I was told by a few friends that newer revisions revised some telltale stability issues. As for the freezes, there seems to be some connection to cutscenes (haven't made it anywhere near the first boss fight yet) but in the sense that a cutscene is guaranteed to carry at least one smack in the middle of it, and usually 3 attempts overall to successfully complete some longer cutscenes (like WW's opening scroll). However, this doesn't limit it to such situations; other times seem to carry no repeatable cause of the crashes unless something coming into view is the cause.

[neobrain]

4. Dolphin crashes upon exit. When exiting Dolphin, it instead crashes to the tune "Dolphin.exe has stopped working..." Not sure if this is odd or not, but if not it is obviously not a real issue.

This is an issue with recent versions of dolphin.

Once again something which seems to be general knowledge and hasn't been reported... Since what revision does that happen? -.-

[NaturalViolence]

I thought it was reported? We get this issue reported constantly. Here is a random example: http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/iss...88&q=close

[Designopolis]

I was able to get WW to run at a more stable rate by copying over dolphin (7719), Wind Waker and all his configuration settings from a friend of mine who can emulate the game without incident. This seems to have remedied the freezing issue (reducing it to at least a predictable and thus manageable rate) and allows the game to run smooth under most circumstances. However, the game gets nearly unplayable during any form of combat, with the exception of the sword trainer. 1 on 1 combat with goblins, for example, reduce the game to <4 FPS and the audio ceases to exist until combat has concluded, an issue lacking from my friend's emulation.

I'm on a different computer right now (as well as it being 2:40am; I have to get up in a little over 3 hours) but tomorrow morning I'll post a selection of screencaps of the settings that came along with my friend's material to see what kind of improvements I should gun for that might fix the problem.



I'm also aware that this bizarre fire duplication bug is inherent and at this time not fixable, but all the same I'm dying to know why it happens at all merely out of interest. As in what property of the original game is present and thus broke to make way for such a specific error to appear.

The crash on exit error persists, but the only way it is intrusive is if I made configuration settings when it happened (as it loses them). Otherwise a program crashing on event that I act to shut it down anyways doesn't carry any crippling repercussion.

[Trunk8]

I myself only started this game haven't left the prison yet. And not one crash. Haven't played out on standard 3.0. I will see if I get the same issues mentioned. will have time on thursday if you can wait.

[NaturalViolence]

I'm also aware that this bizarre fire duplication bug is inherent and at this time not fixable, but all the same I'm dying to know why it happens at all merely out of interest. As in what property of the original game is present and thus broke to make way for such a specific error to appear.

So are the developers. If they knew what was causing it then they would be able to fix it.

Which revision is your friend using?

I myself only started this game haven't left the prison yet. And not one crash. Haven't played out on standard 3.0. I will see if I get the same issues mentioned. will have time on thursday if you can wait.

Keep going. I didn't experience my first crash until the first cutscene with the talking boat (it's been awhile since I played the game, can't remember his name).

[Designopolis]

Keep going. I didn't experience my first crash until the first cutscene with the talking boat (it's been awhile since I played the game, can't remember his name).

That's were I left the game off last night, right after that scene. Then I passed out for 6 hours (before waking up at 2 in the morning, which is when I made my reply here) with the game up and paused. When I went to shut my computer down the game was still running fine.

Anyways, here's my configuration settings:

   

Anything to tweak to alleviate the dysfunctional combat?

[HawaiianPunch]

Everything appears fine, at least playable. Uncheck lock threads to cores, but otherwise there is something weird with your computer or it's a bad dump.