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[PGamer]

Does anyone here have an experience of using Dolpin on a Mac and getting custom textures working? I've been unable to use custom textures in both Paper Mario and Wind Waker (though Wind Waker barely works on my machine regardless). Paper Mario it acts like it wants to load, especially on start up because the screen will flash what appears to be the new textures, and then it shows the original textures. Folder is named correctly and in the right place, and the option is selected in the menu. Unsure really what else to do.

Are you using a recent development build? The custom texture format was changed since 4.0.

 

[omgkitty]

Are you using a recent development build? The custom texture format was changed since 4.0.

Yeah I'm using the most recent build as of a few hours ago, but the file I downloaded for the textures were updated late last month. The files are in a .dds format.

 

[GametimeUK]

I only managed to join Gaf recently. I got my PC last year. I just want to thank everyone for making such a great thread whilst I was lurking. Dolphin is my favourite thing ever. I have just got a Gamecube Controller Adapter. Is it easy enough to configure?

 

[etking]

Since they changed the audio engine a while ago, many games that were running perfectly with asynchronous audio before, now have audio issues like micro stuttering and crackling even on the fastest hardware. If you are an audiophile, the sound in Dolphin is basically broken since then because even the shortest frame rate dip causes audio problems. Someone should bring asynchronous audio back. The developers claim that it can break things but most games were running much better before the change.

 

[moniker]

Since they changed the audio engine a while ago, many games that were running perfectly with asynchronous audio before, now have audio issues like micro stuttering and crackling even on the fastest hardware. If you are an audiophile, the sound in Dolphin is basically broken since then because even the shortest frame rate dip causes audio problems. Someone should bring asynchronous audio back. The developers claim that it can break things but most games were running much better before the change.

Not sure if this is helpful, but have you tried playing with the audio latency that was introduced in 4.0-8327?

This build gives users a (for now hidden) setting that they can adjust. Users preferring smoother audio during slowdown can adjust TimingVariance in the Dolphin.ini upward, where as users desiring lower latency audio can adjust it downward. For users already running full speed in 60 FPS games, there is no performance penalty in lowering TimingVariance to 17 and shaving off nearly 2 frames of latency over the old defaults. People with faster computers can go even lower; sometimes knocking audio latency to console levels!

EDIT: Also, make sure you're running HLE audio and try the different audio backends.

 

[TSM]

DX12 is now going to be a part of Dolphin 5.0 as an 'experimental' option. They decided since it's not part of 4.0 that it can't possibly be a regression and thus was acceptable to be included.

 

[Siphorus]

Downloaded the latest Ishiiruka Dolphin build (524), so far no crashes in F-Zero GX with DirectX 12, running at 4k with 8x MSAA on my 6700k/970 at a super smooth 60. Seems like most of the stuttering at the start of races is gone, however it occasionally does random drops to 58fps at the end of races. I think this is due to me using the Tessellation and Texture Scaling features (I have the tessellation sliders maxed out).

 

[PGamer]

I only managed to join Gaf recently. I got my PC last year. I just want to thank everyone for making such a great thread whilst I was lurking. Dolphin is my favourite thing ever. I have just got a Gamecube Controller Adapter. Is it easy enough to configure?

If you are using a Wii U adapter follow this guide to set it up.

Since they changed the audio engine a while ago, many games that were running perfectly with asynchronous audio before, now have audio issues like micro stuttering and crackling even on the fastest hardware. If you are an audiophile, the sound in Dolphin is basically broken since then because even the shortest frame rate dip causes audio problems. Someone should bring asynchronous audio back. The developers claim that it can break things but most games were running much better before the change.

If you get bad audio now that means the games weren't running perfectly before, it's just that you weren't noticing the issues. The developers are not going to change this back. If you want asynchronous audio go use an old build.

 

[Grief.exe]

Downloaded the latest Ishiiruka Dolphin build (524), so far no crashes in F-Zero GX with DirectX 12, running at 4k with 8x MSAA on my 6700k/970 at a super smooth 60. Seems like most of the stuttering at the start of races is gone, however it occasionally does random drops to 58fps at the end of races. I think this is due to me using the Tessellation and Texture Scaling features (I have the tessellation sliders maxed out).

