Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

The issue with that debugger is it is terrible and doesn't support memory breakpoints.

The emulator is pretty much only supported by the hacking community as of 2016.

(11-14-2016, 12:23 AM)Admentus Wrote: [ -> ]Orginal Consoles -> Emulation

Simply because Dolphin would not exist if the GameCube and Wii never existed in the first place.

But on a serious note, I packed my Wii in the original package box a loooong time ago. Dolphin is just that awesome. I just occasionally need my sensor bar and MotionPlus Wii-Remote. It will be a glorious day when Dolphin finally truely emulates MotionPlus (I curse thee, Skyward Sword!).

• My XBox One Wireless controller is king. 1080p is king
• 1080p Video output is king (I still need to upgrade to 4k at some point...)
• 1080p/4k texture packs are king (I know, because I make them)
• AR/Gecko codes are king (ohh well... consoles do too, but does your console have the power for widescreen, increased FPS & Extended Draw Distance?)
• Save States are king
• Emulation Pausing is king
• Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic filtering are king (Ishiiruka has even more filters such as SSAO, but I might need even better hardware).
• Free Cam is king (Project64 should learn from that, in your face!)
• Save File folders are king.
• CPU Clock Override and Custom RTC are king.
• TAS is king.
• Screenshot support is king.
• Booting a game faster is king.
• Changing settings and codes faster and through less navigation is king.
  

I am sure there is more to it. All we are missing currently is the Gameboy Player. I probably upgrade my hardware in the next few years. I am fairly certain Dolphin can provide an even higher quality fidelity than I am currently used too. A year ago, Dolphin still has some major issues with most of my games. But as of today, I would say that the emulation for my library of games runs perfectly. I really need a 4k 21:9 display somewhere a long time from now (I would satisfy myself with 16:9 too)... The dream must stay real.

Dolphin is king, so is life!

Would you really choose an Xbox One controller especially one that is wireless over a Gamecube Controller and official adapter? Asking because emulating the controller causes lag rather than running the official one. I currently have 2560x1440 output. I wouldve gotten 4K but I am also a big PC gamer and 4K isnt really achieved on mainstream PC games without framerate dips and such even with a GTX 1080 but for Dolphin its sex. Super Sampling 8X does it great for now for me. I never tried Gecko codes as Dolphin runs flawless with my specs any benefits besides 60FPS on Mario sunshine and widescreen? And what benefit does CPU clock override have? Asking because I really just only play games never dipped into those options.

Ignore my vote, I mistakenly voted on the presumption that you were referring to Dolphin being a total replacement accuracy wise to the original consoles for whatever reason. Nowadays (with a couple exceptions), I would say that Dolphin has definitely become the superior way to play Gamecube/Wii games with all its enhancements and features.

That being said, there are still many things in the future to look forward to like ubershaders and future performance/accuracy improvements. I still find it hard to believe just how far Dolphin has come between 4.0 and 5.0 and I look forward to whatever the developers decide to do next.

It really depends on the game. Some games are definitely better, yes.

But a lot of games still have issues in Dolphin. The biggest one IMO is shader compilation, which makes games like the prime trilogy far less smooth than what you'd experience on console.

(11-14-2016, 12:57 PM)wowfunhappy Wrote: [ -> ]It really depends on the game. Some games are definitely better, yes.

But a lot of games still have issues in Dolphin. The biggest one IMO is shader compilation, which makes games like the prime trilogy far less smooth than what you'd experience on console.

I was going out on a lim and including all of what Dolphin has to offer outshadowing all the flaws.

(11-14-2016, 08:52 AM)nursejoy Wrote: [ -> ]Would you really choose an Xbox One controller especially one that is wireless over a Gamecube Controller and official adapter? Asking because emulating the controller causes lag rather than running the official one. I currently have 2560x1440 output. I wouldve gotten 4K but I am also a big PC gamer and 4K isnt really achieved on mainstream PC games without framerate dips and such even with a GTX 1080 but for Dolphin its sex. Super Sampling 8X does it great for now for me. I never tried Gecko codes as Dolphin runs flawless with my specs any benefits besides 60FPS on Mario sunshine and widescreen? And what benefit does CPU clock override have? Asking because I really just only play games never dipped into those options.

Ohh yeah. XBox One controller above -> GameCube / Wii Remote Controller. I don't care for the potential lag of one or two frames. Besides charging my XBox controller is a lot easier and faster than my Wii Remote, and I could always switch to wired I need to charge it. I always like the fact my XBox One controller has more buttons which are useful for example save states. I like to play a lot of game (especially retro), but I am certainly not a pro. I fact I never noticed any lag with my wireless XBox Controller, that is how much I suck. I do a lot more than only Dolphin on my PC. As I said, I would like to keep everything universal, so my XBox Controller is perfectly for native Windows games. I really hate to switch out hardware on the fly. I do prefer high fidelity above 60 FPS. Unless a game can absolutely maintain 60 FPS at high fidelity I keep my FPS cap 60. For Dolphin however, every game is either capped at 20, 30 of 60 FPS (17, 25 or 50 for PAL).

I do run a lot of N64 games (cus I am that retro). So you probably get why I am into texture packs for them. My most favorite game of all time in the history of all mankind has to be The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, claiming otherwise would just make you look stupid (well... I suppose you have your own right to favorite a different game). Sadly, in the old days quite a few games ran at 20 FPS (but not anymore thanks to darkludx!). Increasing the FPS and Draw Distance actually increases the load on your system to levels an actual Wii could not handle which decreases the FPS all the way back to 10-15, so by using CPU Clock Override Dolphin is allowed to have more processing power than your actual Wii would so I could really get to 30 FPS again. I often leave my CPU Clock Override at 200%. This almost never causes issues, in case they occur you should try to disable it temporary.

