Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

For those hoping to run Super SMmash Bros. Brawl on their Sandy Bridge PC/Laptop, I ran two tests, one with Dolphin 4.0 build 7052 (a particularly fast build of dolphin 4) and dolphin 3.5

Here's what I observed:
- Dolphin 4.0: With two players, doable, 4 was... a fair bit stuttery, regardless of the frame skipping setting!
- Dolphin 3.5: With four players, almost doable, some stages can slow the emulator down, but in almost all cases, two players is perfect. (I found three was a good happy medium too! )

So by the looks of things, sandy bridge users may have to stick with 3.5 for now, and make sure to use the following settings:
Main Config:
- General: Dual Core, Idle Skipping, (if PAL, set frame limiter to 50, if NTSC, set to 60)
- Audio: Your Preference, I recommend DSP LLE to fix some odd audio glitches. (Not fully tested, I don't think I have the DSP rom for it... )
- Wii: PAL60 mode disabled (unless you're using NTSC, in which case this setting as far as I know does nothing)
Graphics:
- Backend: One of the D3D ones if you're using Windows, I recommend DX9
- Res: 640x480 (It actually looks amazing on this setting, no joke! Tested on my ASUS flat-panel)
- Enhancements tab: Either 1x native, or window size, I found native res looked better. Scaled EFB copy may be preferred, but try turning this off if you get slowdowns.
- Hacks: Skip EFB and Ignore format changes unchecked, efb copy to texture, XFB disabled, other options are your preference. (HOWEVER: don't use OpenMP tex decode, it has no effect here!)

And that is all for now. feel free to post constructive criticism, questions and/or any other things you feel like posting here. The poll is to see how many users still stick with 3.5 or not, so feel free to drop your vote in!
NOTE: this is an anti-flaming zone, please don't start flame wars here.

THE LATEST DEV BUILDS ARE FASTER THAN 4.0 STABLE. DON'T RECOMMEND OLD VERSIONS!!!!!!!

(10-15-2015, 09:29 AM)KHg8m3r Wrote: [ -> ]THE LATEST DEV BUILDS ARE FASTER THAN 4.0 STABLE. DON'T RECOMMEND OLD VERSIONS!!!!!!!

I just read one of your posts in a similar thread... I am yet to try some of the newer ones. (I actually wasn't aware of Dolphin 5 RC unitl you mentioned it somehwere else)

The reason I recommended 3.5 was because on my particular config it was 10x faster than 4.0-7052. I NEVER USE 4.0 STABLE!!!

Speaking of which; how come your posts are in all caps?

We don't provide support for old builds.

(10-15-2015, 11:02 AM)helios747 Wrote: [ -> ]We don't provide support for old builds.

I am aware, I was just recommending it simply for those with my system specs, especially those with a sandy bridge laptop... YOU DON'T HAVE TO JUMP ON MY DAMN POST FOR IT!!!

It's in the forum rules

Quote:Old Dolphin builds: Users are free to use any build that they like, but we do not recommend the use of builds older than the latest stable release. Older builds have missing features and issues with games that would be fixed by using the latest stable release or the current GIT builds from master branch. We ask that you please refrain from recommending old builds to forum users; only the latest stable build or newer is supported on the forums.

Dolphin 3.5 at this point is over 2 years old, nobody should use that.

(10-15-2015, 01:36 PM)Anti-Ultimate Wrote: [ -> ]It's in the forum rules

Quote:Old Dolphin builds: Users are free to use any build that they like, but we do not recommend the use of builds older than the latest stable release. Older builds have missing features and issues with games that would be fixed by using the latest stable release or the current GIT builds from master branch. We ask that you please refrain from recommending old builds to forum users; only the latest stable build or newer is supported on the forums.

Dolphin 3.5 at this point is over 2 years old, nobody should use that.

Holy shoot, didn't realize that recommending old builds are against the rules... Why on earth do they run better on my PC then?

EDIT: Another note; I tested both 4.0-7997 and 5.0 RC34 and both don't run as well as 3.5...

As I gather from similar user experiences, even though Dolphin's latest versions run very fast, there are some situations where the hacks and shortcuts in 3.5 may give it an edge. I'm just speaking anecdotally of course.

It's alright to talk about 3.5 and how it works for you, just don't recommend it and don't ask for help with its issues

(10-15-2015, 09:13 AM)FuzzyQuills Wrote: [ -> ]- Audio: Your Preference, I recommend DSP LLE to fix some odd audio glitches. (Not fully tested, I don't think I have the DSP rom for it... )

Are there still any HLE issues on current development versions? As far as I know, they are all fixed. So as long as you're not on 3.5, don't use LLE

As you're talking about Sandy Bridge: Their GPU is really bad, so you are maybe GPU bottlenecked. Try to enable "Ignore format changes" and "Fast Depth", they may boost a bit.

In the end, current development builds are much faster than 3.5 in CPU emulation. In GPU emulation, they are *much* slower. So 3.5 may be a good build if you're GPU bottlenecked. Or better, ishiiruka as it's a fork which tries to catch up with the development builds but without the more accurate GPU emulation.

(10-15-2015, 09:32 AM)FuzzyQuills Wrote: [ -> ]Speaking of which; how come your posts are in all caps?

Because caps are fun
It's really because as Anti-Ultimate pointed out, recommending old builds is against the rules. And because you wouldn't believe how many people have come here where their issues were fixed by using new versions. It doesn't help everyone, but it does help a lot of people.

And yes, you're probably having issues with your iGPU being the bottleneck. Are you on the latest driver from intel? What backend are you using?