Dolphin - Emulating Wii and Gamecube Games

Why For? said:
Probably a stupid question, but I'm sure Nintendo is aware of Dolphin, so what are the chances the next Nintendo home console will do this to Wii and Gamecube games?

Because if Nintendo were charitable enough to implement this tech into the next console, my lord, I would go back and buy sooooooooooooooooo many more Wii and Cube games just to see them in proper 1080p.
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Why For?
Member
(02-16-2011, 08:08 PM)
 
shuffle2 said:
Just pointing out that ector is one of the original authors of dolphin...
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Oh really? then he should be painfully aware of the limitations of dolphin's High Level approach and why it would be absolutely fucking terrible if used as an official backwards compatibility solution (for those who require precedent, just take a look at the 360's BC).

Dolphin is great for a fan project, but at the same time it's only great because it is a fan project and can have the huge amount of free labour thrown at it that it absolutely requires (and even then it's still needs more). Unlike fan's, Professional Programmers expect to be paid for there work and Nintendo isn't going to pay for that many man-hours on a project that isn't even going to be profitable.
 
Why For? said:
Probably a stupid question, but I'm sure Nintendo is aware of Dolphin, so what are the chances the next Nintendo home console will do this to Wii and Gamecube games?

Because if Nintendo were charitable enough to implement this tech into the next console, my lord, I would go back and buy sooooooooooooooooo many more Wii and Cube games just to see them in proper 1080p.
Click to expand...


Yes am sure they are amazed at how well the games rez-up like the rest of us.

Chances of the next hardware BC taking the same approach - about the same level as having a "Other OS" option.

I just hope Nintendo R&D can build an HD system that does not RROD or YLOD this generation failure rate as been epically pathetic.
 
No_Style said:
Started this Dolphin thing and have a few questions:

  1. I tried Sin & Punishment 2 as my first test, but it was really slow. I didn't do much tweaking/adjusting yet, but I want to know if it was even a good choice?
  2. Should I be using the latest SVN builds or stable build?
  3. I'd like to try a game with high compatibility (minimal glitches, high FPS), what would you suggest?
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S&P2 isn't a game that has any particular problems, if your system is fast enough it should work perfectly. Normally the latest SVN version is a good choice, unless a recent change broke something you rely on -- but that only happens very rarely.
 
wii_HD said:
Yes am sure they are amazed at how well the games rez-up like the rest of us.

Chances of the next hardware BC taking the same approach - about the same level as having a "Other OS" option.

I just hope Nintendo R&D can build an HD system that does not RROD or YLOD this generation failure rate as been epically pathetic.
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I think Nintendo will be fine on that, they aren't ones to rush hardware to the market to such a degree.
 
Durante said:
S&P2 isn't a game that has any particular problems, if your system is fast enough it should work perfectly. Normally the latest SVN version is a good choice, unless a recent change broke something you rely on -- but that only happens very rarely.
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I guess my Core i5 @ 2.67 GHz (or 2.8 GHz when Turbo Boost kicks in) isn't cutting it. Was hoping not to dabble into overclocking again, but Dolphin may force my hand.
 
People are back to talking about creating a gamecube/wii emulator for consoles? Hah? I seriously doubt Nintendo's next gen effort will have anywhere near the horespower required if they're going to stick with the same price/performance strategy as the Wii.
 
Suairyu said:
People are back to talking about creating a gamecube/wii emulator for consoles? Hah? I seriously doubt Nintendo's next gen effort will have anywhere near the horespower required if they're going to stick with the same price/performance strategy as the Wii.
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Nintendo's next console with use an ARM SOC.

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST.
 
Ok. So I got the game running at near 60 FPS after tweaking some options, but any major explosion will send the framerate plummeting. The giant robot's death at the end of the tutorial was running at 7 FPS or so. I've already tried disabling Lighting, Fog and Alpha Pass, but no luck.

I'm guessing this is just the nature of things?

Edit: Essentially this. I admit that it's awesome though.
 
PataHikari said:
Dolphin is made by reverse engineering the system and haphazardly trying to get things to work properly.

Nintendo know exactly how their systems work and could easily write an emulator for it.
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One should logically think that, but history has shown that hardware are complex beasts which are hard to emulate completely correctly no matter the starting point. Sony has issues getting PS2 emulation to work. Sega regularly took externally developed "hobby" emulators. Nintendo regularly has issues emulating the SNES games containing special chips. Hardware manufactures can't even prevent different hardware revisions from behaving ever so slightly differently even though they should all act exactly the same. And so on. Emulation takes effort, and many "hobbyist" emulator developer have shown to persevere more than the "know all" hardware manufacturers.
 
This might have been asked 1000 times before, but what does everyone think the chances are that Nintendo's next system will be able to upscale Wii games like this natively? 1 in 1 million? It sure would be nice if they did something like that.

Also, is it even possible to easily do? Seeing all the problems the Dolphin emulator has with trying to run games, it tells me it isn't exactly easy.

