I just grabbed Dolphin finally, like a few days ago. I had heard buzz about it over the past few years, but didn't give it much thought because I kinda doubted that perfect emulation of the Wii was going to be possible. Wow, what a time to jump onto the bandwagon. Like, seriously - with a pimped out rig and the latest Dolphin build, I am absolutely dumbfounded at the results. After going through the mess of dumping the handful of games I wanted to play (I have had a softmodded Wii for a long time, but let's face it that was never really fun to deal with), I have jumped into the deep end of the pool and here are some random thoughts about this scene from a fresh fish:
- It is very bold for the developers to have no fear of shedding front end design, config file protocols, wholesale UI ground up refreshes, but... This comes at a cost. When you Google stuff like for a perfect example looking for ways to bind your XBone controller for Super Mario Galaxy, you are met with a deluge of information that is totally outdated and quite useless. And don't take this the wrong way, but because of this %90 of the information on this vast forum is also quite useless now - it simply doesn't apply anymore, or the menus have changed too much to even remotely be compared to the new stuff, or issues have fallen into the fog of the past and just don't matter anymore.
- On the topic of controller configs for specific games, it is absolutely baffling to me that there don't seem to be any current and maintained repositories for this. In fact, even with a forum dedicated to controller stuff there aren't any config files of any kind to be found. This means learning things the hard way, which Dolphin certainly deserves, but there is one hell of a learning curve to specific little things related to controls.
- On a further note, Dolphin itself seems a little weak when it comes to handling multiple controller config files. You can load and save, but that pesky little window showing you what config you have 'up' goes blank all the time, so at any given time you really don't know where things stand. There is a 'persistence' missing to this part of things, so tweaking individual configs for different games feels like tiptoeing through a minefield.
- More controller griping (sorry). The interface for dealing with the wii-mote and nunchuck are simply totally impossible to decipher. Binding things works great, although it took me a while to figure out I could bind multiple buttons to one thing - quite literally a game changer when you need to use the right stick on a controller to do the IR pointing. For Super Mario Galaxy, this is easy. For a game like Twilight Princess, it is almost impossible. In all these forums I have found no explanation as to how to deal with tilt, swing, all that stuff. Old Google result show a 'tilt and roll' interface that has disappeared, one that has obviously transmogrified into the current stuff but how it does so it pretty much beyond understanding. This is one part of the interface that needs work.
- Jumping into this as a noob means having zero knowledge as to the rules concerning the *actual* names of games as far as the code is involved, or where things like controller config files are supposed to go. How can a person go by Google results when they talk about directories three deep that don't exist until you create them manually? High def texture management is fairly painless, but only by trial and error. On that note holy cow has there been some amazing work done to some of these game. Heroic. Again though, an entire sub-forum devoted to textures and not one single sticky post explaining how to use them, where they go, etc.
- I don't want any of this to sound like bitching. A learning curve is expected, but to an outsider jumping in finding information here or out there is pretty much impossible. You have to be an archaeologist, and carefully pick at the dirt until you uncover nuggets of information that you need to really use this killer app properly. When you do, however... The results are beyond stunning. Using DX12 with a 980ti I am running Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 at 3X internal rez, HD textures, 1080p and with prefetching and all that I can state emphatically that it works absolutely beyond perfectly. There are zero stutters. It is eye-popping. I am even more amazed that the controls work as well as they do, even without any control (that I can see) over IR emulation sensitivity you can get pretty good with it fairly quickly.
- The only thing missing from Dolphin is a mature launcher. I know it has some pretty advanced stuff buried just under the surface, but it needs to be more friendly. The emulator itself should be able to act as a front end to a repository of config files. Making config files needs a radical new approach, one where you are shown physical representations of the wii-mote and nunchuck on one side and your controller on the other, where each game has all the controls tagged and labelled. The current interface is overwhelming, to say the least. Once the games are setup and running, to me it feels like the emulator is already perfect. I mean, I'm only playing the handful of mega titles I already had and know inside out, but the upgrade in graphics is pretty amazing on a 60" Bravia. Kudos to everyone involved and it's a shame that something like Dolphin isn't an official product where people get paid for their contributions. I wonder what some of the people working at Nintendo think of the amazing work being done here.
