Dolphin - Emulating Wii and Gamecube Games

Whoa that's amazing! :D If someone ports the Super Mario Galaxy texture pack to the new format I suspect it will finally run lag-free!

Dolphin will do it for you, but it appears only as you play. So someone would have to play extensively to get them all converted.

Dolphin Texture Converter:
Starting with Dolphin v4.0-5234, there is a built in converter to convert your custom textures to the new format!
- Navigate to C:\Users\UserName\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\Config
- If you use Direct3D backend, edit gfx_dx11.ini with Notepad
- If you use OpenGL backend, edit gfx_opengl.ini with Notepad
- Find the setting ConvertHiresTextures and set it from False to True
- Now just play the game. When Dolphin loads a retexture it will automatically rename it

Texture Converter Bonus Features:
- If a duplicate paletted texture is found while playing, it will be automatically deleted.
- If multiple textures are found that share a duplicate ID, then they will be appended with an incrementing integer.
Example: tex1_36x36_4653193aaa14d048_0.png, tex1_36x36_4653193aaa14d048_0.1.png, tex1_36x36_4653193aaa14d048_0.2.png, etc...
- The texture converter will also rename your mipmap files, so there is no need to create new ones.
 
Hold up.... is this how RE2 looks like on the Dolphin emulator?? No f***ing way... this looks like a remake? Is this the remake I've been waiting for? Seriously though.... what is this?!

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more from page 32:

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What is this?? There's no way this is the ugly PS1 port of RE2. If this really is RE2 I must have it.
 
Hold up.... is this how RE2 looks like on the Dolphin emulator?? No f***ing way... this looks like a remake? Is this the remake I've been waiting for? Seriously though.... what is this?!

Isn't that Darkside Chronicles or whatever that second RE rail shooter was titled?

On my phone so I can't easily check.
 
I'd love to hear some peoples thoughts.

What do you think looks best for Skyward Sword? Native res + 9xSSAA or Auto (integer) + AA.

Anyone who's played know that when rendered at high resolution the DoF effect ends up looking cross hatchy and very sharp in contention with the original intended look that was covered up by a low resolution.

Rendering at Native res + SSAA gives you a much softer look, but also smooths out the DoF closer to what the original effect looked like. At the same time, rendering at a high res with AA looks great in it's own right, just different. Less accurate it feels.

Thoughts?

Click for full size

Native res, easily. This is one of the few times I've ever seen where I prefer a lower resolution, albeit with some heavy anti-aliasing to compensate. Now I see there's value to rendering at a lower resolution sometimes. My world has changed. Thank you.
 
Hold up.... is this how RE2 looks like on the Dolphin emulator?? No f***ing way... this looks like a remake? Is this the remake I've been waiting for? Seriously though.... what is this?!





more from page 32:

dolphin2010-07-0714-29c9ok.jpg


dolphin2010-07-0715-03xs5v.jpg



What is this?? There's no way this is the ugly PS1 port of RE2. If this really is RE2 I must have it.

I'm quickly finding out that these emulators are basically able to do HD remakes. Playing super Mario galaxy at 1080p with AA and AF and other effects added is glorious. Not a jaggy in site and everything is bursting with color and clarity. AmaZing.

Same with my Ps2 emulator.
 
Isn't that Darkside Chronicles or whatever that second RE rail shooter was titled?

On my phone so I can't easily check.

Ah crap... I think you may be right, I forgot about Darkside Chronoicles



I'm quickly finding out that these emulators are basically able to do HD remakes. Playing super Mario galaxy at 1080p with AA and AF and other effects added is glorious. Not a jaggy in site and everything is bursting with color and clarity. AmaZing.

Same with my Ps2 emulator.

That's true but this looks completely different from the PS1-style RE2 on GC... there is no way the emulator enhancements produced that level of quality. I think it's a different game like the other guy mentioned
 
I'm quickly finding out that these emulators are basically able to do HD remakes.
You know the difference between pixel graphics and vector graphics? Polygons (i.e. 3D models) are like vector graphics, increase the resolution and you still get a sharp picture. Conversely textures and 2D UI elements are like pixel graphics and tend to blur at higher resolutions.
 
Ah crap... I think you may be right, I forgot about Darkside Chronoicles





That's true but this looks completely different from the PS1-style RE2 on GC... there is no way the emulator enhancements produced that level of quality. I think it's a different game like the other guy mentioned

lol yes, it is either Umbrella or Darkside Chronicles. No emulator is gonna turn this

z0Up6H7.jpg


into this

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Any way to get Steam UI while playing games?
I used this tutorial to add Xenoblade to my steam library but I can't use the Steam UI.

