NOW Dolphin Is The Best Emulator!!

Dolphin has been recently updated to allow for sharp pixel video output thanks to a new resampler setting. Needless to say it looks spectacular so I wanted to bring some attention to it.
Apologizes for some of the compressed footage in certain footage and desktop capture. I get it may make direct comparisons harder to see. I'm hoping to be able to capture 4K video some time in the near future when the funds allow for it.
Misc Links:
‪@Voultar‬
‪@JamesNintendoNerd‬
dolphin-emu.org/
‪@dolphinemuorg‬
Outro Song: Frogger (PS1) - Menu

[@samb7291]

Hey Mr.Welbig659, I am SamB, the developer who created and added Area Sampling. You have no idea how happy seeing this video makes me. I worked pretty hard with another developer to make sure that all of the resampling options were high quality and implemented correctly. Area Sampling was the one I created, which is in my humble opinion, the best way to upscale and downscale video. I was kinda bummed after adding it because it seemed like nobody was talking about it, but this video made my day. Thank You! The attention you brought to my feature makes me so happy. I have a suggestion for you to try, based on what you were saying about the textures and polygons not mixing. Try using B-Spline with 8x SSAA at native resolution. I have a feeling you _might_ enjoy it. Also if you are struggling with stuttering, try switching to "Hybrid Ubershaders," and if that doesn't work, try using VBI Skip in the hacks menu. Both of those should eliminate stuttering. Once again, I'm super happy you posted this. It means a lot that this feature helps you enjoy more games. Thanks!

[@Mr.Welbig]

Total game changer of a feature man!! Seeing the kind of video console modders were getting out of original Wiis and custom firmware was giving me MAD fomo. I was honestly shocked as well that the resampling wasn't getting any attention, as I noticed it also assists in reflection resolution too from what I read on the original update page. Thank you for those suggestions, I'll totally give them a try! The work you, and other emulator developers do, does more for the preservation and accessibility of retro games than most AAA publishers. Thank you so much for all you do in the emulation scene!

[@SToad]

Hey thank you for your contributions, this video made me want to play me some dolphin now after many years out of the loop.

[@Atttalie]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

[@checkoffgames]

My dude, thank you. You helped me play games without texture shimmering.

[@brkbtjunkie]

I wonder if it’s possible to implement sparse grid supersampling? It’s like SSAA except it’s a full scene anti aliasing solution that’s only available (by accident) on nvidia cards. Historically it’s only been for dx9 games.

[@fantasmashy]

dolphin is one of the great inventions of humanity just because of the input configuration

[@Yoshizuyuner]

gamecube what made dolphin, even a thing so nintendo help made the dolphin in some way

[@tygical]

THIS

[@finkamain1621]

Even supports Xbox One controller's trigger vibrations that even most Xbox One games didn't even support

[@leohuangchunwang]

Dolphin is my favourite controller test app, I haven't played a game on Dolphin in a while but I always install it on every computer just to have a way of troubleshooting controller quirks

[@roilo8560]

I wish dolphin worked with my Wii remotes but it only seems to work with the original ones

[@NigelMelanisticSmith]

If Dolphin's old output was noticeably worse for you, I can't imagine how little of a fan you are of modern game's TAA blurring lol

[@2fernandoc1]

I'm fine with Dolphin's old output (I didn't even know there was a difference), but yeah I absolutely despise TAA blur.

[@BBWahoo]

Dolphin used TAA!?

[@Gestersmek]

​@@BBWahooAs far as I know, Dolphin never did. They have MSAA and SSAA, and even a FXAA shader, but I don't think they ever had TAA in any form.

[@metrizans]

As someone who basically shares the same opinion as this video, can confirm. TAA is... not a bad anti-aliasing method, but gosh do I personally hate the look. Smeary as hell.

[@fgxraven]

Yeah todays TAA Standard is a mess. Especially forced TAA gaming on PC. I really enjoyed this Video! Wish you a wonderful Christmas time

[@Arcad3n]

I’ve been trying to set up my now perfected reshade crt shader with dolphin, and not being able to display the sharp pixels hurt the result a lot. Thank you for making me aware of this update!!!

