stan423321
Member
Yes, but it needs to be the GC compatible model. Family Edition can't handle small discs. Wii mini maybe could, but AFAIK no one got around to hacking it.
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Dolphin - Emulating Wii and Gamecube Games
- Thread starter Stallion Free
- Start date
Simbabbad
Member
So, I have a request:
If people got a save from Geometry Wars Galaxies on Wii with the Lambda galaxy unlocked, could you share it? I lost my original Wii save data and have no access to a DS any more.
I spent way too much time looking for this file online. Codejunkies looked like it has one but I don't see a link anywhere on their page, and apparently wiisave.com got one, except the site is dead.
I couldn't find a Dolphin code that would unlock the Galaxy either. A shame part of this brilliant game is getting more and more inaccessible.
If people got a save from Geometry Wars Galaxies on Wii with the Lambda galaxy unlocked, could you share it? I lost my original Wii save data and have no access to a DS any more.
I spent way too much time looking for this file online. Codejunkies looked like it has one but I don't see a link anywhere on their page, and apparently wiisave.com got one, except the site is dead.
I couldn't find a Dolphin code that would unlock the Galaxy either. A shame part of this brilliant game is getting more and more inaccessible.
Why would you do that?
Member
Since Dolphin's implemented Ubershaders, I decided to completely dump the contents of my GameCube memory cards and my Wii BIOS (which includes game saves) and import them into Dolphin.
GameCube dumping was super easy. I used a homebrew called GCMM to backed up my memory card first as a raw dump, and second as a bunch of GCI files. While I could have linked Dolphin to the raw card dump, I decided to use Dolphin's GCI folder feature. I copied the GCI files into the GCI folder in Dolphin and it worked like a charm.
Wii BIOS dumping through Bootmii was also super easy, and importing it into Dolphin was super simple since Dolphin now has the option to import a Bootmii BIOS dump. Dolphin with a BIOS dump is basically a real Wii; you can start up the system menu, load channels/games from it, exit the game back to the system menu, and it's all flawless.
I would suggest that others who have a strong enough PC do the same dumping and backing up process of their GameCube and/or Wii. The Ubershaders make the emulator soooo close to flawless that it's easily worth using over an actual Wii nowadays, IMO. Besides, the batteries in your GameCube memory cards might die, and everything will be erased... Back them up before that happens!
GameCube dumping was super easy. I used a homebrew called GCMM to backed up my memory card first as a raw dump, and second as a bunch of GCI files. While I could have linked Dolphin to the raw card dump, I decided to use Dolphin's GCI folder feature. I copied the GCI files into the GCI folder in Dolphin and it worked like a charm.
Wii BIOS dumping through Bootmii was also super easy, and importing it into Dolphin was super simple since Dolphin now has the option to import a Bootmii BIOS dump. Dolphin with a BIOS dump is basically a real Wii; you can start up the system menu, load channels/games from it, exit the game back to the system menu, and it's all flawless.
I would suggest that others who have a strong enough PC do the same dumping and backing up process of their GameCube and/or Wii. The Ubershaders make the emulator soooo close to flawless that it's easily worth using over an actual Wii nowadays, IMO. Besides, the batteries in your GameCube memory cards might die, and everything will be erased... Back them up before that happens!
Dolphin Mega Progress Report: July and August 2017
Really love the detail on these updates!
Also while I'm posting - do the Dev builds include prior updates made, or do I have do download the specific revisions in the update to get that feature? Not really familiar with how it all works.
edit: thanks!
Really love the detail on these updates!
Also while I'm posting - do the Dev builds include prior updates made, or do I have do download the specific revisions in the update to get that feature? Not really familiar with how it all works.
edit: thanks!
Yes, newer development builds will include all the prior updates.
New No More Heroes hype has made me want to dig up the first to games to replay. Unfortunately when I traded in my Wii U I took my Wii sensor bar instead and the Wii U one strangely isn't compatible with Wii... so I thought I'd try the Steam Controller for inputs.
