Is the sound speed locked to FPS? Is there a way to undo that?

[IsakLi]

Hi, I've been playing a bit of Wind Waker recently on Dolhpin, and while it performs amicably most of the time, I've noticed some slowdowns in busy areas like the town square in Windfall Island. Of course, these slowdowns have nothing to do with the emulator but my specs.

But the slowdowns aren't really all that noticeable in terms of visual/video speed, i.e. the game runs at 30 FPS which would dip to 26-27 but I can't tell any difference performance wise (Link's movement speed etc.) so it's alright. The only noticeable difference is in the audio part of the game. Even a dip of 2-3 FPS makes the sound extremely choppy, and the sound is really unbearable.

So I was wondering if the sound speed is locked to FPS? And if it is, is it possible to undo that? So that I can experience the audio in all its glory without any choppiness even if the FPS dips down 2 or 3 frames. Like can I have 100% sound speed no matter what the FPS at any time is, instead of the laggy/choppy sound that accompanies these FPS dips. Sorta like how in native PC games the sound speed isn't affected at all even if the game is running at 20 FPS.

And slightly related another question, for 60 FPS games that have game speed (video speed) locked to FPS -- would it possible to undo this speedlock? Such that I can have 100% game speed even at 45-50 FPS instead of the 75-80% that accompanies these FPS dips.

Does anyone have any suggestions or workaround that I can put to use here? I'd really appreciate any help I could get in these matters.
Thanks!

[JosJuice]

So I was wondering if the sound speed is locked to FPS?

The sound speed is linked to the game speed.

And if it is, is it possible to undo that?

No, the sound speed is always linked to the game speed (but see below).

And slightly related another question, for 60 FPS games that have game speed (video speed) locked to FPS -- would it possible to undo this speedlock? Such that I can have 100% game speed even at 45-50 FPS instead of the 75-80% that accompanies these FPS dips.

You can play around with lowering the emulated CPU clock (in Config > Advanced) if you want this. This isn't guaranteed to work with all games, though.

[JMC47]

These games are designed to run at a certain speed on a certain hardware configuration. Dolphin emulates that hardware configuration using your PC. If your PC can't emulate the hardware configuration at full speed, the game can't tell because the emulator itself slows down. The game is oblivious to this.

So, if your computer/phone/etc. isn't fast enough to emulate the CPU/GPU, but we let the audio thread continue on, the game will crash or hang because it isn't timed right. This is why we don't have asynchronous audio.

[Billiard26]

Enabling "Audio Stretching" can help with choppiness during minor framerate dips.

[IsakLi]

Thanks for the suggestions guys!
Couldn't find Audio Stretching option anywhere but I'm on 5.0 so I might check some older builds and see if it works. Thanks!
Fiddling around with the CPU clock didn't work on this game but I'll keep that in mind for other games, so thanks for that!

I can get  a stable 30 FPS in all areas but I've to punch down the graphics to 1.5xIR and 1xAA for that. It's a 21" screen and I'm a bit used to 720p (2xIR) and my sight sometimes locks down on jaggies so I use 2xAA, but of course these are just minor inconveniences and I can ignore them if nothing else works.

Thanks for the helpful suggestions guys! I'm sure I can put them to good use on other games if not on this one! Thanks!

[JosJuice]

Couldn't find Audio Stretching option anywhere but I'm on 5.0 so I might check some older builds and see if it works. Thanks!

You'll need a version newer than 5.0 to use audio stretching.

[IsakLi]

Ah, I see. I'll check the latest dev builds then! Thanks!

Bit off-topic, but thanks to everyone contributing to the development of this emulator and to everyone running and keeping this forum organized. Thanks for all the hard work, dedication and long hours you guys put in daily to make this possible. Devs, mods, testers, everyone!
Most GameCube games are playable on my low-end laptop thanks to this emulator. Which is mind-blowing considering my experience with  PCSX2, all PS2 games are unplayable on my laptop, I can never get more than 10-12 FPS no matter how low the graphical settings are. And it's a known fact that GameCube was more powerful than the PS2. You guys have done a really great job here!

[JMC47]

PS2 is harder to emulate than the the GameCube in some ways. A lot of the GPU stuff on the GameCube more easily maps to modern graphics devices, where as the PS2 stuff doesn't.