[@rodneyabrett]

Important to note that a lot of assets for PS1/PS2/N64/Gamecube, etc. where designed to be viewed with the native resolution in mind and sometimes scaling the image actually breaks the art and leaves a bad first impression for those playing it for the first time this way. Perfect example of this is Waverace on the N64 where upscaling the image breaks the illusion of the displacement deformation of the waves directly around your jet ski blending with a 2d texture animation on a flat ground plane further away. Upscaling sharpens the deliberate blur at the transition line. Because at the time, polygons were sort of an extention of pixel art, but in 3d. Since a lot of the lighting was baked in. The 2d pixels on a texture map are designed to blend with the matching resolution of the pixels that make up the polygons so you are 100% correct about the pixel mismatch in resolution. Especially for PS1 3d models which is why upscaling a lot of PS1 games looks like shit.

[@SpookyDollhouse]

This is why I like avoiding upscaling altogether and simply opt for best hookup methods to a CRT or my regular flat TV with CRT filters.

[@TruTrae]

This is why I usually just upscale most PS2/GameCube games to 720p, it looks a lot sharper than 480p but it doesn't completely break the art.

[@user-vi4xy1jw7e]

​@@TruTraeUpscaling makes it look bad though!

[@Mvtarvs]

Yeah, playing halo 2 in 1080p is like a kick in the balls

[@Cade_The_Squirrel]

Super Mario 64 literally used photos for many textures, what the fuck are you talking about?

[@RegalPixelKing]

I'm one of the those people who plays their games on Dolphin at 8k, a widescreen hack, 60fps hack if the game has it, and a texture pack if it has one. That's simply my preferred way to play these games. Instead of waiting for a remaster, I effectively get to have my own personal remaster for whatever GameCube or Wii game I want because of this emulator. I can respect and understand why you want to experience you games the way you do though. This is still a great feature of Dolphin for those who wish to get sharper pixels at native resolution.

[@flayncel]

I love how emulation allows us to all experience games the way we want, it's pretty great. Even aside from visual experience, mods and cheats to fix little annoyances with games is also so awesome. Replaying Xenoblade 3 recently and there were basically 3 issues I had with the game that were just annoying and didn't ruin the game, but oh my god it still feels so good to make the game just perfect for me

[@davidspraguedragonman6479]

And they allow you to replay games that you may have lost from your childhood or if you already have 100% on one save file, but you only have one save file to use without deleting it (like with Super Smash Bros. Brawl), and so you don’t have to get rid of your hard-earned progress that you may have taken *years* to accomplish and be proud of, and then you can experience the joys of that progression all over again! It also allows you to be able to play games that were maybe only released in one area, like Japan or France, and with English patches (or a patch for whatever language you speak fluently in, if the patches for that language exists), you’d be able to get past the region lock and not have to spend potentially hundreds of dollars on a console for that particular region, only for you to not be able to fully enjoy the game on the actual console, due to not understanding the language! And being able to play some games with a controller that can connect with the PC, laptop, or phone that you use that simulates playing on the actual hardware can feel REALLY authentic!

[@SnoozeNLooze]

DITTO!

[@maxelkjaernersting]

I think the resampling mode looks very charming. Good video.

[@TFSned]

I get not wanting to play in HD since it makes low res textures and UI more apparent, but I'd at least enable super sampling. I'm not nostalgic for jaggies at all, I hated them at the time and still do. Super sampling is perfect for games like Resident Evil Remake because the CGI-like quality makes the characters actually look like part of the same world as the mansion, not just drawn on top of it. Anisotropic filtering is also fantastic. The Gamecube and Wii's texture filtering was alright for the time but without AF textures become extremely blurry from a distance or at a sharp angle. Even with no other enhancements, 16xAF will make you think you've installed a texture pack, but it's really just doing a better job at mapping the original 2D textures into 3D. Playing the Prime Trilogy on Wii and again on Dolphin made me realise how much detail was in those textures that I never saw unless I'd put the camera as close to them as possible.

[@2fernandoc1]

Sonic Colors, Sonic Unwiished, and even the Xbox 360/PS3 Sonic Unleashed have surprisingly high quality textures, but you can barely tell due to the mediocre (and in the HD Unleashed's case, awful) Anisotropic Filtering.

