Dolphin on a Mac

[compulof]

I have a 15" MacBook Pro (late 2011) and am trying to run the latest version of Dolphin (3.5), but can't seem to achieve a playable framerate. I know MacBooks are generally not for gaming, and the GameCube/Wii's graphics can be CPU intensive, so I'm not completely surprised. I'm also running Windows 7 via Bootcamp, if that's an option. I'm wondering if anyone out there has managed to manipulate their settings in a way that makes these games run at a desirable framerate? I've even tried lowering my settings all the way to 640x480 resolution and turning off anti-aliasing all together. Any help would be greatly appreciated, as Twilight Princess is an amazing game that would be great to play on my computer. Hopefully my specs are displayed at the bottom of this message (I'm new to this forum).

Just in case it doesn't:

• 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7
• 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
• Intel HD Graphics 3000, 512 MB
• OSX 10.8.2

[admin89]

Use Windows 7 via bootcamp and have a look at this thread

[compulof]

Thanks for your speedy reply! I ran Dolphin via Bootcamp (don't know why I didn't try that before), and it runs like a charm. Had to turn down the resolution to one step below 1440x900, but that's no big deal. I ran into one graphical error with Twilight Princess for GameCube when running it at the top resolution: there's a black line below the map, but only when running at the full 1440x900, with the internal resolution set to Auto (Window Size), but as it warned in the menu- running it in that mode may give way to some errors, and I imagine that's what they meant. It would be great to run at my monitor's full resolution, but going one step down doesn't break my heart. Let me know if you've experienced the same (with that game). As recommended, I should probably stick to multiples of the GameCube's native resolution.

[admin89]

Your Intel HD 3000 barely meet the minimum requirement for Dolphin , you should not expect anything more than 1x or 1.5x Internal Resolution on GPU intensive games
Not sure if Zelda TP is a GPU intensive game or not
If you have performance hit at that resolution then you will have to step down

Let me know if you've experienced the same

My laptop has a dedicated GPU - Nvidia GT 540M , it can handle 2.5xIR(1600x1320) most games out there but it still bottleneck Zelda SS (at 2.5xIR) and Mario Galaxy (at 2xIR)
Xenoblade is also a GPU intensive game but my GPU can handle this game fine with 2.5xIR . So i guess there are many levels about how demanding each game is (i assume Mario Galaxy is on the highest level , this game will knock down Intel HD 4000 even at 1xIR - lowest res)

[cluthz]

Thanks for your speedy reply! I ran Dolphin via Bootcamp (don't know why I didn't try that before), and it runs like a charm. Had to turn down the resolution to one step below 1440x900, but that's no big deal. I ran into one graphical error with Twilight Princess for GameCube when running it at the top resolution: there's a black line below the map, but only when running at the full 1440x900, with the internal resolution set to Auto (Window Size), but as it warned in the menu- running it in that mode may give way to some errors, and I imagine that's what they meant. It would be great to run at my monitor's full resolution, but going one step down doesn't break my heart. Let me know if you've experienced the same (with that game). As recommended, I should probably stick to multiples of the GameCube's native resolution.

Mimimap in Zelda TP is not working correctly unless you use EFB to RAM.

[NaturalViolence]

An HD 3000 isn't going to cut it on modern revisions. Even at 1x IR.

[pauldacheez]

OS X's HD 3000 drivers don't have support for a certain GL function we use, so they fall back to Apple's software renderer, thus giving you the absolutely abysmal framerate. This is partially fixed in the current 10.8.4 beta, but it isn't perfect yet as now the speed issue's replaced with minor/moderate graphical glitches. Of course, until 10.8.4 comes out, you can just use 3.5-663, the revision just before the one where the devs rewrote most of the OpenGL backend. http://dolphin-emu.org/download/dev/8767...f3b839e50/

Also, yeah, the HD 3000 is pretty weak, it can barely run games at 1x IR. v_v;