Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

@nex86: for now a restriction is that tesselation only works with pixel ligthing enabled so if you have that disabled it will not work at all.

(02-19-2016, 05:40 PM)AcidRains Wrote: [ -> ]Hi Hyllian, thanks for your great xBR shader, 2d games just love it. and just want to know do you plan to port it to pcsx2 as well ? i think pcsx2 really needs it
Tino and guys, sorry for abit offtopic=)

Thanks. If I had more free time, I would support other emulators. But for now, I'm trying to figure out how the shaders work on Dolphin.

(02-20-2016, 07:45 AM)Tino Wrote: [ -> ]nice, will try to implement a texture pre processing shader, count on you to do the shader then ?

Well, yes!

BTW, I have one question: when you choose an increased internal res, like 2x, then Ishiiruka will sampling it using Linear or Point? (In my tests, it seems to be Linear). Is there a way to set it to Point?

I'm failing at making a multipass shader dor Ishiiruka. I'm doing something wrong, because I can't get OutputScale to work properly. I need Integer scaling when I set OutputScale.

(02-20-2016, 07:45 AM)Tino Wrote: [ -> ]nice, will try to implement a texture pre processing shader, count on you to do the shader then ?

Hey bro, Tino PLZZZZZZZZZZZZ make wii games run at least 50 FPS for my poor computer, I can only get 12 FPS.
And sometimes GC games go down FPS, can ya fix that.
Can ya do that for me I know it sounds weird and stupid, but I don't care about Graphic only the main game play.
Can ya respond me and tell me if can ya do that.

(02-20-2016, 07:45 AM)Tino Wrote: [ -> ]nice, will try to implement a texture pre processing shader, count on you to do the shader then ?

Could you try to do  Super xBR pre-processing shader too. Super xBR is much better than regular xBR for games with many color gradients.

(02-20-2016, 11:15 AM)Sammy55 Wrote: [ -> ]Hey bro, Tino PLZZZZZZZZZZZZ make wii games run at least 50 FPS for my poor computer, I can only get 12 FPS.
And sometimes GC games go down FPS, can ya fix that.
Can ya do that for me I know it sounds weird and stupid, but I don't care about Graphic only the main game play.
Can ya respond me and tell me if can ya do that.

can you share the configuration you are using?

(02-20-2016, 11:37 AM)Ramoth Wrote: [ -> ]Could you try to do  Super xBR pre-processing shader too. Super xBR is much better than regular xBR for games with many color gradients.

if i implement pre processing any shader can be used

(02-20-2016, 10:06 AM)Hyllian Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks. If I had more free time, I would support other emulators. But for now, I'm trying to figure out how the shaders work on Dolphin.

Well, yes!

BTW, I have one question: when you choose an increased internal res, like 2x, then Ishiiruka will sampling it using Linear or Point? (In my tests, it seems to be Linear). Is there a way to set it to Point?

I'm failing at making a multipass shader dor Ishiiruka. I'm doing something wrong, because I can't get OutputScale to work properly. I need Integer scaling when I set OutputScale.

As far as I know Ishiiruka always uses point sampling.

I was playing around and trying to compare the differences between 1xIR, Scaled EFB Copy and External Frame Buffer disabled/virtual/real. External Frame Buffer=real spams the emulator log with stuff like this:

The former is from Ishiiruka 560, and the latter is from Dolphin Build 4.0-8696 and Build 4.0-8965. I assume it happens in all in between, but I didn't try any others. Ishiiruka has no problem with blend state@line 66.
Direct3D11 backend.

After Hyllian started making posts here I remembered Ishiiruka has xBRZ as a texture scaling mode. I don't usually use texture filtering in 3D games, (I love it for pure 2D stuff like SNES games via Bsnes), so I played around with it in Ishiiruka.

