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Dolphin - Emulating Wii and Gamecube Games

Ledsen

Member
Stallion Free said:
So you are okay with them poaching screens from forums for their articles?

Why is this even up for debate?

Er, of course not? Like I said, they're a professional publication, and they are fucking assholes for stealing your screenshot without contacting you. They make money off their site and anyone contributing work to it should be either paid or asked for permission. Posting a screenshot someone else took on a forum though, I don't see how that's a problem at all. I've made many posts on other forums where I've googled a random good-looking screenshot and put it in my post without crediting the site where I found it. At most, I'll say "I found these on some site/Google". Message board posts aren't journalistic articles or publications. You also have to take into account that a screenshot is just that, a frame from a game someone else made, they aren't art in and of themselves.
 
M3d10n said:
It is simple: DKC doesn't renders the characters directly to the screen. It renders them to off-screen buffers, which are displayed on the screen as sprites. They are, in fact, "real-time rendered sprites".

It's quite obvious because you can increase their resolution by fiddling with framebuffer settings in the emulator. There are no pre-rendered sprites.

Why this is done? The first thing that comes to mind is overlapping multiple characters in the same 2D plane: if they were rendered as normal 3D models, they would clip against each other. Using flat sprites the game can render characters fully in front/behind each other without clipping, like a 2D game would.

The second thing you already figured out: image quality. If the characters are rendered at a fixed resolution that stays the same even when the camera is zoomed out, they will look less aliased.

Thanks for the explanation. This would also explain why MSAA doesn't effect DK's character model.
 

jediyoshi

Member
Ledsen said:
they aren't art in and of themselves.

You're going to have to keep elaborating or this thread will be going south :lol

Posted for new page!

iEwba.jpg


iEn44.jpg


i9QQg.jpg
 

JADS

Member
title-epicmickeyht5s.jpg


Background
As Mickey, the player is propelled into Wasteland, an alternative world made up of Disney's forgotten creative efforts, and is given the
power to wield paint and paint thinner to dynamically change the world while determing Mickey's path to becoming an epic hero.
  • Region: PAL
  • Completion: 70%
  • Default FPS: 30
  • Average FPS: Depends on the scene
  • Resolution: 1080p
  • Widescreen: Yes
  • Dolphin Build: 6423, 64-bit

Issues
The game is playable but quite heavy CPU wise, don't expect to hold a full 30 FPS at all times. I have had a few random crashes during
my playthrough so far, but nothing major.
  • Sound sometimes cuts off or becomes scratchy. Fixable by entering the home menu.
  • Ingame FMV show some artifacts, no fix found.
  • Ingame text does not render correctly, set safe texture cache to safe.
  • Game crashes at boot while using JIT under 64bit systems. Either use JITIL, which is faster in Epic Mickey than JIT, or enable
    Progressive Scan under Config -> Display.

Settings

Config / Basic Settings
  • Enable Dual Core: Yes
  • Enable Idle Skipping: Yes
  • Framelimit: Auto
  • Use FPS For Limiting: No
Config / Advanced Settings
  • HLE the IPL: Yes
  • CPU Emulator Engine: JITIL
  • Lock Threads to Cores: No
  • DSPLLE on Thread: No
Config /Interface Settings
  • Confirm on Stop: No
  • Use Panic Handlers: No
Graphics / Direct3D
  • V-Sync: Yes
  • Widescreen Hack: No
  • Aspect Ratio: Automatic
  • Anti-Alias Mode: 4x SSAA
  • Enable CPU->EFB Access: No
  • Safe Texture Cache: Safe
Graphics / Enhancements
  • Force Bi/Trilinear: No
  • Enable 16x Anisotropy Filtering: Yes
  • Enable Hires Texture Loading: No
  • EFB Scaled Copy: Yes
Graphics / Advanced
  • Disable Fog: No
  • Enable EFB Copy: Yes
  • Enable XFB: Yes, Virtual
  • Use Native Mips: Yes
  • Overlay FPS Counter: No
  • Enable Hotkey: No
  • Enable Wireframe: No
DSP / Sound
  • Enable HLE Audio: Yes
  • Enable DTK Music: Yes
  • Enable Audio Throttle: No
  • Audio Backend: XAudio2

Screenshots





 

Stallion Free

Cock Encumbered
Yeah Sonic can wait, I got DKCR all set up with the current best config and dug in, more shots will be up later tonight and I am going to do a photo album. Retro is god-tier when it comes to graphics on the Wii. This makes me depressed that Metroid Prime etc, still have a lot of issues.

Dolphin%202010-11-23%2019-48-26-01.jpg
 

Big One

Banned
I must say, Epic Mickey has some beautiful textures that manage to be pretty clever in design. It's proof you don't really need cel-shading to look like a cartoon.
 
Stallion Free said:
Bro, are we allowed to submit our own guides for OP-certification? :)

Also, Question:

I have a separate Dolphin build just for playing Twilight Princess (5475M x64 "speed fix"), and one for Twin Snakes(5198 x64 "compatibility"), aside from my main build (5636 x64) for everything else. Nonetheless my performance in Hyrule Field in that game on that custom build is higher than my main build...I want to move booting/playing all my rips to one currently updated build of Dolphin to play some newer Wii rips in the future. I don't want to have to sacrifice my performance in Twilight princess or Twin Snakes or any game for that matter.

