So I'm currently still running Dolphin 4.0-7461 on Windows 8.1, and things have been working great for many many months now. However, having seen the 5.0 release video, it seems like it's really worth the upgrade for some of it's fixes and performance upgrades.
Is there anything special I need to do to make sure all my meticulously tinkered with settings all stay intact as I make the upgrade? Will the new settings just be automatically kept through the upgrade? Or will I need to do a backup > restore sort of deal with some of my setting files when transitioning to 5.0? (If a backup > restore is recommended regardless - what files/folders should I be backing up for safety?)
Also, does 5.0 overwrite my current 4.0-7461 version? Or can they both be installed on the same machine at the same time?
I've gotten 4.0-7461 exactly how I want it, so I just want to make sure I don't have to redo all that time spent playing with settings. For any game in my long-ish list, I've likely modified one (if not all of) the following game-specific settings:
- Gameini settings (per the wiki for any needed fixes)
- Controller mappings
- Patches
- AR Codes
- Custom texture packs
Looking at my folder, I might have even messed with LLE ROM dumping at some point, but I can't recall if that is currently being utilized. And then there are also memory files, global Dolphin config and graphic settings, and anything else I might be forgetting that would need to be retained.
Any suggestions on how to best preserve my settings while upgrading to Dolphin 5.0 are appreciated!
AFAIK there wasn't any noticable configuration change between your version and the 5.0, so your settings should be fine.
You are currently using a dev build which are distributed in an archive where as the stable (Windows) version as an installer. It might be more comfortable to download the dev build (they're currently below the stable builds) and overwrite your 4.0-7461 version and you should be all set.
All your settings will be kept and automatically used when you update (unless you have changed the location of the user config folder using portable.txt or the registry). Do however note that if you have been changing things in the Sys folder instead of the user config folder, for instance game INIs, those changes will not carry over. Hopefully you haven't, since that's not the intended way to do things. If you did do that, we can handle that afterwards – just make sure you don't install 5.0 in the same folder as 4.0-7461.
Since 4.0-7461 is a development build, it can exist on your computer regardless of what other versions you also have. It might be different if you had wanted to have two stable builds at once, for instance 4.0.2 and 5.0.
(07-24-2016, 05:43 AM)Neui Wrote: [ -> ]It might be more comfortable to download the dev build (they're currently below the stable builds) and overwrite your 4.0-7461 version and you should be all set.
Do not overwrite a dev build with a dev build. That can make old game INIs linger around. Extract it to a separate folder instead. (This is not related to what I wrote about in my previous post. The 5.0 installer will delete the whole Sys folder, so no old game INIs will be kept, which is why this problem only applies to dev builds.)
Ah, I see. Thanks for the info!
So just to give one final detail, I did previously move my Global User Directory per
this link using the registry edit to set it to a new location.
So right now I have a folder called "Dolphin" that contains the following two subfolders:
- "Dolphin-x64_4.0-7461"
- "User Documents" <-- This is where I pointed the Global User Director to with the registry edit
If I was to add a third subfolder to this overall "Dolphin" folder, and place the latest 5.0 dev installation in that - would it automatically pull from the same "User Documents" folder that already exists beside it? Or would the new 5.0 install default to creating a new user folder in the standard User>My Documents folder location?
To clarify what I'm asking, my overall "Dolphin" folder would have the following three subfolders after my proposed action:
- "Dolphin-x64_4.0-7461" <-- Old 4.0 dev install
- "Dolphin-x64_5.0-292" <-- New 5.0 dev install
- "User Documents" <-- This is still where I pointed the Global User Director to with the registry edit
If I do it this way, should the 5.0 dev install just automatically start using the existing User Documents with no problems?
(07-24-2016, 05:55 AM)Magic815 Wrote: [ -> ]If I was to add a third subfolder to this overall "Dolphin" folder, and place the latest 5.0 dev installation in that - would it automatically pull from the same "User Documents" folder that already exists beside it?
Yes.
(07-24-2016, 05:55 AM)Magic815 Wrote: [ -> ]To clarify what I'm asking, my overall "Dolphin" folder would have the following three subfolders after my proposed action:
- "Dolphin-x64_4.0-7461" <-- Old 4.0 dev install
- "Dolphin-x64_5.0-292" <-- New 5.0 dev install
- "User Documents" <-- This is still where I pointed the Global User Director to with the registry edit
If I do it this way, should the 5.0 dev install just automatically start using the existing User Documents with no problems?
Yes.
You made me realize I was a bit wrong – only portable.txt leads to problems when updating, not registry edits. I didn't think of that before since registry edits rarely are used.
(07-24-2016, 06:09 AM)JosJuice Wrote: [ -> ]Yes.
Yes.
You made me realize I was a bit wrong – only portable.txt leads to problems when updating, not registry edits. I didn't think of that before since registry edits rarely are used.
Alright, cool, thanks!
Just as an aside question, does this now mean that when I run the 4.0 dev build or the 5.0 dev build, they'll both be making modifications to the same "User Documents" folder? Is there any risk of letting them do that? Does the 5.0 build expect a different structure or something for instance? Would it be smart for me to make a backup of the "User Documents" folder now as a "4.0 user documents" of sorts, just in case the 5.0 build buggers something up with it?
Thanks again for all your help/clarification on this!
(07-24-2016, 06:13 AM)Magic815 Wrote: [ -> ]Just as an aside question, does this now mean that when I run the 4.0 dev build or the 5.0 dev build, they'll both be making modifications to the same "User Documents" folder?
Yes.
(07-24-2016, 06:13 AM)Magic815 Wrote: [ -> ]Is there any risk of letting them do that? Does the 5.0 build expect a different structure or something for instance? Would it be smart for me to make a backup of the "User Documents" folder now as a "4.0 user documents" of sorts, just in case the 5.0 build buggers something up with it?
There's very little risk. The only problem I can think of is that saving a controller config in a recent enough build will make it impossible for older builds to pick up on that controller config's values for binary settings, for instance Sideways Wiimote. In other words, you might have to re-configure those few settings when going back to an older build after editing the controller config in a newer one.
Also switching between the 2 versions will keep invalidating your shader cache every time you switch, meaning you may get some micro-stutter.