Watermark Tightness - Detailed Explanation?

Jadow · (This post was last modified: 02-15-2011, 08:13 AM by Jadow.)

According to the description, you should change the value of the setting anywhere from 0 to 1000 if you get lots of "FIFO overflow errors". Now call me dense but I have no idea what this means.

Now, before making the post I went ahead and changed the value on Lectrodes r6416, I tested Monster Hunter Tri with a value of 1 and holy shit what a change, a jump of 20fps+. I haven't been able to test with the rest of my games, but I plan to later today. Also I've noticed this option has been removed from current revisions.

I have already searched for a detailed explanation of the setting, meaning, what does it exactly do, but no luck, I refuse to believe such a convenient option that gives me 20fps+ on a game comes without its flaws, the world of programming is not that nice.

Thank you in advance.

**NaturalViolence** · 02-15-2011, 08:42 AM #2

The option has been irrelevant for about 700 revisions now. Simply put it doesn't do anything anymore: http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/source/detail?r=6567

It used to be used to control fifo overflows until the big fifo changes in 6554. Whatever caused that +20 fps, it wasn't this.

**skid** · 02-15-2011, 08:45 AM #3

A "FIFO overflow" occurs when the CPU thread in Dolphin runs way too fast relative to the GPU thread. An overflow results in the game hanging. Usually this happens if the system is unbalanced with a powerful CPU and a weak GPU. What this setting does is put a warning marker (or a stop flag) at a certain distance (which is the number that in the box) behind the GPU thread. When the CPU thread hits this marker, the GC/Wii will slow down the CPU thread.

A low value of 0 or 1 is the most accurate setting. If the game works with these settings, it means that your system is balanced. A higher value than necessary will result in weird sync problems with the graphics. As this value is dependent on the system, the value can't be commonly shared. A value that works for your system might not work for someone elses system.

**Xtreme2damax** · (This post was last modified: 02-15-2011, 08:49 AM by Xtreme2damax.)

Watermark tightness only helps avoid overflown errors that tend to crash games. It doesn't have much of an effect on speed, if any at all, so something else changed. Even if it has any affect on speed it wouldn't be anywhere close to a difference of 20 FPS. Anyways this option is obsoleted in the latest revisions as it is no longer needed with the improved fifo code thanks to marcosvitali's hard work.

**NaturalViolence** · (This post was last modified: 02-15-2011, 09:01 AM by NaturalViolence.)

I'm pretty sure the watermark tightness code was completely removed. Meaning this option literally doesn't do anything anymore.

Jadow · 02-15-2011, 09:17 AM #6

Thank you for the insight guys, I haven't been able to figure which setting gave me the 20fps+, I know for a fact "Enable CPU Access" kills MH3's performance but that option was off since I started testing, and now reverting the Watermark back to 50 doesn't slow down the game, which makes sense after reading your replies.

It feels like Dolphin gave me a 20fps boost after rebooting and testing so many times out of pity.

Once again thank you for the info.

**Xtreme2damax** · 02-15-2011, 09:54 AM #7

(02-15-2011, 09:00 AM)NaturalViolence Wrote: I'm pretty sure the watermark tightness code was completely removed. Meaning this option literally doesn't do anything anymore.

Yeah I said it was obsoleted in my post, meaning it was removed although I should of worded my reply better.

If that wasn't directed at me, he did mention he was using an older build that had this option.