Dolphin's developers are really not keen on that sort of thing. Neobrain in particular seems to detest hacks and workarounds. They always favor accuracy over performance, and any features like the kind of hacked speedups you mentioned that have been included are eventually removed.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Dolphin - Emulating Wii and Gamecube Games
- Thread starter Stallion Free
- Start date
Dolphin's developers are really not keen on that sort of thing. Neobrain in particular seems to detest hacks and workarounds. They always favor accuracy over performance, and any features like the kind of hacked speedups you mentioned that have been included are eventually removed.
Ah. For what it's worth, it seems the optimizations done in the recent months have made Rogue Leader playable with the regular DX plugin too, apart from massive slowdown when you destroy stuff. But maybe that's how it's supposed to run? Been ages since I played it on Gamecube
I think it does? It would be perfect for Mario Galaxy or Prime 3, just use the gyro for pointer aiming
https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-setting-up-the-steam-controller-and-what-you-need-to-know
Thread hasn't been updated in awhile, but it has some info. If you find a better thread anywhere let me know.
Sadly, not much info on using the gyro/pads to emulate pointer controls/gyro controls though.
EDIT: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=571637466
This thread was updated more recently and builds off the original topic. Still no instructions on emulating the gyro/pointer though.
Yes. I'm using the 6300 in Dolphin, why?
DonMigs85
Member
Just good to hear that Rogue Leader runs pretty well on it, despite the lower IPC.
That wouldn't be perfect at all. The functionality of gyro and IR controls are so different from each other that using one to emulate the other would be a complete nightmare. Gyro is great for camera movement, but for quickly moving a cursor back and forth all the way across a screen? Fuhgeddaboudit.
Eh? Depends on how good the gyroscope is, no? I mean you can use the mouse for IR controls just fine and you can use the Steam Controllers gyro controls as a replacement for mouse controls just fine
Yeah, shame it drops to 30 FPS whenever I destroy something big unless I run it in DX12
. It does Dolphin a lot better than my old E8500 did, that's for certain.Part of the reason I'm not looking forward to Starfox. The right trackpad would probably be a better IR solution.
Wowfunhappy
Member
Well, Skyward Sword uses Gyro for pointer controls. The success of this decision is highly debatable IMO, but it certainly didn't feel that bad.
My 21:9 monitor displays 16x9 games fine just adds black bars. I did have to set my monitor to display pixels as 1x1 though instead of stretching the image
So Ive tried using dolphin a couple times in the past with mixed results. Decided my pc wasn't strong enough or the emulator wasn't quite there yet. Fast forward to this week and I decide to give it another go, my god things have improved. Last time I ran this was about two years ago, this progress is insane. 60fps is easily attainable in most games. I can finally finish Lost Kingdoms 2!
F-Zero GX still has micro stuttering even with DX12 mode
That's because DX12 doesn't address the shader compilation delay. That will hopefully be mitigated when ubershaders are integrated at some point after 5.0 is released.
mikezilla2
Member
guess the biggest gains will be on WIN 10 in a few months time , still on 7 ...
Cannon Goose
Member
Same here, I just changed the renderer to DX12 and now everything crashes. I'm assuming it's because my other settings are not yet compatible with DX12.
Heya guys, I got a new PC recently and am a bit disappointed with the performance of Dolphin on it...granted it's not always bad, but games can be rather variable in frame rates, and can sometimes plummet entirely. I've tried toning the anti aliasing and what not down but to not much avail.
Here's the specs taken from dxdiag.
Should I be getting better than this? I've read a bit about Windows 10 having issues so is it likely to be that?
Big thanks in advance...this is all rather new to me <_<
Here's the specs taken from dxdiag.
Should I be getting better than this? I've read a bit about Windows 10 having issues so is it likely to be that?
Big thanks in advance...this is all rather new to me <_<
Firstly....you are using the newest nightly build and not the ass old 4.0 stable build, right?
CrunchyFrog
Member
What is your GPU? If you're running on integrated graphics then you're gonna have issues. Dolphin is largely CPU-dependent, yes, but you still need a halfway decent GPU.
3.3 GHz on your CPU? I didn't follow recent development too closely but Dolphin used to love high clockspeeds, the higher the better. That *might* be the issue.
lightchris
Member
Which games are you trying to run? Many games should run well on your PC, but some still are very demanding. Have you checked the Dolphin Wiki for them?
Also, try experimenting by selecting a different renderer (D3D12/11, OpenGL).
The i5 6600 boosts up to 3.9 GHz, should probably get close to that since Dolphin doesn't make full use of 4 cores. Also, any CPU bound application loves clock speed.
Diablohead
Member
On my old ass core2duo at 3.15Ghz and using the directX 12 back end I can actually play a bunch of games without much of an issue which is really impressive, prime is choppy in spots, f-zero doesn't run smooth at all but mario kart wii and auto modellista are 99% ok, its really impressive.
I never tried dolphin before now because I knew my pc was too old but DX12 really helps.
it's been ok for me so far, I can't think of anything I changed that may cause issues as I left a lot of stuff alone.
I never tried dolphin before now because I knew my pc was too old but DX12 really helps.
it's been ok for me so far, I can't think of anything I changed that may cause issues as I left a lot of stuff alone.
Thanks guys, I'll try boosting the clock speed later and see if that helps. I've tried games like Mario Galaxy, Wii Sports, Donkey Kong Country Returns and F-Zero GX, and have gotten frame rate drops on all of them, which in the case of something simple like W-Sports is rather worrying. Hopefully the better clock speed can help!
potatohead
Member
stan423321
Member
GX has a bunch of "weird" options for rendering polygons that are for some reason handled currently by compiling a separate shader for each set of options. This is fine for vast majority of games which stick to a bunch of "weird" option sets, but not for rest. Ubershaders make these shader options. But they're big, I guess?
