Newbie system requirements question

[ChronoCupcake]

Hey guys im new to the dolphin scene and im pretty unknowledgeable about how it all works, and whilst I appreciate that I could spend some time searching through the internet to find the answers im looking for itd take me hours and i just thought itd be easier to ask here im sorry if you think thats me being lazy.
Basically the system requirements section on the site was terribly vague, and im really not sure if Ill be able to run gamecube or wii games.
currently my computer is running with

an Nvida 9500gt graphics card
2gb DDR2 ram
an intel dual core 4600 processor running at 2.4ghz a processor
and finally a 450 watt power supply.

Would i be able to run wii and gamecube games with this ?, or just gamecube or nothing at all ?. If so what settings would be optimal ? and what kind of a rig would I need to play everything cranked up to 10 with 1080p support and what not. My apologies if this is a commonly asked question, and thanks for any input .

[artantaaa]

Your system will run Dolphin, and you'll have decent speed in some games. Others will be too slow to be playable. You will have to do some reading to get your settings optimized though. Start with the Complete Dolphin Setup Guide.

http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/showthread.php?tid=3533

Then check in the thread of the game you want to play for more specific settings. Faster computers will be able to play more games. A computer that will play every game at fullspeed should be available around 2016 or so.

[NaturalViolence]

Quote:Basically the system requirements section on the site was terribly vague, and im really not sure if Ill be able to run gamecube or wii games.

That's because it varies heavily depending on what build you're using, what OS, what game, what settings you're using, etc. It's impossible for us to give a straight answer without lying since it varies so much.

Some games run fullspeed on a 5 year old POS while others can't be run fullspeed even on the most powerful systems we have today.

[ChronoCupcake]

(01-24-2011, 06:42 AM)artantaaa Wrote: Your system will run Dolphin, and you'll have decent speed in some games. Others will be too slow to be playable. You will have to do some reading to get your settings optimized though. Start with the Complete Dolphin Setup Guide.

http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/showthread.php?tid=3533

Then check in the thread of the game you want to play for more specific settings. Faster computers will be able to play more games. A computer that will play every game at fullspeed should be available around 2016 or so.

Im confused I was under the impression that the wii was pretty lame in terms of hardware, shouldn't even an average gaming pc completely eclipse the wii's hardware ?. Would it be easier to just mod my wii to run isos using one of those usb mod chip things ?, my main draw to dolphin was the chance of running wii games in 1080p flawlessly.

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(01-24-2011, 06:52 AM)NaturalViolence Wrote:

Quote:Basically the system requirements section on the site was terribly vague, and im really not sure if Ill be able to run gamecube or wii games.

That's because it varies heavily depending on what build you're using, what OS, what game, what settings you're using, etc. It's impossible for us to give a straight answer without lying since it varies so much.

Some games run fullspeed on a 5 year old POS while others can't be run fullspeed even on the most powerful systems we have today.

Well considering I was in the midst of building a new pc as we speak would you be able to offer some insight as to what would be an ideal build ?. I was thinking of something along the lines of
An intel i3-i5 quad core processor
A Radeon 5770 graphics card
4-8gb ddr3 ram
1 TB hdd space
running on windows 7 premium .
Would i be able to run "most" games in 1080p on a 15-22 inch monitor ?, or is this still not enough juice ?. Please feel free to optimise this build with any suggestions that don't increase the price drastically. What kind of games are more ... "problematic" ? if you could name a few of the top of your head, and using one of those usb wii mod tools is an option for me would that just be the best way forward ? although as far as i was aware I still cant up scale to 1080p using one of those mod chips.

[meforero]

Hello your hardware configuration is very very low. with these hardware you can play only 2% of total games available.
Wii sport.
Wii play.
in general games that the background not has move or graphics are very simple.

Not import what you do in dolphin configuration not run games to more 12 fps or 15 fps.
The minimun requeriments for obtain 50 fps is dual 3.2 Mhz, ram 2gb 800 Mzh, Ati or nvidia with ddr3, and windows 64 bits.

I had hardware to 2.2 Mhz i change to 3.2 Mhz and play 80% of games.

Sorry change your hardware.

