Is it possible to keep different versions of Dolphin separated from each other?

[ChronicMasturbator]

I'll try to explain... the first version of Dolphin i downloaded (obviously the most recent) did a really shit job of playing two of my favourite Wii games - Resident Evil and Resident Evil 0. After alot of searching through various forums and YouTube vids i finally came across a version (a slightly earlier version) that already had all the best settings for those 2 pre-programmed into it and now they work perfect.

Up until just today i had only been playing Wii games that supported a GameCube controller and GameCube games because i no longer had a Wiimote but did still have my GC controller and official Wii U adapter which i easily got working on my PC using V Joy. Today i finally got an original Wiimote and nunchuck and bluetooth dongle and after ALOT of attempts finally managed to pair it up and play Mario Kart Wii but i noticed the frame-rate was abit choppy so i re-downloaded the latest version and tried it on there and one thing i noticed was it automatically had the same games listed on the screen and same settings as the version i downloaded for the Resident Evil games.

I literally didn't enter a thing, it did it by itself. The two versions i have are both in the 4.0 section but they definitely are different versions. I then went back to the one i downloaded for the Resident Evils and this time when i played them there was a very slight but noticeable lag. I managed to get the original settings back and they're back to working fine now.

Ok so here is what i want to know - I want to have both versions of Dolphin but the one for the Resident Evil games i'll keep solely for those 2 and every other game i'll use the other newer version but is there somehow i can keep them from interacting with each other? I just want both versions to operate completely differently and when i do something on one it does NOT automatically do it on the other. I seriously doubt i'm the only one who's encountered this very scenario so i would appreciate some advice. Cheers.

[JosJuice]

Create a file named portable.txt in the folder where Dolphin.exe is.

[ChronicMasturbator]

(04-08-2015, 01:30 AM)JosJuice Wrote: Create a file named portable.txt in the folder where Dolphin.exe is.

Do i actually write anything on the txt file or just keep it blank? Also do i just do this for one of them or both? Sorry if that seems dumb to ask but i'm not exactly a computer genius lol.

[ChronicMasturbator]

(04-08-2015, 03:56 AM)ChronicMasturbator Wrote:

(04-08-2015, 01:30 AM)JosJuice Wrote: Create a file named portable.txt in the folder where Dolphin.exe is.

Do i actually write anything on the txt file or just keep it blank? Also do i just do this for one of them or both? Sorry if that seems dumb to ask but i'm not exactly a computer genius lol.

Also (and i know this must sound really dumb) but i got Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and as you know file types aren't mentioned in the name because it's automatic, so do i just name it "portable" or the full "portable.txt"?

[AnyOldName3]

It doesn't matter what the file contains, as long as it exists. Any Dolphin build without its own portable.txt will store all its data in your Documents folder, so my recommendation would be to have your old build that you need to make specific games work portable and allow the latest access to the shared folder as the old build won't be changing, but whichever revision counts as 'latest; will change over time and you should ideally be using as new a revision as possible for everything.

Also, as for the original issue that's forcing you to use the old one for specific games, is it a known thing (e.g. posted on the wiki/the game's forum thread) if not, if it's not fixable in the latest dev, the developers will probably want a bug report so they know it's broken and can fix it.

[JosJuice]

(04-08-2015, 04:02 AM)ChronicMasturbator Wrote: Also (and i know this must sound really dumb) but i got Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and as you know file types aren't mentioned in the name because it's automatic, so do i just name it "portable" or the full "portable.txt"?

If you choose the option to create a new text file, just naming it "portable" will work fine.

[ChronicMasturbator]

Ok guys, thanks so much for your help PC gaming really is the best isn't it? I was a life-long console user up until just a couple of months ago and now i've got rid of every console i had because every game i wanted you can either get off steam or origin or just use emulators. All you really need for an entire home theatre set-up these days is really just a decent PC and a HDMI cable.

[ChronicMasturbator]

(04-08-2015, 04:05 AM)AnyOldName3 Wrote: It doesn't matter what the file contains, as long as it exists. Any Dolphin build without its own portable.txt will store all its data in your Documents folder, so my recommendation would be to have your old build that you need to make specific games work portable and allow the latest access to the shared folder as the old build won't be changing, but whichever revision counts as 'latest; will change over time and you should ideally be using as new a revision as possible for everything.

Also, as for the original issue that's forcing you to use the old one for specific games, is it a known thing (e.g. posted on the wiki/the game's forum thread) if not, if it's not fixable in the latest dev, the developers will probably want a bug report so they know it's broken and can fix it.

Sorry man, thought i was done. I put the "portable" txt file where you said to and just now when i went to play Resident Evil all the save data is gone and the settings are back to default. I can change the settings back but what about the save data? Can i retrieve it?

[JosJuice]

(04-08-2015, 05:16 AM)ChronicMasturbator Wrote:

(04-08-2015, 04:05 AM)AnyOldName3 Wrote: It doesn't matter what the file contains, as long as it exists. Any Dolphin build without its own portable.txt will store all its data in your Documents folder, so my recommendation would be to have your old build that you need to make specific games work portable and allow the latest access to the shared folder as the old build won't be changing, but whichever revision counts as 'latest; will change over time and you should ideally be using as new a revision as possible for everything.

Also, as for the original issue that's forcing you to use the old one for specific games, is it a known thing (e.g. posted on the wiki/the game's forum thread) if not, if it's not fixable in the latest dev, the developers will probably want a bug report so they know it's broken and can fix it.

Sorry man, thought i was done. I put the "portable" txt file where you said to and just now when i went to play Resident Evil all the save data is gone and the settings are back to default. I can change the settings back but what about the save data? Can i retrieve it?

Yes. In your Documents folder, there is a folder called Dolphin Emulator. In the folder where Dolphin.exe is, there should be a folder called User after you've run Dolphin with portable.txt at least once. If you copy everything in Dolphin Emulator to User, you will get all your settings and save files. It's also possible to copy just the saves by only copying the relevant files in the folder.

[MayImilae]

There is a guide for all of this - https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=Controlling_the_Global_User_Directory