[@nyanpasu64]

Prime's lava looks noticeably _worse_ at high resolutions because it's using higher-resolution mipmaps making lava look too dark and rocky, whereas the original game used low res textures and a lower-res mipmap at an angle, making lava look smoother.

[@Josuh]

@@2fernandoc1 gotta love how Unwiished has become a valid term to refer to Unleashed Wii by now lol

[@2fernandoc1]

@@Josuh It's funnier where you find out there's somehow a PS2 version that looks like a PS2 game that's still in development from 1999.

[@Josuh]

@@2fernandoc1 PS2 Unleashed can legit freeze in the credits screen, I don't know why they felt the need to make a PS2 version at all but it sure exists in this world now

[@Nintendrew]

Great video! I'm personally one to crank up my resolution to max and install an HD texture pack if available, but I'm glad there's a new option for folks who want a crisp and authentic experience. Btw, regarding your issue at 7:13 , you should be able to edit per-game configs using the GameINI file within each game's properties. I did that for what felt like almost every GC game for a 4K GameCube PC I built years ago. Cheers!

[@Mr.Welbig]

Hey thanks! There's no accounting for taste, but it's always nice to have options. I chose not to mention fan texture packs as, respectfully, I don't like most of them. Yeah several have mentioned editing the GameINI file which I genuinely didn't know about so I may give that a look. Take care!

[@Piano_Board]

for me, i'd rather just put the resolution on native with no texture pack, for me its just the FPS

[@mechadeka]

@@Piano_Board How old is your PC that it can't handle resolution increase in Dolphin of all things?

[@SimpIeton1]

​@@mechadeka You missed the whole video you're commenting on

[@ILostMyOreos]

Great perspective, thank you for sharing this video

[@Nitroxity]

As much as I adore my Swissed, ODE-ed Cube, the resampled Dolphin footage at 4:4:4 color resolution feels like a way bigger upgrade to the original system's 4:2:2 output than internal resolution upgrades ever could. No more bleeding reds in some of my favorite games is really enticing me into diving into Dolphin more, especially since I have a 1440p monitor and thus can get a 3x horizontal scale, no interpolation needed :)

[@max_unch]

Thanks for the news! Looks pretty cool!

[@vidguy2004]

Great video! Very informative!

[@Protagulous]

Good Video. I like how thorough you are with comparing the picture output between Dolphin and other hardware. However, there is one thing to note about the "Increasing the internal res in Dolphin makes the native res textures stick out like a sore thumb" point that you made. Mario Sunshine, (the game you centered the video around) has a beautiful 4K texture pack with faithfully recreated 2D assets of essentially the entire game. Combine that with the internal res raised to 4K, maybe some anti aliasing cranked up, and you have the most uncompromised experience. Now it's true that a lot of GC games don't have this treatment yet, but many do, and I'm sure most will over time. Anyway, thank you for reading!

[@lade2336]

having A option is better than NO option

[@Supersayainpikmin]

I always thought really sharp pixels for 480p sources were kinda overrated, BUT, I absolutly love that this is a new option. I feel like games looking correct and given lots of options at native res should be a priority for emulator authors. I feel like a lot of times when I increase the resolution of a game on Dolphin, some elements may not render correctly, so it's important to fall back to native res in those circumstances, so I'm glad people that prefer GCN era games to look like this finally have this option. I like the "Smooth" option on the RT5x so how it looked before on Dolphin was perfectly acceptable to me (and I'm glad you broght up the 1:1 scale in Swiss... More people need to know about that).

[@rodsk8dude731]

Running the game as close to original as possible is the best way to play. It's why I play Gran Turismo 2 on Duckstation at only 2x, just enough to compensate for how close I am to the screen... ...and with the GT2+ mod.. ..with widescreen cheat obviously.. ...and a 60fps cheat running with overclock.. ..and metric system codes, except I deleted the lines for torque because I find it easier to understand in imperial.. and using dev mode 4x ram hack and cheat to use it for increased draw distance plus full detail LODs for AI cars in every distance including in HUD mirror, with a code to enable it in third person.. ..and a code to fix an endurance event that should be time based but was still a bit off in how it worked, plus fixing a track that was replaced in the track list by a 2-player simplified version of another one in random track events.. ...I guess maybe I don't actually play it that close to the original. Maybe like if it had been a cross-generation release with an improved PS2 version?

