R3 running Dolphin Emulator

Was testing this out yesterday and today and so far I've ran 3 games, all of which I own.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl = near perfect speed with no AA or AF, minor graphical glitch after matches

New Super Mario Bros. = Perfect

Zelda = So far, perfect.

Here are two screenies I took with Zelda running. I have it set to progressive scan but it still outputs at 30fps...which is whatever.

I modified a sensor bar to have a usb end so it could be powered by the USB port on the laptop. The wires on the sensor bar are copper with VERY THIN plastic coating and apparently the positive and negative colors are reversed because I had to connect red wire on the sensor bar to black wire on the usb header and vice-versa. Could be a mistake as it was a Chinese clone sensor bar, dunno.

http://i56.tinypic.com/mwv1uq.jpg

http://i56.tinypic.com/34yeetx.jpg

 

That's great man. I just finished Mario Kart Wii on the emulator, gold in all races. No real issues there. I hate mapping buttons to my XBox 360 controllers though. I have thought about the sensor bar mod, but never done it.

 

Took me like 2 minutes to do it probably could have left the end on but what's the point? It's specifically for this.

Here's 4 more screenshots, these show you the AWESOME upscaling that this emulator can do. It's really a whole new experience when you look at the differences.

HiRes Picture 1

Spoiler

LoRes Picture 1

Spoiler

HiRes Picture 2

Spoiler

LoRes Picture 2

Spoiler

EDIT: Also tested Direct3D11 and I seem to be able to max out AA with a 15-20% speed hit only...Pretty good.

 

That's very cool. For those of us not in the know about Dolphin, what console games does it emulate?

The up-scaling on the graphics is amazing. I assume the original was intended for 480i or 480p television. Pretty impressive...

 

It is an emulator for Gamecube/Wii games.

If they added in WiFi support it would be over ^_^

That's the only thing that differentiates this from a real Wii.

 

I think it blows the real Wii out of the water. Your pictures are evidence of that. My wife and I used to play the 'real' Wii at 480p on a 52" flatscreen, and I thought "Oh, these graphics are kind of gross and jagged, but it's a Nintendo product". Then I heard about Dolphin, and that's when I actually sold my Wii to my buddy and his wife. I think it's weird that an emulator runs games more beautifully than the actual console. It's a must-have for anyone with a decent enough CPU.

 

@ Everyone in this thread:

What version Dolphin you using? And what are your graphics settings? I can't run Mario Kart Wii at 1080p on fullscreen without it lowering the fps from 55 to like 40fps... SSBB runs fine, but NSMB takes a hit on fullscreen also (1080p for everything). I usually play in windowed mode (640x480 or 800x600).

 

Latest Dolphin...I haven't tried MK:Wii

You are setting the FPS manually? I have it on Auto...Pretty much everything on Auto. AF at max, AA at None

 

I didnt know a computer could upscale wii games. I have a real wii, and I must say the image quality is not that good on a 42" tv. If my computer can improve that, I will give it a shot once it can start again.

1) Do I need to rip my wii discs or can I just insert the disc in the computer?
2) will my computer (specs in sig) be able to play in 1200p ress? If not what resolution could I expect?

Thanks

 

I could never get the music to work right with twilight princess. Are you sure it's perfect? Also, why is it not stretched fullscreen?

 

@Dookie: There's one setting that pretty much makes or breaks the frame rate for me. It's under OPTIONS>GRAPHICS SETTINGS. You'll see under that tab that you can copy to texture or RAM. If I'm not mistaken, having it set to RAM is more accurate, but kills your frame rate. Setting to TEXTURE will greatly improve your frame rate, but may cause some graphical glitches. Emulators are NOT for the faint of heart. You've got to be willing to accept the fact that it may never run like the real console, but you can get it close if you're patient.

@Simplified: This emulator is extremely CPU hungry. You'll hear the fan fire up to prove that. I can only attest to my current setup, but there's no harm in seeing how your CPU runs it.

@ttnuagmada: You can expect perfection up to about SNES/N64 emulators. Newer stuff is another ballpark. I actually have Twilight Princess and had no issues with sound that I can recall. Dolphin is a GC/Wii emulator. What's funny is that the Gamecube version has almost the same exact graphics as the Wii version. You should try both. The Gamecube version won't run in full screen. Maybe that's what you had. Here are two screenshots I just took of the same part of the intro movie. The wide one is the Wii version, the other is the GC version. They're nearly identical, but one is flipped it looks like.

 

No idea...the emu is handling everything though, no trickery here

 

In times like these I'm glad I bought the 2720 cpu. Extra cpu power always helps with emulators. And seeing new super mario bros in 1080p is SO DAMN SHARP. Sure there are some oddities like the floating coins not animating, but that's minor compared to the trade off. But yea, mario kart hangs around 40-45 fps. However if you turn the graphics down to 720 or native, you can up the speed considerably.

 

Every game I have ran so far has been either 30fps or 60fps

I will test Mario Kart in a bit...a bit pissed off about this optical port issue.

 

I have everything set to default (auto) with the exception of 1080p when fullscreen. Should I turn that down? Is there any other setting I can mess with to make it still look good but float around 55+ fps?

 

No, run it at full res. The older versions of Dolphin did benefit from manually setting the fps with the drop-down menu there, but now I just use 'auto'. Make sure to go in and check if you're copying to texture or RAM. That single setting can make or break your experience with Dolphin.

