The debug cubes bug in Super Mario Sunshine

[RCM119]

This bug also occurred in Super Mario 3D All-Stars for Switch.

Seems like Nintendo used Dolphin for Super Mario Sunshine and as well Super Mario Galaxy

[Shonumi]

It doesn't necessarily mean they used Dolphin (and there would be nothing wrong with that either, as long as the GPL isn't violated). It just means they shared the same bug. If the Virtual Console has taught us anything about Nintendo's own emulators, it's that they tend to take shortcuts, forgoing accuracy for performance.

If you read the Progress Report from 2020, the culprit is numColorChans. If an emulator doesn't handle that correctly, specifically when setting it to zero, you get those debug cubes/dots in SMS. It sounds like obscure behavior, something unexpected that most games simply don't do. It doesn't surprise me that Nintendo's in-house software didn't work well until after they patched it, since they probably didn't build their emulator to handle such corner cases. They rarely do, and when they do, it's usually only to ensure compatibility with specific games. I'll bet their solution was probably a quick hack.

So, it may just be a case of an issue that (until recently) was present in everyone's emulator. Kinda reminds me of some graphical glitches in the Contra and 1942's arcade versions that were technically present everywhere until MAME recently fixed them.

[JosJuice]

(05-22-2021, 07:13 AM)RCM119 Wrote: Seems like Nintendo used Dolphin for Super Mario Sunshine and as well Super Mario Galaxy

Considering that they also had some bugs that weren't present in Dolphin (the beep when a race starts in Super Mario Sunshine) and there's nothing else pointing towards them having used Dolphin, I don't think there's any reason to conclude they used Dolphin.