After many tests I think what is causing my unstable framerate is the frame limiter.
I've been using dolphin for several years. Each version it get to have a higher raw performance, but the homogeneity of the framerate is getting worse.
The framerate remains constant 60 fps for several seconds, then falls to 58.9 or a different number without apparent cause, then goes back up to 60 and so continuously. The result is that games do not feel as fluid as when they are played on the actual console, where the motion is constantly fluid.
I tried in 3 different setups, with different gpu brands and cpus. A lot of different drivers revisions. In both OpenGL and D3D11 renderer. Enabling/Disabling dual-core check and every other available option into the emulator and my computer.
For a few moments, I've achieved perfect smooth performance limiting framerate using external applications like RTSS while disabling internal dolphin frame-limiter, but after a while, the sound or/and the gameplay goes absurdly accelerated (while screen framerate is still 60 fps).
Using Frame-limiter = 60/Audio/Auto affects the regularity where the framerate go out of sync, but none of them fix it completely.
Obviously, I'm not talking about a problem of raw performance. I'm using games where framerate can be mantained over 100 without problems.
In one side, using internal dolphin vsync or gpu driver level vsync should allow that Frame-limiter = off will be an option. But dolphin accelerates sound and gameplay no matter the framerate is actually locked at 60 fps if the internal framerate limiter is disabled.
In the other, the internal limiter, should not have these sync problems where regularly loses frames.
I think the problem is some kind of interference between the frame limiter timings and the functions that load game assets.
The game I use more for test this problem is Kirby's RTDL.
Shader generation is the problem more or less. It's being looked at. It's always been a problem; it's just that moving to new versions of Dolphin invalidates the shader cache, making it "appear" worse for a while.
(07-03-2014, 09:47 PM)JMC47 Wrote: [ -> ]Shader generation is the problem more or less. It's being looked at. It's always been a problem; it's just that moving to new versions of Dolphin invalidates the shader cache, making it "appear" worse for a while.
The problem is the same the first time I run the game, than the second time, the third... no improvement in framerate desyncs when shader cache exists.
If you're using SLI, it could be GPU microstutter.
Dolphin doesn't support SLI, derp.
(07-03-2014, 11:26 PM)JMC47 Wrote: [ -> ]If you're using SLI, it could be GPU microstutter.
I'm using only one gpu in Dolphin.
I've read a lot of Issues in dolphin-emu site about Shader Cache and I think dolphin devs are a bit sensitive and testy in that matter.
I can understand how a team of developers (mainly if they are working for a free application) may have problems receiving complaints from users, that probably don't know how an emulator work. I say this because I'm a developer too.
BUT, everyone that runs an emulator (or at least 99% of them) hopes to play his favourite game without big problems. One texture flicker, one glitchy sound or a blurred text here or there does not break the game. Doesn't prevent to enjoy of the gaming experiencie and it's worth if you can enjoy games from another platform or you can improve resolution/filters over your game. In the other side, stuttering/framerate problems caused by shacer cache or whatever, ruins absolutely the experience. You can play the game, you can see what a lot of achievements and goals the programmers are reaching, but the gaming experience and the feeling of actually playing the original game is totally flawed.
So I think that stable framerate must be a priority for an emulator of a gaming platform. Prioritizing glitches and graphical bugs over performance only can be ok for a programmers portfolio; "See, I've accomplished that perfect emulation... it's not fully enjoyable but it's fully playable from start to end. I'm a good programmer". Yeah, it's a way to do it. But I prefer to play endless the first level of a game with full perfect speed than the full game with hiccups. So in no way I see as normal or expected that a gaming emulator shows hiccups or stutters because that's how shader cache works or whatever reason. Surely another way exists that avoid those problems. And no, I can't code a patch because here I'm only a user sharing his opinion.
Again, that's only my opinion btw.
Of course, I truly believe the shader cache stutters are a big issue, it isn't about sensitivity. The thing is, while it is a big problem for me, it slowly goes away the more I use the emulator. If that's not happening for you, unless you're playing something like Metroid Prime (which, is a huge exception to all rules; those games will jutter all the time no matter what and we hope that it's just a shader cache problem, but we don't know.), you should be experiencing the same issues.
I have microstutter too sometimes, and the way I fixed that was by lowering IR. I understand your frustrations with things not being perfect, but, a perfectly accurate GC/Wii emulator would probably run <5 fps. So, what we're left with is trying to figure out how to make it better. Shader Emitting is not exactly an easy task, and it nestled deep within the emulator. Any kind of quick fix would 1: Damage compatibility with games. 2: Possibly break graphics. 3: Without a roadmap, it would not be upgradeable in the future. So, someone wouldn't want to waste a lot of time just getting the feature in right away; it has to be done properly.
And even if we wanted a quick fix, It's definitely not going to be easy. If you're saying that they don't care about this issue because it's not fixed, you're absolutely wrong; it's just that no one has found a proper solution for it yet.
(07-04-2014, 08:09 AM)JMC47 Wrote: [ -> ][...] I understand your frustrations with things not being perfect, but, a perfectly accurate GC/Wii emulator would probably run <5 fps. [...]
Actually what I said is that I prefer emulation with smooth framerate instead of being perfect accurate.
About stutters going away after use, do you mean in the same dolphin run? or that shader cache remains with the default config after closing dolphin?
Is not what I can see. In my case stutters occur in every playthrough.
What Dolphin devs look for is to run the consoles as closely as possible "that's the whole point of an emulation" it is NOT, however, guaranteeing a perfectly smooth framerate for any kind of computer build, as to achieve their goal they are constantly at work improving the emulation (getting rid of bugs/crashes, etc). This improvement brings with itself each time a more demanding program to emulate as the load gets bigger on the CPU, saying that you don't care about accuracy on the emulator is basically like saying you don't need the dev's work and it is fine just like this, but you can only run it right now as is it because of them and the accuracy this emulator has attained
(07-09-2014, 01:48 PM)linker357 Wrote: [ -> ]What Dolphin devs look for is to run the consoles as closely as possible "that's the whole point of an emulation" it is NOT, however, guaranteeing a perfectly smooth framerate for any kind of computer build, as to achieve their goal they are constantly at work improving the emulation (getting rid of bugs/crashes, etc). This improvement brings with itself each time a more demanding program to emulate as the load gets bigger on the CPU, saying that you don't care about accuracy on the emulator is basically like saying you don't need the dev's work and it is fine just like this, but you can only run it right now as is it because of them and the accuracy this emulator has attained
In my case, I use emulators to play games. I mean, enjoy the games. I can only enjoy the games if they are smooth.
What I say is, for me, the main and first thing that have to be emulated for an emulator, is the framerate of the actual machine.
I can understand where you go, but I can't enjoy every update in dolphin achieving more and more perfection and accuracy in graphical or sound effects if framerate is not smooth.
I could download every dolphin update, run the application, go through my game library (I only use on dolphin games that already have in retail) and list every improvement as a check list job, then close dolphin.
What I can't do is enjoy games because the constant jitters here and there.
As an educational work for a team of programmers that consume their time in an unpaid task, dolphin is a huge milestone. It is amazing and enviable. My only problem is I can't enjoy that milestone in a playable way because every dolphin update is more accurate but less playable imo. That's all and that's my concern. Another problem in dolphin is the wide set of options whose purpose is to prevent errors or fix performance in specific situations.
I would add that I would pay $100 or more for a full dolphin version without those framerate problems.
My computer:
2700K@5ghz, 32 GB, Tri-SLI GTX680, SDD disk, Creative Sound Core3D.