Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

hmmm 3.0 is a little slower since its made for accuracy. i suggest you try a different revision,maybe revision 7669?

Revision 7669 seems to improved the speed a bit.
I am getting 100% speed from time to time (not always, but its mostly 28-30 fps range)

Although, the game stayed a black screen in Open GL Mode for some reason,
so I had to go DX9.

But there's a noticeable speed up, thanks!

Great settings, works fine, but man...if almost -any- option is wrong, like besides basic AA or resolution stuff, the frames drop to 20 as soon as I'm overlooking the field in level 1. This sucks because even if I have the right options and go to record, I drop to 20fps, and I don't think it's a problem with my computer's power. It's more like whatever the game is asking for, if it doesn't get it EXACTLY right, it drops to 20fps, but a very very solid 20fps not like down and up because of bad performance. Would be a damn great game to record but I can't get it, but atleast it plays =)

Also nice that regular 3.0 SSAA seems to work so I can turn 4x on, and it just makes a tiny little graphical error. For some reason, two sides of a square appear around sonic's feet, about his size, with SSAA on, but I'll tolerate it.

Ah sweet, I can record it. That complete first area is just really tough and the fps goes up right after, even better! Thanks again.

Your all welcome. now go enjoy sonic colors! Sonics waiting xD.

Much better settings (if you keep the framelimiter on 'Auto'):

- Leave the accurate VBeam Emulation at the default setting. Do *NOT* enable this option, since it slows down emulation (especially on AMD CPUs)
- ENABLE the 'Block Merging' option in the game config (Important !). BIG speedup in the first world levels
- Disable 'OpenMP Texture Decoding'. OpenMP doesn't bring any speedup. Quite the opposite: it slows down emulation on CPUs with less than 4 cores.
- Do *NOT* enable 'Lock Threads To Cores'. Play with this setting only if you have an Intel CPU with HyperThreading. For better performance, it's best to leave the core management to Windows.

Use Dolphin r7669 (64-bit) with the DX11 renderer. Use DX9 only if your GPU performs better in DX9 mode (this is true for NVIDIA GPUs or older ATI GPUs (HD4000, HD3000 and HD2000 series).
OpenGL is slow/broken on Windows (use it only if you run Linux).

(07-22-2011, 12:49 PM)kirbypuff Wrote: [ -> ]Much better settings:

- Leave the accurate VBeam Emulation at the default setting. Do *NOT* enable this option, since it slows down emulation (especially on AMD CPUs)
- ENABLE the 'Block Merging' option in the game config (Important !). BIG speedup in the first world levels
- Disable 'OpenMP Texture Decoding'. OpenMP doesn't bring any speedup. Quite the opposite: it slows down emulation on CPUs with less than 4 cores.
- Do *NOT* enable 'Lock Threads To Cores'. Play with this setting only if you have an Intel CPU with HyperThreading. For better performance, it's best to leave the core management to Windows.

Use Dolphin r7669 (64-bit) with the DX11 renderer. Use DX9 only if your GPU performs better in DX9 mode (this is true for NVIDIA GPUs or older ATI GPUs (HD4000, HD3000 and HD2000 series).
OpenGL is broken, so don't use it.

GTFO

(07-22-2011, 12:49 PM)kirbypuff Wrote: [ -> ]- Leave the accurate VBeam Emulation at the default setting. Do *NOT* enable this option, since it slows down emulation (especially on AMD CPUs)

Won't boot without on slow computers (I think)

(07-22-2011, 12:49 PM)kirbypuff Wrote: [ -> ]OpenGL is broken, so don't use it.

What?

Well just wanted to feedback :

I only checked the vbeam in sonic property and now blazing fast at 30/31 fps (yes I could go to 1980 with native 3x).
before I had drop downs to 25/26 and speed impression was far less good.

I also noticed very light crackling in sound on the title screen only.

Thanks again !

ps : I've got a AMD Phenom II X4 955 clocked at 3.8ghz and a 4850 HD and vbeam was my friend !

ps2 : weird to see such fighting about settings...

@ExtremeDude2:

- Sonic Colors won't boot on slower PCs regardless of the VBeam setting. The game requires a CPU that can sustain a framerate of more than 30 fps at the SEGA logo. Drop down to 30 fps and you will get a black screen.

This game is extremely picky (unlike 99.9% of the GC and Wii games that work without problems even on a CPU underclocked to 800MHz)

Quote:GTFO

WTF?

Enabling 'Accurate VBeam emulation' does speed up Sonic Heroes (up to 20%).
But with the framelimiter set to 'Auto', this option has the OPPOSITE EFFECT. It speeds up the menus and the less demanding / simple stuff, but the more complex scenes (gameplay) get a major slowdown.
Try the very first level (Tropical Resort Zone Level 1-1), for example with 3x EFB scale and no SSAA and observe the FPS.

Solid 30fps with Accurate VBeam disabled, only 20fps with the option enabled (but the title screen finally reaches full 60fps - LOL).

The VBeam setting is like a double-edged sword

Enabling 'Block Merging' helps a lot in this first zone (3~4 fps boost)

Quote:What?

- If you're using an older revision of Dolphin (e.g. r6515) for Sonic Colors, you should avoid the OpenGL renderer like the plague. Older builds have lots of issues with OpenGL, but no issues with D3D9/11.
- On Windows, the Direct3D renderers are more efficient (especially with ATI/AMD GPUs)

(07-24-2011, 08:31 AM)kirbypuff Wrote: [ -> ]Enabling 'Accurate VBeam emulation' speeds up Sonic Heroes only if you have a CPU with relatively low clocks (~2 GHz).
With a fast CPU (~3.5 GHz or more), this option has has the OPPOSITE EFFECT. It speeds up the menus and the less demanding / simple stuff, but the more complex scenes (gameplay) get a major slowdown.

Bullsh*t !

Sorry. I just wrote above that I get 5 fps increase (to 30/31 fps) by enabling Accurate vbeam with my Phenom ii at 3.8ghz (fast CPU) !
I did this on a fresh install of Dolphin 3. (just turning up native + screen resolution) and enabling vbeam.

Vbeam seemed to help me just fine. Stuff is in my sig, using 7671 currently.