[sixor]

if it is only for dolphin get the i3, if you are into pc gaming get the i5 750, buy a hyper212+ and oc the hell of it

that 5770 is fine, but better a gtx460 5850

[ChronoCupcake]

(01-25-2011, 12:39 AM)sixor Wrote: if it is only for dolphin get the i3, if you are into pc gaming get the i5 750, buy a hyper212+ and oc the hell of it

that 5770 is fine, but better a gtx460 5850

Unfortunately im on a bit of a tight budget and just to get that config alone will take a while of penny scrounging, i was going to get an i3 quad core running at 3.10 ghz a core and then get it overclocked a lil i imagine that should be fine no ?.

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(01-25-2011, 12:37 AM)meforero Wrote: Hello your hardware configuration is very very low. with these hardware you can play only 2% of total games available.
Wii sport.
Wii play.
in general games that the background not has move or graphics are very simple.

Not import what you do in dolphin configuration not run games to more 12 fps or 15 fps.
The minimun requeriments for obtain 50 fps is dual 3.2 Mhz, ram 2gb 800 Mzh, Ati or nvidia with ddr3, and windows 64 bits.

I had hardware to 2.2 Mhz i change to 3.2 Mhz and play 80% of games.

Sorry change your hardware.

thats not a problem i was upgrading my pc in the near future anyway, would you be able to list your hardware specs ? so i have a rough idea of what kind of machine i would need and also how big your monitor is ?. thanks
oh and what kind of games are those 20% that you cant play ? could you give me some kind of examples ?.

[NaturalViolence]

Quote:Would i be able to run "most" games in 1080p on a 15-22 inch monitor ?, or is this still not enough juice ?. Please feel free to optimise this build with any suggestions that don't increase the price drastically. What kind of games are more ... "problematic" ? if you could name a few of the top of your head, and using one of those usb wii mod tools is an option for me would that just be the best way forward ? although as far as i was aware I still cant up scale to 1080p using one of those mod chips.

An OCed i3/i5 can run almost any game at fullspeed. A 5770 is sufficient for 1080p (1920 x 1080) as long as you leave SSAA off in some games. If you want to use SSAA at 1080p with some games you will need a more powerful card. If you can spring for a 6850 or a GTX 460 I would recommend that. And don't listen to meforero, clearly he doesn't feel like reading the entire thread before posting.

Most 1st party wii games are difficult to run (1st party = developed by nintendo). Metroid Prime games and starfox adventures are some examples of 3rd party games that are difficult to run at fullspeed.

Quote:Im confused I was under the impression that the wii was pretty lame in terms of hardware, shouldn't even an average gaming pc completely eclipse the wii's hardware ?. Would it be easier to just mod my wii to run isos using one of those usb mod chip things ?, my main draw to dolphin was the chance of running wii games in 1080p flawlessly.

Except you failed to take into account that these games were not designed for a pc. They were designed for totally different hardware (GC/Wii). Therefore we have to emulate them. The process of taking software designed for a different set of hardware and turning it into a form that can be used with our hardware demands an enormous amount of processing power. So you're right. The wii's hardware makes a pc from 2000 look good by comparison, however since we need to emulate these games not just run them that does not guarantee that a vastly superior machine will be able to run the games as fast as a wii.

[ChronoCupcake]

(01-25-2011, 04:35 AM)NaturalViolence Wrote:

Quote:Would i be able to run "most" games in 1080p on a 15-22 inch monitor ?, or is this still not enough juice ?. Please feel free to optimise this build with any suggestions that don't increase the price drastically. What kind of games are more ... "problematic" ? if you could name a few of the top of your head, and using one of those usb wii mod tools is an option for me would that just be the best way forward ? although as far as i was aware I still cant up scale to 1080p using one of those mod chips.

An OCed i3/i5 can run almost any game at fullspeed. A 5770 is sufficient for 1080p (1920 x 1080) as long as you leave SSAA off in some games. If you want to use SSAA at 1080p with some games you will need a more powerful card. If you can spring for a 6850 or a GTX 460 I would recommend that. And don't listen to meforero, clearly he doesn't feel like reading the entire thread before posting.