The emulator has to translate the visuals the hardware is trying to create for a specific game into something your video card can render properly. Their solution to this is to have the video card driver create shaders that produce the proper result. The problem with the current approach is that creating these shaders can often take significantly longer than a single frame or even multiple frames of video. Dolphin will not render the next frame until the required shaders are generated and the current frame is ready to display. The end result of this is that whenever new shaders are generated the game gets anywhere from a little choppy to a becoming stuttering mess.
Currently there are only two ways to mitigate this:
1) Do not upgrade your video card or it's drivers. Also do not upgrade your version of Dolphin. Play though games multiple times and the games will get smoother as dolphin caches the shaders it needs. If you change anything about your video card or you move to a newer version of dolphin the shader cache is invalidated and starts over.
2) Try using the unofficial Ishiiruka branch of Dolphin. In that version the programmers have opted to just not display anything for which the shader hasn't finished generating. You essentially trade incorrect visuals for a smoother frame rate.
The Dolphin team refused to use asynchronous shader generation like Isiiruka because it produces incorrect visuals and because using hacks to gloss over problems makes it far less likely someone will fix the real problem.
Now ubershaders is a multithreaded solution intended to dramatically reduce the compilation time of shaders. Here's the pr if you want more in depth https://github.com/dolphin-emu/dolphin/pull/3163. Look at the charts in phire's Oct 13 update to see any example of early results with just pixel ubershaders in place. This is before he implemented vertex ubersahders which should have improved it even further.
lightchris
Member
Uh, since you don't have a 6600K, overclocking is not an option; and we didn't say you should (..and the CPU automatically clocks up to 3.9 GHz depending on how much it is stressed).
If none of these games run at fullspeed, then there's something else wrong imo. Your PC should be doing fine. Did you change any other settings in Dolphin? Try going back to default settings in that case.
Have you played through the areas with problems multiple times? Shader generation can cause problems like you are seeing, but playing through the same area multiple times should see the problems lessening. F-Zero specifically is notorious for being a stuttering mess due to shader compilation time.
Also you can try Ishiiruka and enable asynchronous shader compilation and see if it helps with your issues.
supermetfreud
Member
I was wondering if anyone could help me with a playable, nice looking config for SMG2? I had hoped my modest 940m could handle it at 720p.
Resolution isn't particularly relevant to Dolphin. The bottlenecks are going to be your processor type and what IR (internal resolution) you are running at. IR determines what resolution Dolphin is rendering at before it scales it to your output resolution. Start with 1x IR and move up from there if your computer is running it fine. Galaxy 2 needs a pretty decent processor to run at full speed, so that may actually be your bottleneck.
nkarafo
Member
I have the same GPU and a similar CPU (in terms of speed), a i5 4670 @ 3.4Ghz (3.8 boost).
I can play Mario Galaxy and F-Zero GX with no slowdowns on the Ishiiruka build, using 2x resolution.
The official build will always have some stutters due to the shader cache or something like that. Every time you see something new, it will stutter but after it's cached it won't anymore. The Ishiiruka build uses an option that bypasses these stutters at the cost of some momentary visual glitches that go away immediately (it's less annoying this way).
Also, try using lower internal resolution. Screen resolution can be as high as you want but the internal resolution shouldn't be more than 2x IMO or else you will get slowdowns, especially if you use the OpenGL backend. Also, try using HLE in the audio options.
About that... Do you know if Shattered Memories run better on older builds? Because a video from 2010 shows much better results that whatever i get with the newest build...
You can completely disregard that. Dolphin today uses synchronous audio and and much much more accurate. A 2010 version of Dolphin isn't in any way comparable to Dolphin today.
nkarafo
Member
I'm just talking about Shattered Memories specifically. I can't get the game run at a decent speed (using the flashlight makes it run like shit) and the snowflake particles don't exist at all, in either backend.
In the 2010 video, the speed looks much better and the snowflakes are rendered perfectly (shadows are a bit more glitchy though).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK4Rv2SAV44
supermetfreud
Member
You can overclock non-k skylake processors
oddly, some builds have introduced improvements in the vast majority of games yet unfortunately broken some more obscure ones. Maybe it's a case of that? I know I stick to an older build for Timesplitters 2 for this reason.
Graphics > Enhancements > Internal Resolution
Start with Native and work your way up from there. Make sure you don't have antialiasing turned on. After you confirm you can run the game at the new IR without problems you can then turn on some AA.
Your processor is 2.4ghz with a boost of 3.0. You will have problems with some of the "heavy" games. I'm not sure where Galaxy 2 falls there days, but it used to be considered one of the heavier games. I'd start with Native IR and if you are still having problems then your CPU is the bottleneck.
Also he doesn't mention what IR he is trying to run it at. Just because most games will run well at higher IRs doesn't mean every game will.
supermetfreud
Member
nkarafo
Member
Does the architecture make any difference though? Like does a fast, overclocked 2nd gen i5 (like 2500k) still has better performance than a haswell/skylake one, at stock speeds?
I tried native resolution with no AA or AF, or any other enchantments. Still runs terribly with the flashlight on and still doesn't render the snow particles in either backend.
DonMigs85
Member
Not anymore, thanks to Intel
Architecture makes a huge difference. The incremental changes Intel has been making with their chips have been perfectly suited to Dolphins needs and each generation of chips has been gaining 10%+ in Dolphin. Dolphin is one of the few programs where the 2500k/2600k have been aging poorly.
According to posts I see in the Dolphin forums the game appears to be broken at the moment. So it's not just you. I'd check and make sure the ISO you are using matches the known good CRCs though to rule out a bad rip which can cause problems.