I decided to hack Resident Evil Zero, one day, and thought I should hack Rapid Fire. I slowed the emulator down with Cheat Engine and switched back to the emulator. What I found out was that the game did not slow down...rather, the FPS increased!
Noticeably, I saw a 10 frame difference in half of normal speed. So I decided to test this speed hack for the 10fps areas in Zelda: Legend of the Twilight Princess. I found out that this speed hack trick actually works! All 10fps areas ran at a smooth rate of 30 fps. However, my FPS score keeps moving around 50fps to 60fps; although the game did not render that well.
Nonetheless, this is break through information for me. Could it be that the emulator ran too fast that it missed on a few instructions? Or was it that Dolphin itself could improve on the coding to catch all instructions on-time?
Strangely enough, slowing down the speed of the Emulator dramatically increases the FPS. Who knows, if the Dolphin team can integrate this idea soon, we might have a complete Emulator within months.
This test is done on:
Windows XP Service Pack 2
AMD Athlon X64 +6400 3.2Ghz (Factory Setting)
ATI Radeon HD4870 512MB (Factory Setting)
3.5GB 1022Mhz RAM (Factory Setting)
Game: Resident Evil Zero (USA) 20fps->40fps, Zelda: Legend of Twilight (JAP) 10fps->30fps
One final notice: All emulators seem to have noticeable increased FPS when slowed down with a speed hack of some kind. Mame, PCSX2, ePSXe, etc...
****
With further testing, I found an option that would stop this trick from working...If "Copy EFB to System RAM" is on then this trick will be rendered useless. I'm no programmer so I can't explain this happening. Use "Copy EFB to GL" Texture instead and the trick works flawlessly.
****
With a bit more of in-depth testing, if the options are right, this speed hack trick would only benefit little. However, if your options are not correct, this speed hack would most definitely increase the fps to a more playable rate.
****
Scratch the PCSX2 speed hack trick. I've just tested PCSX2 with this speed hack trick and it worked as it supposed to. Slowing the emulator down would only serve to slow down the game.
Test: PCSX2 with Monster Hunter at Speed 0.5
I've beginning to doubt my own findings. However, the speed increase in Dolphin still confuses my mind as to how it was able to do so. Strange...but I leave this trick up to people to figure out whether it is a benefit or not.
Noticeably, I saw a 10 frame difference in half of normal speed. So I decided to test this speed hack for the 10fps areas in Zelda: Legend of the Twilight Princess. I found out that this speed hack trick actually works! All 10fps areas ran at a smooth rate of 30 fps. However, my FPS score keeps moving around 50fps to 60fps; although the game did not render that well.
Nonetheless, this is break through information for me. Could it be that the emulator ran too fast that it missed on a few instructions? Or was it that Dolphin itself could improve on the coding to catch all instructions on-time?
Strangely enough, slowing down the speed of the Emulator dramatically increases the FPS. Who knows, if the Dolphin team can integrate this idea soon, we might have a complete Emulator within months.
This test is done on:
Windows XP Service Pack 2
AMD Athlon X64 +6400 3.2Ghz (Factory Setting)
ATI Radeon HD4870 512MB (Factory Setting)
3.5GB 1022Mhz RAM (Factory Setting)
Game: Resident Evil Zero (USA) 20fps->40fps, Zelda: Legend of Twilight (JAP) 10fps->30fps
One final notice: All emulators seem to have noticeable increased FPS when slowed down with a speed hack of some kind. Mame, PCSX2, ePSXe, etc...
****
With further testing, I found an option that would stop this trick from working...If "Copy EFB to System RAM" is on then this trick will be rendered useless. I'm no programmer so I can't explain this happening. Use "Copy EFB to GL" Texture instead and the trick works flawlessly.
****
With a bit more of in-depth testing, if the options are right, this speed hack trick would only benefit little. However, if your options are not correct, this speed hack would most definitely increase the fps to a more playable rate.
****
Scratch the PCSX2 speed hack trick. I've just tested PCSX2 with this speed hack trick and it worked as it supposed to. Slowing the emulator down would only serve to slow down the game.
Test: PCSX2 with Monster Hunter at Speed 0.5
I've beginning to doubt my own findings. However, the speed increase in Dolphin still confuses my mind as to how it was able to do so. Strange...but I leave this trick up to people to figure out whether it is a benefit or not.