[@kobwmoose]

It's awesome how there's many options for how people want to play old games, from the original hardware and CRT, to niche little setups that people enjoy.

[@BrapStephens]

Your setup looks awesome! I'd love to see a living room tour!

[@Templateideas097]

I didn't realize how much I liked those visuals.

[@Chapmike]

2:04 Sharp pixels have never been part of the OG experience, this is an illusion that just brings you fake nostalgia that never existed in the first place.

[@Anthestudios]

Exactly! I was confused by that as well. The GameCube was meant for displays which worked in terms of lines, not pixels. If anything, the blurrier, fuzzier image is more 'accurate' as it is philosophically closer to the phosphor blending you'd get on a CRT.

[@aeroburger]

I wonder how this will look on Steam Deck... I'm intrigued

[@VerboseToast]

Great video! You have far better diction and delivery than a lot of similarly-styled videos. Nice work

[@Mache.]

Dolphin has been a very, very reliable emulator for years. I remember emulating 100% accurate Melee and Brawl on a Core 2 Duo with 2GB RAM and NVidia 8500 GT in 2009, it wasn't even that good of a PC back then. The compatibility was just that good.

[@leonardomatheus1888]

Dolphin is by far, the best emulator of the 3d era.

[@dan3odst]

Great video!, i might try dolphin now! it been years since i last played on it and sure looks great now

[@monowavy]

so crisp!! this is awesome!!

[@Samurai_Oni]

dolphin is my way to go to catch up and play most of the games i missed back in the days nice video btw :)

[@stevenshockley4237]

Dolphin is legendary. Got a mini PC earlier this year and I've used Dolphin more than anything else. Even Steam, Ryujinx, etc. It's been the best to me. Netplay, the Super Mario Sunshine community, it even has a real dark mode now!

[@gewdvibes]

I’ve never seen someone say they prefer 30fps over 60fps in a game lol that’s insanity

[@GoldenBeholden]

I never considered a perspective such as yours, but you conveyed it very succinctly. Native resolution does nothing for me, but I get where you're coming from.

[@Kurriochi]

Hey, you could already have sharp bilinear and have integer scaling with the "integer scaling" post processing effect. Right now, integer scaling is broken with the output resampling so if you want to use it, you can just use the sharp bilinear filtering within the integer scaling post processing effect.

[@johnnytacosauce]

Dolphin is my main emulator the devs put in some work on that thing, nice video i enjoyed it !

[@blsof8bc]

Good review!

[@cheater00]

wow, great video, lovely to see it

[@nicolasarias9873]

good video!!! tho now im curious, how do you use your wiimote with dolphin? do you actually use a usb bar or not?

[@gnbman]

I find the juxtaposition of HD display resolution and low-res textures very charming.

[@YaBoiJoosh]

A beefy PC is only really necessary if you wish to up the resolution which a lot of people might not care for. I used to run Dolphin on a really low end laptop, I started using the emu back when I was 15, my main reason for using it was due to me not being able to handle PCSX2 at the time, I'm nearly 23, I'd say both emulators have come far, especially the PS2 emu with its performance and interface, and also the profile feature they added with the redesign. I eventually got a PC for Christmas around the age of 17 perhaps, it wasn't a terrible pc but also not the best, but it was able to handle everything I wanted to play on it, the performance was basically flawlessly. Skipping to the present day I now have some decent parts in my PC, which don't really make a difference to how I run Dolphin, although somewhere in the background it probably does help. Thanks to upgrading my CPU I'm able to play a lot more stuff on RPCS3, which is honestly the main reason I bought the ugprade (blame The Simpsons Game for this one). I'm not gonna lie tho, I haven't updated Dolphin in a good while, probably kept the same version for about a year due to the auto updates not working properly on my end, but at the same time I wasn't too bothered by it, as I knew Dolphin already has amazing performance. As of typing this, I'm currently on version 5.0-17738. Also had experience in the past with the stable 5.0 although I don't remember much of it, I've heard others say it isn't great for a lot of games, I've also heard the devs are never gonna update to 6.0, which that's enough of a recent to switch to beta or dev builds. Either way tho, definitely agree with you, Dolphin is one of the best emulators to exist, it's so easy to use and setup and then when you wanna play a game you don't have anything to stop you, other emus require more tweaks with the settings, or an emu like Yuzu can work just fine out of the box for most games.