TL;DR:Do new builds have these individual-game performance fixes built in, are they cumulative and do they rollover/stack onto all new/current builds? Where can i find this information on current builds, the SVN builds repository site? Is it even logical/possible to run only one dolphin build to boot/play all my games?
 

Stallion Free

Cock Encumbered
Cuban Legend said:
Bro, are we allowed to submit our own guides for OP-certification? :)

Also, Question:

I have a separate Dolphin build just for playing Twilight Princess (5475M x64 "speed fix"), and one for Twin Snakes(5198 x64 "compatibility"), aside from my main build (5636 x64) for everything else. Nonetheless my performance in Hyrule Field in that game on that custom build is higher than my main build...I want to move booting/playing all my rips to one currently updated build of Dolphin to play some newer Wii rips in the future. I don't want to have to sacrifice my performance in Twilight princess or Twin Snakes or any game for that matter.

TL;DR:Do new builds have these individual-game performance fixes built in, are they cumulative and do they rollover/stack onto all new/current builds? Where can i find this information on current builds, the SVN builds repository site? Is it even logical/possible to run only one dolphin build to boot/play all my games?
First question: I explain it in that post I linked to, Jads has done most of the guides listed there haha.

Second question: Some fixes are carried over, other are lost in the changes made over time. It can be kind of frustrating. I don't think there is one Dolphin build that is ideal for all games.
 

JADS

Member
Cuban Legend said:
Bro, are we allowed to submit our own guides for OP-certification? :)

Also, Question:

I have a separate Dolphin build just for playing Twilight Princess (5475M x64 "speed fix"), and one for Twin Snakes(5198 x64 "compatibility"), aside from my main build (5636 x64) for everything else. Nonetheless my performance in Hyrule Field in that game on that custom build is higher than my main build...I want to move booting/playing all my rips to one currently updated build of Dolphin to play some newer Wii rips in the future. I don't want to have to sacrifice my performance in Twilight princess or Twin Snakes or any game for that matter.

There is no reason to use the special build for TP anymore :D

tphacknl10.png


Right Click on your ISO -> Properties
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
So between owning a Wii and new MacBook Pro and playing my Wii games on the emulator on my TV in glorious anti aliased 1080P, how much hassle and hacking is really involved?
 

Type_Raver

Member
Well ive upgraded from my E6600 @ 3.4Ghz and 2GB RAM to a QX9650 @4Ghz and 4GB RAM.

FZERO GX runs at 60fps most time but more importantly, the sound doesnt skip!

Looking at the DKCR shots, well, makes my want to leave the Wii off and play it via emulator. I havent tried it yet, but are there any issues and does the sound work properly and music play??
 

asa

Member
Chittagong said:
So between owning a Wii and new MacBook Pro and playing my Wii games on the emulator on my TV in glorious anti aliased 1080P, how much hassle and hacking is really involved?

Better yet, is there any reasonably priced and nice looking htpc's that could handle Wii emulation?
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Retro's art is just too good.
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
JADS said:


For more information click the logo or this topic should set you up pretty quickly thanks to GAF members Clipper and radioheadrule83. Depending on your computer knowledge it could either take a few minutes or a few hours.

hmm... that looks like Homebrewing my Wii... have done that with the USB/SD boot and it was super easy with the instructions, out of region games work like a charm.

But what I'm less sure about is Dolphin emulation. How do I get it running on my computer? Do I need Windows bootcamped or is Mac fine? How will my computer read Wii discs? Where do I plug the sensor bar into? etc.

Apologies if it's covered there, just couldn't find it..
 

JADS

Member
Chittagong said:
hmm... that looks like Homebrewing my Wii... have done that with the USB/SD boot and it was super easy with the instructions, out of region games work like a charm.

But what I'm less sure about is Dolphin emulation. How do I get it running on my computer? Do I need Windows bootcamped or is Mac fine?

Great, that's an important step. Windows 64bit is recommended since the directX plugins are better than the OpenGL plugin. It's possible to run Dolphin under OSX, however performance is a bit lacking. What are the specs of your Macbook?


Chittagong said:
How will my computer read Wii discs? Where do I plug the sensor bar into? etc.

Apologies if it's covered there, just couldn't find it..

Unless you have a specific DVD drive it's impossible to use your PC to read Wii discs. What you can do is use your Wii to dump the disc (Use something like the CFG USB loader or Superdump) to an external HD and use that to transfer the game to your PC. I bought a wireless sensor bar as a replacement for the Wii's, but anything that emits IR should be fine (Even candles). The sensorbar doesn't need to be connected to the PC, since it doesn't sent any data. A bluetooth adaptor is advisable though, since a few games require the Wiimote.
 

Blizzard

Banned
The Donkey Kong shots are good. It almost reminds me of the old SNES Donkey Kong manuals, except these graphics are about as good as (probably way better in reality) I remember the rendered stuff in the manual being. :p
 

jediyoshi

Member
Mojo said:
Anyone know if Dolphin supports Wii Remote Plus?

Technically yes, but last time I tried Wii Sports Resort, it got off calibration real quickly. Hardly ever see any commits towards it on their project page
 

suikodan

Member
JADS said:
There is no reason to use the special build for TP anymore :D

tphacknl10.png


Right Click on your ISO -> Properties

Where can I get that special build for TP? Is it a regular option in the Dolphin emulator now?

I have the game for Wii but I can't stand playing it on a regular screen. I tried several times to get it running on Dolphin but I was only getting 75% performance.

Any other tips that I should know? I think I'll give it a try later today after work.
 
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