For those who seem to be getting reduced fps did you make sure idle skipping isn't forced off in the game's properties? (Right click properties on the game. square box = inherit, check = force on, empty = force off)
If you are GPU limited it is probably worth turning your settings down a bit to get 30fps if you can. It is unavoidable that some audio will have issues if your fps drops too much.
I know you've read this a million times, but here's the 1.000.001th: thank you.
That said, I want to leave some stuff for the record, specially for the newbies roaming (it's all been said but I just want to stress it):
1. It works better for me with DSound than with XAudio2. With XAudio2, like people have reported before, there are these small crackles frequently, like my speakers are blown up or something. With DSound every 5 minutes or so I get 1 or 2 seconds of noise, but then it's all normal. Either way it's INFINITELY better than the chaotic noise racket I get from the unpatched version.
2. You have to set Idle Skipping and Vbeam on the rom's properties; it's not enough to set it on the general options. I got a HUGE fps increase by doing that. Without any kind of limiting, I went from max 30 to 45 fps. The difference (for the better) on heavy battles is awesome.
The game is awesome and I'd never have played it if not for this great emulator and this awesome patch. I haven't been so compulsive about a game since the first Dragon Age.
Cheers!
I cap out at 25 FPS. Is that normal for EU games?
I get anywhere from 25fps to about 33fps, and thats with Vbeam set and Idle skipping, but the main reason I get such low FPS is because I use Anti-Aliasing set at 4x and anistrophic filtering at 4x, I do this because with out these the game looks like a PS1 game, with them set, the graphics look so much better!!!!! so I take the less fps for better looking graphics. Occasional slow downs here and there, havent really ran into a problem yet.... (But only at Tephra cave, been grinding in Colony 9 for about 7 hours now) If the game becomes unplayable because of this then I will be forced to turn the Anti-Aliasing down in order to play with less graphics.
As far as the sound goes the game is sooo much better with the patch, and I too would have not been able to play this amazing game without an emulator and the brilliance of dolphin!!!!!
I am however confused on a few things with the properties on the game disc, I know Mylek posted them but I still don't understand, the tick (checkmark) means on, the empty white box means off and the blue box means??? I am not sure what the blue box indicates... Is it like auto?? Any help clearing that up for me would be great. Also since I am playing on an i3 do I want to use "Lock cores to threads"? Because i3 is still 2 cores? And the MMU speed hack will that help speed the game up?? I keep playing with settings to get the best fps with Anti-Aliasing set at 4x. I want the better graphics, and ideas what could help the fps without having to disable Anti-Aliasing? If not no worries. I have frame limit set to off. I have disable fog and a lot of the others off as well, if I knew how to turn off shadows (like I do in most games) then i know my fps would shoot up. Shadows always have a tendency to slow down my games, i.e. Fable III and Mass Effect 2, but when I have shadows off the games run almost perfect, plus I hate shadows anyways in most games same with bloom effects and HDR. But any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you again for making this patch and thank you Dolphin team for making the best emulator around!!!!!
So i found i get better fps with internal resolution set at 1.5 instead of 1 (default) and anti aliasing at none and the graphics look about the same as anti aliasing at 4x. Maybe a little less pretty with the anti aliasing at none and internal res at 1.5, but much better fps. But now with these settings shulk will go from normal walking to overly fast running, extreme speed ups... If i limit my fps will that help keep the game running at steady fps? instead of jumping from like 25fps to 40fps when I am exploring?? I am new to all the settings on Dolphin so I am trying to find a good mix of graphics and fps and playability. I dont want it to look like a PS1 game (all blocky and pixilated) but I want decent fps at least 30fps, any ideas would be much appreciated
Any suggestions to how i can get my settings just right would be awesome!!!! And thank you in advance
I just want to enjoy this game and stop messing with settings to find an equilibrium. Its like I have OCD trying to find a perfect setting, I know its out there I just have to find it. lol
The best visual result is first and foremost dependent upon the internal resolution.
