Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Hi!

Tried out this excellent emulator a few years ago on ancient hw, phenom x4 5ghz. it didn't exactly run well. Now i'm using a much better system, and sure enough the games runs sort of great. By that I mean they run at 99-100% most of the time but lots of stuttering/frame drops.

I've tried out: dolphin-master-3.5-1251-x64, Dolphin-win-x64-v3.5-367
Used DSP HLE, DSP LLE, no matter which one I use, SMG 2 frequently stutters in audio, fps goes from 60-50. Oh yeah changing internal resolution doesn't do anything for me, no performance hit or decrease.

Metroid prime is completly unplayable for me, using both dolphin versions above^^ tried various settings and fixes from google. The audio constantly stutters every milisecond, speed goes from 100-50 all the time.

Is my system not good enough :S

i5 3570k 4.5ghz
7950 OC
8GB RAM



Thanks

Quote:Is my system not good enough

Your Dolphin config is not good enough xD
Do i need to repeat this like ...1000 times ? Someone should sticky this :

Quote:Set Framelimit to 60FPS and tick "limit by FPS" , this should fix your problem
Make sure "audio throttle" and "Vsync" are disabled

Framelimit auto always cause slowdown
@OP Use Dolphin 3.5 stable version or Dolphin 3.5 145 (which is faster than the latest) and use these settings :
_Internal Resolution : 4x native , no AA , 16x AF (Recommend : Direct3D9)
_Disable Full screen , use "Alt-Enter" to toggle full screen
_EFB copies to texture
_Enable "OpenMP texture decoder"
_Aspect Ratio : Stretch to Window , Render to main Window
_Tick "Force Texture Filtering" , "Widescreen Hack" . Untick per pixel Lighting
_Tick : "Disable Lightning"
For some games :
_Speed Hack : Right-click the game - Properties - Tick "Vbeam emulation"

For SMG :
_Vbeam Trick : Same as above and untick Idle Skipping

Oops . I mean "Disable Per Pixel Depth" , not "Disable Lightning"

smg=so much gayness xD

(04-18-2013, 01:06 AM)admin89 Wrote: [ -> ]

Quote:Is my system not good enough

Your Dolphin config is not good enough xD
Do i need to repeat this like ...1000 times ? Someone should sticky this :

Quote:Set Framelimit to 60FPS and tick "limit by FPS" , this should fix your problem
Make sure "audio throttle" and "Vsync" are disabled

Framelimit auto always cause slowdown
@OP Use Dolphin 3.5 stable version or Dolphin 3.5 145 (which is faster than the latest) and use these settings :
_Internal Resolution : 4x native , no AA , 16x AF (Recommend : Direct3D9)
_Disable Full screen , use "Alt-Enter" to toggle full screen
_EFB copies to texture
_Enable "OpenMP texture decoder"
_Aspect Ratio : Stretch to Window , Render to main Window
_Tick "Force Texture Filtering" , "Widescreen Hack" . Untick per pixel Lighting
_Tick : "Disable Lightning"
For some games :
_Speed Hack : Right-click the game - Properties - Tick "Vbeam emulation"

For SMG :
_Vbeam Trick : Same as above and untick Idle Skipping

Thank you for this.
I have 2 strange speed problems in MPT (MP1):

In a few scenes my fps drops from 50 to around 45 and audio starts to stutter (HLE). I usually play with IR 2.5x even if my GPU is capable of doing IR 4x. IR 2.5 is 35% load, IR 4 is 65% load.

Now if I set IR to 1x the load goes down to 15% and the fps drop disappears. CPU load stays the same. I always thought if I have a good GPU it will easily handle high IR settings but in this case IR 1x is the option to go without fps drops? Clocks and temps stay always at max on the GPU, so this can't be the issue.

The second weird thing: During the fps drops I have to go out of the game via alt+tab, open up the Graphic settings in Dolphin, close it and voila, my fps are boosted by at least 15% (from 40 to 47 in a test scene in MP1).

Quote:even if my GPU is capable of doing IR 4x

Depending on the game . You have to stick with 3xIR for GPU intensive games otherwise you will have GPU bottleneck , light-weight should be fine for 4xIR though
GTX 660M or higher is the requirement for 4xIR most games

Quote:but in this case IR 1x is the option to go without fps drops?

Uhm , nope
Intel HD 4000 is capable of 1xIR . I believe your Intel HD is used instead of your Nvidia GT 650M . Why ? Because MP1 run ok with 2.5xIR on my end
2 things you need to confirm :
_What GPU Dolphin is using
_What clock speed your CPU is running at
You should check this thread
http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-nvi...lem--29265
Edit : Urh , never mind . You've already mentioned about GPU load . So it may be not Nvidia Optimus issue

(04-18-2013, 02:46 AM)admin89 Wrote: [ -> ]

Quote:even if my GPU is capable of doing IR 4x

Depending on the game . You have to stick with 3xIR for GPU intensive games otherwise you will have GPU bottleneck , light-weight should be fine for 4xIR though
GTX 660M or higher is the requirement for 4xIR most games

Quote:but in this case IR 1x is the option to go without fps drops?