I'm a little confused as to how this really works. Let me try to show you what I mean (using 5x zXBR for illustration purposes)
"Original, no scaling mode" vs "Original, 5x zXBR"
This works as I expect it to (filtering being applied to textures)

But with custom textures...
"Custom textures, no scaling mode" vs "Custom textures, 5x zXBR"
Things don't work as expected. But appearances can be deceptive

It appears to me that the filtering has some requirements that must be met, so with custom textures this gets applied to SOME of the textures and not all.
Foilage near the screen is ignored, and as we go further out some things start to get filtered.
This isn't consistent though, the shrubberies (between party frames and the left character) get filtered but not the grass right next to them. And really selective around Mr. Blonde and the two soldiers on the ground on the right-side of the screen.
2D/Interface elements and Model textures are left untouched.
I can't tell if the filtering is effecting the texture of the ground or my global illumination portion of the ground. Either way I want to say it's getting a very slight hue or saturation adjustment (ground area on the bottom 20% of the screen on the left and right sides thereof).

All I can think of is:
A) Doesn't work with high resolution textures
B) Doesn't work with custom textures
C) Filter strength changes with mipmap level (could explain why distant grass gets filtered but not grass closer to the screen)


If it should work with custom textures, is it possible have an option to apply the filter only to the internal textures? I.e. the user gets to filter all the low resolution textures that their custom texture pack hasn't done yet or won't/can't do?


If it helps, here is what the Texture Overlay shows. Mumkhar gets 'dat gangster look (cornrows and "bling" teeth lol)
no scaling
2x zXBR
5x zXBR
5x seems to not only rescale the 2x labels but also add more (hard to notice in screenshots, easier to see in motion thanks to ever changing draw order layering.)

(02-20-2016, 11:15 AM)Sammy55 Wrote: [ -> ]Hey bro, Tino PLZZZZZZZZZZZZ make wii games run at least 50 FPS for my poor computer, I can only get 12 FPS.
And sometimes GC games go down FPS, can ya fix that.
Can ya do that for me I know it sounds weird and stupid, but I don't care about Graphic only the main game play.
Can ya respond me and tell me if can ya do that.

I don't want to be "that guy", so please don't take my comment as an attack towards you or your situation.

There is only so much theoretically-likely potential performance that can be gained by better resource optimization and coding techniques for any platform.
Since this is an emulator, all of this is learned from first-hand experience. There is no API manual or guidelines to follow; developers are lost in a cave and are feeling their way out (is that a breeze you feel on one path or is it airflow from a dragon?).
Emulation performance is completely different from typical game performance. To illustrate, let's say you can play Crisis 1 at max settings. Techniques and effects in Crisis are better than anything on the Wii, and definitely requires hardware more powerful than anything in the Wii. But because Dolphin/Ishiiruka is an emulator on a computer, all comparisons mean nothing because Wii/Gamecube hardware is NOT built the same way--computers are multi-purpose while consoles do one thing and only one thing. Hardware resources are used in completely different methods. To put it metaphorically using game lingo, think of Computers like a Rogue (speed and technique; weak but faster attacks) and consoles like Barbarians (brute force; slow but strong attacks) and both do the same total damage over a 5 minute fight (damage being the metaphor for performance).
So if you try to play the rogue (i.e. use computer hardware) the same way as a barbarian (i.e. consoles) then they will not be as efficient.
This is basically what is happening when we emulate consoles with our computer hardware. We need to have hardware that is 4x or more powerful than the console we're wanting to play due to hardware scaling (i.e. rogue needs to be upgraded enough to have their weak single attack match that of the berserker's slow but strong attack.


To put it bluntly, if you're only getting ~12fps, there is nothing anyone can do with that hardware that will allow you to achieve your desired framerates. Your hardware is simply to weak. Yes updates to the emulator will bring performance increases, but due to the differences I illustrated above (using the damage of a barbarian and rogue as a metaphor) you won't see that kind of increase anytime soon (and realistically speaking, never).

The only chance you have with your hardware is if you have power saving features that need to be appropriately adjusted (I'm assuming your computer is clean of malware, spyware, virii, unwanted programs or programs running in the background you don't know about, etc). Other people have had terrible performance caused by these power saving features.
If you need a guide to check yours and where to change them, just google "laptop power options high performance" and include your operating system. There are tons of pictures, videos and instructions.
And if you're on a laptop, be sure to plug the power cord in (some laptops have built-in power saving hardware that throttles the laptop when it's using the battery). This is usually what causes the terrible performance, and I've seen at least one person who bought a new laptop because they thought it wasn't powerful enough to watch 720p youtube/netflix/hulu until I asked them to try them again with the power cord connected.