Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

LMAO

(08-09-2016, 02:20 PM)omega_rugal Wrote: [ -> ]Bring back support for Windows Xp... just asking...

...I mean, are you serious? Windows XP isn't supported anymore not even by Microsoft, you know, the corporation who made it, thus Dolphin requires a 64-bit OS to run (and no, the 64-bit version of Windows XP does not count -- that poor thing was just some kind of Frankenstein experiment that Microsoft should have kept under its headquarters)

We should have support for the Macintosh 128k. I mean, if people don't want to upgrade their hardware/software to unarguably better versions, that's their business, and we should accommodate their needs.

/s

Seriously, though, using XP is bad, and not just because you can't run new versions of Dolphin. It's a giant security liability because it's ridiculously easy to break into. Upgrade your OS or face the consequences. Alternatively, you could do what the U.S. Navy does and pay Microsoft an exorbitant amount of money to patch security holes in XP instead of just upgrading. No, sadly, I am not kidding.

(07-19-2016, 05:06 AM)Admentus Wrote: [ -> ]Take the Wind Waker HD texture pack for example, on the master build you need at least 26 GB of RAM to prefetch it unless you scale down the texture pack. It does not matter if it is DDS or PNG, both packs require the same amount of RAM. The Ishiiruka build however seems to compress a DDS pack resulting in a smaller amount of RAM to prefetch the same original Wind Waker HD texture pack, this time only requiring about 8 GB of RAM. That however only works with DDS.

I believe the Wind Waker HD texture pack is about 2 GB large, yet requires an enormous amount of RAM to prefetch. I only have 16 GB of RAM, so I either have to use a different build or scale down the texture pack. As you said I am refering to the allocation of space within the RAM. I am aware that Dolphin already supports DDS texture packs in addition to PNG.

That's easy to explain:

DDS is a compressed texture, like PNG. So the decompressed texture pack is 26 GB big.

But that's all DDS and PNG have in common.
DDS is a very lossy compression. So using the DDS pack and a downscaled PNG pack should have a similiar quality.
DDS compression is designed for fast hardware decompression, so the GPU is able to do this on-the-fly. That's how Ishiiruka is able to use it.
PNG is designed for good compression ratio, so the (de-)compression is very slow. That's why we preload decompressed textures. Decompressing is slower than the disk access.

The Dolphin video backends do not support native DDS texture objects, so we treat them like PNGs: Preload them uncompressed.

By the way, if you don't see a quallity difference between the PNG and the DDS pack, you should scale them down. Of course, DDS is by far better than uncompressed in terms of quality per size, but also by far worse in terms of quality per resolution.

@degasus

Thanks for the information on how Dolphin handles DDS. So Dolphin handles DDS textures like PNG files. Would you think it is possible in the future that Dolphin could support native DDS texture objects, and if so, what could be the benefits for it? Could Dolphin just not use the came hardware decompression technique as Ishiiruka? Well... I guess it is because it is a bit of a hacky method, and that won't do Dolphin much good in the long term goals. Accuracy above preformance, newer systems years from now well have beter preformance anyway.

Dolphin should be able to also support DDS. It's just not implemented :/

DDS itself isn't necessarily lossy or compressed - it's a container format for several different image formats, including several types of DTX compression (all of which are lossy), but also basic 24bpp ARGB, and other fixed-size lossless arrangements with potentially lower colour depths.

[quote pid='419229' dateline='1470725559']
...I mean, are you serious? Windows XP isn't supported anymore not even by Microsoft, you know, the corporation who made it, thus Dolphin requires a 64-bit OS to run (and no, the 64-bit version of Windows XP does not count -- that poor thing was just some kind of Frankenstein experiment that Microsoft should have kept under its headquarters)
[/quote]

haha i know i use xp in old pcs for specific purposes only...

btw... is the 64-bit version of windows 7 enough?

[quote pid='419233' dateline='1470734317']
Seriously, though, using XP is bad, and not just because you can't run new versions of Dolphin. It's a giant security liability because it's ridiculously easy to break into. Upgrade your OS or face the consequences. Alternatively, you could do what the U.S. Navy does and pay Microsoft an exorbitant amount of money to patch security holes in XP instead of just upgrading. No, sadly, I am not kidding.
[/quote]

i have using the same winxp install for like 6 years now and so far no one has broken into it... what have you been watching lately? youporn?

anyway, it was a joke...

As far as you know anyways.

It's more useful for malware to be quiet rather than loud, with a couple exceptions.

(08-10-2016, 01:27 PM)omega_rugal Wrote: [ -> ]btw... is the 64-bit version of windows 7 enough?

Yes, 64-bit Windows 7 is fine for Dolphin. Just keep in mind that you're missing out on easier connecting with real Wii Remotes (Windows 8 and newer) and the Direct3D 12 backend (Windows 10).