I saw they were frequently recommending that build in the Rogue Squadron Dolphin thread.

 

[GametimeUK]

If you are using a Wii U adapter follow this guide to set it up.

Awesome! Many thanks.

 

[SunBroDave]

Been searching around for a fix but no luck, maybe someone here can help -

Is there some setting that needs to be configured properly to prevent the following issues from occurring in both Super Mario Galaxy games?
- Slowdown every few seconds
- Audio stuttering

Issues happen regardless of internal resolution. Playing on a 980ti/4670k system with 16gb of ram

 

[lostsupper]

Been searching around for a fix but no luck, maybe someone here can help -

Is there some setting that needs to be configured properly to prevent the following issues from occurring in both Super Mario Galaxy games?
- Slowdown every few seconds
- Audio stuttering

Issues happen regardless of internal resolution. Playing on a 980ti/4670k system with 16gb of ram

Settings? Is your CPU overclocked?

 

[Barrow Roll]

So Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes seems to drop frames pretty frequently, but still running at full speed since I'm not getting any audio stuttering. I've never actually played this for more than 10 minutes on my GCN/Wii, is that just how the framerate is? Can anything be done about it? Unlocking the framerate shows that I'm obliterating it, so it certainly isn't my PC not being good enough.

 

[NeoBob688]

Been searching around for a fix but no luck, maybe someone here can help -

Is there some setting that needs to be configured properly to prevent the following issues from occurring in both Super Mario Galaxy games?
- Slowdown every few seconds
- Audio stuttering

Issues happen regardless of internal resolution. Playing on a 980ti/4670k system with 16gb of ram

That is odd. I played this game recently and it worked fine.
My specs: i-7 6700k @ 4.5 GhZ, Geforce 770

The audio stuttering is likely due to shader compilation and should resolve itself the more you play the game.

The slowdown every few seconds I am not sure. I played this game with the OpenGl backend and later the DirectX 12 backend; the latter worked better. Maybe try switching between backends. Try disabling v-sync to see if the problem goes away. Also, if you turn off the frame limiter and turn off v-sync what is your in-game FPS? I am trying to see if you are well above the 60 FPS you need or not.

 

[Easy_D]

I get a locked 60 minus some minor dips when it loads in Galaxy 2. It's at its worst during the intro, the skips when launching from stars is very minor.

And that's on an FX6300 with a teeny OC to 3.8ghz and a 280x. Oddly enough the game giving me the most trouble is Twilight Princess :lol

Edit: On that note, I get some noticable framestutter, could be frame latency related I guess? Emulation is running at 100% and shows 60 FPS and VPS as well, sometimes it feels smooth as butter and sometimes it just feels off.

Edit #2:

AMD: Due to very low IPC, AMD CPUs are poor choices for Dolphin. The FX8000 line of processors is the best they have, and even then most of those processors will be around half the speed of the 4670K’s performance with Dolphin.

Lol. My 6300 is apparently magical given that all the games I've thrown at it run at full speed. Apart from the Prime games due to how the shader cache is handled, but I think the Ishikura build works around that issue?

 

[Simon_K]

Does anyone know why my wii remote is not visible in dolphin?

- I got the mayflash Dolphin Bar and original Wiiremote Plus with nunchuck.
- I updated the bar firmware
- I reconnected the bar to the PC, pressed sync on both wii remote an bar and I can see the connection is set up (bar and wiimote both show solid color, no flashing).

When I open dolphin, the controller is not seen in the controller settings. I tried refreshing, switching to different types etc, nothing helps.

 

[shockdude]

So Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes seems to drop frames pretty frequently, but still running at full speed since I'm not getting any audio stuttering. I've never actually played this for more than 10 minutes on my GCN/Wii, is that just how the framerate is? Can anything be done about it? Unlocking the framerate shows that I'm obliterating it, so it certainly isn't my PC not being good enough.