I'm struggling to find a guide for setting up the motion controls - lot to dig through in this thread. I'm curious if gyro is possible, or better to use the touch pads for swipe motions? There were also nunchuck motions for grabs, I remember, but how would I set up registering 2 separate motions on the Steam Controller.
This will probably be the most involved controller set up I've had to do within Dolphin.
I'm struggling to find a guide for setting up the motion controls - lot to dig through in this thread. I'm curious if gyro is possible, or better to use the touch pads for swipe motions? There were also nunchuck motions for grabs, I remember, but how would I set up registering 2 separate motions on the Steam Controller.
This will probably be the most involved controller set up I've had to do within Dolphin.
AcceptableGhost
Member
I would really just grab a dolphin bar. Super easy to setup and is basically 1:1.
You may be right. The more I remember, the more I realize how fucking much NMH used wii remote features - dual motion controls, shake, orientation of remote (high/low attacks and vertical for charge), and even the built in speaker for phone calls. I have no idea how that functionality works in Dolphin.
I also have no idea how to get gyro controls set up in steam, let alone getting them to register in dolphin controller set up. Got most of the buttons needed down, but just need to figure out the gyro inputs and if/how to get the speaker function active.
I know next to nothing about coding but this stuff is fascinating!
I love reading this stuff. Man the guys are amazing
stan423321
Member
Address masking, and if I understand correctly, on the DSP side. Wow.
Though me watching TCRF changelog recently spoiled the part about beta executable, unfortunately.
Though me watching TCRF changelog recently spoiled the part about beta executable, unfortunately.
Well I finally wired up a wii bluetooth module (I started when this feature was first announced!). It works great but the wiring is a little messy. It's fairly simple but using a USB cable made it a little more difficult. I have an idea of hooking a bare USB port to a breadboard and mounting the bluetooth module to it. That way it'll look a lot cleaner and won't stick out a lot.
New article: Dolphin Progress Report: September 2017
Agent_4Seven
Tears of Nintendo
Um, guys, is there a good enough way to configure Wii Remote and Nunchuk to work perfectly with mouse and keyboard? Bought Prime 3 yesterday and just can't make my mouse to work great as a nunchuk and can't even pass a ship section in the very beginning. Maybe i need to download something extra for emulator to configure nunchuk? I can't even use my X360 gamepad and configure nunchack to work pefectly. I won't be gitting Wii Mini till next year and don't want to wait that long to play Prime 3.
https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/...nvidia_drivers_38792_fixes_ram_usage/do80557/
https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/...nvidia_drivers_38792_fixes_ram_usage/do8ei2g/
The latest Nvidia 387.92 drivers are supposed to fix some issues when using Nvidia GPUs with Dolphin's Vulkan backend.
https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/...nvidia_drivers_38792_fixes_ram_usage/do8ei2g/
The latest Nvidia 387.92 drivers are supposed to fix some issues when using Nvidia GPUs with Dolphin's Vulkan backend.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=198977418&postcount=14347
That post is how I setup Metroid prime trilogy to work with mouse and kb.
Agent_4Seven
Tears of Nintendo
Is this really work well for Prime 3? I mean, there's some motion control stuff which is extremely important and you can't ignore it. Did you had any problems with motion control stuff using this config in Prime 3?
ShadowFX
Member
New article up!
Mastering Motion: The Journey to Emulate MotionPlus
Mastering Motion: The Journey to Emulate MotionPlus
GreenAlien
Member
Awesome! My Wiimote never worked right with Dolphin, disconnects and constant recalibration. I will give it another try soon, without Wiimote.
Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Can anybody help me upgrade my emulation by linking to a Bluetooth dongle on amazon or somewhere that delivers anywhere that will 100% work with the Passthrough a Bluetooth adapter option in Dolphin (and Windows 11)? I currently use a Dolphinbar but that doesn't recognize more than 1 controller at a time or additional accessories like the balance board and I don't want to fiddle with devices that will end up not working properly (or are overpriced). I'm also reading that the controls actually see a decently perceivable upgrade when you switch from Emulation of Wii's Bluetooth adapter in Dolphin to the more recent Passthrough setting, so that would be nice to have too, though personally I can't really tell a real difference to how I remember my Wii even in the likes of Wii Sports Resort and Red Steel 2 or the various lightgun game ports (unless performance drops).