[@KisutoJP]

Super interesting! I definitely agree with wanting to make the games look as close to how it was intended to look, whilst increasing it's quality. Best is when you get the sharpness but then use CRT filters to smooth out the edges more organically. I don't love crisp pixels in 2d games - but 3d for sure. It matches the lower resolution texture output.

[@mr.electronx9036]

That's why I also use the 480p signal on VGA CRT and it looks crazy sharp

[@VoidSinister]

I love running old GC games at 1440p with 8x MSAA, makes it nice and clean

[@AlbedoAtoned]

I'm pretty sure Dolphin DOES have per-game settings (maybe it doesn't have all settings?). I just checked and when you right click on a game, if you select Properties, the very first tab on the window that pops up is the game specific settings. The main settings that you can change apply to all games, but the ones in the per-gam properties window overrides those settings. You can even edit the the ini file from this window. For gamecube, you don't necessarily need an actual gamecube controller, any controller with analogue triggers will work just fine. For instance, I use an 8-bit do controller that has hall-effect sticks that are much less prone to stick drift. In the 2.4ghz mode it acts like an xbox controller so the triggers are analogue and imo much more comfortable than the GC's triggers. It would probably work in some Wii games too, since the bluetooth mode, while lacking analogue triggers does have gyro. I don't know why the dolphinbar didn't work for you. I've used one for years, once the wiimote was synced up with it, I was able to get it to work immediately in Dolphin. I even found out that a dolphin bar technically works on android as well. One of my earliest tablets I could connect a wiimote to directly, and I would use a classic controller connected to the wiimote to play retro games on the tablet. My more recent tablets apparently don't work with the Wiimote's bluetooth stack and would need to be rooted. However, on a whim I checked what would happen if I used the Dolphinbar as a middleman and it worked. I never tested Dolphin itself on the tablet, but I mainly only played older snes or gba games on it, and now a days I just use my Steam deck for that stuff anyway. On the visuals, more power to you. I'm of the opinion that if cranking up the resolution doesn't introduce visual bugs, I will crank it up. Things may look a bit uneven to some, but I'd rather some of the game look like ass than all of the game look like ass. This is a bit exaggerated, because I personally don't really see a lot of those textures as looking bad even if the game is rendered at a higher resolution. Dolphin allows texture hacks anyway and I am sure there is already at least 1 or two HD packs for a game like Mario Sunshine. Furthermore, with the plethora of remasters that are little more than just cranking up the resolution and MAYBE upscaling textures a bit that people are more than happy to pay nearly full price for I don't see why it isn't on the table when using emulators. It's convenient, it's free. Same with 60fps hacks. Outside of bad framepacing or bugs with physics or other issues from things being tied to framerate, a higher framerate is always better, especially if you need more reaction timing like with actiion games.

[@VTRcomics]

As someone who grew up with the N64, GCN, & Wii, mimicking original hardware alongside running everything on a rather low spec macbook was a *top* priority for me. As a matter of fact, Dolphin was so well optimized that I was able to play Brawl's various mods in highschool during lunch or afterschool while waiting to be picked up. Now, several years later, it remains a very nostalgic emulator ironically enough because it was how I played some of the games I've always seen and wanted but could never afford, even though at first it was just my way of playing games I already had but didn't know where my old consoles were. It's very validating to hear others who have my preferences regarding uncanny performance but understands the difference in tastes and just is boasting the pure fun that is running Dolphin on a potato to play some classic video games.

[@Goat-on-a-Stick]

Great video. As a fellow retro gamer, I love your dedication to the original style. In that sense, perhaps there's an idea for a video for you. What do you think about these new "pixel art" games cropping up now? How are the bad ones failing to see the charm in 2d pixel art graphics? What are the good ones doing right? Why are people seeing the charm now in something so dated? What's your take? What's your experience with good and bad pixel art both from the past and the future? Anyways, just a thought. Take care and keep on gamin.

[@TibbyII]

Great video, I get why you'd prefer resampling but upscaling will always be the go to for me

[@potatonugget6547]

The frogger music was so instantly nostalgic. Been way to long since I played that game.

