• 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

P

Polyphony

Member
Hey guys, sorry if this has been asked before, but I couldn't find any info in the OP or in the few previous pages that I've read.

I'm trying to use my Twilight Princess Wii save file on Dolphin. I copied the save to an SD card following normal procedures, and used the Dolphin Wii Save Import tool to transfer the .bin file. But when I start the game on Dolphin, I am faced with a new game.

Also, I'm running r7723 on OSX 10.7.2. Any clues?
 
C

Chairhome

Member
Cool, so I transferred my save from the wii and played some, but it doesn't seem to run as well as the demo did. I used felipepl and thoraxes' settings, on r7719 (does 7719m make any difference?) and it seems to run worse than the demo. With the demo, I was actually running it to fast and had to use the frame limiter, but not anymore... I guess that's to be expected since this is the full game? I get 30fps in most dungeons and indoor locations, but skyloft gives me about 20fps. Also, I'm still getting that occasional stutter (game freezes for a second, then I hear a double sound effect before it comes back) from time to time (usually happens when I attack, but not all the time). Anyone else have this problem?

I'm pushing my phenom II x4 to 3.4 right now, might try to push it to 3.5 to see if I can still run it stable.
 
A

Anth0ny

Member
plagiarize said:
so get with the program and hook your PC up to your HDTV :)

all it takes is a long HDMI cable.

my old SXRD set did a great job with Wii games. my current Sony, not so much. wish my SXRD hadn't died, but what are you going to do?
Click to expand...

I was thinking of doing this when I eventually get a strong enough PC. But... isn't there button lag? Or in Skyward Sword's case, motion lag? Video isn't choppy?

If not, a new graphics card just went straight to the top of my christmas list. 1080p Wind Waker running perfectly on my 50"? OH GOD YES
 
S

Seik

Banned
Anth0ny said:
I was thinking of doing this when I eventually get a strong enough PC. But... isn't there button lag? Or in Skyward Sword's case, motion lag? Video isn't choppy?

If not, a new graphics card just went straight to the top of my christmas list. 1080p Wind Waker running perfectly on my 50"? OH GOD YES
Click to expand...

Dude, it's like the game was made to run on Dolphin! XD
 
M

Mistle

Member
thatbox said:
It looks like hot garbage on my Panasonic plasma. I had to switch it to my 21" CRT monitor, where it's still a mess of jaggies and filters :(

Gonna give Dolphin a go tomorrow!
Click to expand...
What model have you got? D: Or, what settings?

Sure, 480p can't compete with 1080p, and Dolphin does do wonders, but "hot garbage" is not how I would describe the Wii on my Panasonic plasma at all... It actually looks quite amazing.

I'll probably go through my second playthrough on Dolphin.
 
U

Uchip

Banned
aaaaand my wiimote batteries died
does emulating drain the wiimotes batteries faster than normal? because thats what it seems like
 
M

Medalion

Banned
Uchip said:
aaaaand my wiimote batteries died
does emulating drain the wiimotes batteries faster than normal? because thats what it seems like
Click to expand...

The game in general makes use of the Wiimote a lot even on regular Wii, probably the side effect of motion plus
 
R

Red

Member
Maaaaaaan

Skyward Sword runs so well on Dolphin. And I haven't run into any DoF bugs with enabling 8xAA either! Super happy.

The only problem I've run into is occasional broken bloom, but it's much less intrusive than it was in Twilight Princess. So there's that at least. Here is an example (notice the halo around Zelda):



Thankfully, most of the time it looks more like this:

 
A

Acid Tongue

Member
I'm playing Zelda in Dolphin with the FPS locked at 30 and the emulation speed shifts between 98-100% but the game is stuttering too often which is making me wanting to switch back to playing it on the Wii. I've tried playing around with pretty much every setting in Dolphin but I can't get rid of it.

I see people saying they play this game flawlessly but why doesn't it work for me? I'm using 7719M. Any tips on how to get rid of the occasional stuttering or is this just how the game plays in Dolphin?
 
M

MisterAnderson

Member
Acid Tongue said:
I'm playing Zelda in Dolphin with the FPS locked at 30 and the emulation speed shifts between 98-100% but the game is stuttering too often which is making me wanting to switch back to playing it on the Wii. I've tried playing around with pretty much every setting in Dolphin but I can't get rid of it.

