Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Can you provide screenshots of all of your settings? If you're using the openGL or d3d11 backend that may be why you can't attain a decent framerate at 2.5x IR (internal resolution). I'm surprised you're having framerate issues with that IR and that GPU.

Using LLE recompiler will probably fix the audio issues you are experiencing but the tradeoff is it requires a lot more processing power and if your cpu is not powerful enough to keep up it may reduce your performance. Your cpu looks like it should be powerful enough to handle it though.

Hi NaturalVioence

Thanks again for your help.
I experimented again yesterday using V3 as well as using the gamecube dsp files (in revisions 7719 as well as V3) and I can honestly say that the cutscenes do indeed have music in them this time round.

However, you did mention that using LLE would come at a price.
In the same scene I described in my last post (Midna and Wolk Link make way across the twilit rooftops in the rain), the plethora of sounds like rain, enemy tune, wolf dash, and others begin to stutter heavily.
HLE resolved this, however cutscenes are now lacking music.

I guess, on my particular rig, I must choose one or the other for now as perhaps my i7-2630QM is perhaps insufficient to simultaneously process the audio as well as the visual gems of this particular game.

Regarding the visuals, I did manage to get a smooth run with 2.5X IR in the end! Turns out I simply had to sarifice the anit-aliasing (which I set to 4) as well as the AF and pixel lighting. 2.5X is the best I can run without dropped frames, anything more results in a minor lag (good test is the title scene where the audio of the wolf howl precedes the visual of the wolf howling before hyrule).

Though with DX11 there is the map 'outlining', there is a wonderful bloom that occurs with it that I can't emulate with DX9. Any suggestions?

For the record I have uploaded my config (Not my GPU is stated to be an Intel Hd one when in fact it is my GT540M) for some reason it shows, then vanishes, though on my NVIDIA toolbar, it shows that Dolphin is using the card.



Thanks again.

CG

(09-19-2011, 06:31 PM)cgodnetnin Wrote: [ -> ]Hi NaturalVioence

Thanks again for your help.
I experimented again yesterday using V3 as well as using the gamecube dsp files (in revisions 7719 as well as V3) and I can honestly say that the cutscenes do indeed have music in them this time round.

However, you did mention that using LLE would come at a price.
In the same scene I described in my last post (Midna and Wolk Link make way across the twilit rooftops in the rain), the plethora of sounds like rain, enemy tune, wolf dash, and others begin to stutter heavily.
HLE resolved this, however cutscenes are now lacking music.

I guess, on my particular rig, I must choose one or the other for now as perhaps my i7-2630QM is perhaps insufficient to simultaneously process the audio as well as the visual gems of this particular game.

Regarding the visuals, I did manage to get a smooth run with 2.5X IR in the end! Turns out I simply had to sarifice the anit-aliasing (which I set to 4) as well as the AF and pixel lighting. 2.5X is the best I can run without dropped frames, anything more results in a minor lag (good test is the title scene where the audio of the wolf howl precedes the visual of the wolf howling before hyrule).

Though with DX11 there is the map 'outlining', there is a wonderful bloom that occurs with it that I can't emulate with DX9. Any suggestions?

For the record I have uploaded my config (Not my GPU is stated to be an Intel Hd one when in fact it is my GT540M) for some reason it shows, then vanishes, though on my NVIDIA toolbar, it shows that Dolphin is using the card.



Thanks again.

CG

Did you try "DSP LLE on Thread"?

Quote:Did you try "DSP LLE on Thread"?

Hi LordVador.

Yes I did. I deselected and tested again prior to taking the screenshots.

Then again, during testing, I may have ran using DX11.

Will try again tonight and update. (perhaps not, just purchased Xenoblade...)

Thanks again.

CG

Quote:Thanks again for your help.
I experimented again yesterday using V3 as well as using the gamecube dsp files (in revisions 7719 as well as V3) and I can honestly say that the cutscenes do indeed have music in them this time round.

However, you did mention that using LLE would come at a price.
In the same scene I described in my last post (Midna and Wolk Link make way across the twilit rooftops in the rain), the plethora of sounds like rain, enemy tune, wolf dash, and others begin to stutter heavily.
HLE resolved this, however cutscenes are now lacking music.

I guess, on my particular rig, I must choose one or the other for now as perhaps my i7-2630QM is perhaps insufficient to simultaneously process the audio as well as the visual gems of this particular game.

Yes that is the tradeoff. LLE fixes most of the problems HLE has since it is more accurate but if the processor is not powerful enough to emulate audio at fullspeed with it it can create crackling/stuttering issues that won't happen on HLE since HLE requires a small fraction of the amount of processing power that LLE requires.

I would also recommend you change the audio backend to Xaudio2. It tends to produce less problems.

Quote:Regarding the visuals, I did manage to get a smooth run with 2.5X IR in the end! Turns out I simply had to sarifice the anit-aliasing (which I set to 4) as well as the AF and pixel lighting. 2.5X is the best I can run without dropped frames, anything more results in a minor lag (good test is the title scene where the audio of the wolf howl precedes the visual of the wolf howling before hyrule).

Just so you know AF does not have an affect on performance (at least it won't for you) so you can set that as high as you want so long as SSAA and pixel lighting are off. 2.5x IR is exactly what I would expect for that GPU. I knew something was wrong when you said you were experiencing slowdowns at that IR with that GPU.

Quote:Though with DX11 there is the map 'outlining', there is a wonderful bloom that occurs with it that I can't emulate with DX9. Any suggestions?

d3d9 may require different efb settings to produce the same effect. Try turning virtual efb copy on and ram copy off. Then try the other way around.

