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Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
September Updates: Hella CPU gains

https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2014/09/30/dolphin-progress-report-september-2014/

quote:

Dolphin POV-Ray Benchmark: 62% faster
Sonic Colors: 39% faster
Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader: 103% faster
F-Zero GX: 110% faster
The Last Story: 38% faster
Xenoblade Chronicles: 40% faster



If your CPU has been a been a bottleneck for you in certain games before, you should really try a recent revision, because the progress they've made in the last two months is crazy.

Hace fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Sep 30, 2014

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Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>

F. Lobot posted:

I really wish they'd update these updated builds to support netplay.

It supports netplay entirely as far as I know, in fact they recently updated it to support dual-core mode while in netplay.

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
Also a bunch of information on the architecture of the GC/Wii has been circulated for a very long time, which makes emulation a million times easier. Meanwhile the N64 is still a confusing mess to make sense of.

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
https://github.com/dolphin-emu/dolphin/pull/1798

Looks like they're working on the option to "overclock" the emulated CPU, meaning that certain games can maintain better framerates, or even be pushed up to 60FPS in some cases!

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
Yeah it seems like overclocking doesn't really benefit most games, nearly every title that runs at 30FPS is locked there. Underclocking seems cool for lower spec systems though.

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
Apparently underclocking basically makes using a Shield Tablet an extremely viable platform for Dolphin now. Obviously some games will be a little choppier with a lower clock, but a lot of games are more playable now than ever before.

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>

flatluigi posted:

Speaking of hacks, is there any way to disable the culling of "offscreen" objects that happens in a bunch of games with the widescreen hack on? I really like being able to play games in widescreen but the culling is just obnoxious. I know it's an out there question but I swear I've heard of someone doing it in at least one game so it can't hurt to ask.

There AR codes for certain games that deal with this, if there isn't one on the wiki page you're SOL

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
zfreeze is now part of the master and makes rouge squadron playable!

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>

flatluigi posted:



Holy poo poo.

That's specific to certain situations fyi, but yes it's very awesome. Metroid Prime is 100% playable now and it's loving awesome.

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>

Nokiaman posted:

Wow Rogue Leader is really running very well. Shame about the music though. It's still choppy/crackling like mad on both DSP HLE/LLE. Guess I'll wait till it gets fixed, because there's no SW without the amazing music :)

Try underclocking, your CPU might not be fast enough.

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>

Nokiaman posted:

I have a i7-3770s and GTX 580 and that sadly doesn't really help. It happens with full FPS as well so I guess DSP emulation still isn't good enough in this game.

Yeah I dunno, audio sounds fine for me on LLE.

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
What CPU do you have, what version of dolphin are you using, and are you using D3D or OpenGL?

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
You also want to make sure that your GPU isn't running the game in adaptive mode, otherwise it'll try to downclock whenever it can, causing stutters.

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
Assuming you're using the latest build and not a stable release:

Go into the nvidia control panel -> manage 3D sections, choose dolphin and change the power management from "adaptive" to "maximum performance"

Also switch your backend from D3D to OpenGL

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>

cat doter posted:

Not sure if anyone else gets this problem, but in basically every game I play on Dolphin, GC or Wii, I get this intermittent split second freeze. It actually happens kinda frequently but not really enough for it to be overly distracting, but I'd like to be able to fix it at least. I've noticed it happens quite often when something new is loaded into the scene, such as when Bowser appears in Galaxy or something like that, so I dunno if it's related to memory emulation or something.

Texture cache is set to fast and EFB copies is set to texture. Otherwise my specs are an i5 3570k (just at stock), 16gb of RAM and an AMD R9 290. Framerates mostly stick around 60 except in certain cases. There's just that weird freeze to fix and it'd be mostly perfect.

Check your GPU usage, it might be operating in low power mode.

e: and yeah small stutters will occur in any game you play for the first time due to the shader cache.

Also make sure you're not using vsync with d3d.

Hace fucked around with this message at 15:15 on Feb 18, 2015

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
Desyncing shouldn't be happening on recent build, what version are you using?

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
Try changing the cpu clock override setting to around 50%, and reset the audio back to XAudio2

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
Since it's limited to double buffering, it only runs at 15, 30, 45, 60, etc. So if you're running at 60 at you have just the tiniest dip due to something like shader cache generation, it'll dip down to 45 and slow down dramatically. It can be unnoticable in some games and cause other games to chug way more than normal.

Since OpenGL uses triple buffering with vsync it doesn't have this limitation.

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
Apparently DX11 makes it hard to implement or something, I dunno

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
Don't forget to sometimes copy your memory card data, or you'll be unlucky like and have it corrupted.

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
I can't reccomend getting a mayflash dolphinbar enough if anyone's curious about it. I got one the other day and it takes like 2 minutes to set up and use, and it works perfectly! The only problem is that the wiimote speaker produces garbage, and you can't seem to output the speaker data through your headphones/speakers if you're using a real controller.

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>

Crappy Jack posted:

I literally just received mine in the mail today, so I'm excited to test this baby out when I get home.