I see people saying they play this game flawlessly but why doesn't it work for me? I'm using 7719M. Any tips on how to get rid of the occasional stuttering or is this just how the game plays in Dolphin?
Click to expand...

Randomly when the game initially loads or just random areas, it might start stuttering for a few moments. I've noticed that entering a room/house/whatever usually clears it up if it doesn't clear itself up on it's own.. I'll take the occasional having to enter another area over the blurry mess that is Wii. I'm not sure if you and I are the only ones experiencing these random slowdowns (it's not too common for me) but aside from that, I'd say it runs flawless.
 
S

Seik

Banned
crisdecuba said:
Really? This question has likely been asked a bunch of times, but are you saying that it's possible to play through the whole game with no glitches?
Click to expand...

Can't say that now, but I'm at the third temple right now and I never ran into any crashes. Slowdowns are very rare next to nonexistent. I guess there will be no problem running the rest of the game. The biggest issue I ran into was a little bit of static in the sound effects but that is rare too. All in all, I don't regret doing my first game on Dolphin instead of the Wii at all. The experience is just so amazing in 1080p.
 
M

MisterAnderson

Member
Seik said:
Can't say that now, but I'm at the third temple right now and I never ran into any crashes. Slowdowns are very rare next to nonexistent. I guess there will be no problem running the rest of the game. The biggest issue I ran into was a little bit of static in the sound effects but that is rare too. All in all, I don't regret doing my first game on Dolphin instead of the Wii at all. The experience is just so amazing in 1080p.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Was worried glitches would ruin the experience but so far, no regrets.
 
P

plagiarize

Banned
crisdecuba said:
Really? This question has likely been asked a bunch of times, but are you saying that it's possible to play through the whole game with no glitches?
Click to expand...

the whole game? i have no idea. i've had no glitches so far, and i'm two dungeons in. i'm cataloging my saves, so if i DO hit a glitch i can just transfer them over to the Wii and play past the glitch on the real hardware.
 
U

Unai

Member
I'm not so much into emulators. Last time I tried Dolphin I had an i7 920 and a gtx275. Image quality was astonishing but framerate not so much.

Well, now I have a great PC. i7@2600 and gtx 580 sli. So, with this PC that can play that hell out of any PC game, I think I can run virtually any wii game at 720p without framerate drops, am I right?
 
R

Red

Member
Acid Tongue said:
I'm playing Zelda in Dolphin with the FPS locked at 30 and the emulation speed shifts between 98-100% but the game is stuttering too often which is making me wanting to switch back to playing it on the Wii. I've tried playing around with pretty much every setting in Dolphin but I can't get rid of it.

I see people saying they play this game flawlessly but why doesn't it work for me? I'm using 7719M. Any tips on how to get rid of the occasional stuttering or is this just how the game plays in Dolphin?
Click to expand...

If you are playing in D3D11, it will stutter occasionally when loading new textures. Once you've been through an area that stutters, it should stop.

You'll notice this most in the first five minutes of the game, then it should subside.

UnaiGamer, I have a 920 and outside of Mario Galaxy I've had no issues with any of my ripped games. You could've squeezed quite a lot out of your old PC. But yeah, the new one will be even better.
 
B

Bossniak

Member
Does SS go below 30 FPS for anyone else sometimes when talking/z targeting someone? I am running on a GTX 460 and core i5. My dolphin settings are the same ones posted in this thread. Besides that the game runs well.
 
C

Corky

Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference.
jediyoshi said:
If emulation compatibility is the tipping point for purchasing Skyward Sword, shame on you.
Click to expand...

I've already played 30 hours of SS at my mates place on wii, just wanted to know if I should finish it on wii or if it's worth it to start over again on dolphin.
 
P

plagiarize

Banned
akskiller said:
Does SS go below 30 FPS for anyone else sometimes when talking/z targeting someone? I am running on a GTX 460 and core i5. My dolphin settings are the same ones posted in this thread. Besides that the game runs well.
Click to expand...

Some areas drop me below thirty. 25 is the lowest I've seen. Skyloft at night was 25ish around the volcano 28ish. My CPU is getting on a bit, but that's more than acceptable. Nothing obvious when targeting or cutscening no. Just slightly slower performance in areas with some fancy effect all over.
 
