Issues going from Dolphin 3.5 to 3.0....(Xenoblade)

07-12-2013, 07:01 PM #1

Hi guys. New user here. Anyway I just discovered the wonderful word of Dolphin (3.5 official) recently and having been playing Xenoblade. The first few hours I had issues with audio desyncing and the crackling noises. Accurate VBeam Emulation and framelimit: 30 fps + limit by FPS fixed it...and i thought everything was perfect since i was having zero issues in cutscenes and only having the occasional random noise for 2-3 secs. Anyway, this whole time i just realized that fps drops from 30fps down to 20-22 fps during battles.

At this point ive tried everything and finally found the solution...Dolphin 3.0. There were no slowdowns in battle using 3.0. But I wasn't problem free...check these screenies out (looks worse coz converted from png to jpg):

This is how i usually play (3.5):
http://i.imgur.com/Me2ylnJ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/HOWLazb.jpg

this is how Dolphin 3.0 is:
http://i.imgur.com/72B8gpo.jpg (looks very blocky ALOT worse than native res) ...and its weird because the menus, title screen, the text, etc...is fine. Its just the environment and characters. I messed around with the settings once and for like 5 seconds the gfx were fine then the audio crackled and BAM...tetris mode!

you can see how pixelated 3.0 is outputting the visuals...and yes, i have the exact same settings with 3.0 as with 3.5 ...except i cant use IRx4 with 3.0 so I had to use IRx3.

Ive tried messing with settings and nothing. FYI i have 3.0 and 3.5 saved on different folders and i just basically copied over the user folder from 3.5 to 3.0.

can anybody shed some light on the issue? thanks!

haddockd · 07-12-2013, 11:09 PM #2

I believe (I am not a Xenoblade player) that you should use a more recent build and use the new AX-HLE (or whatever its technical name is) to help with your sound issues. The sound in this game should be playing perfectly (assuming your dump is good). I believe Xenoblade is a game that has mid to high requirements and your CPU is a mobile processor. What is its clock speed?

Going from 3x IR to 4x IR might explain the graininess if you have a high Full Screen Res.

Dont forget to look at the recommended settings, etc here:
https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-wii-xenoblade-chronicles

07-12-2013, 11:36 PM #3

(07-12-2013, 11:09 PM)haddockd Wrote: I believe (I am not a Xenoblade player) that you should use a more recent build and use the new AX-HLE (or whatever its technical name is) to help with your sound issues. The sound in this game should be playing perfectly (assuming your dump is good). I believe Xenoblade is a game that has mid to high requirements and your CPU is a mobile processor. What is its clock speed?

Going from 3x IR to 4x IR might explain the graininess if you have a high Full Screen Res.

Dont forget to look at the recommended settings, etc here:
https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-wii-xenoblade-chronicles

The thing is I dont have sound issues anymore. Audio was my first issue but that was immediately fixed. Then the issue became low fps during battles...using Dolphin 3.0 fixed that. But 3.0 introduces this graphical glitch. I have the hd textures installed and like i said, the menus, loading screen, title screen, etc...is all fine except the environment and characters like shown above.

Im still messing with my settings..i cant figure this out.

Also Dolphin 3.0 is only letting me go as high as IR x3. Dolphin 3.5 let me go up to IRx4.

haddockd · 07-13-2013, 12:26 AM #4

3.5 has many fixes but because of those fixes, it will run slower. what you are experiencing is normal. You never posted the speed of your CPU.

**LordVador** · (This post was last modified: 07-13-2013, 12:33 AM by LordVador.)

(07-13-2013, 12:26 AM)haddockd Wrote: You never posted the speed of your CPU.

2.5GHz. Add 1.0GHz with TB

haddockd · 07-13-2013, 02:06 AM #6

I thought Xenoblade was a fairly demanding game and required a hefty CPU to emulate it. Is this not the case?

**LordVador** · 07-13-2013, 03:02 AM #7

(07-13-2013, 02:06 AM)haddockd Wrote: I thought Xenoblade was a fairly demanding game and required a hefty CPU to emulate it. Is this not the case?

It's a demanding game. That's why he can't get full-speed with latest builds (much "slower" than 3.0)

07-13-2013, 03:44 AM #8

OKay guys I solved the problem...not sure if this will only help those with the same CPU as me but what did it was I disabled "Fast Mimaps" and enabled "Disable Per-Pixel Depth" in Graphics > Hacks. Also I set Internal Resolution from 3x to 'Auto'. Looks the same though.

Now I have the game running at full speed. No hiccups. No audio issues. No graphical issues..and No slowdowns in battles. Smile

I do have 2 other questions...

1.why is there no option for 4x Internal Res on dolphin official 3.0? (only up to IR x3)
2.why would 3.0 perform better with an intensive game than the current 3.5 official build? Kind of doesn't make sense...you'd think compatibility/performance increases with each build....

**ExtremeDude2** · (This post was last modified: 07-13-2013, 03:55 AM by ExtremeDude2.)

(07-13-2013, 03:44 AM)j00zl33t Wrote: 1.why is there no option for 4x Internal Res on dolphin official 3.0? (only up to IR x3)

It was added later

(07-13-2013, 03:44 AM)j00zl33t Wrote: 2.why would 3.0 perform better with an intensive game than the current 3.5 official build? Kind of doesn't make sense...you'd think compatibility/performance increases with each build....

They don't go hand in hand at all and compatibility gets priority

07-13-2013, 09:03 PM **#10**

uhh...scratch that. Same gfx issue came back. weird considering i was playing for almost 4 hours straight last night...now ive been playing for 30 mins and mid-game randomly the resolution would go from great to that blocky mess...so weird...im stumped...