Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

I'll post my system specs first:

AMD Phenom II 965 @ 3.4ghz
4gb DDR2 1066 RAM
Geforce 460 GTX 1gb gpu

I just downloaded the emulator last night and essentially went with all of the default settings, running a resolution of 1920 x 1080 just to see what this thing could do. I have to say that I was overwhelmed with the video quality, and also the fact that games seemed to run (so far of course) at an acceptable frame rate. The games I minimally tested were:

Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2
Super Smash Bros Brawl
New Super Mario Bros
Zelda: Twilight Princess
Mario Kart Wii

These are the only games I have for Wii, and I can't imagine I will have much beyond that. Maybe some Gamecube games here and there, does the emulator work as good on Gamecube games? My questions that came up in my limiited playing were:

- The music goes out on Galaxy. From the thread I saw it would appear as if there is no fix for this. Is that still true?
- On Mario Kart, the screen had this sort of, I'm really not sure how to describe it, "fuzzy" look. The game still ran smooth, and it was not unplayable by any means, but it was like the graphics were just very slightly fuzzy from how they look in other games. Is there any fix for that?
- In New Super Mario Bros, the coins seem to be static rather than how they rotate and have a bit more "glow" to them on the Wii version. Is that just how it is on the emulator?
- I was trying to use an Xbox 360 controller and I assume there is a way to get the Wii "pointer" calibrated to the right analog stick, yes? Or is this one of those "Just use a Wii Remote/Nunchuck" answers?
- Are there any other "standard" recommendations anyone could give me on optimizing the emulator? I mean I was pretty amazed at how smooth it was running and how great it looked, I was floored. But of course any other advice on improvements (whether game specific or universal) would be GREATLY appreciated!

- yep, still no fix for the smg music issues
- uhm.. not sure what you mean, screenshot or anything?
- you need to have EFB copy to RAM enabled for the coins to spin. will lower FPS quite a bit though
- not sure, but I don't think this is possible... I'm not an input guy though, the plugin has changed much recently
- there's a guide for the "best" configuration about everywhere on this forum as well as on the dolphin-emulator website

Thanks, yeah I need to pick up a sensor bar and then I'll just use the Wii controllers for the emulator, so it won't matter anyway. I was just testing, basically.

And I wish I could describe the Mario Kart thing better because I'm at work, so I can't post a screen shot. It was just....I don't know, not how it's supposed to look. It was almost like a very slight fog or something over the screen. It didn't effect fps at all, I could still play the game totally fine, it was just noticeable. If I can't figure it out by tonight I'll post a screen shot later.

And as for the NSMB thing perhaps I'll try EFB copy to RAM for the coins thing, but it's not like it's a deal breaker or anything. And if EFB copy to RAM messes up the settings for the other games, I'll probably just keep it as-is. Things seemed to run pretty well last night on mostly default settings and I'm hoping I don't have to change 3 or 4 things per game. But if I have to, I will.

I'm just guessing around now so I'm sorry if this is a stupid comment, but, did you try to disable the fog?

Yeah, that should improve the situation, although it obviously is just a workaround.
FWIW, MKWii uses logic-blending which can't be emulated with D3D9 or D3D11. Try the OpenGL plugin, might be fixed there.