It's been a while since we last posted about the Dolphin Team's excellent Nintendo Gamecube and Wi emulator, Dolphin. But apparently the team have been steadily updating their emulator with the latest SVN builds.


Now on revision 7109, the latest update includes...

Changelogs:

• Dolphin SVN r7109
  • vs2010:
    • buildfix
    • move much of the build settings to .props files
  • please use them as much as possible in the future, instead of changing individual projects
  • NOTE: to avoid left over blobs, clean your builds *before* applying these changes.
  • TODO: add DebugFast target for projects that are lacking it. Lack of DebugFast targets cause the linker to use LTCG when we don't want it.
  • please test for regressions which could be caused by being too happy with compiler flags :)
• Dolphin SVN r7108
  • Defer texture invalidation to the video thread from the video configuration dialog. Should fix issue 4069
• Dolphin SVN r7107
  • Speed back to dolpihn: - Revert Read16 CPRead fifo hack for fix RE0. This hack only solve RE0 but brings slowdown in games like RE Umbrella, etc. - Move isFifoBusy again in the fifo loop and use s_fifoIdleEvent for AbortFrame. Note: if you can play RE0 only deactivate PanicAlert. These opdecoding error seems harmless. Some day this wiil be fixed in right way.
• Dolphin SVN r7106
  • Experimental commit: this is the base for a more complex dlist control code, is incomplete but i need some feedback.
  • With this code hashing is completely disabled for the dlists content itself this must bring some fps more but i must know if this causes any glitches.
  • i suspect that no game modify the content of the dlist so hash is time wasted but the only way to test it is with this commit.
  • please test as many games s you can and give me feedback for any glitch.
• Dolphin SVN r7105
  • some little fixes for dlist caching, maybe a little speed up but nothing great, please test for regressions.
• Dolphin SVN r7104
  • Reach over for Plugin_VideoOGL's copy of GLUtil.

Developer's note:

Dolphin is a Gamecube and Wii emulator. Most games run perfectly or with minor bugs. Games are playable at HD quality, up to 1080p. This is a remarkable feature the actual Gamecube and Wii consoles are not capable of. As an open source project everyone can commit improvements. The code is hosted on code.google.com. Dolphin is actively developed and almost every day new features are added and bugs fixed as well.

System Requirements

• Windows XP or higher, or Linux, or MacOSX Intel.
• Fast modern CPU with SSE2. Dual core for a speed boost.
• Any reasonable modern GPU with Pixel Shader 2.0 or greater. nVidia or ATI are good. Older integrated Intel chips may not work, newer ones should work fine.
• For more information, see http://forums.dolphin-emu.com/thread-4.html

Features

• Runs the following types of games:
• Gamecube Game Disc
• Wii Game Disc
• Wii Downloadable Games / Virtual Console
• Triforce Arcade games
• Action Replay Simulator
• Xbox 360 Controller support, with rumble (KB Plugin)
• Experimental NetPlay
• Anti-Aliasing, Anisotropic Filtering (OGL Plugin)
• Save states
• Memory Card Manager with GCI memcard export/import support
• Real and emulated Wiimote support
• Basic PowerPC Debugger and Log Window
• DSP HLE and experimental LLE
• Memory viewer and dumper
• PowerPC Just-In-Time recompiler
• WAD Support
• Some support for Homebrew and XFB Emulation
• Hi-Res Support, texture dumper, Free Look (OGL Plugin)

Overview

Dolphin is a Gamecube, Wii and Triforce (the arcade machine based on the Gamecube) emulator.
Gamecube compatibility is okay - lots of games work, many games don't work.
Wii compatibility is also good - a lot of games do work. Wii emulation generally requires a bit more computing power than Gamecube emulation, though.
Triforce compatibility is not really known yet, but at least one game runs, with minor glitches.

Usage Notes

• The GUI should be pretty much self-explanatory.
• To use Action Replay codes, follow the examples in the Patches subdirectory. Use + in front of a cheat name to activate it. The cheats can be named anything.
• To start in debug mode, pass /d (or -d) on the command line.