Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

First of all, this video is showing and claiming that Wind Waker works with the DX3D9 backend on an Intel GMA 950 (verifiable that it uses DX3D9 by the video itself):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpbYom4Pxcg

I am using a friend's computer, which is a low-end laptop using an Intel GMA 950, but has a nice Core 2 Duo which should make the game somewhat playable. It has Windows XP Service Pack 3, and has all of the latest drivers. DX is updated to the latest version of 9. When I try and play other games they work fine (Super Smash Bros. Melee, Brawl; Metal Gear: Twin Snakes; Mario Party 5, 6, 7; and other games, etc.). They work pretty well (FPS wise and graphical-wise) on this computer.

The reason I made this thread? Wind Waker will not get to the title screen. It complains (with DX3D9) after the Nintendo logo that it failed to compile a shader. I saw other issues here and people just say to either upgrade GPU, change settings, etc., but absolutely nothing changes this. The error I have is identical to one(s) that can be previously found here, and it's only with Wind Waker; no other games that I've tried. I can't use the OpenGL renderer because it needs OpenGL 2 and the GPU only implements 1.4; I can't use software-renderer because the program crashes and shows nothing (on all versions I tried too).

I have tried Dolphin version 3, 3.5, 4, latest versions, unofficial builds, and even versions before 3; the problem is the same with all of them: shader problems.

But this can't be unavoidable because, if it was, how is it evidently playable in that video I linked above? Obviously it's possible, but I don't see what else I can do. Could it be the driver? The poster of the video that evidently shows it playable and working on the GMA 950 says they're using Windows 8.1 on a 2007 MacBook. Basically, I want some answers here -- why would it work for them and not me with the same GPU? Is it down to the driver that's at fault here (for Windows XP)?

The rest of the hardware is not of big concern; it has plenty of RAM, etc. I have also seen users complain of this issue with high-end GPUs as well, so I'm thinking it's some kind of problem with the emulator and this game, and not solely the GPU/driver. But I'm all ears for any advice on this issue!

Short version of things I've tried:

1.Reinstalling/uninstalling. No difference.

2.Updating everything on Windows XP, including the applicable chipset/GPU driver. No difference.

3.Updated to the latest DX. No difference.

4.Tried VERY many combinations of Dolphin graphics settings. No difference.

5.Make absolutely certainty that the ISO is not corrupted, and I'm guaranteed it isn't.

Every game I've tried works, but Wind Waker will not get to the title screen without complaining about shader issues. There must be some explainable reason why it would work for that other person using the same hardware and not me.

It really sounds like an issue with the ISO, as my Wind Waker runs fine.

Use a program to generate the MD5 sum for the ISO, and then Google search wind waker's MD5 sum. If they aren't 100% identical, then you have a bad game.

Another issue is the fact that you're running on Windows XP. We dropped support for 32-bit windows, so you can't enjoy the speed-ups of the latest dev builds. Also, that hardware is very slow, but if you can live with having the games run at less than fullspeed, then good job

It looks like he's using an exceedingly old version of Dolphin which had workarounds in place for the crappy GMA950.
These were removed later when we dropped support for that hardware.

Quote:It really sounds like an issue with the ISO, as my Wind Waker runs fine.

Same exact ISO works on my original computer. MD5 is identical as well.

Quote:We dropped support for 32-bit windows

Yes, but as I said, I tried older versions in which you did support it (under 3, which was years ago). It still complains of the same issue.

Quote:It looks like he's using an exceedingly old version of Dolphin which had workarounds in place for the crappy GMA950.

What version, specifically, did you support it in/have workarounds for it? Could you narrow it down a bit? I would like to know so I can try it myself. How far back can I find versions of Dolphin? Can anybody possibly give me some of the OLD builds to download, given that someone has the binary of it? Compiling it myself would be a nightmare. I'm assuming some of these ancient binaries could still exist somewhere, no? They should work, and the person in the video obtained it somehow (unless they've had it all these years). I know I tried 3, 3.5, 4, some before 3, etc. Nada. Same issue. Some older ones won't even load the game and just say that it has shader issues. The other games I've tried, as listed in my prior post, run close to full-speed and work just fine.

It was probably ~2.0 version days.

I had one of this crappy IGP. If I remember correctly, the last working version is r7589. Dolphin r4598 and older just "works" and you can use builds between r4599 and r7589 without major problems if you disable CPU -> EFB Access and enable Ignore Format Changes... For Zelda Wind Waker this shouldn't give you any kind of issues except that Pictobox Quests can't be completed and that you'll need to use the old and crappy DSP HLE: it may randomly crash or hang the game. You could also try DSP LLE but I'm pretty sure it would give more slowdowns than benefits in an old computer like that...

