With the release of the SteamDeck, more users are using the Linux builds of Dolphin.
For GUPE8P (Shadow The Hedgehog) game, there is a noticeable stutter if using the Vulkan backend regardless of Shader choice.
I occasionally use Dolphin on Linux, and remembered having the same problem a few years ago. I then remembered its the 'Compile Shaders Before Starting' that resolves this issue for this particular game.
Except there's a problem - at some point after 5.0-8374 Vulkan backend no longer reacts to the "Compile Shaders Before Starting" option.
You can reproduce this by having a fresh Dolphin user instance, set the backend to Vulkan, and enable the "Compile Shaders Before Starting".
The game will start without compiling shaders. Tested again on 5.0-16952. If you do the same thing on 5.0-8374, the shader compilation screen appears and will compile. There will be no in-game stutters.
I did some experimenting on my own PC and confirmed the issue happens even on Windows, so it's not a Linux exclusive issue. I also confirmed the compilation step is skipped on other GameCube titles I own. I have not recently dumped my Wii titles so I have not tested if the issue is strictly GC games, but I doubt it.
I also am unable to find 5.0-8374 or similar old Linux builds, and trying to build from source has proved futile (because there is no dependency lock, and the packages used to compile at the time are no more).
Has anyone else noticed this? The issue seems to exists even in the 5.0-12XXX builds as well.
Additionally, if anyone has a build of pre 5.0-9XXX (that still has vulkan support) for Linux, I would appreciate it to confirm this issue is resolved on Linux as well.
For GUPE8P (Shadow The Hedgehog) game, there is a noticeable stutter if using the Vulkan backend regardless of Shader choice.
I occasionally use Dolphin on Linux, and remembered having the same problem a few years ago. I then remembered its the 'Compile Shaders Before Starting' that resolves this issue for this particular game.
Except there's a problem - at some point after 5.0-8374 Vulkan backend no longer reacts to the "Compile Shaders Before Starting" option.
You can reproduce this by having a fresh Dolphin user instance, set the backend to Vulkan, and enable the "Compile Shaders Before Starting".
The game will start without compiling shaders. Tested again on 5.0-16952. If you do the same thing on 5.0-8374, the shader compilation screen appears and will compile. There will be no in-game stutters.
I did some experimenting on my own PC and confirmed the issue happens even on Windows, so it's not a Linux exclusive issue. I also confirmed the compilation step is skipped on other GameCube titles I own. I have not recently dumped my Wii titles so I have not tested if the issue is strictly GC games, but I doubt it.
I also am unable to find 5.0-8374 or similar old Linux builds, and trying to build from source has proved futile (because there is no dependency lock, and the packages used to compile at the time are no more).
Has anyone else noticed this? The issue seems to exists even in the 5.0-12XXX builds as well.
Additionally, if anyone has a build of pre 5.0-9XXX (that still has vulkan support) for Linux, I would appreciate it to confirm this issue is resolved on Linux as well.