[@TomTier64]

Is there any chance you could run through your set up? I find it tricky to get everything set up for easy access and would love to see your approach!

[@reanimationxp]

i had no idea the wiiu USB adapter was a thing, thank you!

[@tita4359]

I’m so glad I stumbled on this video. I had no idea. I was playing the twin stick shooter idracula Wiiware version on dolphin and was sad cuz even in 4k, the 2D art looked like a blurry mess. Just downloaded the update, turned on area sampling and now it looks crispy and sharp🎉

[@abt01]

great video man! I was wondering if you have any specific things you do to get videos like these to blow up, videos that dont have very searchable titles (like dolphin emulator probably isn't something trendy right now or something that a lot of people search for) I also make content so I was just wondering

[@Nin10doh98]

I always assumed Dolphin had per-game configs. I mean, that’s why there’s a bunch of INI files with (I assume to be) game ID names, right?

[@jomjohns]

Sorry I'm just stuck on "20 years of active development." I start thinking, the Gamecube hasn't even been out that long... wait....

[@shyguy85]

Oh my god

[@shyguy85]

I was born after gamecube and thats still tripping me up wtf

[@angel_of_rust]

time only looks long when you look at it in retrospect

[@AuntieAliasing]

I render my emulated 6th-gen and Wii games (and PC games meant for 480 lines) at 4K and use Reshade CRT-Royale with a scanline setting of 4 to effectively downsample them to 480p within a high-detail CRT mask. This way everything looks pristine with no aliasing to speak of, but it also doesn't reveal the flaws. I also do the same thing with PPSSPP but with a scanline width of 7 instead. dgvoodoo2 paired with Reshade CRT-Royale can also be used this way, due to its ability to scale output of extremely old 4:3 PC games to a 4K 16:9 window, adding black bars so you can have that extra resolution to play around with CRT-Royale within, adding curvature and whatnot

[@Valientlink]

By the summer of 2008, whatever version that was, probably 2 point something if your specs were high enough you could run a lot of GC and Wii games at full speed. Specs like that were extremely pricey back then though.

[@AzaiaMonota]

I like how in the thumbnail the before looks better than the after

[@psionx1]

note some games like zelda wind waker have texture packs you can apply to make things look better combine with dolphins upscaler. that said if you want to use wii remotes finding a good bluetooth adapter and booting up batocera seems to be the way to go. you can salvage the dolphin bar by flashing custom firmware that adds a LED only mode.

[@Deenyoro]

I would love to see a video going over how you did the setup at 5:20. How do you mirror the outputs across the CRT and your scaler and not introduce input lag?

[@Mr.Welbig]

All my primary retro consoles use SCART. I debated grabbing a GSCART Switcher but they are just so expensive and hardly available. An AV manufacturer, ANI-AV, sells a high quality SCART splitter: www.ani-av.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=206 When I first bought it, it was $95. But I bricked it after using a wrong AC adapter after doing some reorganizing. They're not cheap, but for the $150 I last payed for one, it's worth it to play on a CRT, and record sharp pixel output for videos. As CRT filters don't look very good with KZbin compression.

[@dremcfleuve]

Talk about weird preferences. I have my SNES hooked up on a CTR with S-Video and it has a composite output on the back so I can compare both on two separate screens while I play.

[@lostsaves]

Hell yeah! I'm a native res emulator guy, too, so I'm glad to see this

[@Mrtyjr]

I gotta say the picture on the left on the thumbnail looks better than on the right. The slight blur hides the severe pixelation. While it doesn't remove the pixelation it does soften it.

[@Tom-yz3op]

Dolphin needs retroarchivments

[@SynnekoNya]

6:00 "Wireless MY ASS!" that caught me off guard because I said the exact same thing when I heard you and saw that picture hahahah

[@redpilgrim6763]

That Frogger he's back intro music got me so nostalgic

[@Mr.Welbig]

;)

[@ddnava96]

The thing about the DolphinBar is that you connect the Wiimotes to it, not the PC. If you connect your Wiimote to the PC, the DolphinBar won't turn on

[@brohemian]

I remember using candles instead of a wii bar

[@GiSWiG]