- It is very bold for the developers to have no fear of shedding front end design, config file protocols, wholesale UI ground up refreshes, but... This comes at a cost. When you Google stuff like for a perfect example looking for ways to bind your XBone controller for Super Mario Galaxy, you are met with a deluge of information that is totally outdated and quite useless. And don't take this the wrong way, but because of this %90 of the information on this vast forum is also quite useless now - it simply doesn't apply anymore, or the menus have changed too much to even remotely be compared to the new stuff, or issues have fallen into the fog of the past and just don't matter anymore.
- On the topic of controller configs for specific games, it is absolutely baffling to me that there don't seem to be any current and maintained repositories for this. In fact, even with a forum dedicated to controller stuff there aren't any config files of any kind to be found. This means learning things the hard way, which Dolphin certainly deserves, but there is one hell of a learning curve to specific little things related to controls.
- On a further note, Dolphin itself seems a little weak when it comes to handling multiple controller config files. You can load and save, but that pesky little window showing you what config you have 'up' goes blank all the time, so at any given time you really don't know where things stand. There is a 'persistence' missing to this part of things, so tweaking individual configs for different games feels like tiptoeing through a minefield.
- More controller griping (sorry). The interface for dealing with the wii-mote and nunchuck are simply totally impossible to decipher. Binding things works great, although it took me a while to figure out I could bind multiple buttons to one thing - quite literally a game changer when you need to use the right stick on a controller to do the IR pointing. For Super Mario Galaxy, this is easy. For a game like Twilight Princess, it is almost impossible. In all these forums I have found no explanation as to how to deal with tilt, swing, all that stuff. Old Google result show a 'tilt and roll' interface that has disappeared, one that has obviously transmogrified into the current stuff but how it does so it pretty much beyond understanding. This is one part of the interface that needs work.
- Jumping into this as a noob means having zero knowledge as to the rules concerning the *actual* names of games as far as the code is involved, or where things like controller config files are supposed to go. How can a person go by Google results when they talk about directories three deep that don't exist until you create them manually? High def texture management is fairly painless, but only by trial and error. On that note holy cow has there been some amazing work done to some of these game. Heroic. Again though, an entire sub-forum devoted to textures and not one single sticky post explaining how to use them, where they go, etc.
- I don't want any of this to sound like bitching. A learning curve is expected, but to an outsider jumping in finding information here or out there is pretty much impossible. You have to be an archaeologist, and carefully pick at the dirt until you uncover nuggets of information that you need to really use this killer app properly. When you do, however... The results are beyond stunning. Using DX12 with a 980ti I am running Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 at 3X internal rez, HD textures, 1080p and with prefetching and all that I can state emphatically that it works absolutely beyond perfectly. There are zero stutters. It is eye-popping. I am even more amazed that the controls work as well as they do, even without any control (that I can see) over IR emulation sensitivity you can get pretty good with it fairly quickly.
- The only thing missing from Dolphin is a mature launcher. I know it has some pretty advanced stuff buried just under the surface, but it needs to be more friendly. The emulator itself should be able to act as a front end to a repository of config files. Making config files needs a radical new approach, one where you are shown physical representations of the wii-mote and nunchuck on one side and your controller on the other, where each game has all the controls tagged and labelled. The current interface is overwhelming, to say the least. Once the games are setup and running, to me it feels like the emulator is already perfect. I mean, I'm only playing the handful of mega titles I already had and know inside out, but the upgrade in graphics is pretty amazing on a 60" Bravia. Kudos to everyone involved and it's a shame that something like Dolphin isn't an official product where people get paid for their contributions. I wonder what some of the people working at Nintendo think of the amazing work being done here.
