Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

I want to play GameCube games, but I wonder if I can push 4K ?

4k + custom shader easily

(04-08-2021, 12:40 AM)nonexist Wrote: [ -> ]4k + custom shader easily

It doesn't take much to run most games at 4K in Dolphin. We've had people doing it for years with weaker GPUs than the GTX 1060. My 1660 shouldn't be a great deal more powerful (about 20% max) so I can double-check later.

If I remember right 4k for dolphin was easy for my gtx 970 I had. That card is around the same performance as the 3gb and a little slower then the 6gb model.

I've been running with a GTX 1060 (3 GB model) for the past three years. It works great and can handle 4K with many games, if you don't push too many other enhancements on it.

However, I'm going to suggest something slightly controversial, which is that there really isn't any point in running GameCube or Wii games at 4K resolution. They weren't designed for it, and even with custom texture packs I see little benefit of 4K over 1080p in those games on a 65" 4K display. Standing unnaturally close to the TV, I thought 1440p looked marginally better than 1080p in Skyward Sword with custom textures, but I actually thought the GPU resources were better spent on SSAA anti-aliasing than on additional resolution. So now I run Skyward Sword at 1080p with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, and feel like that's the best combo.

You (MonicaPuig) mention wanting to play GameCube games, which see even less benefit from 4K, IMO. Try running your games at 1080p with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering and see what you think.

FYI, if you're using SSAA, you're indirectly increasing internal resolution anyway. For example, 3x IR (Full HD) with 2x SSAA makes your GPU render internally at 6x IR (4k), thus resulting in image quality nearly identical to 6x IR with no AA...

should i do ssaa or msaa for NVIDIA titan cards like the v or higher im aiming for 4k

(05-02-2021, 05:59 AM)mbc07 Wrote: [ -> ]FYI, if you're using SSAA, you're indirectly increasing internal resolution anyway. For example, 3x IR (Full HD) with 2x SSAA makes your GPU render internally at 6x IR (4k), thus resulting in image quality nearly identical to 6x IR with no AA...

Yes, that's true. But the result is better than you get just running 4K native resolution without AA (IMO).

(05-02-2021, 10:58 AM)nsm0220 Wrote: [ -> ]should i do ssaa or msaa for NVIDIA titan cards like the v or higher im aiming for 4k

SSAA is 'better' than MSAA, and the Titan cards may be able to handle 4K with SSAA. But you just won't see much benefit with Wii or GameCube games when compared to 4K without SSAA or 1080p with SSAA. In order of the biggest perceived benefit to the least perceived benefit:

1. Go from native resolution to 1080p. This will provide the biggest improvement at a relatively minimal cost in GPU resources, and almost all modern GPUs (made within the last 4 years or so) should be able to handle it.
2. Add a custom texture pack. This will provide another big jump in quality, assuming the texture pack you use is decent.
3. Add SSAA and anisotropic filtering. The benefits here are more subtle, and may be too much even for some modern GPUs (when applied in addition to 1 & 2). 
4. If the GPU can handle it, bump from 1080p to 1440p or 4K. Stacked on top of the previous tweaks (1-3), this will cost a LOT in terms of GPU resources. Even if your GPU can handle it, will provide the least amount of visual improvement.

Of course, if your GPU can handle all four changes, then you may as well implement them all.