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[Cuban Legend]

Some guides from this thread: here.

And the official Dolphin forums, if you have the patience to dig through them: here.

Thanks bro. I figured you'd say the dolphin forums. Ether way, I've been compiling a list of my backups and am going to so digging for their optimal configs/setups to boot/play. Then I've been compiling a list of the configs for those backups. Sort of like in this threads opening pages.

You know what I believe Dolphin builds need? A config saving/switching feature, or the ability to set a config and tie it to a backup so it will automatically switch to said config when the backup is loaded.

Good god, would that make playing different games on a build so much easier. Anyone know if this is in the works, or is even worth formally recommending for possible dev implementation?

 

[Stallion Free]

Last couple Kirby screens, I got a little lazy and stopped grabbing them for the last world. If people want, I will grab some and I will also upload a rar file with all Kirby pics.

 

[Kyleripman]

Stallion, I'd love to have the RAR of Kirby shots. It's probably the most beautiful game I've ever played, and your shots are awesome.

 

[Complex Shadow]

Last couple Kirby screens, I got a little lazy and stopped grabbing them for the last world. If people want, I will grab some and I will also upload a rar file with all Kirby pics.

those pics are really something, game looks jaw-dropping. i did have some playtime with kirby epic yarn but it didn’t look this good. wow. thanks for the pics.

 

[jediyoshi]

Wow, DKC looks great. I can't wait to see some shots of gameplay with the vibrant backgrounds.

Looks like there might be a problem. And this could obviously be an emulator problem but, when they actually give you control, this happens

DK is a literally prerendered animated sprite, circa 1994.

Skip to 1:30 to see the transition.

I'm a bit hopeful this isn't the case as is it looks like all models might have a prerendered version (and the emulator is just screwing up going between the two although I still haven't ran across a section where you're controlling a 3D DK yet). The enemies seem to very randomly pop in and out of it (though it's inconsistent and doesn't seem like an LOD thing to save resources).

 

[careful]

I'll be trying DKC out later today, after I can go pick it up.

And yeah to people asking about laptops running Dolphin...sadly the CPUs just aren't there yet. To get a proper Dolphin experience, it takes an i5/i7 overclocked to 4.0GHz. Of course, I'm running stuff with my Q8300 @ 3.0GHz, so it's not to say certain games can't run with lesser hardware.

Do you absolutely need a quad core? How do you think I would fare with an E8400 @ stock 3.0GHz paired with a GTX 260?

And wow @ Kirby. That's jaw-dropping beautiful.

 

[drizzle]

I always wondered what was the major difference between OpenGL and Direct X 11.

Everybody says DirectX 11 should be better and faster, but OpenGL has so much more options, and both seems the same regarding performance on my 8800 gtx...

Maybe I just have an old videocard?

 

[Red]

jediyoshi, that's a strange problem. Still, the game looks beautiful. It has an artstyle that lends itself really well to the tweaks Dolphin can implement.

 

[TheOGB]

DK is a literally prerendered animated sprite, circa 1994.

:lol I actually kinda find that awesome.

 

[Anth0ny]

DK is a literally prerendered animated sprite, circa 1994.

Amazing :lol

 

[Stallion Free]

I always wondered what was the major difference between OpenGL and Direct X 11.

Everybody says DirectX 11 should be better and faster, but OpenGL has so much more options, and both seems the same regarding performance on my 8800 gtx...

Maybe I just have an old videocard?

... last I check 8800's weren't DX11 compatible? Also, performance and compatibility varies a lot depending on the game. DX11 drivers are a complete re-write from the DX9's so they still have a ways to go.

 

[Stallion Free]

Alrighty, here are the 129 screens I took from Kirby's Epic Yarn:

Mediafire

 

[WillyFive]

Donkey Kong being pre-rendered is mindblowing.

 

[Dacvak]

Wtf, DK is prerendered? Are you serious?

 

[jett]

That has to be an emulator issue, no way the models are pre-rendered, come on :lol

 

[Drinky Crow]

is there any benefit to rendering them to a separate bitmap on the fly? i can't imagine.

 

[vazel]

That is ridiculous that it's prerendered. Maybe it's the emulator not switching between LOD levels correctly? Or maybe Retro had to do that to get 60fps(but considering what they pulled off in the Prime games at 60fps I doubt that).

 

[jediyoshi]

That has to be an emulator issue, no way the models are pre-rendered, come on :lol

Yeah, I have to imagine it's some absurd emulator problem. I mean a 3D DK totally appears in levels and does an intro animation

But like in the video if you look closely a little after 1:30, a black outline shows up around the character and it's definitely not a model anymore, it's just amusing :lol

 

[jett]

It's clearly not a sprite when the game runs on an actual Wii. It's a strange emulator issue.

 

[drizzle]

... last I check 8800's weren't DX11 compatible? Also, performance and compatibility varies a lot depending on the game. DX11 drivers are a complete re-write from the DX9's so they still have a ways to go.