P

plagiarize

Banned
Corky said:
I've already played 30 hours of SS at my mates place on wii, just wanted to know if I should finish it on wii or if it's worth it to start over again on dolphin.
Click to expand...

If he has a modded Wii you can transfer your save to Dolphin, otherwise probably best to finish it on the Wii.
 
R

Red

Member
akskiller said:
Does SS go below 30 FPS for anyone else sometimes when talking/z targeting someone? I am running on a GTX 460 and core i5. My dolphin settings are the same ones posted in this thread. Besides that the game runs well.
Click to expand...

The only dips I've seen after early loading is nighttime in Skyloft, where it will lose 2-3 frames when a lot of torches are on screen.
 
B

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
So how out of date is the OP in this thread if I want to setup Dolphin for Skyward Sword? I've never set up Dolphin and I fear any changes or updates I need to be aware of that the OP doesn't mention.

Also, is my Radeon 4890 card not enough? No DX11 support if that makes a difference.
 
R

Red

Member
Brandon F said:
So how out of date is the OP in this thread if I want to setup Dolphin for Skyward Sword? I've never set up Dolphin and I fear any changes or updates I need to be aware of that the OP doesn't mention.

Also, is my Radeon 4890 card not enough? No DX11 support if that makes a difference.
Click to expand...

Download revision 7719M, and use the settings Thoraxes or felipepl have posted in this thread.

The OP is generally not out of date, but this is the specific set up that currently seems optimal for SS.

Also, some people have reported issues with the DoF breaking when AA is enabled (you'll notice felipepl has it turned off in his config). I personally have had 0 problems so far using it, and it helps with the visuals a noticeable amount. Try it out if you like, see if it works for you.

Your gpu is more than enough. Your cpu will be what limits you.
 
T

thatbox

Banned
Mistle said:
What model have you got? D: Or, what settings?

Sure, 480p can't compete with 1080p, and Dolphin does do wonders, but "hot garbage" is not how I would describe the Wii on my Panasonic plasma at all... It actually looks quite amazing.

I'll probably go through my second playthrough on Dolphin.
Click to expand...
I was playing on a 55" G20, and it looked like that picture further up on this page. I know it's not the television, since I'm now playing on my go-to workhorse: an old but gorgeous P1110 CRT monitor. They just seem to have done nothing to mitigate aliasing on Link and other foreground polygons (except for sometimes during cutscenes), and it's very noticeable. The Galaxies (and Twilight Princess if my memory serves me) seemed to have much better IQ, too, with none of this odd banding and weird screen door stuff. Then again, I'm using a launch Wii, so maybe that's it for some reason.
 
B

big_z

Member
anyone know if an e8400 + 9800gtx is going to be enough to play skyward at full game speed? not looking to play it at 1080p or anything but maybe 1024x768 with some AA/AF.
dont want to waste $5 on a wireless bar if it wont run well.

the game looks awful on a hdtv but the dolphin pics get me creamy.
 
R

Red

Member
Skyward Sword is exactly what Zelda needed after Twilight Princess.









Dungeon entrances and world layout remind me so much of the original NES game and aLttP. SS reminds me of those two titles more than any other. It's like how Super Mario 3D Land is the 3D successor to the 2D Mario platformers. Skyward Sword is what 3D Zelda is when OoT is removed.
 
S

Schlomo

Member
When I first tried out Zelda in Dolphin yesterday, I noticed these strange squares at the top of the screen. There are also some black lines flashing irregularly in certain walls or floors, which don't show up in screenshots.

soup01-99form.png


When I started the game today, everything looked fine and I could play for about one hour. Then all of a sudden, the artefacts made their return. A restart made them go away, but they appeared again after a few minutes. Now I can't get rid of them at all. Even when I restart, they are there right from the beginning.

I didn't change settings or anything during that time. Always used r7719 and felipepl's settings. Did somebody else notice this issue on their PC? Since I'm using the same settings as everyone else, is my GPU dying or something?

My PC: i5 750, HD6950, Win7 64
 
C

crisdecuba

Member
My wii is telling me that I need to do a system update in order to play skyward sword.

Does anyone know if this will break my homebrew channel and whether it's possible to then reinstall the homebrew channel again after the update so I can rip the game later?

Or should I rip the game now before doing the system update?
 
M

Medalion

Banned
crisdecuba said:
My wii is telling me that I need to do a system update in order to play skyward sword.

