Pokemon XD weird issue

[jeffj]

I am wondering if this is working as intended for some reason developers know, or if this is an oddity that i have. Anyways here is the issue.


Pokemon XD runs like total garbage on my media PC unless i max out absolutely every eye candy setting possible in dolphin (I am talking AA and AF) if i run it out of the box on open GL (since DX9 stopped working in full screen mode since the GLSL merge for me on XD) I find open GL runs best for me any ways.

if i run dolphin out of the box settings with open GL (dual core disabled because it does not run long with it enabled) i get about 17 FPS on average which causes some serious audio issues as well as makes the game less pleasurable to play. Once i crank everything the game works perfectly at 100% no audio issues it runs like a dream.

From what i can tell with my monitoring software, the more i load the GFx card up the harder it works. ergo the clock rate rises with load. The higher the GFX clock rate because of load the better the game runs. get my drift here? when i don't max everything out the gfx card likes to flutter to idle clocks which is 51MHz and then back to mid range clock which is 405 MHz. causing frame dips and stuttering audio issues and just general frustration. Pokemon XD seems to be the only game i play that causes this issue. I ripped some wii games of mine to test and they seem to work fine, no matter what eye candy i put in.

Now i don't mind playing with the eye candy i think it looks better anyways, however i am wondering if there is anything i can change so the frames are a little more constant, as i do get some audio click still, none the less, in case i decide to move back to directx 9 or if i need to back off visual candy for some reason.

I just find this such an odd issue i thought id post about it.

[noah]

You should be happy about this, considering how demanding Pokémon XD is, and why would you want to play at low settings if it runs better at high settings?

Anyway, in order to help you, I need your PC stats.

[jeffj]

(03-20-2013, 09:59 AM)IlovetheGamecube Wrote: You should be happy about this, considering how demanding Pokémon XD is, and why would you want to play at low settings if it runs better at high settings?

Anyway, in order to help you, I need your PC stats.

Oh i assumed filling in my profile provided the info to any one.

CPU: Core 2 Quad Q6700 @ 2.66 GHz (Default Clocks)
Ram: 6GB DDR3 1333MHz
GPU: 2x Nvidia GTX 460 SC @ 850MHz (Default Clocks) SLI is off as well. One card is for Physics.
PSU: 850W ThermalTake Smart Power, According to my oscilloscope, ripple on all voltage and rails is well under ATX industry spec (this is good)
OS: Windows 7 Pro x64

Aside from the CPU not being an i series this pc is pretty capable I'd assume. My i5 2520m sandybridge @ 3.2GHzlaptop with a ATI 6470m GFx card barley tops this media pc. FOr Dolphin emulation in general (from my experience atleast, the GFX is junk)

Take note i run all games at 1x IR with wide screen hack for full screen in most cases.

EDIT: Id consider dropping the settings to fix the audio static that happens when the frames drop below 100% emulation speed which can happen on occasion. I said it runs 100% perfect and it does about 96% of the time, there is a 4% time when it drops to like 90% and static audio for a bit. I am not complaining, lol dont get me wrong it just boggles my mind that punishing my rig makes the game run better lol

[noah]

(03-20-2013, 10:08 AM)jeffj Wrote: Oh i assumed filling in my profile provided the info to any one.

You should always provide this in either your signature or you OP. That way we don't have to take our time and view your profile with the chance of you not filling it in (which you did). It says this in:
http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-red-notice-read-this-first-rules-of-the-hardware-section

(03-20-2013, 10:08 AM)jeffj Wrote: Take note i run all games at 1x IR with wide screen hack for full screen in most cases.

What happens if you put it at 3xIR and turn off all the "eye-candy"?

[jeffj]

(03-20-2013, 10:15 AM)IlovetheGamecube Wrote:

(03-20-2013, 10:08 AM)jeffj Wrote: Oh i assumed filling in my profile provided the info to any one.

You should always provide this in either your signature or you OP. That way we don't have to take our time and view your profile with the chance of you not filling it in (which you did). It says this in the Rules of the Hardware Section Forum.

(03-20-2013, 10:08 AM)jeffj Wrote: Take note i run all games at 1x IR with wide screen hack for full screen in most cases.

What happens if you put it at 3xIR and turn off all the "eye-candy"?

My apologies for not posting the info properly according to rules

I will give that a go and report back. Right now we are mid battle playing. I bought this game as well as a game boy color and some pokemon games for the game boy at a yard sale a few months back and we have become addicted lol. My girlfriend and I seem to be glued to the series titles we have these last few weeks. I bought the gamecube game thinking picking up a game cube wouldn't be that hard, well it proves to be dificult to find a working one in my area lol

Thanks for the help so far!