Also after that I guess I'll also need a USB sensor bar that will work without having the additional Bluetooth stuff the Dolphinbar has, it should also be nearing its end of life at this point since I've had it for years so a solid replacement will be good to have, I don't wanna resort to candles, ha.
Also after that I guess I'll also need a USB sensor bar that will work without having the additional Bluetooth stuff the Dolphinbar has, it should also be nearing its end of life at this point since I've had it for years so a solid replacement will be good to have, I don't wanna resort to candles, ha.
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JimboJones
Member
I've had some success using Joycons as Wii remotes, uses the gyro for the pointer so it's kind of similar to how Skyward Sword operated as in you need to press a button to recalibrate every so often instead of relying on the sensor bar.
Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
That's nice but not what I'm talking about.
Hoddi
Member
Any dongle with the Qualcom CSR8510 A10 chipset should work. I use one from König but they're also available from different manufacturers as well. Either of these two should be compatible, for example.
I can't speak for other Wii accessories but it does support BT passthrough for the regular Wii controller. But since there's no actual setup involved (other than installing the libusb driver) then I don't see why other devices wouldn't work.
Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Thanks, I'll try ordering the 2nd one some time since the first isn't available. For sensor bar I guess any random Chinese one should work huh, when it doesn't need to have anything special inside unlike the Dolphinbar, just the infrared lights.
Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Hey dude, I got a usb BT thingie but need some help cos it's not working. At first I was getting an error from dolphin saying that there's no device it can work with, but then I did the steps to install libusbK with Zadig or whatever, it installed fine, and now it doesn't say that but also it doesn't work.
I've tried syncing with the Wiimote red button or with just pressing any button or pressing 1 + 2 together, it just flashes for a while and nothing happens. Dolphin says scanning for Wii remotes or whatever when pressing the hotkey or the sync button in the controller config and that's all, nothing...
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ChoosableOne
ChoosableAll
It's likely you already know, but you need to press the sync shortcut within the game, and then press the red sync button on the Wiimote.
Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Yeah I've tried that, I set the hotkey to CTRL but nothing happens, a message flashes saying scanning for Wii remotes but the thing won't connect, just flashes its blue lights for a few secs and nothing
Is it incompatible usb BT thingie possible? Or would it throw an error message or something in that case?
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ChoosableOne
ChoosableAll
Dolphin's website used to have a list of working Bluetooth devices. I had a UGREEN Bluetooth that worked after installing the relevant driver. I can't guide through the setup step by step as it's been a while, but a simple YouTube video was enough for me. It might be that your Bluetooth isn't compatible; the program is known to be quite selective about that.Yeah I've tried that, I set the hotkey to CTRL but nothing happens, a message flashes saying searching for Wii remotes but the thing won't connect, just flashes its blue lights for a few secs and nothing
Is it incompatible usb BT thingie possible? Or would it throw an error message or something in that case?
Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Pobably not compatible then, if Dolphin doesn't have a way to know & throw an error or anything in that case, as I couldn't find the exact model I was told and I bought a similar one thinking that the same company will likely use the same chips for various variants and products. Oh well, sucks.
I reverted the device to default and I can use it to pair Wii remotes this way but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to turn it off and pair it back afterwards, seems every time I turn it off or disable BT or anything else, then I have to go through the whole "add new device" deal again to use it.
Is there any other solution to that? That's with the emulate real wii remote setting in Dolphin (obviously). Also can a Wii balance board work with this mode or only passthrough? It doesn't work with the Dolphinbar so it'd be nice if I can at least get this bonus from getting this BT device instead.
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ChoosableOne
ChoosableAll
I didn't use wii balance or emulate wii remote option so I can't help you on that. But it seems that's the main advantage of passthrough usage, able to sync effortlesly. I had many issues even with ds4 bluetooth connection so good luck on that.
You can pick one of these compatible bluetooth adapters they've listed on their website: https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=Bluetooth_Passthrough
Scroll down and click "adapter test results". I have a ugreen mini model(it's not on the list) which works great.