Try overclocking the gamecube CPU. The setting is in the Advanced tab of the Config menu.

 

[Barrow Roll]

Try overclocking the gamecube CPU. The setting is in the Advanced tab of the Config menu.

I'll give that a shot, but I suppose the inconsistent performance is normal for Twin Snakes then?

 

[ss_lemonade]

I'll give that a shot, but I suppose the inconsistent performance is normal for Twin Snakes then?

It's been so long since I last played the game but I do remember it dropping frames a lot unlike MGS 2

 

[Daedardus]

So Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes seems to drop frames pretty frequently, but still running at full speed since I'm not getting any audio stuttering. I've never actually played this for more than 10 minutes on my GCN/Wii, is that just how the framerate is? Can anything be done about it? Unlocking the framerate shows that I'm obliterating it, so it certainly isn't my PC not being good enough.

You're using the latest development version and not the 'stable' 4.0, right? Seems like other people don't really have the stuttering, but on the original Gamecube it did suffer from some minor frame drops.

 

[Haroon]

So Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes seems to drop frames pretty frequently, but still running at full speed since I'm not getting any audio stuttering. I've never actually played this for more than 10 minutes on my GCN/Wii, is that just how the framerate is? Can anything be done about it? Unlocking the framerate shows that I'm obliterating it, so it certainly isn't my PC not being good enough.

I played through the entire game last week. It ran very smoothly for me. I had the CPU Clock Override at 200% while playing through it on Dolphin 4.0-8506.

 

[Barrow Roll]

You're using the latest development version and not the 'stable' 4.0, right? Seems like other people don't really have the stuttering, but on the original Gamecube it did suffer from some minor frame drops.

I am. I found the culprit, 4x SSAA. Under normal conditions the game would run just fine with 4x SSAA, but when certain effects are on screen the framerate would dip, such as smoke from the gun in first person view. The audio doesn't stutter when the frames drop so I wasn't sure if it was just the game's normal performance or not.

 

[Barrow Roll]

Anyone else having an issue in recent builds where the "Esc" key no longer stops emulation?

 

[Daedardus]

Anyone else having an issue in recent builds where the "Esc" key no longer stops emulation?

Did you check your keybindings? Sometimes the emulation didn't stop for me too, but pausing and going windowed allowed me to stop the emulation. The window for "do you want to stop emulating" just didn't pop up while it was there o, the background for me. Are you using W10?

 

[samn]

I get a locked 60 minus some minor dips when it loads in Galaxy 2. It's at its worst during the intro, the skips when launching from stars is very minor.

And that's on an FX6300 with a teeny OC to 3.8ghz and a 280x. Oddly enough the game giving me the most trouble is Twilight Princess :lol

Edit: On that note, I get some noticable framestutter, could be frame latency related I guess? Emulation is running at 100% and shows 60 FPS and VPS as well, sometimes it feels smooth as butter and sometimes it just feels off.

Edit #2: Lol. My 6300 is apparently magical given that all the games I've thrown at it run at full speed. Apart from the Prime games due to how the shader cache is handled, but I think the Ishikura build works around that issue?

The stutters are common and frequent with Dolphin, they happen every time you encounter a new shader to be compiled. The game should store the shader in cache so that it doesn't need to recompile it next time, though this would have to be done again if you loaded a significantly different version of Dolphin.

 

[mjontrix]

The stutters are common and frequent with Dolphin, they happen every time you encounter a new shader to be compiled. The game should store the shader in cache so that it doesn't need to recompile it next time, though this would have to be done again if you loaded a significantly different version of Dolphin.

When UberShaders are done that should be fixed.

 

[Lettuce]

How does one stop the micro stuttering in F-Zero GX and Rouge Leader II??. With F-Zero, it seems to stutter for a breift second when you select your track, character and the start of every race and Rouge Leader II seems to do i in cut scenes and then going back to the game, any other time im getting 60fps. Any ideas?