Hey, got another sub! Gota like that YT algorithm (sometimes). I have an HDMI modded Wii with the AV kit you showed, an HDMI modded GameCube and a Wii U. I'd say just stick with the Wii U to save a buck, the Wii HDMI mod for fun (have a replacement shell handy, I like my smoke clear with the white buttons and tray slot from the original white case). Now I've only tested using a 4K TV so far but I plan to test on an older 1080 TV (but having fun with my new Analogue Pocket for now). GC and Wii both use GCVideo as the HDMI adapter so the quality is the same. I find that the scanlines feature works nice on the Wii. You're still pushing 480p regardless so you will not get hard pixels when the TV upscales from 480p to 4k. There is of course the RetroTink 4k but that is a little pricey. I have tested using an mClassic but it converts the signal to 1440p and my 4k TV just doesn't work well with 1440p (Samsung Q60). It also ruines the scanline feature of the GC Video. The Wii U gives the best quality output. GC with widescreen hacks is awesome. No need to demand an F-Zero GX remaster. I'm sure that all systems might look best on a 1080p TV or maybe a 4K with a good built-in upscaler. The RetroTink 4K is a bit pricey and I hope that they make an HDMI only version but probably not likely. Pixel FX is supposedly going to release an HDMI upscaler device but the projected price is about $500. I also recommend using adapters by Mayflash that adapt GC controllers, including WaveBirds, to connect to the Wiimotes. I haven't totally tested latency vs. the wired USB adapter but I bet that is the better way to go. BTW, the Mayflash USB Dolphin bar on PC actually works great with Dolphin and I totally recommend it. I didn't have to go through the whole button mapping process, Wiimote sync using the bar w/o issues and classic controllers work great.

[@cangel8563]

That's an interesting point of view, I'm more of uping resolutions a bit like most. I love modding too, it gives a new life to the original hardware.

[@manoftherainshorts9075]

I'd absolutely love to see that thing works.

[@shipsey2]

I just started dabbling in emulation and I just tried dolphin today it works so good I can't wait to set up my emulation box in the living room my dream is coming soon just need to find the right PC case to run everything

[@kylespevak6781]

Dolphin covers two systems, has great UI, and works on pretty low specs

[@avasam06]

Actually it covers 3, since it comes bundled with mGBA. You can boot actual GBA roms in Dolphin. And that's without talking about Virtual Consoles games (which are still technically Wii games)

[@kylespevak6781]

@@avasam06 Honestly, please tell me more. I was curious (and figured) there had to be Gameboy Player emulation... that's mGBA, correct? & how do you go about channels in Dolphin? I've hacked a few Wii in my time, installed channels and custom injected ROMs, but I've never experimented through Dolphin or knew if it was possible

[@M_CFV]

per game controller config support is abysmal, having to edit a notepad file and look at their wiki is ridiculous. The UI could use a TON of work, when you compare it to the features yuzu, ryujinx, rpcs3 and pcsx2 have it feels lackluster and at times extremely frustrating. Per game controller configs are important and vital for wii and gamecube

[@thechugg4372]

Having been here in 2014, hearing Dolphin works on low specs is the most hilarious and unbelievable shit

[@avasam06]

@@kylespevak6781 i wrote two detailed answers, one with link and one w/o. Now I can't see any 🤔 But basically you're correct about GBA, and I don't remember the details on how to get channels.

[@cesarfranku]

I´m happy to know that this update was big news to all the retro pixel lovers.

[@chaosangel42]

idk why youtube threw this vid my way but 1) thanks for making it and 2) it's refreshing to see a video with someone that has the same emulation priorities I do, instead of one of hundreds touting how to make every game 4k 60fps plus widescreen

[@SonGoku-tp8gb]

Do the dolphin sensor bars from Amazon work well? Do they work with 3rd party remotes or only official Wii remotes?

[@MINI_91]

Besides preserving gaming history and allowing players to bypass the insane prices on the second hand market; the beauty of emulation is the ability to tune the games to look and play the way you prefer. Emulators are amazing and they should be protected at all cost.

[@geeknproud321]

For me what made Project 64 finally usable is when GlideN64 became the default video plugin and Rogue Squadron and Battle for Naboo finally became playable. Those were some of the last major holdouts for the console and really the key to cracking the code. The same happened for Gamecube as Dolphin finally got Rebel Strike playable only in recent times and with the best CPUs, but playable nonetheless.