 

Do you use this current version that's available here? Download Dolphin

 

Yup. And that version there is even newer than the one I have. They update it a lot now.

 

Is there any way to get a wii controller working with it so you could use motion controls?

 

Ah ha! Downloading it now. Thx mang

 

I synced up my wiimote to dolphin and it worked just like that. Nunchuck tilt and shake motions all register.

 

Yes, but you've got to have the sensor bar. You can build your own, or get one off of eBay. I think they use USB or bluetooth. I just map the stuff to my XBox 360 controller, honestly.

Tutorial

Uhh, yeah. Apparently it's WAY easier than I thought. My laptop has bluetooth. Might give it a try.

 

If your BT is the same BT that we have in the R3s, then you prolly might not be able to get it working. Cuz a bunch of us have tried to get our PS3 remotes to sync, and nadda

 

PS3 controllers seem to be a much bigger hassle. But with the wiimote, it just syncs with the bluetooth you have built in. No need for extra software.

 

You just push the 1+2 buttons to put it into pairing mode and click the pair button, obviously you need a bluetooth adapter.

 

I built the USB power adapter in like 3 minutes

 

Yea, I've got bluetooth. I didn't know the wiimotes were bluetooth. If the emulator had wifi, it'd be amazing. Then we could play smash without ty wii wifi.

Is this legal? How do you get the roms?

 

You make images of the ones you own by using server software that hooks your game cube up to your PC. There is a lot more to it than that so just do a google search. There also may be better methods too.

 

Since the Wii itself isn't very powerful, how powerful of a machine would you need to run the emulator efficiently with some upscaling? Could one of the new iMacs do it? Or does it need to be a gaming machine?

 

Wii is actually pretty powerful even for today's standards. It isn't hardcore gaming grade technology like the POS3 or XBRICK360 but yea

It runs great upscaled on MY machine, some games stutter so anything lower I would not recommend.

 

Yea the 2720 CPU is also chugging along.fans kick in on high though. So the emulator must be squeezing the CPU to death. Runs grat otherwise in 1080. Just push the texture slider all the way to the right for speed.

 

Can you take a screenshot of where to push the texture slider? Can't seem to find it. Maybe I'm stupid or blind today... Thx mang!

Also:

Check your PowerPlay in CCC. Make sure it's checked (On). See if that works for ya. Otherwise, reinstall drivers and report back. Btw, what game are you playing that has such low fps, and are you playing it on fullscreen 1080p for (that game)?

 

Does dolphin run ISO's? Or do the wii games need to be in another format?

 

Yes it runs ISO's

 

My buddy has a new iMac and a 2010 Mac mini. Could he run dolphin on either?

 

Mac Mini probably not, that uses IGP, I believe.

The new iMac if it has a 6750 it should run at low settings.

 

That kicks soooooo much azzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

Yes, this emulator is nothing short of amazing.

 

The Wii isn't that powerful at all. Why should it require such high end hardware?

 

Not only is the emulator amazing, but so is the R3. I'm SOOOO impressed by 2011 computer technology. Although we may not necessarily have the absolute BEST laptops, I still feel very blessed to have invested in something that will surely last the next half decade or so

 

The Wii is actually very powerful but nothing ever takes full advantage of its power.

Plus, you are emulating a completely different architecture, PPC, on an x86 processor. A lot of processing has to be done.

 

Because you are basicly running a Wii inside a computer that has its own set of language that is different than how Wii games are coded. Which is the reason why you get sluggish performance on a computer and why it takes up so much resources. That poor computer of yours need to go through a whole lot of codes just for it to understand how it should do a simple task that it usually would do without a sweat.

 

Oh wow. That upscaling is absolutely incredible. I can't wait to get my hands on a new notebook (with a SB processor) and try it out for myself, I'd love to play Twilight Princess in high res.

Emulating console hardware often requires many times the power of the console itself because of the fact that they're completely different. The computer's processor has to emulate (i.e. act as) a completely different processor, sometimes of a different architecture.

 

Yeap, also needs the emulator itself to be properly coded. Look at the PS2 emulator. That's been out for A LONG time and it's still going through the tweaks. Haven't tried running it on the R3 though, but I'm sure our cpu will manhandle it just fine.

 

I can run a few PS2 games on my laptop with a comparitively ancient 2GHz Core 2 Quad. Consider that we've gone through several new generations of processor architecture making the current processors much faster clock-for-clock, and that these have TurboBoost (the PS2 emulator only runs on 2 cores), SB processors should tear through the PS2 emulator for the vast majority of games.

 

Just waiting on that PS3 emulator now, whenever that is.

 

...Trust me, even the latest, most powerful Extreme desktop processor running at twice its normal clocks with liquid nitrogen cooling, will be incapable of emulating the PS3 at any speed considered playable. It will be quite a few years yet before a working, playable PS3 emulator is out, let alone until processors are fast enough to emulate a game at normal speed.

 

Yeah the system requirements for a PS3 emulator would be insane

 

Don't go crazy, the PS3 and XBOX 360 are comparable to a LOW END GAMING machine these days.

 

Dolphin and PCSX2 run pretty well actually. Haven't tried any "hardcore graphics" PS2 games yet, but MvC2, Raiden3, Red Dead Redemption, TimeSplitters 3, and Initial D seem fine so far. Hovering at around 60fps too.