I'm just curious of everyone's thoughts.


Edit: I'm sorry, everyone. I definitely feel foolish asking this after seeing the post directly above mine. I missed it. It pretty much answers most of my questions, and I can figure out from there that their next system probably won't do what we're looking for :p
 
Nabs said:
never had a waggle problem. in dkcr i just hold that shit down and it just waggles forever.
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Tenchu wants you very specifically waggle in one directions within a 1 second span. If you dont pull it off the guy, survives and your whole level is now down the gutter.
 
Krauser Kat said:
Tenchu wants you very specifically waggle in one directions within a 1 second span. If you dont pull it off the guy, survives and your whole level is now down the gutter.
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When you mentioned waggle, I just assumed the basic shake. There might be way to record inputs with your Wiimote and create a script for your 360 pad. I don't know much about that, sorry.
 
Luigiv said:
Oh really? then he should be painfully aware of the limitations of dolphin's High Level approach and why it would be absolutely fucking terrible if used as an official backwards compatibility solution (for those who require precedent, just take a look at the 360's BC).
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Nintendo's N64 emulation for Virtual Console uses every ugly HLE trick in the book and is indeed quite terrible (just look at the sound problem Majora's Mask has).

Dolphin has never used HLE for graphics, unless you call using the GPU to draw triangles HLE, and only uses it for audio because until recently the DSP chip wasn't reverse engineered enough. Now Dolphin has an LLE DSP emulation engine for 100% accurate DSP emulation (there may be a bug or two remaining but it's damn close). It takes more CPU than the HLE approach but that's unavoidable, again, no matter who you are.

Dolphin does have a number of timing issues and other bugs but it's extremely tricky to get everything right no matter if you're a hacker outside Nintendo or someone on the inside with all the hardware docs. Sure Nintendo could put a bunch of fulltime engineers on it but it would still take them quite a long time to reach Dolphin's level and a huge amount of work to surpass it. Looking at their N64 emulation efforts on Virtual Console I wouldn't be too hopeful.
 
Nabs said:
When you mentioned waggle, I just assumed the basic shake. There might be way to record inputs with your Wiimote and create a script for your 360 pad. I don't know much about that, sorry.
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I got it work almost perfectly. I just bound all the nunchuck and mote waggle directions to a single button, its makes it a lot easier. jump in for kill, press button for waggle kill.
 
Man, Tales of Symphonia is helped so much by some good SSAA and 720p. Unfortunately I couldn't get widescreen to work, nor could I get rid of the blur filter on the field.. but the battles look mind-blowing after playing on the Gamecube with no progressive scan for years.



GQSEAF-15.png


GQSEAF-18.png


 
PKrockin said:
Man, Tales of Symphonia is helped so much by some good SSAA and 720p. Unfortunately I couldn't get widescreen to work, nor could I get rid of the blur filter on the field.. but the battles look mind-blowing after playing on the Gamecube with no progressive scan for years.



http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt296/potassiumcyanide/symphonia/GQSEAF-15.png[IMG]

[IMG]http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt296/potassiumcyanide/symphonia/GQSEAF-18.png[IMG]
[/QUOTE]
I remember there being a way to remove/fix that radial blur in Tales...

Go to the [URL="http://forums.dolphin-emulator.com/"]dolphin forums here[/URL] and search for Tales of Symphonia and set it to search for 'tread titles only' you should find the fix in there, when you do, post it here so everyone else can know it.
[B]
EDIT:[/B] Found it. :lol

[IMG]http://www.abload.de/img/24387651qy2t.jpg

Just right click on the name of the game in the game list and enable the Tales of Symphonia Projection Hack, it will only load when Tales is loaded, as that menu is game specific. Enjoy!
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How constantly are you guys updating to the newest version of Dolphin? I haven't for around a month now, but I'm trying to keep updated as much as possible. It's so easy to fall behind and just assume this is as good as it gets. I'm still having audio problems with Donkey Kong.
 
Dolphin doesn't take up much space, so I keep every version I download and stick them in their own folder, and label them by revision. I also note a few of them for major changes, like I have one of them noted as being before they changed the plug in system, which at the time broke some games audio. I haven't updated in a few weeks, but that is mainly because I am not playing any game at the moment.

Also, since there is a new Junior rush, I can give a warning and some advice. Tread Emulation topics lightly.

Also, if you want a Gamecube or Gamecube ISO, use your Wii to Rip it. (PS2 games can be read right from the DVD if you wonder over to that topic, but Dolphin > PCSX2 IMO)
 
I just updated to 7168 that Nabs posted a link to a few posts up. It's amazing. The new option to set graphical settings on a per-game basis is a god-send. NO MORE MULTIPLE BUILDS YEAAAAA
 
^wait, really? that's fucking huge news, awesome! gonna save a lotta time when my system's back up & running.

PS any release date on dat Wii HD Y/N
 
So I'll be buying a new iMac as soon as the refresh happens (yes I know they aren't really ideal for gaming) and I was wondering if you think these specs would be enough to run most games at a decent frame rate?

