Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

I came across some interesting observations regarding the Hyrule Field slowdown. I am going to share my thought here and see what others thoughts on the subject is. This was tested with the Gamecube version of Zelda Twilight Princess, Wii version will be mirrored to the information provided below.

After you beat the forest temple Hyrule Field will be full speeds, when entering the Twilight Hyrule Field will remain at a steady 30 FPS. Collect the tears of light and free Kakariko Village from the Twilight, then try to head up to the Goron Mines.

You'll get knocked down by the Goron, when exiting back into Kakariko Village you will be greeted by Renaldo who informs you to speak to Bo in Ordon Village. Go left (South) and a cutscene will take place. Sieze Epona and then exit to the west into Hyrule Field, notice how Hyrule Field is still a full 30 FPS.

Then go back into Kakariko Village and go north, jump over the gate into the other part of Hyrule Field (The part that you haven't visited yet) Notice that this part of Hyrule Field is about 10 - 15 FPS slower than before.

Now go back into Kakariko Village, go south and west back into the other part of Hyrule Field (West) you were just in, notice anything strange? This part of Hyrule Field (West) you were just in was a solid 30 FPS before visiting the other part of Hyrule Field (North), immediately after visiting the other part of Hyrule Field (North) the other part of Hyrule Field (West) that was a solid 30 FPS will now be 10 - 15 FPS slower than before.

Isn't that a bit strange? As you progress further in the game Hyrule Field becomes slower, so far the slowest I've seen is 10 - 12 FPS.

I'm not sure if vertices or the size of the scene being rendered is the actual problem or if it is a bug that contributes to the slowdown, but I do believe both possibilities should be examined.

interesting, indeed...maybe some bug that makes dolphin render all parts of Hyrule Field at once after that point you're talking off...
But where would you start looking for such a bug? :-|

Dunno, when in doubt ask the amazing Spider-Man.

On a more serious note I am not completely sure, it would be weird the game would try to render all of Hyrule Field, even the parts you aren't currently in. The developers could likely provide an accurate explanation, it just seems weird and doesn't make any sense. :/

Damnit...

Would be good to see if the same happens on a gamecube, if it does, then it has no real fix.

Could it be a disc streaming error?
See, the game loads the entire hyrule field as one large area, and disc-streams the content as it is needed. (Except for the South Gate of Hyrule Castle, which only has transitions to other sections of Hyrule Field.)

If Dolphin is to say, disc stream all the content at once, could that cause slowdown?
I'm not really sure, just an idea really.

Edit: Maybe not, South of Hyrule Gate is just as slow, and it shouldn't have to disc-stream a thing...

@ Xtreme2damax


you figured it out (finally)

hyrule field is getting bigger and bigger if you are further in the game. i have 25 fps in hyrule field now... after getting the 2nd twilight

Yeah but it's odd, it's still the same area as before and isn't any bigger. The other parts of Hyrule Field shouldn't have any effect, as they aren't being rendered or aren't supposed to be rendered when you aren't in that immediate area.

This is because Hyrule is largely complex in the map, many vertices and textures to decode, its doing a lot of processing. You go into a town and the program "deloads" the highly mass field.

That still doesn't explain why the same area that was 30 FPS is now 15 - 20 FPS when it isn't rendering anymore than before, or at least doesn't explain much. Before visiting Hyrule Field (North) I had a solid 30 FPS in Hyrule Field (West), after visiting Hyrule Field (North) and visiting Hyrule Field (West) again the speed has dropped to 15 - 20 FPS. It's still the same area as before, no more is being rendered than before so it shouldn't slow down like it is. I also find it odd the game and/or Dolphin would try to render all of Hyrule Field instead of the area you are currently in.

I also noticed there are other games that exhibit unusual slowdowns that otherwise shouldn't be exhibiting such slowdowns, it could very well be related to a bug, this issue just reeks of complete oddness.

What if the time is spent optimizing the vertex loaders and implementing vertex caching, Hyrule Field is still slow as ever and it turns out this wasn't the issue? Has there been any debugging to see what is actually going on when entering Hyrule Field, compared to other parts in the game? I think it might be worth it to consider other possibilities for the slowdowns instead of one specific theory/idea.