Most 1st party wii games are difficult to run (1st party = developed by nintendo). Metroid Prime games and starfox adventures are some examples of 3rd party games that are difficult to run at fullspeed.

Quote:Im confused I was under the impression that the wii was pretty lame in terms of hardware, shouldn't even an average gaming pc completely eclipse the wii's hardware ?. Would it be easier to just mod my wii to run isos using one of those usb mod chip things ?, my main draw to dolphin was the chance of running wii games in 1080p flawlessly.

Except you failed to take into account that these games were not designed for a pc. They were designed for totally different hardware (GC/Wii). Therefore we have to emulate them. The process of taking software designed for a different set of hardware and turning it into a form that can be used with our hardware demands an enormous amount of processing power. So you're right. The wii's hardware makes a pc from 2000 look good by comparison, however since we need to emulate these games not just run them that does not guarantee that a vastly superior machine will be able to run the games as fast as a wii.

Ahh NaturalViolence you descend from the heavens like an angel upon wings of flame to slay all my demons and solve all my problems well maybe not that dramatic but your pretty damn helpful . Unfortunately im limited to radeon cards as ive allready bought my mobo but ill definitely be getting a 6850 as after looking at a few benchmarks and price comparisons it seems to be the better choice. Its a bit of a shame ab out the 1st party game considering most of the games i want to play are nintendo games, also how does dplphin facilitate motion controls ? do i buy some usb attachment for the sensor or what ?. I know i could search this but since your here .

[NaturalViolence]

Quote:Ahh NaturalViolence you descend from the heavens like an angel upon wings of flame to slay all my demons and solve all my problems

Not sure I've ever quite been described like that but what the hell, I'll take it.

Quote:Its a bit of a shame ab out the 1st party game considering most of the games i want to play are nintendo games, also how does dplphin facilitate motion controls ? do i buy some usb attachment for the sensor or what ?. I know i could search this but since your here

You either use the emulated wiimote, real wiimote, or hybrid wiimote plugins. I won't get in depth unless you really want me to because it's a lot to explain but I'll summarize by saying, you really should use a real wiimote. It's just so much easier than mapping the functions of the wiimote to different keys on a keyboard or buttons on a controller.

You need 4 things:
-a wiimote
-a nunchuck (you can buy a combo pack of wiimote + nunchuck for the same price so I would do that)
-a "sensorbar" or candles
-a bluetooth dongle (any modern one will work, so long as it support bluetooth 2.0 or higher)

The sensorbar isn't actually a sensorbar since it doesn't have any sensors. It's really just an IR emitter. That is it emits infrared light. The wiimote tracks it's position using it's IR sensor and sensing the movement of the IR light coming from the sensorbar. It uploads these changes in position to the PC/Wii using bluetooth. So the sensorbar doesn't actually need to be plugged into the computer since they don't actually send/receive any data. The only reason you plug them into a wii is because the wii sensorbar draws it's power from the wii. But you can also power them via battery, AC outlet, or through a usb port (yes a usb port actually provides enough power for these things, that's how little they use). Or you can use candles since they also emit IR light.

I personally use an AC outlet powered sensorbar that I stuck to the top of my hdtv with some sticky pads that it came with, mine also came with a usb adapter so it can draw it's power from a PC instead of an outlet. I use this one: http://www.amazon.com/Nextronics-Sensor-Bar-USB-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B001UAAX60/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1295902162&sr=8-2

Once you've got the sensorbar below/on top of your hdtv/monitor. You plug a bluetooth dongle into your pc. You then add the wiimote to the list of bluetooth devices in windows, just follow this guide: http://www.dolphin-emu.org/connect-wiimote.html

Then when you're using dolphin you click wiimote plugin configuration. Select "real wiimote" on the input method drop down box. Click pair up. You'll hear the sound that windows makes when you unplug something followed by the sound it makes when you plug a new device in and it will do the whole "new device detected, installing device drivers". While it's doing this hold down 1+2 on the wiimote till the light starts flashing. When the installer finished click refresh and the wiimote will vibrate to tell you that it's connected. Every time you restart you computer you need to pair up again, every time you restart dolphin you need to refresh again.