64bitmodels
Reverse groomer.
13 years later, still one of the most accurate, plug and play, labor of love emulators in gaming. I wish pcsx2 was this far ahead in optimization and ease of use
nkarafo
Member
When did you use PCSX2 the last time? Because after Stenzek (Duckstation's dev) started contributing to it about a couple of years ago, there have been some very big changes/improvements.
Esppiral
Member
Absolutely, Dreamcast and Xbox should receive the same love
64bitmodels
Reverse groomer.
Yeah I know. It's still got a ways to go in terms of compatibility though and considering the ps2 is the more popular console you'd think it would be prioritized.
Many games still have their fair share of slowdowns on steamdeck
I'd day dream cast is there already when it comes to emulation quality, Xbox could use a lot of work though
Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Huh, Dreamcast emulation is near perfect, good as any at least. Redream I don't use due to the paywall on principle though it seems up there with the best too based on videos, but Flycast runs amazing out of the box, there's basically one setting (after the standard 32+ alpha layers setting that should be set to ensure previously known problems like lack of shadows projecting on the car models in Daytona USA 2001 don't manifest) that you may need to tweak for a small minority of games (the framebuffer or render to texture setting for things like the Code Veronica water and heat haze distortion effects that cause issues otherwise) and outside that just a tiny few problematic games I've seen. Mainly Sega Rally 2 which is quite the famous example (but also an unfairly hated game anyway so not so big) but then again Dolphin has even more major issues with famous games like Rogue Squadron (and PCSX2 with many more), sadly it is what it is some times. Otherwise it runs anything, normal games, Windows CE games, Atomiswave games (I know, duh, it's identical to Dreamcast, hence the recent homebew ports to it), Naomi games, Naomi 2 games too as of recently. I use it in RetroArch and it's basically been flawless with some exceptions as above. Played lightgun games and games that need a VMU screen for gameplay, you can do anything. Very performant too, probably less demanding than the also excellent Mednafen/Beetle for Saturn. I know you've worked a ton with Dreamcast stuff, maybe you personally need some features Demul or whatever has been abandoned/overtaken without working on those (I hope Flycast will eventually also add support for Hikaru thay Planet Harriers runs on too for example, though it was hardly well done on Demul and it's normal it's not a priority with so few games on it) but for general playing it doesn't get much better. Not just for vanilla settings but for enhancements too, high res for those who like it, texture filtering and fast loading which is super sweet (and only causes issues in very few games) etc.
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nkarafo
Member
Flycast is great, but wish they would improve the accuracy of the Arcade boards it supports. Some games will lose sync in their attract modes (like the couple of big truck games) and Dead or Alive 2 will crash at a certain spot. Surely there are other issues and i feel like Demul is a bit more accurate in general (it also loses sync with the big truck games but it doesn't crash anywhere that i know of).
Hikaru support would be a big one. Not only for Planet Harriers but also for the Star Wars Episode 1 Racing game, which is very different from the home versions we got. Also, in Demul there are a couple of other boards supported as well, such as one from Gaelco IIRC, not sure if that's a similar hardware to the Naomi board.