DX9 is missing multiple parts (like menus and cursors). Dx11 works flawlessly, but the speed is not there (I have a QX6700 running at 2.9 since it's overheating, but running it at 3.2 doesn't make much of a difference).

OpenGL is just busted for a while on the newer versions for me. Around 3 FPS (I used to get much better results on OpenGL than on DirectX a while ago).

It just gets worse on every iteration of the emulator for me.

Also, the fact that I don't have much games to test also sucks ass.

 

[jediyoshi]

It's clearly not a sprite when the game runs on an actual Wii. It's a strange emulator issue.

Run into any levels with extreme lighting to clarify yet? Clear isn't exactly the word I'd use, running natively the game looks like this

At which point it obviously looks fine, especially when you're using analog cables hooked up to a tv.

 

[rollingstart]

So, DKC Returns runs without many problems?

after hearing about how you can map waggle to a button for NSMB Wii, I'm interested in rigging it up to play with my CC Pro.

 

[jett]

Run into any levels with extreme lighting to clarify yet? Clear isn't exactly the word I'd use, running natively the game looks like this

At which point it obviously looks fine, especially when you're using analog cables hooked up to a tv.

I haven't played it game, I'm only speaking from video reference. The game doesn't use sprites, I've seen it running at 60fps, I can definitely tell you the characters are polygonal.

 

[Stallion Free]

Yeah, sprites are a glitch, who the fuck would believe otherwise: Dolphin Forums screens.

 

[jett]

Case closed.

 

[jediyoshi]

Ahh looks like EFB copy to texture was the kicker, everything's hopefully rendering properly now. Really wish antialiasing affected DK like the rest of the environment though. Right now it only thickens the shadow around him which is a little jarring. Looking at one of the idle animations frame by frame, there are still definitely elements that transition from 2D to 3D.

I haven't played it game, I'm only speaking from video reference. The game doesn't use sprites, I've seen it running at 60fps, I can definitely tell you the characters are polygonal.

The game runs at 60fps fine here, although there isn't exactly a correlation Hope it gets working in a new build soon, some of these old plugins are all over the place

 

[TheExodu5]

Do you absolutely need a quad core? How do you think I would fare with an E8400 @ stock 3.0GHz paired with a GTX 260?

And wow @ Kirby. That's jaw-dropping beautiful.

No, the emulator only takes advantage of dual core. E8400 is actually one of the best processors, since it's a dual core that can be overclocked quite a bit. At least take it up to 3.6GHz, and you should be set.

 

[BowieZ]

5 months ago we had no idea about this game. I can't remember what not knowing about it was like. Nor do I wish to.

 

[TheExodu5]

Ripping the game to my HDD now. Hopefully everything works out okay. Was hoping to play sooner, but had a board game night with friends.

 

[jediyoshi]

Ripping the game to my HDD now. Hopefully everything works out okay. Was hoping to play sooner, but had a board game night with friends.

Here's r5186 just incase anyone's looking

32bit
64bit

 

[TheExodu5]

Here's r5186 just incase anyone's looking

32bit
64bit

Is that the preferable revision for DKC?

edit: I see from the link above that it may be. Thanks!

 

[PumpkinPie]

Installed Dolphin last night and then got Rawdump so I could see all my Wii games in HD...turns out I have a shitty LG drive which isn't compatible with Rawdump

 

[whitehawk]

Installed Dolphin last night and then got Rawdump so I could see all my Wii games in HD...turns out I have a shitty LG drive which isn't compatible with Rawdump

Gotta hack your Wii so you can dump games to a external hard drive using your Wii.

 

[Nabs]

I seriously can't wait for tomorrow I just hope my SNES pad doesn't break on me before then. So happy this works. Quite a month for video games.

I'm going to try to stay out of these threads until I beat the game.

 

[jediyoshi]

Is that the preferable revision for DKC?

edit: I see from the link above that it may be. Thanks!

Yeah, looks like r5698 works as well. Can't find a link though so here's r5697. Works like a charm for me, hitting 1080 60fps sans AA. Settings in the link Stallion posted are definitely important :lol Also make sure Use Safe Texture Cache is enabled on Normal, fixes the garbled text

32bit http://www.mediafire.com/?myejgzjvy3t
64bit http://www.mediafire.com/?wnmi4igzymn

I usually don't like putting up 1080 shots but I'll make an exception

 

[UtadaBarkley]

This stuff is amazing. I just bought a Wii, but now I don't even want to play it on my TV because of how incredibly awesome all of this looks... Is it worth the effort configuring different builds and configuring for different games? Obviously I'm sure you guys will say yes since you post in this thread, but are the tradeoffs (lack of just plug and play) worth it for the upgraded visuals? Are most of you able to get Dolphin running at 100% for every game?

