Wind Waker FPS drops and stuttering while in combat

[LucasSNM]

Hi!

I'm having problems while running Zelda: Wind Waker in Dolphin (I'm using the 5.0-12247 version, I did not try a different one). The game runs at 30 FPS, as it should, until I have to combat foes. There, I experience two related issues: firstly, small FPS drops, from 30 to 27, and secondly, mini stutters (specially, but not only, when I kill an enemy). This even happens when the graphics are toned down to the bare minimum, with the native resolution and such, even though the game runs normally using much higher resolutions and effects (until combat arrives, that is), and even though if I removed the 30 FPS lock, the game goes up to +100 FPS. Also, using the Task Manager, I can see that the mini stutters do not imply that I've pushed my RAM, CPU or GPU to its maximum: there's still plenty of % left. Dropping the Volume to 0% in the slider that is in Config-->Audi does not help, either.

I've been using Dolphin for 5-6 years with this same PC, to play Melee, Pokemon Colosseum, Pokemon XD (GC), Brawl, P+, Tenkaichi 3 (Wii) and this is my first issue. I'm able to run those games multiplying the internal resolution, adding (to a certain extent) anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, etc, and I never experience FPS drops. I can, in fact, play those games consistently in +100 FPS if I desire, with no stutters.

These are the specs of my PC:

AMD Radeon RX 470
AMD FX ™-6300 Six-Core Processor 3.50 GHz
8 GB RAM
Windows 10 x64

I've never overclocked the processor, although its cores are unparked.


I'm also providing screens of the graphic configurations I'm using: as I said, they are the bare minimum yet the problem remains. Even though the selected Backend in the screenshot is Direct3D 12, I've tried all four of them (Vulkan, OpenGL, Direct3D 11 and Direct3D 12) without having my issue fixed. I've also tried removing Arbitrary MipMap Detection: that doesn't help either.

[KatIsntGood]

Wind Waker has a bit of built in stutter to make the combat feel flashier. It achieves this by dropping the FPS for a handful of frames. This is probably what you're experiencing. Take a look at the game speed during this, not just the FPS. It should stay at 100% since that's how the game works

[LucasSNM]

(07-07-2020, 11:53 PM)KatIsntGood Wrote: Wind Waker has a bit of built in stutter to make the combat feel flashier. It achieves this by dropping the FPS for a handful of frames. This is probably what you're experiencing. Take a look at the game speed during this, not just the FPS. It should stay at 100% since that's how the game works

I think you're right! If the game speed's the number that appears above the screen when you're using windowed mode instead of fullscreen then yes, it remains in 100%. I also watched a bit of two Wind Waker playthroughs in Youtube and it seems like it is part of the game.That stuttering totally ruins the pacing, tho'! What a weird game design choice. Thanks for your answer!