Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

@Rickv123: can you remember me what was the issue?

(02-12-2018, 06:36 AM)Tino Wrote: [ -> ]@Rickv123: can you remember me what was the issue?

Sure, a few weeks back I noticed odd behavior using Internal mipmaps.

Certain textures were not loading the internal mipmaps correctly. This issue was addressed and fixed with Ishiiruka 1031.
You can read more on that over here, with a few examples to fresh up your memory.

Today I updated to Ishiiruka 1034, and the mipmaps are once again no longer loading correctly. This time, many of the textures if not all textures, don't have the internal mipmaps applied to them. Using them with the _mip1, _mip2 suffix works fine. I think the recent pull of arbitrary textures has something to do with it.

Here is an sample folder with a texture that I generated using my installer and their native .png format.

Game: Xeonblade Chronicles NTSC-U (Modified)
Location : Bionis Leg
Texture: Grass Texture (tex1_256x256_m_de70cc1f170e1763_14)

(02-12-2018, 12:57 AM)Tino Wrote: [ -> ]the problem origin is the increment in the required version of the d3dcompiler, older versions have problems compiling ubershaders.

so... directx11 is broken for everyone ? any way to fix the problem ?

@Rickv123: uploaded a new version with the fix for your issue, thanks for the report

(02-12-2018, 11:48 PM)kevenz Wrote: [ -> ]so... directx11 is broken for everyone ? any way to fix the problem ?

not for everyone only for windows 7

(02-12-2018, 11:48 PM)kevenz Wrote: [ -> ]so... directx11 is broken for everyone ? any way to fix the problem

uploading version 1036, the issue will be fixed for windows 7 users.

Trying to figure out the best settings to use for XenoBlade Chronicles. Don't care about HD texture packs or 60Fps. Just want it as stutter free as possible.

PC Specs: Q6600@3Ghz, AMD 7850@1050Mhz, 4gigs ram.

I tried the following settings with Master and they worked pretty good at 3x IR during the opening sequence. Not perfect but much better than a couple of years ago. Which is better Ubershaders or Async? What about the Compile shaders on startup in the Advanced Tab? Should I check that or not?

Settings:
2. Set Audio to the CubeB back-end and use HLE
3. Set Ubershaders to Hybrid and Video back-end to Vulkan
4. Set Internal Resolution (IR) to 3x
5. Set Anti-Aliasing to 0 or 1x
6. Set Anisotropic Filtering to 16x

Why the recommendation for CubeB? Is that the new recommended audio backend or just for this game?

(02-13-2018, 06:42 PM)Bryson Wrote: [ -> ]Trying to figure out the best settings to use for XenoBlade Chronicles. Don't care about HD texture packs or 60Fps. Just want it as stutter free as possible.

PC Specs: Q6600@3Ghz, AMD 7850@1050Mhz, 4gigs ram.

I tried the following settings with Master and they worked pretty good at 3x IR during the opening sequence. Not perfect but much better than a couple of years ago. Which is better Ubershaders or Async? What about the Compile shaders on startup in the Advanced Tab? Should I check that or not?

Settings:
2. Set Audio to the CubeB back-end and use HLE
3. Set Ubershaders to Hybrid and Video back-end to Vulkan
4. Set Internal Resolution (IR) to 3x
5. Set Anti-Aliasing to 0 or 1x
6. Set Anisotropic Filtering to 16x

Why the recommendation for CubeB? Is that the new recommended audio backend or just for this game?

1. I absolutely love Ubershaders, Async also works to minimize stutters but will result in missing graphics/textures when the first time shader compilation isn't done yet, they will pop in on the screen when it is done so it just gives a (for me) game immersion breaking experience. You should, however be able to run Higher IR (or run faster at 3xIR) with Async since Hybrid shaders usually result in lower performance but less shaderstutter.

2. CubeB is the sound back-end that is defaulted to by the Dolphin-master dev-team, it is chosen because it is supported in all OS systems IIRC unlike something like Xaudio which is only available for Windows, it's not really impacting performance AFAIK. But other back-ends might be removed in the (near?) future.

3. Compile shaders on start-up, I guess that it is an Ishiiruka specific setting, but judging by the name it will probably compile the shaders when starting the game (don't know if they are generic or not) so it reduces stuttering caused by compiling shaders on the fly when they are used in the game. I guess it will only be shaders that you already have available (since Dolphin doesn't know what shader is used when it has to compile them when they are first used and thus halt the game for a fraction of a second while it finishes (shaderstutter). Ubershaders have been created to prevent this form happening)

Maybe @Tino can weigh in on the last point.

(02-14-2018, 01:31 AM)mstreurman Wrote: [ -> ]1. I absolutely love Ubershaders, Async also works to minimize stutters but will result in missing graphics/textures when the first time shader compilation isn't done yet, they will pop in on the screen when it is done so it just gives a (for me) game immersion breaking experience. You should, however be able to run Higher IR (or run faster at 3xIR) with Async since Hybrid shaders usually result in lower performance but less shaderstutter.

2. CubeB is the sound back-end that is defaulted to by the Dolphin-master dev-team, it is chosen because it is supported in all OS systems IIRC unlike something like Xaudio which is only available for Windows, it's not really impacting performance AFAIK. But other back-ends might be removed in the (near?) future.

3. Compile shaders on start-up, I guess that it is an Ishiiruka specific setting, but judging by the name it will probably compile the shaders when starting the game (don't know if they are generic or not) so it reduces stuttering caused by compiling shaders on the fly when they are used in the game. I guess it will only be shaders that you already have available (since Dolphin doesn't know what shader is used when it has to compile them when they are first used and thus halt the game for a fraction of a second while it finishes (shaderstutter). Ubershaders have been created to prevent this form happening)

Maybe @Tino can weigh in on the last point.

For point #3. You can download pre-compiled shaders from other people that have already played the game. For XenoBlade Chronicles there were four different files. Make sure you download them all.
Copy the ShadersUIDS that you downloaded to your folder ShadersUIDS that will be inside your dolphin folder: User\Cache if you use portable if not it will be located on C:drive\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\Cache.
Then make sure Compile Shaders on Startup is checked on your backend. (It's located on Graphics->Advanced Tab)
 [color=#008fff]goo.gl/v7jtso[/color]
 [color=#008fff]goo.gl/z2QmqL[/color]

Questions for Tino: How come XenoBlade had some cache files but no ShaderUIDS even though I had played through a few hours of it previously? Also I read that ShaderUIDS get outdated if you update your drivers or Dolphin version. How do you know if the ShaderUIDS we download are outdated?

I managed to get through the opening sequence flawlessly with no stutter whatsoever using DX9 with Full Async. Then I manged to get through the same sequence flawlessly using Vulkan with Hybrid Ubershaders but I still get the occasional sound stutter during some battles like my PC is not fast enough. Thing is that Vulkan seems like it looks better using the exact same settings. Clearer, Sharper, more vibrant, better fog, better lighting and god rays. Is this possible or is my mind playing tricks on me?

The only important thing for shaderuids is the size if you have a bigger shaderui file it haves more uids.
Shader uids does not change with driver version or even ishiiruka versions so once you played you have the uids and if your driver changes (only for opengl) they will be recompiled if you have compile shaders on startup. DX shader bytecode is driver independent so it will not change unless a new version of ishiiruka forces recompilation, in that case it will be recompiled on startup if the option is enabled.