If you really want to play Super Mario Sunshine with widescreen and 60 FPS. Go for it! My hardware sucks and even I can maintain solid 60 FPS. Just make sure you do not use D3D12 (which for some fact does not like Super Mario Sunshine). OpenGL would be your best choice. For every game else, D3D12 is solid! Just make sure you have the latest Gecko code for 60 FPS which is region free and not the 60 FPS patch which is outdated.

(11-14-2016, 06:48 PM)Admentus Wrote: [ -> ]Ohh yeah. XBox One controller above -> GameCube / Wii Remote Controller. I don't care for the potential lag of one or two frames. Besides charging my XBox controller is a lot easier and faster than my Wii Remote, and I could always switch to wired I need to charge it. I always like the fact my XBox One controller has more buttons which are useful for example save states. I like to play a lot of game (especially retro), but I am certainly not a pro. I fact I never noticed any lag with my wireless XBox Controller, that is how much I suck. I do a lot more than only Dolphin on my PC. As I said, I would like to keep everything universal, so my XBox Controller is perfectly for native Windows games. I really hate to switch out hardware on the fly. I do prefer high fidelity above 60 FPS. Unless a game can absolutely maintain 60 FPS at high fidelity I keep my FPS cap 60. For Dolphin however, every game is either capped at 20, 30 of 60 FPS (17, 25 or 50 for PAL).

I do run a lot of N64 games (cus I am that retro). So you probably get why I am into texture packs for them. My most favorite game of all time in the history of all mankind has to be The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, claiming otherwise would just make you look stupid (well... I suppose you have your own right to favorite a different game). Sadly, in the old days quite a few games ran at 20 FPS (but not anymore thanks to darkludx!). Increasing the FPS and Draw Distance actually increases the load on your system to levels an actual Wii could not handle which decreases the FPS all the way back to 10-15, so by using CPU Clock Override Dolphin is allowed to have more processing power than your actual Wii would so I could really get to 30 FPS again. I often leave my CPU Clock Override at 200%. This almost never causes issues, in case they occur you should try to disable it temporary.

If you really want to play Super Mario Sunshine with widescreen and 60 FPS. Go for it! My hardware sucks and even I can maintain solid 60 FPS. Just make sure you do not use D3D12 (which for some fact does not like Super Mario Sunshine). OpenGL would be your best choice. For every game else, D3D12 is solid! Just make sure you have the latest Gecko code for 60 FPS which is region free and not the 60 FPS patch which is outdated.

Does anyone care that the emulator stutters like crazy? I'm running gtx 1050 ti and it is all over he place. It is veryvimpresssive but I feel it can't be better then the actual console until the stutter goes away. Once that happens I'll be packing my wii away!

(11-14-2016, 08:45 PM)Slottedpig Wrote: [ -> ]Does anyone care that the emulator stutters like crazy?  I'm running gtx 1050 ti and it is all over he place.  It is veryvimpresssive but I feel it can't be better then the actual console until the stutter goes away.  Once that happens I'll be packing my wii away!

Define "stutters like crazy". I agree there might be some hicups, but generally I could play through a lot of my games without having stutters at all. In case it does, I just have to decrease the anit-aliasing or tweak the CPU Clock Override. For texture packs I generally use the Prefetch to RAM option, through the Ocarina of Time / Majora's Mask texture pack plays very smoothly without prefetching it. The texture pack for Super Mario 64 does need to be prefetched through or I just cripple my performance at 10-20 FPS every time I turn the camera, Keep in mind that emulation is more intensive on the CPU than the GPU, unlike native PC gaming where a stronger GPU serves you better. Your GTX 1050 Ti should be more than enough for Dolphin. It might not be the best GPU out there, but for Dolphin it should be enough for 3x Native resolution (1080p).

If you experience slowdowns, you should try to disable anti-aliasing, ensure you are using HLE audio, the JIT recompiler, Dual Core is activated, that Store EFB Copies to Texture only is enabled (as long the game work remains playable, certain games such as Super Mario Sunshine must Store EFB Copies to Texture Only disabled), the Texture Cache is set to Fast (the same reason as with Store EFB Copies to Texture Only) and well... your settings are set to default. You should also compare which backend is the fastest for which game. Certain backends behave differently with different games.

You should also disable the CPU Clock Override if that demands too much of your system, an option which is mostly useful when trying to increase the quality of the game through codes such as increased FPS. Otherwise this option might also be useful to maintain a stable framerate in demanding games such as the Last Story, provided you have the hardware to support it.

Well... Regarding stutters and shaders. A lot of the stutters might occurs because of the shaders being compiled. This is just an one-time process. Every effect seen in a game has to compiled into shaders. Once that effect has been compiled, the same effect should not cause any slowdown anymore. That is until you update Dolphin, your GPU or your GPU driver, which in that case resets the shaders, causing these effects to compile all over again. The longer you play a game, the less stutters you will notice. Just drive one lap in Mario Kart Wii for example and you can notice the second or third lap goes a lot smoother.

IMO if devs will find a solution for shader compilation (there was no commit on uber shader PR#3163 from a long time) then Dolphin will be almost perfect Wii replication.
With the new BT passthrough the feel of Wii remote is same as on console so I hope, that some day stutter caused by shaders will go away as well