I have a 2010 iMac 3.06 Ghz i3 with 12GB of RAM, and an ATI Radeon HD 4670 with 256 MB of RAM. Is that adequate enough?

 

[jett]

I have a 2010 iMac 3.06 Ghz i3 with 12GB of RAM, and an ATI Radeon HD 4670 with 256 MB of RAM. Is that adequate enough?

I doubt it.

 

[Stallion Free]

I have a 2010 iMac 3.06 Ghz i3 with 12GB of RAM, and an ATI Radeon HD 4670 with 256 MB of RAM. Is that adequate enough?

Gotta love the pathetically outdated videocards that Apple still puts in their systems.

 

[Jocchan]

I usually don't like putting up 1080 shots but I'll make an exception

You should make exceptions more often imho

 

[UtadaBarkley]

I doubt it.

 

[dark10x]

OK, I'm baffled here. What's the deal with the Donkey Kong sprite usage? I swear the game appears to be a 3D model while playing on the Wii. I don't understand why or how the game would switch to a sprite on the emulator if there were not times when it used a sprite on the Wii. Do they perhaps just use a sprite while DK is in the background?

If it is a sprite, it seems like it would be more difficult to render than a model as it clearly moves at 60 fps. I did not notice any weirdness while playing the game.

I'd love to know more about this situation. If Retro really used a sprite, I would love to know why.

Also, the game does not look great on Dolphin. The background textures really show their limits when rendered in a higher resolution. Everything is quite blurry and low resolution.

 

[jett]

OK, I'm baffled here. What's the deal with the Donkey Kong sprite usage? I swear the game appears to be a 3D model while playing on the Wii. I don't understand why or how the game would switch to a sprite on the emulator if there were not times when it used a sprite on the Wii. Do they perhaps just use a sprite while DK is in the background?

If it is a sprite, it seems like it would be more difficult to render than a model as it clearly moves at 60 fps. I did not notice any weirdness while playing the game.

I'd love to know more about this situation. If Retro really used a sprite, I would love to know why.

You should've read the entire thread. It was just an emulator error. The game doesn't switch to sprites ever.

 

[dark10x]

You should've read the entire thread. It was just an emulator error. The game doesn't switch to sprites ever.

So where the hell did that sprite come from? It couldn't have magically just popped into existence. Clearly that sprite exists somewhere in the game.

 

[jett]

So where the hell did that sprite come from? It couldn't have magically just popped into existence. Clearly that sprite exists somewhere in the game.

Who cares. The game doesn't use sprites. The emulator just fucked up trying to render the character models.

 

[dark10x]

Who cares. The game doesn't use sprites. The emulator just fucked up trying to render the character models.

I definitely care. I'm curious where those sprites came from and what Retro intended to do with them. This thread doesn't really answer that. You can solve the issue with Dolphin, of course, but the sprites are still bizarre.

Thinking about it, I'd assume they might use sprites when Kong is displayed on distant platforms. Still not sure if they are actually doing that, but it would make sense as dense polygon models at a distant in 480p results in nasty aliasing. Using a sprite would actually produce a cleaner character when zoomed out.

I'm more interested in pulling back the curtain and seeing what is going on with the game than simply getting it to look right on Dolphin. Those sprites are in the game data somewhere and I want to know when and how they are used.

 

[-PXG-]

So DK and Diddy are rasterized, not 3d?

 

[dark10x]

So DK and Diddy are rasterized, not 3d?

No, they are 3D. However, sprite based versions of the characters clearly exist somewhere in the game data. The emulator was swapping the sprites in at the wrong time.

 

[Nabs]

So DK and Diddy are rasterized, not 3d?

no, that was just an error. i swear this is going to get picked up by kotaku or something :lol

 

[jett]

I definitely care. I'm curious where those sprites came from and what Retro intended to do with them. This thread doesn't really answer that. You can solve the issue with Dolphin, of course, but the sprites are still bizarre.

Thinking about it, I'd assume they might use sprites when Kong is displayed on distant platforms. Still not sure if they are actually doing that, but it would make sense as dense polygon models at a distant in 480p results in nasty aliasing. Using a sprite would actually produce a cleaner character when zoomed out.

I'm more interested in pulling back the curtain and seeing what is going on with the game than simply getting it to look right on Dolphin. Those sprites are in the game data somewhere and I want to know when and how they are used.

Man, you can see in jediyoshi's video that DK's "sprite" rotates, zooms in and out around the environment and animates just as smoothly as a polygonal character would. IT'S NOT A SPRITE. I don't know what caused the emulator to display the character models like that, but it's definitely not something that's part of the game.

 

[vazel]

Yea I was also curious where the sprites came from. I played the first level and when he jumps to the background it still looks like the polygonal model. Maybe it's just a leftover from a tool they used in development of the game? Edit: Or maybe jett's right.

I really wish Dolphin would get their new audio plugin out already. I can't play games with music and/or sound effects crapping out. Guess I'm playing the game on the Wii.