Does anyone know if this will break my homebrew channel and whether it's possible to then reinstall the homebrew channel again after the update so I can rip the game later?

Or should I rip the game now before doing the system update?
Click to expand...

Zelda SS never told me to update firmware, and I've never heard anybody else said it did either... it must mean your firmware is very very out of date then
 
S

StopMakingSense

Member
Schlomo said:
When I first tried out Zelda in Dolphin yesterday, I noticed these strange squares at the top of the screen. There are also some black lines flashing irregularly in certain walls or floors, which don't show up in screenshots.

soup01-99form.png


When I started the game today, everything looked fine and I could play for about one hour. Then all of a sudden, the artefacts made their return. A restart made them go away, but they appeared again after a few minutes. Now I can't get rid of them at all. Even when I restart, they are there right from the beginning.

I didn't change settings or anything during that time. Always used r7719 and felipepl's settings. Did somebody else notice this issue on their PC? Since I'm using the same settings as everyone else, is my GPU dying or something?

My PC: i5 750, HD6950, Win7 64
Click to expand...

That appeared for me when I had AA on. Try turning it off?
 
H

hlhbk

Member
I am considering purchasing the pc sensor bar so I can use my wiimote on my pc. That being said I want to make sure I can run Dolphin at its best. With the specs below what kind of performance can I expect? I would like to use 1920x1200 res and go as high as a I can on the settings with good performance.

Intel Core I7 950 3.0 GHZ
ATI Radeon 5850
OCZ 4 GB PC 1600 RAM
 
C

crisdecuba

Member
Medalion said:
Zelda SS never told me to update firmware, and I've never heard anybody else said it did either... it must mean your firmware is very very out of date then
Click to expand...

I see. So is it possible to install the homebrew channel after updating to the most recent firmware? Or is that not possible?
 
T

thatbox

Banned
Took some real-life screenshots of the game running on a CRT monitor in 480p to show what a huge difference Dolphin makes. Compare these to all the stuff you've seen in here - and using a CRT like this is pretty much giving the Wii the best chance possible. The monitor is a Dell P1110 (a 21" rebranded Sony) and the component to VGA transcoder is a VD-Z3. I used a K-M Maxxum 5D DSLR with a 50mm f/1.7 on a tripod to take the photos, and just cropped in Lightroom after pulling down some whites in a couple shots.







And Link at full size:
bFgnP.jpg
 
T

Tendo

Member
Will my wiimote with built in motion plus work on Dolphin? Last I heard it didn't work and it required a standard controller with the dongle form of motion plus. They correct that yet? Skyward Sword is painful to look at on my HD set :( Your shots make it look so good... Just wondering before I order a bluetooth adapter.
 
T

thatbox

Banned
Tendo said:
Will my wiimote with built in motion plus work on Dolphin? Last I heard it didn't work and it required a standard controller with the dongle form of motion plus. They correct that yet? Skyward Sword is painful to look at on my HD set :( Your shots make it look so good... Just wondering before I order a bluetooth adapter.
Click to expand...
Works just fine in Dolphin now.
 
A

Anony

Member
thatbox said:
Took some real-life screenshots of the game running on a CRT monitor in 480p to show what a huge difference Dolphin makes. Compare these to all the stuff you've seen in here - and using a CRT like this is pretty much giving the Wii the best chance possible. The monitor is a Dell P1110 (a 21" rebranded Sony) and the component to VGA transcoder is a VD-Z3. I used a K-M Maxxum 5D DSLR with a 50mm f/1.7 on a tripod to take the photos, and just cropped in Lightroom after pulling down some whites in a couple shots.







And Link at full size:
bFgnP.jpg
Click to expand...

these look really good
honestly, i would not regret playing this if i had to play it on my wii
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

What makes good motion controls in games?
Opinion Analysis
35
2K
Trilobit replied
Police 911; motion controls on PS2 long before Wii on a Konami hidden gem...and other interesting firsts and deep cut games from common devs
20
2K
00Magnum Gaming replied
Gaming company with over 40 years in the industry send DMCA notice to Steam [RANT]
Opinion News Drama
33
3K
Silver Wattle replied
Nocturnal Vapor Special Edition Xbox Wireless Controller to Release on April 9
Hardware Platform
28
1K
King Dazzar replied
Game Hubs Now Available for all PC Players
12
688
Little Chicken replied
Top Bottom