I use Ice and it work flawlessly.
Just don't forget to edit your rom path in config.txt and add your emulator in consoles.txt & emulators.txt.
For the last one I use this command : command=%l --exec=%r

Story memo in Xenoblade won't leave the top of my screen even when I read it. Anyone know how to fix this?

There's an option to turn off the arrow/story memo, you don't get to choose which one though, it's all or nothing.
 
I use Ice and it work flawlessly.
Just don't forget to edit your rom path in config.txt and add your emulator in consoles.txt & emulators.txt.
For the last one I use this command : command=%l --exec=%r

So uhhh Dolphin kinda imploded. When I boot it up through Steam I get a ton of graphical glitches, polygons dancing all over the screen, seizure inducing colors and flashes, and the whole thing is kinda unplayable since you literally can't even recognize it's Xenoblade being played :lol

Works perfectly fine when I boot up Dolphin by itself

edit: images
Loading Disc
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Wii Safety Warning thing w/ custom texture pack
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Main Menu
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Continue Screen
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Gaur Plains
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That's probably due to Steam's overlay screwing up with the rendering context and not restoring everything as it should. Try disabling the overlay in Steam's settings to see if it fixes the issues.
 
I don't know why but the emulator is dramatically faster when opening the graphics menu while the emulator is running. It says it resets the settings, but thats not the case, it runs faster at the same resolution.
 
So uhhh Dolphin kinda imploded. When I boot it up through Steam I get a ton of graphical glitches, polygons dancing all over the screen, seizure inducing colors and flashes, and the whole thing is kinda unplayable since you literally can't even recognize it's Xenoblade being played :lol

Works perfectly fine when I boot up Dolphin by itself

edit: images

I had a similar issue a few week ago. I reinstalled windows recently for another matter and copy pasted almost everything and now it work. Beside that, the only difference is that Steam isn't installed in Program Files this time.
 
Has anyone managed to use ShadowPlay with Dolphin?
You can check "Desktop Recording" and record your things that way for now.

So uhhh Dolphin kinda imploded. When I boot it up through Steam I get a ton of graphical glitches, polygons dancing all over the screen, seizure inducing colors and flashes, and the whole thing is kinda unplayable since you literally can't even recognize it's Xenoblade being played :lol

Works perfectly fine when I boot up Dolphin by itself

edit: images

That's most likely because of this:
That's probably due to Steam's overlay screwing up with the rendering context and not restoring everything as it should. Try disabling the overlay in Steam's settings to see if it fixes the issues.

I believe I had the same issue when I had an AMD card. Did you try the other video back-end yet? Otherwise disabling the overlay, as said above should fix it.

I don't know why but the emulator is dramatically faster when opening the graphics menu while the emulator is running. It says it resets the settings, but thats not the case, it runs faster at the same resolution.
It overrides any game specific setting that was set to what is set in the graphics window. Your game probably has EFB -> RAM or something in the game settings and opening it up switches it to Texture which increases your emulation speed (quite) a bit. It's not recommended to open it up while playing since the game settings have the most compatible settings set for a game already.
 
So uhhh Dolphin kinda imploded. When I boot it up through Steam I get a ton of graphical glitches, polygons dancing all over the screen, seizure inducing colors and flashes, and the whole thing is kinda unplayable since you literally can't even recognize it's Xenoblade being played :lol

This recently happened to me to with my AMD card. It has to do with the OpenGL backend in combination with steam overlay. I swear this used to work fine though, it might be the latest dolphin build that broke this. Another thing that happened on my PC was Radeonpro went corrupt and that some settings in there might have something to do with it.

Workaround is either change to D3D dolphin backend (slower performance) or disable steam overlay (kinda crappy).
 
Is there a way to fix the "background music stopping" issue in Metroid Prime? I am playing it on the Ishiiruka build.

It's still listed as a known problem on the dolphin wiki page, so there is probably no way to fix it right now. You can try the Wii port, as the problem isn't listed there, but that could just be because nobody has added it yet and not that the Wii port doesn't have the same problem.
 
It's still listed as a known problem on the dolphin wiki page, so there is probably no way to fix it right now. You can try the Wii port, as the problem isn't listed there, but that could just be because nobody has added it yet and not that the Wii port doesn't have the same problem.

I did not run into any music stopping issue in my ~3 hours of playing Metroid Prime trilogy.
 
It's still listed as a known problem on the dolphin wiki page, so there is probably no way to fix it right now. You can try the Wii port, as the problem isn't listed there, but that could just be because nobody has added it yet and not that the Wii port doesn't have the same problem.
Unfortunately the Wii port requires the Wii Remote, which I do not have with me at the moment. I will have to deal with the music issue, then. Thanks!
 
