Please support directx 9 on newer dolphin version

09-09-2017, 06:50 PM #1

I'm stuck using 4.0.2 because, for some reason, the devs thought removing old compatible versions of DirectX would be a good idea. I can understand it a little bit, but for some of us who would like to be updating our software but not our hardware. We are stuck using the old version of dolphin because of the inability to run the other options dolphin has except directx9. I am using a

Nvidia Tesla K80 graphics card

(Current version forced to use 4.0.2)

I'm sure updating the dolphin to have more supported graphic versions isn't difficult whatsoever. Please do so for the rest of us, don't forget us!

**JosJuice** · 09-09-2017, 07:03 PM #2

DirectX 9 will not get added back into offical Dolphin. But Ishiiruka still has it as far as I know, so you might want to give that a try: https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-unofficial-ishiiruka-dolphin-custom-version

(09-09-2017, 06:50 PM)supportDX9 Wrote: I'm sure updating the dolphin to have more supported graphic versions isn't difficult whatsoever.

It's actually very hard.

***MayImilae*** · (This post was last modified: 09-09-2017, 07:14 PM by MayImilae.)

Yea um, we wrote a whole article about this? https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2013/10/12/d3d9-why-its-not-part-dolphins-future/

Also, the Telsa K80 uses the Kepler architecture. You can use D3D10 and 11, OpenGL, and even Vulkan! How are you "stuck" on 4.0.2 exactly?

seoulgamer · 09-09-2017, 08:05 PM #4

They might be a Windows XP user, that's the only way they wouldn't have access to Direct3D 9.

...Although there's still no way they wouldn't have OpenGL, right?

***MayImilae*** · 09-09-2017, 08:07 PM #5

The OS listed in their profile is Microsoft Server 2012 - basically Windows 8.

09-10-2017, 11:12 AM #6

(09-09-2017, 07:13 PM)MayImilae Wrote: Yea um, we wrote a whole article about this? https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2013/10/12/d3d9-why-its-not-part-dolphins-future/

Also, the Telsa K80 uses the Kepler architecture. You can use D3D10 and 11, OpenGL, and even Vulkan! How are you "stuck" on 4.0.2 exactly?

Interesting... Well here is what we are trying to do and the problem we are having...

We have 3 people (Including Me) who regularly netplay together as in all of us play Melee / Mario Party / Brawl etc together on netplay.

We run into lag issues SOMETIMES and have to increase the pad buffer to unplayable numbers on v5.0 (We usually play on pad buffer 25 and over that seems to get into the unplayable range of latency.) One of us is forced to use a hotspot cuz their home internet is trash. Me and SupportDX9 have good internet but live far away from eachother. We decided to get an RDP (Remote Desktop Server) to act as the host so we all can connect to it and play with lower or at least the same pad buffer we are used to. We got one with a tesla K80 graphics card and we were trying to figure out why it wouldn't work with Dolphin. We tried everything until we realized that the tesla k80 was rendering in directx9. We used an older version of dolphin with DX9 support and it worked. It still won't work with DX10 or 11. OpenGL doesn't even work. I never even heard of Vulkan. So that's why we're stuck with an older version unless yall can help us figure out why DX10, 11, and OpenGL don't work.

The server OS is Windows Server 2012 R2 x64 and the CPU is Intel Xeon which doesn't have integrated graphics.

**Craftyawesome** · 09-10-2017, 11:24 AM #7

(09-10-2017, 11:12 AM)Lain Wrote: ... One of us is forced to use a hotspot cuz their home internet is trash...

IDK about your main issue, but are you sure this is best? Netplay is more latency based than bandwidth based. I would tell them to go onto a website you can test ping (speedtest.net) and use the lower one.

***MayImilae*** · (This post was last modified: 09-10-2017, 01:23 PM by MayImilae.)

Lain Wrote:We decided to get an RDP (Remote Desktop Server) to act as the host so we all can connect to it and play with lower or at least the same pad buffer we are used to.

I'd guess RDP is why that system can only use D3D9. I did some googling but I didn't find any specific settings or instructions to make it work well for gaming, and the only demonstrations of it gaming that I could find were all games that were well over 10 years old. It seems that usecase is a bit... neglected. I did find lots of posts warning users not to try RDP with gaming, though.

Lain Wrote:We run into lag issues SOMETIMES and have to increase the pad buffer to unplayable numbers on v5.0 ... One of us is forced to use a hotspot cuz their home internet is trash.

That miiiight be the source of all your netplay troubles. Just saying~

**Helios** · (This post was last modified: 09-10-2017, 04:47 PM by Helios.)

We tend to care about having a nice development environment more than supporting old crap. As is true with a lot of open source.

Also, analytics shows us that the vast majority of users have strong enough GPUs to run D3D11 at a reasonable speed.

So, you're out of luck. You are an entirely unsupported user.

**leolam** · (This post was last modified: 09-10-2017, 08:09 PM by leolam.)

You'd have more luck installing Linux on that server (and setting up VNC to interact with GUI apps if needed). Then you could launch Dolphin very easily and use OGL/Vulkan on recent versions. The setup would be supported, and it's a much saner way of doing it. Your performance would probably improve a lot from not using D3D9 in a weird way (RDP probably uses the basic render driver...).