It does have a few quirks though, so like if it's not picking up the IR, either go into the controller menu and hit refresh, or double tap alt+f5 to reconnect it.

Also with wiimotion plus games, you'll sometimes have to unplug nunchuck and plus dongle, then reattach them to get it to work.


Also also the latest firmware is here which you'll probably want: http://www.mayflash.com/support/download/

To actually update it, you have to unplug it, hold down the sync button, then plug it back in. (the instructions on the actual site are messed up)

Hace fucked around with this message at 17:33 on Mar 20, 2015

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>

Suspicious Dish posted:

the wiimote speaker emitted garbage on a real wii, too

:v:

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>

Starhawk64 posted:

I have to say, Dolphin is pretty nice, and not as jankey as N64 emulation. Playing Metroid Prime in 1080p and with an Xbox 360 controller is an interesting experience, even if the game randomly slows down and causes audio stuttering and there's the occasional graphical glitch. Anyway of fixing that? I have a fairly beefy PC which has an intel i5 3470 and a Geforce GTX 970, so I doubt it's a hardware issue. Regardless I think this a nice alternative to dragging the Gamecube out of storage and hunting down discs.

I also ordered the Mayflash Gamecube adapter for Smash Wii U and also can't wait to try it on Dolphin as well. Playing Nintendo games with a 360 controller does feel a little sacrilegious, but hey, that's what so great about PC gaming, the ability to customize and choose, and sometimes kludge things together.

Make sure you're using the latest dev revision and that you're using OpenGL, and also make sure that you change dolphin's power usage from adaptive to maximum in nvidia control panel

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
That's terrible :(

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
You should submit a bug report though, it shouldn't outright break like that

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
IMO it still has utility as a lower overhead build if your CPU isn't up to the task.

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
Shame that they dropped ARMv7, since that effectively kills the Shield Tablet support

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>

Heran Bago posted:

I've searched around for this and haven't been able to find a good answer. What's a good CPU + GPU pairing to run more intensive Dolphin games (Xenoblade, Mario Galaxies) without lag at 3x internal resolution or 1080p with added AA?

e: This is probably a better question for the SH/SC parts picking thread!

A haswell quad-core with a decent clockspeed + any midrange GPU.

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>

Mr SoupTeeth posted:

Just about any recent unlocked Intel processor will suffice, I couldn't discern any difference in dolphin with my 4690k at 4.5ghz or 4.8. With GPU's however, the experience wasn't entirely smooth at those settings with a GeForce 760 and I had to disable AA. After upgrading to a 970 everything was perfect, so the sweet spot is probably somewhere between those two cards.

a 760 is more than good enough for 1080 + AA dude

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>

ChaosArgate posted:

I run Xenoblade with the high def texture packs with an i5-4570 and a 760 and it runs silky smooth. 760s are considered mid-range, right?

Yup! And it's replacement (the 960) would run even smoother!

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>

Toxsyl posted:

Thanks man.

Also, with these current specs: i7 4770k 3.5Ghz processor, MSI Radeon HD 7950 3GB, and 16GB of Ram. Would I be able to record and play decently?

For recording you should be fine, just use something a program that's v. multithreaded to take advantage of your i7

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
Is there any way to improve the OGL frame pacing problems in windowed mode, and the slightly muted colors compared to D3D? D3D seems to getting more broken every month so I'd rather not use that.

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
OGL windowed just doesn't seem nearly as smooth as D3D windowed, it even stutters intermittently! I might just over-sensitive to it, but it's definitely present.

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>

Nate RFB posted:

Maybe I'm being dumb but how do you get that Gamecube aspect ratio thing to work? I still have to manually force it to 16:9.

Are you using the latest revision or the RC?

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
Go to the controller menu, hit "refresh" and press A on the wiimote until it vibrates

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
According to the wiki, the VC version works in Dolphin now

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>

Paperhouse posted:

I asked this question on the Dolphin forums but they weren't that helpful, maybe someone here can give me a better answer.

Basically, I'm looking at buying a new laptop and would like to be able to run Dolphin on it. I understand that I probably won't be turning up the resolution or doing anything fancy, but just a solid fps would be nice. Anyway, the majority of laptops in my budget that I see have CPUs with the U suffix which indicates low voltage. Apparently these are weak performance wise, though I have seen posts from people saying they've got decent results. So I want to know if anyone here has used Dolphin on something like an i5-5200u (a processor I keep seeing come up) and can give me their opinion. I also wonder if I'd be better off going for a previous generation CPU with the M suffix, as apparently this may be more powerful despite being older. Any thoughts welcome :v:

You should shoot for Skylake if you can (i5/i7-6XXX) since that'll have performance increase associated with it. If you can get something with an M suffix that would be great increase in speed, but that becomes a size/price issue obviously.

Also you can downclock the emulated CPU core now, so even if you machine isn't strong enough for some games, you should be able to downclock to some success.

Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
DX12 has just been added in a recent update!

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Hace
Feb 13, 2012

<<Mobius 1, Engage.>>
You can underclock it in dolphin and see if that helps


Cake Attack posted:

its pretty much impossible to emulate well, yeah

It runs fine on an i5 :shrug:

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