Uhm , nope
Intel HD 4000 is capable of 1xIR . I believe your Intel HD is used instead of your Nvidia GT 650M . Why ? Because MP1 run ok with 2.5xIR on my end
2 things you need to confirm :
_What GPU Dolphin is using
_What clock speed your CPU is running at
You should check this thread
http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-nvi...lem--29265
Edit : Urh , never mind . You've already mentioned about GPU load . So it may be not Nvidia Optimus issue

On the Retina MacBook Pro only the 650M is active, there is no way to activate the Intel GPU. I read GPU load via nvidia Inspector, clocks are at 797/900 MHz for GPU (depending on load) and 2508 for memory. Temps are at around 79°C which is fine as the GPU can tolerate over 105°C. CPU clock speed is 3.4 GHz on the i7 Ivy.

This is really a weird thing.

Here are three screenshots with the scene:

PIC 1, showing 2.5 IR and the slowdown-scene at the fastest settings you could set in Dolphin.
PIC 2, shows 2.5x IR, nothing changed, but I just opened and closed Graphics Settings once, fps usually varies between 44-48 when I do this, otherwise it will always stay at 40-41. Nothing changes at load or clocks on GPU and CPU. The fps-boost happens only when I open and close the GPU settings, no other window will boost them.

PIC 3, shows IR set to 1x - the only option to get full fps in this scene. Every step of IR decreases my fps in this scene by exactly 5 fps. So if I have 60 fps with IR 1x in this scene, it will be 55 with 1.5x, 50 with 2x, 45 with 2.5x, 40 with 3.0x and so on...

Yeah, that's it. Very weird.

(04-18-2013, 01:06 AM)admin89 Wrote: [ -> ]

Quote:Is my system not good enough

Your Dolphin config is not good enough xD
Do i need to repeat this like ...1000 times ? Someone should sticky this :

Quote:Set Framelimit to 60FPS and tick "limit by FPS" , this should fix your problem
Make sure "audio throttle" and "Vsync" are disabled

Framelimit auto always cause slowdown
@OP Use Dolphin 3.5 stable version or Dolphin 3.5 145 (which is faster than the latest) and use these settings :
_Internal Resolution : 4x native , no AA , 16x AF (Recommend : Direct3D9)
_Disable Full screen , use "Alt-Enter" to toggle full screen
_EFB copies to texture
_Enable "OpenMP texture decoder"
_Aspect Ratio : Stretch to Window , Render to main Window
_Tick "Force Texture Filtering" , "Widescreen Hack" . Untick per pixel Lighting
_Tick : "Disable Lightning"
For some games :
_Speed Hack : Right-click the game - Properties - Tick "Vbeam emulation"

For SMG :
_Vbeam Trick : Same as above and untick Idle Skipping

Hi!

Thanks for the prompt reply!

Using 3.5 145, instant crash at menu with those settings you posted above.[/size]


Using Dolphin-win-x64-v3.5-367 with your settings the game sure enough runs, but the constant audio stutter is still present. I've noticed when I fire the weapon Speed goes from 100% down to 40, and fluctuates around 40-100 everytime I fire the weapon, is this normal?

I've tried DSP LLE, and DSP HLE, no difference.

Also ran the game/emulator at default settings, audio stutter is still there.

Using no idle (unticked) and vbeam (ticed) metroid crash. SMG runs with those settings, but FPS is still dropping from 60-50, sound sometims skips as well.

Any more suggestions?

Thank You

Quote:Using 3.5 145, instant crash at menu with those settings you posted above

Not a single crash here
Both SMG 1 & 2 work just fine
Make sure Audio back end is XAudio2 and DSP LLE on threads is disabled

Quote:CPU clock speed is 3.4 GHz on the i7 Ivy

Did you force turbo boost by using Throttlestop or simply check your CPU clock speed with a software like Realtemp ? (Do not use CPUZ to check mobile CPU clock speed)
I tried to switch from 2.5xIR to 1xIR , I didn't notice any speed up. Could you give me your save ? I want to test that place

(04-18-2013, 11:09 AM)admin89 Wrote: [ -> ]

Quote:Using 3.5 145, instant crash at menu with those settings you posted above

Not a single crash here
Both SMG 1 & 2 work just fine
Make sure Audio back end is XAudio2 and DSP LLE on threads is disabled

Quote:CPU clock speed is 3.4 GHz on the i7 Ivy

Did you force turbo boost by using Throttlestop or simply check your CPU clock speed with a software like Realtemp ? (Do not use CPUZ to check mobile CPU clock speed)
I tried to switch from 2.5xIR to 1xIR , I didn't notice any speed up. Could you give me your save ? I want to test that place

The boost is automatically, I've also checked it with the Intel software, but I can use Throttlestop and Realtemp as well. Actually the boost to 3.4 GHz (when more than 2 cores are occupied - or 3.5 when 1 core is on load) is as stated in this CPUs description.

The save is here: http://ul.to/4gw9b101
Just go out to the big place (take the right door after the save room), then after 2 rooms go left and jump on the platform so you have an overview of the whole place.

Thanks for the help and tryout with this!