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Unable to Get the Audio Working in DOLPHIN 32bit


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Hey all. I had a chance to try out DOLPHIN for the first time a week ago and I was blown away. The video emulation was beautiful! I was testing it out with Twilight Princess and Wind Waker. (Big Zelda Nut!) I noticed I got about 30 FPS during the openings on both games, but this dropped to about 15 FPS during cutscenes and then slightly higher (15-20ish) during actual game play.

 

Needless to say I was more impressed than disappointed with the thing. I know it hasn’t been around for too long so I can’t wait to see how the Emulator evolves as time goes on.

 

The one thing I have been unable to get working is the sound. I am running the 32bit version and I noticed in many of the YouTube videos of people running Metroid Prime and Super Smash Bros. that they are running the 64bit version. I didn’t think that would make much difference except in how fast the program ran.

 

I can’t wait until a few months pass to see how this thing improves but for now I would love to be able to play a couple games at the lower framerate with sound at least. Has anyone else been able to get it up and running with the 32bit version. I read somewhere that it might be something to do with Zelda and the way those ROMs handle the audio, but didn’t have time to dig into it.

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I'm no expert but all(?) of the Nintendo titles use a different sound encryption type to 'normal' games. Thus no sound in Wind Waker etc. Apparently sound emulation for those games could be quite some time off :lol:

 

I only had the chance to try Wind Waker myself (64-bit) a few months ago and I was getting similar FPS to what you mentioned. The lack of sound just kills it for me though. I'm actually considering buying a cheapo second-hand GC again just to dig back into some of these titles.

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I'm no expert but all(?) of the Nintendo titles use a different sound encryption type to 'normal' games. Thus no sound in Wind Waker etc. Apparently sound emulation for those games could be quite some time off :lol:

 

I only had the chance to try Wind Waker myself (64-bit) a few months ago and I was getting similar FPS to what you mentioned. The lack of sound just kills it for me though. I'm actually considering buying a cheapo second-hand GC again just to dig back into some of these titles.

 

I hear ya man, I was fortunate enough to trade my sis a second xbox I had for her black Game Cube and several games awhile back. Ever since then I have held onto it and have Wind Waker sitting on the shelf.

 

I also have Twilight Princess on the Wii, but love my still love my GameCube.

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Too bad about the audio thing. Do you happen to know how those guys had it working in the YouTube videos? What you’re describing sounds like what I was reading about in that audio post.

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You would have known this if you've read one of the many faqs that are available for Dolphin and the Svn builds. I even include a basic faq with all my compiles that explains this for the most part...

 

Currently Zelda, Mario and other first party as well as possibly some third party Nintendo/Gamecube titles lack sound because the DSP chip/hardware lacks adequate documentation. Also Nintendo uses a special non AX sound format for their titles, so the dolphin team has to figure out how to properly decode and emulate this format.

 

Sound emulation for Dolphin is still quite poor with quite a bit of work that still needs to be done, just like with proper emulation of the graphics hardware, many games either have missing or corrupted graphics such as Mario Galaxy which also lacks sound like most other Nintendo titles. Also the same deal with the JIT core and TLB emulation, you'll find that many games will either randomly crash while playing or simply won't work because core emulation is still very much a Wip.

 

There are some games that will play without issues or many problems, but for the most part the best thing at this point of time is to have the actual hardware and games on hand just in case, since Gamecube/Wii emulation isn't at the point yet to be considered a viable alternative for the actual system.

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... I read somewhere that it might be something to do with Zelda and the way those ROMs handle the audio, but didn’t have time to dig into it.

 

Yeah, I think I mentioned that in my first post, but thanks for the extended details on the other parts of the Emulator. I'm excited to mess around with Dolphin even if it's not 100% because you look back years from now and think "I remember when Dolphin blah blah...". Kind of like remembering when Nesticle's sound emulation sucked. Oh wait, it still does. Hehe.

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With time things improve, you wouldn't think now that only two or three years ago people were barely able to achieve anything above 0.1 FPS or 1 FPS in the PS2 bios or PS2 games, that owned beastly systems back when PCSX2 was at version 0.8.1.

 

Now look at PS2 emulation, how far it's come, and most games are fairly playable on AMD64 x 2 processors, with the majority of them running full speed on a decent Core2Duo/Quad machine.

 

Same will happen with Dolphin and Gamecube emulation in time, but nothing immediate. As holds true with any emulator Dolphin may get up to a level that makes the majority of games playable with possible sound emulation but emulation of any system will never be a 100& perfect/complete. There will always be the random/odd compatibility issues with some games.

 

TLB emulation isn't currently viable with the hardware that is currently available, as it was mentioned that TLB emulation would slow performance down drastically if implemented. So some of the games that utilize TLB are able to work by using a TLB hack option built into the later revisions that gets these games working somewhat, but not without issues..

Edited by Xtreme2damax
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