DX11, while great, does tend to lead to some minor issues (line on right side of map on mine). Just rememeber, the in game maps are not optimized for DX9, so you have to use the old fashioned fix, the Bleach vs Crusade hack under Projection Hacks

Quote:Just rememeber, the in game maps are not optimized for DX9, so you have to use the old fashioned fix, the Bleach vs Crusade hack under Projection Hacks

????????

Of course it is not designed for d3d9, it is designed for the flipper GPU on the GC.

Secondly I have no problems with the in-game maps or minimaps in the d3d9 backend, perhaps that was a typo and you meant to type d3d11?

Also last I checked the bleach vs. crusade hack removes the minimap and all other hud elements as well as corrupting the regular map appearance. Why on earth would you recommend it?

For some odd reason, the BvC hack fixed the map on revisions in the 4000 range, maybe that has changed since. But when I use DX9, I have no map, so I have to use DX11 for a map, which results in this issue



Observe the line on the right side of the map, which oddly enough, appeared after I tinkered with the settings last week when I couldn't pass the Goron howling stone. This line appeared after I reverted back to my old settings

Hi LordVador and NaturalViolence

So last night I tried 'DSP LLE on Thread' and it did improve the audio slightly. There was still the stuttering (kind of like rapidly cupping and uncupping your ears during rain season' but audio was better on the whole.

Quote:I would also recommend you change the audio backend to Xaudio2. It tends to produce less problems.

That will be my next test tonight. I haven't used Xaudio2 yet (being unaware of what it actually is) and if it eliminates the audio problems more then great!

Quote:Try turning virtual efb copy on and ram copy off.

Will try that too. I have some amount of technical knowledge but could you describe to me what those two features do?

BTW Xenoblade rocks. I think I'll start posting in the other thread also...

Thanks again guys (or gals)

CG

Quote:But when I use DX9, I have no map

Then you're doing something wrong. The map should work fine in every revision from 5000 to 3.0.

Quote:For some odd reason, the BvC hack fixed the map on revisions in the 4000 range

People don't use revisions that old anymore, and for good reason.

Quote:That will be my next test tonight. I haven't used Xaudio2 yet (being unaware of what it actually is) and if it eliminates the audio problems more then great!

It won't eliminate all of them, in fact it may not eliminate any. But it is generally considered better due to its lower latency. The reason it is not the default backend for audio is because it is only available on windows vista/7. Windows xp users must use the older directsound backend.

Quote:Will try that too. I have some amount of technical knowledge but could you describe to me what those two features do?

Oh jeez it's kind of a long story since you have to understand the basics of the GC/Wii architecture first. I'll try and summarize as best as I can.

The GC flipper GPU and wii hollywood GPU (essentially the same chip just with a die shrink and clocked slightly higher) have 2 pieces of memory that are actually embedded into the chip itself rather than on external memory modules. A 2MB edram buffer for holding the framebuffers, called the efb (embedded frame buffer). And a 1MB edram buffer for holding a texture, called the etb (embedded texture buffer). The GPU has only one render target, the efb. So when the GPU on the GC/Wii renders a frame it writes the output by filling the efb with pixels.

Obviously dolphin has to emulate the embedded frame buffer otherwise GC/Wii games wouldn't be able to render frames (since it's the only render target in the GC/Wii). This is emulated regardless of whether efb copy is enabled or disabled. But the GC/Wii also stores a copy of the efb contents in main memory, the developers of dolphin refer to this as the "efb copy". The main memory in the GC/Wii is MoSys 1T-sram which is VERY FAST compared to typical dram.

If the efb copy setting is disabled in dolphin then dolphin does not emulate the efb copy. If a game does not use the efb copy for anything than this will have no affect on the game. This is the fastest option since you are not emulating the efb copy at all. However most games use the efb copy so most games need some sort of efb copy emulation to work properly.

If the efb copy setting is virtual in dolphin then dolphin emulates the efb copy by storing a texture in video ram with a copy of the efb contents. In a PC the video ram can only be accessed by the GPU, the cpu can not access the contents of the video ram. Video ram is much faster than main memory. This allows us to emulate the efb copy in a very fast way on most systems. Shaders are used by dolphin to have the GPU modify the contents of the efb copy. Most GC/Wii games only use the GPU to modify the contents of the efb copy so this option is fine for most games. However some GC/Wii games sometimes use the cpu to modify the contents of the efb copy (for example to produce the spinning coins affect in new super mario brothers the game engine uses the cpu to modify the efb copy). Since on a PC the cpu can not access video ram the virtual setting will not be able to emulate anything that relies on the cpu modifying the efb copy.

If the efb copy setting is ram in dolphin then dolphin emulates the efb copy by storing a copy of the efb contents in main memory encoded the same way it is on the real hardware. This is much slower than virtual since main memory is much slower than video ram. But it allows both the cpu and gpu to access the efb copy so any game should be able to properly use the efb copy to emulate any affect that they use it for. The other problem with this is that the efb copy must be the exact same size that it is in the real hardware (640 x 528) in order for this to work. So you can kiss your high definition image quality good bye. This is the most accurate way to emulate the efb copy.

If both the ram and virtual settings are enabled then dolphin will store two efb copies. One as a texture in video memory and one encoded the same way as the real hardware in main memory. Dolphin will check the ram copy for changes at regular intervals and as long as the cpu does not modify the ram copy dolphin will keep using the faster and possibly high resolution texture copy. If the game does use the cpu to make changes to the ram copy than dolphin will need to update the texture copy with the changes made to the ram copy. This method is faster than ram only and allows for high resolution efb copies while offering the same accuracy as ram only. However this method is slower than virtual only and might corrupt the texture copy if safe texture cache (error checking) is not used at the appropriate level.