All of the REmake talk in the Remastered version's thread has got my attention, and after playing through REmake again I'm looking into playing RE2 and RE3 on gamecube via dolphin. Does anyone here have experience runnin these games in dolphin? Whats the best way to smooth out the backgrounds and make the game look a little better?
 
How does it run? From the forum thread, it seems like it's one of the most demanding Dolphin games so far, especially w/ LLE and EFB2RAM.
Some levels are pretty much locked 60 at 3-4x res, the planet surface stuff seems to drop a lot no matter what res. It's not quite playable yet IMO.
 
Been ripping my Gamecube discs today so I can make sure I've always got access to these games in one way or another.

I've tried a few out in Dolphin at 4x, and it's really quite something to see these games run so well on my PC. Running a 5820k, forgot to apply to OC so I'm guessing the jump to 4.3Ghz will offer some good results.

Just tried Sonic Adventure 2 on my laptop and it's actually playable, so that's something. Native res, but I can't ask for too much on a 3317u from 2012 :\

Thinking about starting Twin Snakes on Dolphin. Looks to have decent compatibility, so hopefully it won't be too dodgy.
 
Been ripping my Gamecube discs today so I can make sure I've always got access to these games in one way or another.

I've tried a few out in Dolphin at 4x, and it's really quite something to see these games run so well on my PC. Running a 5820k, forgot to apply to OC so I'm guessing the jump to 4.3Ghz will offer some good results.

Just tried Sonic Adventure 2 on my laptop and it's actually playable, so that's something. Native res, but I can't ask for too much on a 3317u from 2012 :\

Thinking about starting Twin Snakes on Dolphin. Looks to have decent compatibility, so hopefully it won't be too dodgy.

The only issue I've had are some minor codec ones which EFB to Ram fixes, but is of course considerably slower.
 
Tried Xenoblade with the 360 controller and for some reason the analog stick doesnt work properly, like it ignores neutral position, is the only game that gives me that issue, is that normal? any way to fix it?. Maybe I should just wait for the 3DS version :P
 
Tried Xenoblade with the 360 controller and for some reason the analog stick doesnt work properly, like it ignores neutral position, is the only game that gives me that issue, is that normal? any way to fix it?. Maybe I should just wait for the 3DS version :P

360 controllers on PC usually have a lot of drift. You need to add in a dead zone to cancel it out. Assuming you're using a Classic Controller extension, hit Configure under the Extension drop-down in the Wiimote Config screen, and then set the Left Stick Dead Zone there. You basically want to increase it until your drift stops occuring. I have mine set to 40.
 
Finally changed builds to test Rogue Squadron II:

Hey SF, I went looking for a few of your older galleries of Dolphin screenshots, like the Other M, Epic Yarn, DKC:R, etc. albums and they seem to have moved or been removed. Is there anywhere they can still be found or are they lost forever?
 
Hey SF, I went looking for a few of your older galleries of Dolphin screenshots, like the Other M, Epic Yarn, DKC:R, etc. albums and they seem to have moved or been removed. Is there anywhere they can still be found or are they lost forever?

These are the most comprehensive. I did lose my random Dolphin dumping ground that had a couple of my old favs :(

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stallion_free/sets/72157634072421920/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stallion_free/sets/72157635470301411/

http://stallionfree.minus.com/me1tEhkjt

http://stallionfree.minus.com/m2mrG2Zli

http://stallionfree.minus.com/mLaH9mEyQ
 
It is absolutely criminal we didn't get that Rogue Squadron collection. The game still looks phenomenal, great art direction and technique. Factor 5 were programming wizards.
 
There any issues with Metroid Prime Trilogy on Dolphin? I remember when I ripped my copy on my Wii a long time ago it wasn't able to launch normally. You had to go into a separate menu thing in the USB loader and launch the games independently of one another
 
All of the REmake talk in the Remastered version's thread has got my attention, and after playing through REmake again I'm looking into playing RE2 and RE3 on gamecube via dolphin. Does anyone here have experience runnin these games in dolphin? Whats the best way to smooth out the backgrounds and make the game look a little better?

My recommendation would be to use SweetFx to apply some active film grain over the image as you play. a light amount can help with scaling artifacts a lot.
 
My recommendation would be to use SweetFx to apply some active film grain over the image as you play. a light amount can help with scaling artifacts a lot.
Hey, sorry to ask again, but would you mind sharing what build you're using to play Metroid Prime Trilogy?
 
Here is what is typically the best build for Metroid Prime Trilogy

https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-unofficial-ishiiruka-dolphin-custom-version
Ah yes, I'm aware that Ishiiruka is better for MP Trilogy, but I was wondering which exact build of Ishiiruuka you might be using. Sorry to trouble you, but I've been wanting to replay these games for a while and I think I've found a great build for it, but if you're having success with a different one then I'd like to test it out.
 
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