 

[Barrow Roll]

Did you check your keybindings? Sometimes the emulation didn't stop for me too, but pausing and going windowed allowed me to stop the emulation. The window for "do you want to stop emulating" just didn't pop up while it was there o, the background for me. Are you using W10?

I've checked it, and Stop Emulation is bound to "ESCAPE" but the key does nothing. I'm on W7. Alt+F4 does the trick so I'm just using that instead.

 

[Daedardus]

I've checked it, and Stop Emulation is bound to "ESCAPE" but the key does nothing. I'm on W7. Alt+F4 does the trick so I'm just using that instead.

Try using Alt + Enter to exit fullscreen and see if the window has popped up. Then it's more an issue of window handling than Dolphin not finding the quit function.

 

[PGamer]

New Dolphin videos: Dolphin Plays - Showtime Championship Boxing and Speed Racer (Wii) - A Motion Controlled F-Zero.

 

[Lettuce]

Have tried using Ishiiruka's build of Dolphin and using DX12 mode and even at 720p im getting stuttering in F-Zero GX...very annoying

 

[Easy_D]

The stutters are common and frequent with Dolphin, they happen every time you encounter a new shader to be compiled. The game should store the shader in cache so that it doesn't need to recompile it next time, though this would have to be done again if you loaded a significantly different version of Dolphin.

Actually, it's less stutter and more frame-pacing, it feels uneven, not stuttery.

 

[shockdude]

Have tried using Ishiiruka's build of Dolphin and using DX12 mode and even at 720p im getting stuttering in F-Zero GX...very annoying

Did you enable Async Shader Compilation? It might be a DX11 only option.

Actually, it's less stutter and more frame-pacing, it feels uneven, not stuttery.

Ah I know what you're talking about. You gotta enable Dolphin's VSync or else frame pacing will be funky, regardless of your fullscreen setting.
If input lag is an issue, use an external framelimiter like Rivatuner.

 

[Easy_D]

Did you enable Async Shader Compilation? It might be a DX11 only option.

Ah I know what you're talking about. You gotta enable Dolphin's VSync or else frame pacing will be funky, regardless of your fullscreen setting.
If input lag is an issue, use an external framelimiter like Rivatuner.

Ah that may very well be it. The setting had been borked for me before, 60 FPS games ran in 30 despite vsync being off, turning it on gave me the proper framerate but I must have forgotten to disable it again. Thanks for the tip . Luckily there's no input lag whatsoever, other than frames being wonky the games control as well as they do on my Wii

 

[Barrow Roll]

Try using Alt + Enter to exit fullscreen and see if the window has popped up. Then it's more an issue of window handling than Dolphin not finding the quit function.

I'll try it out. I am using Borderless Fullscreen if that makes a difference.

 

[Easy_D]

Okay this is weird. I've made zero changes to my settings and now Mario Galaxy 2 runs at 40 FPS :lol. Dolphin hates my guts.

Edit: All of my woes have been resolved. It went to 41 FPS beecause Vsync was magically on again. Turns out the folder was write protected too. Got a later version as well.

Edit #2: I also didn't enable PAL 60 mode. I feel so smart for not thinking about the fact that all my Wii games are PAL except for NMH1 and 2. The internal framerate was 50 but the output was 60, somehow. And apparently loading savestates fucks with things at times so I'll just use the actual game save from now on. Extremely silly that the emulator can't just figure out if it's a PAL copy or not and just enable the correct display mode.

 

[Brofield]

So, I'm rather new trying to get Dolphin running, and right now all I want is to make Melee run well. As it stands, my laptop can run Melee at 60FPS with no problems. However, it seems that there are hang ups when I want to activate cheats to have all characters and stages, all 293 trophies and the custom Widescreen Hack from the Dolphin wiki. Slows down to 40 fps (but feels like the video animation is at half speed), and if I press any buttons on my keyboard the whole program crashes.