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Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Well attract modes are kind of a bitch depending on how they were made. Nightdive was rightfully proud they got Doom 64 so accurate the demos worked. Some DC and Atomiswave games they go weird in Flycast also. In Le Mans and in Faster than Speed to name a couple respectively. And the attract of Under Defeat has an error message about some discrepancy on the Dreamcast version yet works fine in the Naomi version (and Under Defeat in particular also had various performance issues in various versions, fixed at one point then returning in another, but it seems to have settled at fixed lately). Still, for playability they're as good as any and not something most people perceive. I mean, everyone was praising Supermodel emulator yet it runs the games ~5% faster than normal to get them to 60fps (where Daytona USA 2 in Like a Dragon Gaiden is at proper gameplay speed at 60fps compared to the original arcade at 57 or whatever). Such inaccuracies are the norm unless it's some cycle accurate emu like that SNES emu that required 3+ GHz back in the day but everyone played on the worse more performant ones. Demul has issues too since it's abandoned (like the Daytona USA shadows I mention Flycast used to have the issue with until they added that layers setting to 32 and beyond). And Planet Harriers crashes constantly. I'd bet if someone delves into accuracy this much they will find issues with pretty much any popular emu, from DuckStation to whatever, on specific games, modes, settings and so on. And for Dolphin for sure too, hence games like Rogue Squadron being so problematic on it. But generally they're all great. I never noticed that shadow issue in Daytona until it was fixed, lol. But it made me (more) concious of how games may actually look different/better/worse than with emulation and to judge that differently to the actual systems (hence when discussing systems I never post emulation videos). I now use Final Burn Neo for arcades even if it's nowhere near mame in technical accuracy (and board support) because of how well integrated its interface is to RetroRarch, and the games being too numerous to play everything anyway. I won't care Capcom's 1942 plays their logo animation that Mame fixed after 20 years wrong. Of course if I really want to play an unsupported game like you wanted to play the arcade version of DOA2 instead of the Dreamcast version which works fine in my experience yeah, I'd care about that of course, as I care about Dolphin not playing Rogue Squadron. But it's not like there's no alternative emulator that will make that work in this case or similar cases either. Oh well. It is what it is. Just make sure it's not some setting causing your issues as well, ie, the attract of Skies of Arcadia hangs if you have fast loading enabled. It's similar for a couple other games. Oh the one 100% unplayable Dreamcast game I've encountered is Fur Fighters! But that's alright as it's better on PS2 anyway.
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nkarafo
Member
A few questions:
I understand the reason why they sped up the games in Supermodel. Most people have fixed 60hz screens so a 57fps or whatever, the frame rate would either not sync or screen tear horribly. But that doesn't apply to free-sync/VRR screens so is it something you can config to get the original speed back? RetroArch also does something similar but when you use a VRR screen it gives you the original speed AFAIK.
Also, what's this about Rogue Squadron in Dolphin? You mean Rogue Leader or Rogue Squadron 3? I thought these were fixed, no? They are still problematic?
I understand the reason why they sped up the games in Supermodel. Most people have fixed 60hz screens so a 57fps or whatever, the frame rate would either not sync or screen tear horribly. But that doesn't apply to free-sync/VRR screens so is it something you can config to get the original speed back? RetroArch also does something similar but when you use a VRR screen it gives you the original speed AFAIK.
Also, what's this about Rogue Squadron in Dolphin? You mean Rogue Leader or Rogue Squadron 3? I thought these were fixed, no? They are still problematic?
Tams
Member
Please, please, please learn how to use paragraphs!
Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Idk, I don't really use Supermodel but I've not encountered a single video that has the correct gameplay speed.
Both Rogue Squadron games don't work right for me at least, maybe super powerful PCs or similar can brute force them so it's considered fixed? For me, they stutter in many random situations but without fail when changing view from first to third person or using the infrared visor targeting computer thing. Without enhancements like high res or per pixel lighting etc. I don't use when testing and I'm always on latest nightly versions, windows and driver updates. Granted they do seem smoother than they used to be where they stuttered like mad as soon as I fired in the training mission.
I'd think it's a big deal when it was finally fixed but google isn't helping me on finding such a report, all I find is old, outdated stuff about z something hacks implemented that were then removed so it can be fixed properly without hacks and Dolphin forks that still have it and so on and so forth and nowhere have I seen anyone go omg game x now works perfectly or anything. But, my PC's currently quite outdated so that may be the problem I guess, if they implemented fixes that are demanding as I also notice for example that in F Zero GX where the attract mode used to be perfectly smooth as far as I recall, I used it as a sort of benchmark and settings/crash test, nowadays while it's largely fine in gameplay certain attract mode views cause major slowdowns for a couple seconds (but that does seem fixable with better specs so I don't mention it as a problem).
Though it doesn't max my PC or anything either, GPU is largely unused and CPU maybe 50% in most situations, they don't seem like performance related issues to me but again maybe better specs somehow brute force through it all.
