Textures and FPS Drops

[shangry]

So I'm using Hypatia's texture pack for Wind Waker, and it seems no matter what settings I put the game on, it will lag out randomly. I'm able to run the game smoothly at max settings, but with the texture pack it takes a while to load, causing a stutter for a bit. The texture cache needs to be on Safe for this to work instead of fast, and I'm assuming that's the issue since I'm also assuming Dolphin streams the textures from the RAM.
Is there any possible way to fix this? Would getting more RAM help? Is there maybe a way to patch the textures into the ISO so it doesn't need to stream (because you can do that with Project M)? Am I even allowed to ask these questions? xD
Thanks for your help guys. If you need me to post my config setup or anything I will gladly. Maybe it's something really small I've overlooked.

[NKF98]

8 GB is plenty to run texture packs IIRC from reading the hardware FAQ. And yes, you can ask these questions, just refrain from mentioning ROMs or downloading. Dolphin 4.0 - 5836 is outdated by this point, update to the latest version here, and see if it helps.

[shangry]

Alright I'll try it out. I have exactly 8GB of RAM xD does it matter what type or what frequency it is?
Also, when downloading a new version of Dolphin, does everything automatically mesh together and replace the needed files or will I have to do it all manually? As in, will I have to put in all the textures and edit my config again?

[NKF98]

You will need to put everything back in manually (including your save files). And unless you have a very old computer then the type of RAM shouldn't be an issue. Like, if you're running some DDR2 then there might be a problem, but that's way outdated.

[JosJuice]

(03-21-2015, 12:45 PM)NKF98 Wrote: You will need to put everything back in manually (including your save files).

What? The save files, configs and things like that will be working automatically after updating, unless you manually deleted them or something. Just don't touch the Documents\Dolphin Emulator folder, and everything will be fine.

Also, I doubt that updating from 4.0-5836 will help. Sure, updating is always good to do, but that version is barely a week old and there haven't really been any merges since then that will help with this problem.

[shangry]

Alright I'll try to update to the latest build and throw everything back in, let you guys know how it goes. I have DDR3L RAM, 2 x 4GB running at 1600MHz each.

[shangry]

Downloaded the latest revision of Dolphin, but everything is still the same. No dice.
It's mostly whenever I move the camera around or enter a new area, so really whenever the game needs to load a texture. After it's loaded it, it's fine.
But that brings me to my other question too, is it possible to just patch all these textures in to the game itself? Because it would load just fine then.

[JosJuice]

Replacing textures in the ISO is technically doable (though you might need a game-specific tool for it). The problem with it is that the game might not be able to handle high-res textures properly, and it's more cumbersome, so I don't think anyone does that.

You could try to use the following PR build and enable the "Prefetch Custom Textures" option. It uses a lot of RAM and makes it take a bit longer to start the game, but once the game is running, texture loading will be fast. The option will hopefully be available in the regular development builds at some point. http://dl.dolphin-emu.org/prs/pr-2162-dolphin-latest-x64.7z

[shangry]

oh cool I didn't even know that existed. I'll check it out.

[shangry]

Alright so I downloaded that and it just says "Dolphin has stopped working" when I run Wind Waker and crashes.
Everything else works just fine though. Even Kirby Air Ride, which I also have textures for.
Could it possibly be that it needs too much RAM for my system to handle currently? Since there's so many textures.