These are predictions of the 'top of the line' specs btw

Intel Core i5-2500 (3.3/3.7GHz); option for Core i7-2600 (3.4/3.8GHz)
AMD 6950M with 1024MB GDDR5
8gig Ram

Still too slow?
 
It should be pretty good, though I don't really know how well Dolphin runs on OSx. I can say if that same machine was running Windows, Dolphin would run really well.
 
Drkirby said:
It should be pretty good, though I don't really know how well Dolphin runs on OSx. I can say if that same machine was running Windows, Dolphin would run really well.
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Great, I could run it in Bootcamp then. Hopefully the refresh happens soon, I want to play Twilight Princess in 1080p as it looks horribly blurry on my TV.
 
its sad no one gives a shit to emulate xbox that well. I have steel battalion, and it needs a higher resolution.

Almost at the end of tenchu, will have more screen shots tonight i think.
 
Krauser Kat said:
its sad no one gives a shit to emulate xbox that well. I have steel battalion, and it needs a higher resolution.

Almost at the end of tenchu, will have more screen shots tonight i think.
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Are you using a 360 controller now? If so, I thought the game used directional shakes for certain things, like for hiding in bushes and kill gestures. How did you map those out?
 
My machine:

CPU: Q6660
GPU: 9800GT
Ram: 5.00 GB
Vista Home Premium

Murasama work fine...but others like Galaxy 2 or Kirby look good but laggy...is my machine?
 
Relax.MX said:
My machine:

CPU: Q6660
GPU: 9800GT
Ram: 5.00 GB
Vista Home Premium

Murasama work fine...but others like Galaxy 2 or Kirby look good but laggy...is my machine?
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Your GPU will hold you back on resoruce intensive games. Also, you should probably overclock that Q6660.
 
Stallion Free said:
Your GPU will hold you back on resoruce intensive games. Also, you should probably overclock that Q6660.
Click to expand...

Believe me... I know .. but i not want to admit it :(

With 150 dlls can make acceptable progress? Recommendation? or wait for more money?
 
Willy105 said:
I have the game for Virtual Console, and I don't hear any sound problems. What are they?
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Sorry, confusing things. The Collector's edition version of the game for Gamecube, realized with an earlier version of Nintendo's HLE N64 emulator, has serious sound issues. They seem to have fixed it in the VC version.
 
Dascu said:
Are you using a 360 controller now? If so, I thought the game used directional shakes for certain things, like for hiding in bushes and kill gestures. How did you map those out?
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I mapped all shaking for wii mote and nunchuck to one button. So pressing it is akin to spazing out with the controllers. I lose the ability to do custom kills, but i always land every waggle motion before it even pops up. Made a gif of my sword fighting the big boobed chick, but i am sizing it down for the forum.
 
Sutton Dagger said:
Great, I could run it in Bootcamp then. Hopefully the refresh happens soon, I want to play Twilight Princess in 1080p as it looks horribly blurry on my TV.
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If you're able to, running TP in progressive scan on Wii helps a lot with the blurriness. That goes for a lot of games, but I've noticed Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime 3 particularly benefit from it.

You can find some cheap wires at monoprice.com. I know it's not really what you're looking for, but I'll throw it out there in hopes it can help.
 
I'm really tempted to try this.

Athlon Phenom x4 3.2 ghz
6 gigs of 1600mhz ram
ASUS ENGTX480 GeForce GTX 480 1536MB384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express card
and a shit ton of hard drive space.

Now, I'm ignorant about a lot of this stuff, and the stuff you guys have posted is astonishing. Is the big issue with nintendo hardware that it's MASSIVELY under powered? Because these screen shots look amazing. Granted, they're done with pretty new hardware, so I guess that's part of it, but what is the big game here? Is it just nintendo makes shit hard ware?
 
the best thing is to just try it. Its really hard for us to give estimation on performance.
2 Cores at more than 3ghz is a good starting point though.
 
Dumb question but how would I go about updating dolphin without having to manually drag saves, configs, etc to new version?

Also, anyone have a quick configuration settings list for Lost In Shadow they could drop me? Thanks in advance.
 
RoninChaos said:
Is the big issue with nintendo hardware that it's MASSIVELY under powered? Because these screen shots look amazing. Granted, they're done with pretty new hardware, so I guess that's part of it, but what is the big game here?
Click to expand...
No, it just means the hardware allows for geometry and textures which don't shine as well in SD resolution without AA compared to higher resolutions with AA.
 
Thanks for the configuration help here. You might want to update the guides as the interface has changed in the newer builds. I was having decent performance in Wind Waker, but with your guide it is now nearly flawless (1080p, 4xSSAA, 16xAniso) and looks beautiful. I shouldn't have had many problems with a 4GHz i7 and R5850.
 
Sorry if this has been asked before, but how dramatic is the performance difference between a Core i5 and i7 running at the same clock speed?
 
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