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.
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.