I'm running Dolphin 4.0.1, and I only learned recently it's a very outdated version, so I'm going to get the new one when I get home in an hour. I haven't fiddled with any settings at all. As far as I know the specs on my laptop are beastly, but I just don't know what's causing the crash, or if I just have the wrong option enabled

 

[Datschge]

I'm running Dolphin 4.0.1, and I only learned recently it's a very outdated version

Right, it's so absolutely outdated that you needn't bother writing about any of the issues you have with it.

 

[Brofield]

Right, it's so absolutely outdated that you needn't bother writing about any of the issues you have with it.

So, I just did update to 4.0.2, but if I press any key that interrupts the opening video with cheats enabled, Dolphin keeps crashing. I also tried some of the recent development versions, but they won't open because I'm missing some file titled 'MSCVP140.dll'.

I swear I didn't expect it to be this difficult getting it to run

 

[Novum_Veritas]

So, I just did update to 4.0.2, but if I press any key that interrupts the opening video with cheats enabled, Dolphin keeps crashing. I also tried some of the recent development versions, but they won't open because I'm missing some file titled 'MSCVP140.dll'.

I swear I didn't expect it to be this difficult getting it to run

This should help:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48145

And get the newest revisions from here:
https://dolphin-emu.org/download/?nocr=true

 

[Brofield]

This should help:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48145

And get the newest revisions from here:
https://dolphin-emu.org/download/?nocr=true

That microsoft link must have been the trick, because now Dolphin loads up like it should and runs Melee and even loads now with cheats enabled, but the Widescreen Hack doesn't work (unless I'm using it wrong?). This is the code I'm using (I have the 1.0 version of Melee). I just copy/paste it into the custom AR, right?

043412DC C3AD809C
043685F4 C02D809C
044D15BC 3FE38E39

 

[Novum_Veritas]

That microsoft link must have been the trick, because now Dolphin loads up like it should and runs Melee and even loads now with cheats enabled, but the Widescreen Hack doesn't work (unless I'm using it wrong?). This is the code I'm using (I have the 1.0 version of Melee). I just copy/paste it into the custom AR, right?

043412DC C3AD809C
043685F4 C02D809C
044D15BC 3FE38E39

It should be a normal AR code, I think you have to force 16:9 in the graphics option.

 

[Nere]

Hello guys I recently installed Dolphin and I am attempting to play Metroid prime trilogy on my new laptop and have some issues. The thing is I am experiencing some severe stuttering during graphic intense scenes. Let's use the metroid prime intro as an example, the scene where it shows the entire space station and the game just stutters all the time like it is skipping frames, FPS drops from 60 to 30 something.

I am playing on a laptop these are the specs:
i7-4720 2.6 ghz but it turbo boosts itself at 3.5ghz when needed so consider that is the speed
16gb ram
gtx 970m 3g

 

[Novum_Veritas]

Hello guys I recently installed Dolphin and I am attempting to play Metroid prime trilogy on my new laptop and have some issues. The thing is I am experiencing some severe stuttering during graphic intense scenes. Let's use the metroid prime intro as an example, the scene where it shows the entire space station and the game just stutters all the time like it is skipping frames, FPS drops from 60 to 30 something.

I am playing on a laptop these are the specs:
i7-4720 2.6 ghz but it turbo boosts itself at 3.5ghz when needed so consider that is the speed
16gb ram
gtx 970m 3g

The Metroid Prime trilogy is pretty demanding, do you use the Wii trilogy or the GC ones?

 

[Nere]

The Metroid Prime trilogy is pretty demanding, do you use the Wii trilogy or the GC ones?

The Wii Trilogy one. The GC ones are way lighter aren't they?

 

[Novum_Veritas]

The Wii Trilogy one.

I would recommending using this wiki from the Dolphin crew:

https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=Metroid_Prime:_Trilogy

And it is not your hardware, all 3 Wii games are demanding, stuttering is occurring because of the caching method.

Edit: Yeah, at least I've read so, one problem with the Wii trilogy is it is only playable with the Wii Remote, I for one prefer the GC controller.