You could also try builds from Ishiiruka branch. Last time I tried it in the old computer I have laying around here, it worked very very well for ZWW running with DX9 in an Core 2 Duo E4500 running at 2.2GHz. However, I'm not sure if I was testing with the GMA 950 or with the GT440 this computer have...

Intel GMA 950 is really bad. Even some "newer" intel chipsets are not supported in Dolphin causing some problems, which won't get fixed in Dolphin ever. I don't think you can reach the point of an enjoyable experience, but you can try.

That aside, did you try modded drivers for your GMA950? That's basicially the requirement to actually play games with it. Check out:
http://neoswrath.blogspot.de/2009/03/int...eview.html

Most interesting are the 3D Analyze and the modded drivers parts.

3D Analyze might allow you to fake the shader support you are missing, but i don't know if it will emulate them via CPU, or if you will get lots of graphical errors. Both would be bad for you. If its emulated by CPU, the performance will suck even more. If it's not emulated, the graphics will be broken more than they would if your hardware would support the feature. Keep in mind that there are some graphical issues in Wind Waker, which were fixed late in the 4.0-xxx builds. Side note: 3D Analyze allows you to play Half Life 2 and games that use its engine, even with the GMA 950 lacking hardware transform and lightning(T&L) support.

And the modded drivers use some updates from the GMA X3100 Vista drivers(not 100% sure, don't quote me on that), which Intel did not port to the GMA 950 on XP, because hardware manufacturers have no interest in providing proper drivers for longer than 1 year. This might add support for the currently unsupported shaders, but i think the driver emulates them via cpu, see above.

Lastly, the performance in Wind Waker depends mostly on the cpu. If your cpu is slow, the game will be slow. So your GPU might prevent you from playing the game at all, or it will cause issues, but the speed wouldn't change that much with a high end GPU. A much better GPU would basically only allow you to ramp up IR and AA to make it look better. On 1xIR and no AA, which is how you should try it, there wouldn't be much of a performance difference.

Quote:That aside, did you try modded drivers for your GMA950? That's basicially the requirement to actually play games with it.

I already stated that I can get many games to play just fine, albeit not full speed, but not very far from it. There are no graphical issues with Super Smash Bros. Melee, and today I actually tried Resident Evil 4 and it works as well (but way slower than the other games). The only problem is still with Wind Waker. I use no modded drivers; I use the ones that came with this computer, as my friend didn't alter them (igfxcfg.dll, I think it's called, the GPU driver). Anyways, if modded drivers are required for Wind Waker then that's a different story, but something tells me the person who tested it in that video I linked is not using any modded drivers, which brings us back to square one: Why would it still not be working for me, assuming the same circumstances, with this one specific game and why is it working for them?

I also theorized that it could be the driver as well. They are using Windows 8.1, which probably has a different driver for the same hardware than XP uses.

As for the status of this issue, I'll try those builds mentioned prior to this. If it doesn't work or does, I'll report back here and if this thread is still open, further investigation could take place, I suppose. Or I'll just give thanks for pointing out those older and non-mainstream builds.

I have a GMA 950, the only builds that can play windwaker with that are builds that are compiled with PS 2.0, and as far as i know all those builds have been removed from the site and all builds (even the much older) were compiled with PS 3.0 so you probably won't find a working build on this site. It's been a while since i used dolphin but i was using R6803 back then and i pretty much completed the game with a GMA 950 on it at very decent framerates, if you try everyone else's suggestions and it doesn't work i can try to look for that build for you somewhere on my computer and re-upload it to you, but of course you won't receive any support for any issues you run into with it.

EDIT: Surprisngly my Mediafire acct still exists and i uploaded the build there a while back.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/j35zu9...3g/6803.7z

(11-05-2014, 08:24 PM)Zee530 Wrote: [ -> ]I have a GMA 950, the only builds that can play windwaker with that are builds that are compiled with PS 2.0, and as far as i know all those builds have been removed from the site and all builds (even the much older) were compiled with PS 3.0 so you probably won't find a working build on this site. It's been a while since i used dolphin but i was using R6803 back then and i pretty much completed the game with a GMA 950 on it at very decent framerates, if you try everyone else's suggestions and it doesn't work i can try to look for that build for you somewhere on my computer and re-upload it to you, but of course you won't receive any support for any issues you run into with it.

EDIT: Surprisngly my Mediafire acct still exists and i uploaded the build there a while back.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/j35zu9...3g/6803.7z

I created this account just to salute you, sir!