[LordVador]

(03-20-2013, 10:08 AM)jeffj Wrote: this pc is pretty capable I'd assume

Your CPU isn't powerful enough for the most demanding games (at stock). Pokemon XD is one of them.

(03-20-2013, 10:08 AM)jeffj Wrote: Id consider dropping the settings to fix the audio static that happens when the frames drop below 100% emulation speed which can happen on occasion

Are you using LLE?

[NaturalViolence]

Let me guess, you have a modern nvidia card?
*Looks at specs

Yep. This is a common issue. Create a profile for dolphin.exe in the nvidia control panel and set the power management mode to prefer maximum performance. See here if you need more detailed instructions: http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_6.html

Also I thought IR = "eye candy"?

[admin89]

Quote:Core 2 Quad Q6700 @ 2.66 GHz
i get about 17 FPS on average which causes some serious audio issues as well as makes the game less pleasurable to play

You have to use LLE back end (DSP_coef.bin & DSP_rom.bin) to fix audio issues

Since Dolphin is a dual core application and LLE is very demaning , you have to overclock your CPU to the utmost (3.6GHz or higher) and even so , there is no guarantee you would get full speed
If you don't get full speed with LLE all the time , you will have audio stuttering
Try Vbeam trick (no audio stuttering with LLE if you activate that trick and game must run near full speed to use this trick) :
_Right-click the game - Properties - Tick "Vbeam"
_Same as above - Untick "Idle Skipping"

[noah]

@jeffj yeah Pokémon is amazing. And I got a GameCube in 2003 and it still runs perfect. You probably feel bombarded by all of these posts, so I'm going to leave now and you should fix your problem by doing what NaturalViolence said. And to fix sound do as Admin89 said: use LLE and vbeam trick. I'm out.

[jeffj]

(03-20-2013, 10:21 AM)LordVador Wrote:

(03-20-2013, 10:08 AM)jeffj Wrote: this pc is pretty capable I'd assume

Your CPU isn't powerful enough for the most demanding games (at stock). Pokemon XD is one of them.

(03-20-2013, 10:08 AM)jeffj Wrote: Id consider dropping the settings to fix the audio static that happens when the frames drop below 100% emulation speed which can happen on occasion

Are you using LLE?

Dang, I knew that this cpu would have a life expectancy but it still works for everything else i need it fore on my TV :S I am using LLE with the proper BINs from game cube console dumps.

(03-20-2013, 10:22 AM)NaturalViolence Wrote: Let me guess, you have a modern nvidia card?
*Looks at specs

Yep. This is a common issue. Create a profile for dolphin.exe in the nvidia control panel and set the power management mode to prefer maximum performance. See here if you need more detailed instructions: http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_6.html

Also I thought IR = "eye candy"?

I will go ahead and make a proper profile for it. Thanks. Higher resolutions are eye candy sure, but so is AA and AF, at least i consider it to be lol. Maybe it does run better in higher IR, but when i got it to run at near 100% all the time i nearly pissed my self and didn't want to touch anything lol.

(03-20-2013, 10:25 AM)admin89 Wrote:

Quote:Core 2 Quad Q6700 @ 2.66 GHz
i get about 17 FPS on average which causes some serious audio issues as well as makes the game less pleasurable to play

You have to use LLE back end (DSP_coef.bin & DSP_rom.bin) to fix audio issues

Since Dolphin is a dual core application and LLE is very demaning , you have to overclock your CPU to the utmost (3.6GHz or higher) and even so , there is no guarantee you would get full speed
If you don't get full speed with LLE all the time , you will have audio stuttering
Try Vbeam trick (no audio stuttering with LLE if you activate that trick and game must run near full speed to use this trick) :
_Right-click the game - Properties - Tick "Vbeam"
_Same as above - Untick "Idle Skipping"

Althought i'm sure i could OC this proc to at least 3.0-3.2 with the cooling and power supply i have, i am not looking to increase my power consumption/heat since it runs 24/7. I'd rather buy new hardware if i absolutely have to. However i have to make the choice do i i buy new hardware for my media pc or just break down and pay over price for a working GC lol.

I should mention i do have Vbeam enabled as well, as LLE. and mostly the game audio is great its only when the frames drop or bounce for that little bit of time i get the crackle that is quite bad. the only thing i have not tried is unticking idle skipping.



Thanks every one for the input, appreciate it!