Problems with The Grudge Wii on Dolphin latest revision

[darkness93]

Hello there!

I've had great fun emulating a few good games with Dolphin, and I'd just like to say that the most recent revision (Dolphin 4.0-1487) gave me a MASSIVE increase in FPS for the "Grudge Wii" game! It's so great playing it at close to 60 FPS now instead of around 35-40, and I'll probably make a video soon once I get this haha: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hauppauge-PVR-Rocket-gameplay-standalone/dp/B00GC3Z6GM

Now, I know that the most recent revision is bound to have a few problems, but I have tried the previous stable releases (3.5 and 4.0) from your site and neither reach the awesome FPS count that this revision can.

Anyway, I wanted to alert the developers of two problems in this game, the first being on ANY revision:

After each key pickup or at the end of an in-game cutscene, you need to wait a few seconds for the flashlight to centre itself. Once it's centred, you can look around quickly again. If you try to look around before it's centred however, you will only be able to look around very slowly until you stop looking, wait for it to centre and then look again. It's pretty annoying, I mean I've got the hang of it but it's a pain to get friends to learn the technique when they're playing for the first time :p Oh I should have mentioned that I'm using a wired xbox controller instead of a classic wiimote, so I don't know if the problem resides with the controller I'm using or the emulation of the game itself.

and the second being on JUST THIS REVISION:

The sound is very distorted in this revision when the FPS does drop below 60, as opposed to the previous stable releases (3.5 and 4.0). Although it does do a good job of slowing down the sound instead of stuttering it, it's crackly and "boomy" I'd say as opposed to the smooth sound in 3.5 and 4.0.

Just thought I'd point those two things out. Other than those problems, the game runs quite well and is great for a few scares!

-Daniel

[kinkinkijkin]

The sound "distortion" is the fact that audio is no longer asynchronous. Basically, whenever the game slows down, the audio slows down as well.

[darkness93]

(04-30-2014, 06:08 AM)kinkinkijkin Wrote: The sound "distortion" is the fact that audio is no longer asynchronous. Basically, whenever the game slows down, the audio slows down as well.

Yes I'm aware of that and that's fine, but there's a distinction I'm making between the audio just slowing down, and the audio (already slowed down) becoming distorted. What I mean is that there's a booming, scratchy aspect to it rather than the sound you'd expect from a slow-motion video (for example). After testing it on the previous stable releases, the sound is still pleasant to hear even when it's slowed down but in this very latest release it's not that pleasant.

Once I get a good recording device like the one I linked, I'll be able to demonstrate these problems more clearly with no impact on the framerate. For now though, it's just a choice between a good framerate or good sound, and I've tried several sound combinations already and just given up :p

I could record it I guess to highlight this distinction, but the video won't be as good with FRAPS haha

Actually it's not that bad with FRAPS and the framerate isn't impacted much at all, I'll try a recording now to show you what I mean

[kinkinkijkin]

Instead of timestreching, audio is now chopped, since it is no longer run asynchronously. That is the product of audio not running async.

[darkness93]

(04-30-2014, 11:39 AM)kinkinkijkin Wrote: Instead of timestreching, audio is now chopped, since it is no longer run asynchronously. That is the product of audio not running async.

Ah ok thanks for clearing that up. In that case, I'd like there to be an option then in a later release to allow users to choose whether they want their audio to be asynchronous or chopped, because it will have different effects on games and they can choose the option they prefer. For Grudge Wii I'd definitely prefer the asynchronous option, because it really sounds terrible when it's chopped and although the framerate is really good there are some parts of the game that slow down on any version of Dolphin. Just something to consider, thanks again for clearing that up though!

So the other problem was that the flashlight takes a few seconds to be centred each time. Any ideas on this? I actually loaded my keyboard+mouse config instead and I still have to wait for it to centre, so that means there's something about the emulation of the game and it doesn't matter what controller I'm using (unless there's a certain option I'm missing).

By the way, here's the small video I put together to compare the different sound streams (turn your volume down a bit) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfOUuw1mlhY

[JMC47]

No, you're never getting an option to have your audio asynchronous ever again. It's buggy, bad, and breaks things and cannot be reimplemented. If you want more reasons on why it will never happen, feel free to search.

On the other stuff, I've never played it, so I cannot comment.

[darkness93]

Oh alright then, just seems a shame to me because it was so perfect for The Grudge Wii. I'll just look forward to later releases then when the FPS is always at 60 so I won't get those sound problems. As for the flashlight problem, it's probably just the emulation of this game because I've had no input problems with other games. I'll have to ask around elsewhere about that.

Thanks for all your help anyway, for now I'll keep switching between 3.5 and the latest revision I guess :p

[JMC47]

If the input problems are in all versions, you should test/verify with real wiimote on Dolphin, then on console and compare. If it's far different, describe how.

[darkness93]

Thanks for the reply but yeah that's the thing, I would but I don't have a real wiimote :p I have a Bluetooth receiver though, and they are going pretty cheap on Amazon so I'll probly get a couple soon and test them

Alright I've ordered some wiimotes! They'll be arriving soon and I'll be testing them out

[darkness93]

Hey, alright so the real wiimotes arrived last week and I configured them just fine. While I'm waiting for the Sensor Bar to arrive, I used the "candle trick" which works just as well :p Anyway in regards to this issue it seems the flashlight still moves up a touch after each battery pickup / cutscene end. There's no difference at all, the workaround is to wait the few seconds and then you can look normally but it's not too bad looking around anyway at a slower pace with an actual wiimote. It sure is fun playing with proper wiimotes anyway ^^

So, I'm not sure if this problem exists in running the game on an actual wii console (I'm pretty sure it doesn't, but I don't have an actual wii to test it on), so it must be something to do with the emulation. Do you think this could be addressed and I can still test it with the proper wiimotes? I think the issue is something to do with just centering the controller's IR signal each time instantly. If it's too much hassle then don't worry about it, it's just a slight annoyance really but I'd be satisfied if it happened on an actual wii too :p