This should be interesting, found the wiki entry:

Shader Compilation Stuttering

Metroid Prime (GC) is one of the most susceptible titles to shader compilation stuttering. The GC and Wii have no concept of shaders - everything is executed directly by the hardware without an intermediate programming language (API). Modern computers and mobile systems do not work in this way, requiring the use of shaders as an intermediary so your system's GPU can perform the tasks that the GC and Wii GPU performed directly. Shaders have to be generated though, and since GC/Wii games are not designed to create shaders ahead of time as a PC game would, when a new effect appears Dolphin has to delay the CPU thread while the GPU thread performs the compilation; a pause that does not exist on the consoles. For most games shader generation takes only a few milliseconds, but for a few demanding titles, the shaders that they generate are so large that they can result in noticeable stuttering, in severe cases pauses of over a second may occur.

Eventually stuttering will reduce as a shader cache is built up, but there is no solution to this problem at this time. Changing your GPU, updating your GPU drivers or updating Dolphin may invalidate the shader cache, requiring it to be rebuilt from scratch.

 

[Nere]

I would recommending using this wiki from the Dolphin crew:

https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=Metroid_Prime:_Trilogy

And it is not your hardware, all 3 Wii games are demanding, stuttering is occurring because of the caching method.

Edit: Yeah, at least I've read so, one problem with the Wii trilogy is it is only playable with the Wii Remote, I for one prefer the GC controller.

This should be interesting, found the wiki entry:

Shader Compilation Stuttering
Metroid Prime (GC) is one of the most susceptible titles to shader compilation stuttering. The GC and Wii have no concept of shaders - everything is executed directly by the hardware without an intermediate programming language (API). Modern computers and mobile systems do not work in this way, requiring the use of shaders as an intermediary so your system's GPU can perform the tasks that the GC and Wii GPU performed directly. Shaders have to be generated though, and since GC/Wii games are not designed to create shaders ahead of time as a PC game would, when a new effect appears Dolphin has to delay the CPU thread while the GPU thread performs the compilation; a pause that does not exist on the consoles. For most games shader generation takes only a few milliseconds, but for a few demanding titles, the shaders that they generate are so large that they can result in noticeable stuttering, in severe cases pauses of over a second may occur.

Eventually stuttering will reduce as a shader cache is built up, but there is no solution to this problem at this time. Changing your GPU, updating your GPU drivers or updating Dolphin may invalidate the shader cache, requiring it to be rebuilt from scratch.

Yeah but that is listed for Metroid prime GC version not the Trilogy, although i guess it might carry on the Trilogy. Also I was playing with a ps4 controller and it worked fine.

Edit: actually now that I think of it, it is probably this thing you linked because it doesn't lag like slowing down it stutters while having like 35-40 fps.

 

[Novum_Veritas]

Yeah but that is listed for Metroid prime GC version not the Trilogy, although i guess it might carry on the Trilogy. Also I was playing with a ps4 controller and it worked fine.

All 3 games use the same method, so it applies to all games, because they used the same engine.
Oh ok, didn't knew that is playable with the DS4 just well.
The FPS are going down because Dolphin is using the cache method, as you've read the GC/Wii doesn't depend on Caching like a PC does, hence the FPS drops.

 

[Nere]

All 3 games use the same method, so it applies to all games, because they used the same engine.
Oh ok, didn't knew that is playable with the DS4 just well. The FPS are going down because Dolphin is using the cache method, as you've read the GC/Wii doesn't depend on Caching like a PC does, hence the FPS drops.

Yeah downloaded this program http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-DS4-To-XInput-Wrapper and DS4 gets detected and plays perfectly.

So there is no solution for the stuttering other than wait for it to go away?

 

[Novum_Veritas]

Yeah downloaded this program http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-DS4-To-XInput-Wrapper and DS4 gets detected and plays perfectly.

So there is no solution for the stuttering other than wait for it to go away?

Unfortunately yes, I think the Dolphin dev. team has a hard time to eliminate the issue, because it is a console specific and pc specific problem.
You do not need a wrapper for Dolphin, it supports normal DInput and XInput devices .