Set the internal resolution at the highest setting which fits your on screen resolution, ie. 3x for 1080p displays.
Don't forget that Xenoblade is 16:9 only, meaning you judge by the first number, the horizontal pixel count.
(MS)AA slows down things a lot if you internally render at a pixel perfect resolution.
Unless you notice the jagged lines on straight diagonal edges it is probably better to turn off if your gfx/cpu struggles. It offers a whole lot less visual improvement than a high Internal resolution, but it is discernible (to me) at least.
AF can usually be set to max depending on the gfx card, makes little difference either way, regardless of forced filtering enabled or not. I don't mind being corrected there, but I'd appreciate before/after pics highlighting improvements.
Since Dolphin refuses to render Fullscreen at anything but 60hz on all builds I've tried, using the iso patch to fool dolphin into thinking the PAL version is the Japanese one is recommended if you do play in Fullscreen. You'll at least have the hope of seeing fluid movements.
On that note a build which does offer to render Pal games at 60hz or variable fullscreen refresh rate choices or at least matching Fullscreen refresh rates to region would be great.
Aswell as support for all Gecko code types.
Performance improvements:
VBeam: disabling via Game properties, Having it enabled can slow down the game during intense battle or cutscenes. Could lead to crashes, but since the game crashes regularily for me either way I'll wait on someone elses insight regarding this setting.
OpenCL/OpenMP: On both I've noticed a significant reduction of CPU activity or a better usage of resources respectively.
For those not running on Overclocked hardware they're well worth a try especially if you have a potent gfx card or a Quadcore. Could also lead to crashes.
(It'd be really nice if there were some definite answer to nailing that, cough)
EFB Copies in Ram: disable if you don't mind losing the screenshots on your subsequent savegames. I consider this a last resort if the game is unplayably slow.
Idle Skipping: Per Game properties or via default settings, made little difference on my end, but other accounts may differ. Keeping it enabled might raise instability for a single digit fps improvement depending on your cpu.
Oh and for the record, buying Xenoblade is definitely worth it, if you want more games like this produced and localized.
^ for mid end hardwares, vbeam and idle skipping actually helps, like A LOT.
And no, crash seems entirely luck based, I've had crash with and without vbeam.
Thank you jjderk and naoan for the advice, The eternal resolution actually makes the game so much more playable than AA, with good visual quality. I would buy this game today if they would release it in America. Since its not going to be released in the USA anytime soon, my only hope is the emulator, But I love playing on the emulator. I am going to try internal resolution at 2x and see if it plays any better.
How do I trick Dolphin into thinking this game is NTSC instead of Pal? That sounds like it could help. I am using Myleks 3.0_71 build x64, I do not know how to compile otherwise I would figure it out, but thats hard stuff. I like Myleks build so far the best because he totally fixed the sound issues so the game is playable now from that aspect. Would it really make a difference making Dolphin think its the same region as my tv? I play on a flat screen 40'' Sony Bravia, and it can only do NTSC on my Wii and PS3. (as far as i know it can, could be wrong) And Full Screen of course. I cant stand playing games windowed mode.
This has to be one of the best RPG's I've played since Final Fantasy XIII and XII, or Suikoden III, I havent been this excited about a game in a while, especially a Wii game, lol. I totally appreciate all the advice. I am also going to try using limited fps and see if that can keep the game running smoothly instead of extreme speed ups and slow downs. Again thank you all!!! I wish Xenoblade would be released tomorrow in USA so I can get it, an import copy is going to be expensive and I cant spend that much money on a game anymore (college breaks my piggy bank) anyways internal resolution is where its at
(09-25-2011, 05:18 AM)benko916 Wrote: [ -> ]How do I trick Dolphin into thinking this game is NTSC instead of Pal?
There is a patch, which you can apply to the ISO, making Dolphin believe it is a NTSC game.
I tried it and it works fine, but I forgot where I downloaded it. Just google it.