I have a decent computer but everytime I try to run skyward sword I have to play it in native resolution and it still drops frames. I don't have anything else running and thought I would be able to get decent playback but I am getting nothing. I've spent hours searching forums and youtube with no success. I'm wondering what settings I should use for my type of computer. Thanks
Define decent. No system could be powerful enough. Looking at your specs you have a Intel 3 GHz processor, 8 GB RAM of 1600 MHz DDR3 and a Intel HD Graphics 4000 card with 1536 MB VRAM. Your video card is certaintly not that great. Using a NVidia card such as the GTX 960 or GTX 970 is better. Your CPU should do fine I guess, but we don't really know which processor you use (Quad Core or Dual Core?). Personally I have a i5-4430 processor, a GTX 960 and 16 GB RAM. So far there are no games Dolphin struggles with when using the proper settings except for The Last Story in some parts. Skyward Sword is a game that demands much. Can you run other games for example without any framedrops?
Ensure that you use the latest development build (4.0-9237 currently) of Dolphin and not 4.0.2 (which is over two years old). But you seem to use 4.0-9230 already.
What is you native resolution? You should use 3x Native for 1080p.
I also notice that you run on OSX. I can not speak for the OSX operating system and I do not know how that compares to Windows in performance for example. I guess you can only use OpenGL. Personally I don't see the OSX operating system being great for gaming.
Not sure about this, but I think I might have read somewhere that AMD is not that great for Dolphin. An Intel CPU and a NVidia GPU are supposed to preform better.
You could try using these settings:
CPU Emulation Engine -> JIP Recompiler (recommended).
DSP Emulation Engine -> DSP HLE Emulation (fast).
Anti-Aliasing -> None.
Texture Cache Accuracy -> Fast.
External Frame Buffer (XFB) -> Disabled.
Store EFB Copies to Texture Only -> Checked.
Ignore Format Changes -> Checked.
Fast Depth Calculation -> Checked.
Disable Bounding Box -> Checked.
You might want to check: Skip EFB Access from CPU.
If you are using the PAL version, you could uncheck "Use PAL60 Mode (EuRGB60)". This way Skyward Sword should run at 50 FPS instead of 60 FPS (with 50 FPS being 100%).
You're running OS X (Known to have slow, glitchy video drivers) on what I'm guessing is a MacBook, which can get very hot and probably throttle.
Your best bet is to bootcamp windows and play Dolphin there.
(04-28-2016, 06:34 PM)Admentus Wrote: [ -> ]and a Intel HD Graphics 4000 card with 1536 MB VRAM. Your video card is certaintly not that great.
This is your (op's) bottleneck. I have Intel HD 4600 on Windows machine, and the only way I get nearly full 30fps in SS is by using only 1x native internal resolution. So this game is GPU intensive (compared to, say, New Super Mario Bros), and you can not get more from your integrated GPU than you are getting. You might be able to pull off 1,5 IR on lighter games.
Performance may also vary between OS's & drivers (I suspect that for Intel HD: Win D3D > Win OpenGL > Mac OpenGL, but can't verify). You might want to try Bootcamping to Windows and see how D3D is for you system.
(04-28-2016, 06:34 PM)Admentus Wrote: [ -> ]You might want to check: Skip EFB Access from CPU.
You might get some extra fps with this, but at the same time you'll get inaccurate aiming with sling. This game requires EFB access.
EDIT: Ninja'd by helios.
Thanks for all the feedback it is all extremely helpful. I am on a macbook pro 13inch and I am going to try the settings from Admentus and also bootcamp windows on my system to see if that helps at all. SS is just too fun of a game for me to only be playing it at the games native resolution with frame rates dropping and the music skipping along with that.