Either way even if it's been fixed it certainly took a long while and there are probably other issues remaining here or there and inaccuracies as I don't believe it's a cycle accurate emu, it just so happens that the way GC/Wii games were made it doesn't tend to manifest issues outside edge cases.
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nkarafo
Member
Most of the issues you are describing are performance related. And in the vast majority of cases that's a host computer issue, not emulation. You say your PC is outdated so that's most likely the case, though it would help if you posted the specs.
Don't expect to see 100% CPU usage on Dolphin, this emulator uses 2 cores max. If you have a CPU that has 4 (slow) cores, it will max out half of them and that's why you see 50% usage. So you need something that has good single thread performance, which is true for most emulators. GPU usage in Dolphin is very low, even at 4K upscaling, those graphics wouldn't even come close to max out a 1030 or something. Again, that's true for all emulators. All of the emulation work is done on the CPU, that's the one that does everything, not the GPU. I think the only case where the GPU is used to help with the emulation burden is the N64 Parallel RDP plugin.
You also need to take into account that as emulators mature and become more accurate, they may also become more demanding. That's why sometimes you may see games that used to run full speed now stutter. Sure, as they mature they may also get more optimized and you see speed improvements but i think in the case of Dolphin it's now a matter of perfecting it's accuracy/compatibility from now on.
The Rogue Leader games used to have major bugs that made them unplayable. The z-sorting issue was a big one and i remember there was some hype when they fixed it. It was quite a few years ago. Both games are now fully playable according to the compatibility wiki, though it seems there are still some rare crashes and some bugs that turned out being native bugs that also happen on real hardware.
Lastly, yeah, it's not "cycle accurate". VERY few emulators are. And AFAIK, there aren't any for systems more complex that 8/16bit. But you don't need to be cycle accurate to reach perfect compatibility. Most mature emulators for 8/16bit systems have pretty much perfect compatibility regardless.
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Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
3770K and GTX1080. 50% of the used cores I meant. Still pretty demanding for GC if that's not enough (but it's enough for most games to be fine). I mentioned accuracy being demanding myself in previous posts with the SNES example. I see some occasional crackling even in the best videos of RS. Though somehow people were posting videos of playing them pretty well even before they were fixed where every laser shot fired at nothing caused massive slowdown and before ubershaders so, eh. Seems weird GC is doing something super complex/native just to change the camera etc. O well.
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nkarafo
Member
Your CPU is pre-Haswell so it's indeed obsolete for modern emulators. In most cases you will see 4th generation intel CPUs as the recommended ones.
Yeah, emulation is weird. Last time i played Metroid Prime in Dolphin, there was a massive slowdown when i was moving/rotating the 3D map. It went from perfect 60fps to something like 20fps. I don't remember if it was some odd option or if i fixed it at all.
Sometimes issues happen because of the odd config. That's an even bigger problem than actual compatibility/accuracy IMO. I remember i had a graphical issue in a Wii game (Silent Hill: Shattered Memories) and i thought it was a compatibility/accuracy issue, which i was waiting to be fixed for months! Until someone told me to uncheck a box in the advanced settings tab and boom, fixed! But if you asked me before that, i would tell you Dolphin doesn't play this game correctly, which would be false. Just like many bug reports that end up being a bad config. That's why i almost never take bug related posts as granted anymore.
Emulators need to be simpler for the end user. Hide most of the advanced configs from them by default (still make them available optionally ofc). And ship them with the correct default settings per-game to avoid bugs that aren't the emulator's fault. That's what happens nowadays with N64 emulators. They used to be the worst case of emulation related settings being all over the place, causing issues. But Ares/Parallel RDP don't have any such related options to mess with (other than enabling/disabling some VI filters) and Simple64 tries to have the best default settings per game out of the box so you don't have to fiddle with anything.
Some will argue that having all these options available to the end user helps with testing them. But i think the opposite happens. Most end users don't know what they are doing. N64 emulation forums were always a nightmare because of that. From the PJ64 1.6 days until Parallel RDP got released, it was a dark decade for emulation i don't even want to remember, lol. Parallel RDP literally saved the N64 emulation scene IMO by perfecting the graphics side of things just like that, in a "it just works" way, with an empty settings tab. The issues left now are timing related CPU stuff that most casual users aren't even aware of. Something similar happened for the Saturn emulation scene with Mednafen Saturn and it happens now with Ares for the N64 CPU stuff i mentioned. There needs to be more "it just works" emulators and less of the multiple tabs of "i know some of these words" settings variety.
Oh and just to clarify, staying away from the casual mobile/Retropie scene helps. If you care about accuracy/compatibility and want to keep your sanity, build a mid-range PC, use the best emulators available and join their discord channels for related discussions. That's what i'm doing now and i'll never go back.
Yeah, emulation is weird. Last time i played Metroid Prime in Dolphin, there was a massive slowdown when i was moving/rotating the 3D map. It went from perfect 60fps to something like 20fps. I don't remember if it was some odd option or if i fixed it at all.
Sometimes issues happen because of the odd config. That's an even bigger problem than actual compatibility/accuracy IMO. I remember i had a graphical issue in a Wii game (Silent Hill: Shattered Memories) and i thought it was a compatibility/accuracy issue, which i was waiting to be fixed for months! Until someone told me to uncheck a box in the advanced settings tab and boom, fixed! But if you asked me before that, i would tell you Dolphin doesn't play this game correctly, which would be false. Just like many bug reports that end up being a bad config. That's why i almost never take bug related posts as granted anymore.
Emulators need to be simpler for the end user. Hide most of the advanced configs from them by default (still make them available optionally ofc). And ship them with the correct default settings per-game to avoid bugs that aren't the emulator's fault. That's what happens nowadays with N64 emulators. They used to be the worst case of emulation related settings being all over the place, causing issues. But Ares/Parallel RDP don't have any such related options to mess with (other than enabling/disabling some VI filters) and Simple64 tries to have the best default settings per game out of the box so you don't have to fiddle with anything.
Some will argue that having all these options available to the end user helps with testing them. But i think the opposite happens. Most end users don't know what they are doing. N64 emulation forums were always a nightmare because of that. From the PJ64 1.6 days until Parallel RDP got released, it was a dark decade for emulation i don't even want to remember, lol. Parallel RDP literally saved the N64 emulation scene IMO by perfecting the graphics side of things just like that, in a "it just works" way, with an empty settings tab. The issues left now are timing related CPU stuff that most casual users aren't even aware of. Something similar happened for the Saturn emulation scene with Mednafen Saturn and it happens now with Ares for the N64 CPU stuff i mentioned. There needs to be more "it just works" emulators and less of the multiple tabs of "i know some of these words" settings variety.
Oh and just to clarify, staying away from the casual mobile/Retropie scene helps. If you care about accuracy/compatibility and want to keep your sanity, build a mid-range PC, use the best emulators available and join their discord channels for related discussions. That's what i'm doing now and i'll never go back.
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Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Anyway, back to Wii remote connectivity stuff. I moved away from using the Dolphinbar to connecting them via standard bluetooth adapter and having a simple USB sensor bar that only needs power connected.
After redoing my setup I realized I use non Dolphin emulators with Wii remotes as lightguns and I had done that via the Dolphinbar. You guys use Wii remotes for things like Teknoparrot or RetroArch and how do you go about doing it if without Dolphinbar's built in Wii remote as mouse modes?
If there's no way to do that without fiddly/abandoned software like GlovePIE/Touchmote I guess I'll just go back to the tried and true Dolphinbar instead, especially since I can't get passthrough mode to work with this BT adapter so I have no real benefit outside a cleaner set up...
After redoing my setup I realized I use non Dolphin emulators with Wii remotes as lightguns and I had done that via the Dolphinbar. You guys use Wii remotes for things like Teknoparrot or RetroArch and how do you go about doing it if without Dolphinbar's built in Wii remote as mouse modes?
If there's no way to do that without fiddly/abandoned software like GlovePIE/Touchmote I guess I'll just go back to the tried and true Dolphinbar instead, especially since I can't get passthrough mode to work with this BT adapter so I have no real benefit outside a cleaner set up...
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