[@Sword420]

Good outlook. Happy gaming everyone!

[@Kage5868]

Good point with resampling you preserve the original art plus sharper image with no performance loss, you get best of both worlds

[@Elazam]

The fact that Dolphin is 20 years made me feel really old. Recently started using it on my phone and love it!

[@98SE]

What is your outro music? I love it.

[@crestofhonor2349]

My personal favorite way to play Gamecube and Wii is to play on a VGA CRT at 480p. Looks incredible

[@samueljackson3044]

El proceso de dolphin realmente ha sido muy bueno, juegos que antes iban relentizados o simplemente no corrían, ahora van más fluidos y los que no corrían, corren, lento pero corren, llegando incluso a poder subir la resolución a los que van perfecto (tengo cpu y gpu integrada.

[@captainfach]

I definitely pick and choose what I want to upscale with my emulators. Maybe I'm weird but I love how duct station looks at Native resolution with the CRT filter. I also think it's so weird that no other emulator has a CRT filter like Duck station where it not only adds the scan lines that look way more realistic on there, but it also warps the screen to make it look like a CRT

[@Ryan-Bell]

Not a fan of shaders that add screen warps, personally. I always try to turn it off if I can. I’ve always been a fan of just the sharp pixel perfect visuals for the PlayStation 1, even though a CRT would’ve masked that up. It’s true what people say about the games being designed around the limitations of a CRT, but I love those pixels nonetheless. Nintendo 64 specifically needs a CRT filter to look good though. That console looks too muddy without it unless you disable the console’s own bilinear filter and anti-aliasing, but then that’s just losing accuracy.

[@Crysto]

A lot of games like Sunshine have 4K texture packs you can download and import that make all of those hud textures 4k so you can play the game at high resolution better than nintendo did in 3d all stars

[@c_o_m_e_t_]

I'm, sure you already know about this, but do note that you can install custom texture packs for a lot of games that up-res the UI textures. I've really enjoyed using the Animal Crossing pack in particular.

[@huntertrongamesmusic]

it defiantly is down to user preference and user needs, everyone has a different itch when it comes to how they want to play their games. i pretty much sit in the middle, basically i like using emulators to get the most out of my games through the special enhancements, but there is always a itch to go back to original hardware. for example if i want the rawest purest vanilla gameplay i can get i will go to the original console, but lets give an example like with the WiiU with GC games. sometimes i like to play on original hardware, but with the few enhancements. in which the WiiU with Nintendo actually does offer a widescreen hack, i think its mostly cause of how the WiiU handles things in vWii mode differently compared to how the Wii handles GC games, allowing to change how things are rendered. like its the best way to play sonic heroes in my opinion if you want to play on a console to have the benefit of what the console port offers while having widescreen and having a much better view of everything like how you can do on with the PC version with a 16:9 monitor. overall still down to user preference and needs, just saying that i sit in the middle and like to balance all of it

[@bellisperennissturdivant]

great vid, retro gaming for life

[@mintycandyyumyum]

Old games had masterful artists that intentionally used the low resolution and CRT monitor's scanlines to boost their visuals. I dislike games like Mario Sunshine at 4k Res 60fps because it starts to be inconsistent and have a lot of things that use to look fine start to look hideous and stick out. It wasn't intended for it, it gives that same ugly inconsistent loss of direction that AI-Upscaled-Anime-60fps causes. Sunshine looks perfect in its original form, and these new changes are respecting those original visuals and do a good job. Love the resampler update.

[@FilippoTarpini]

Have you tried the "Color Correction" feature? An emulated gamma of ~2.35 should make the experience closer to CRT TVs.

[@TwilightWolf032]

Dolphin is so good, it make me sad to use emulators for other consoles and not have all of its features. T^T The Dolphin devs sure spoil us. Just a headsup, you can grab USB Sensor Bars for very cheap anywhere in the world. I got mine in Brazil, works just like the Wii Sensor Bar, except it has a USB connector to plug to the computer. Never had any problems.

[@Mr.Welbig]

Yeah I ended up nabbing a USB sensor bar. I read they may not be as accurate from having fewer LEDs in them, but I sit pretty close to the TV so I don't think it's much of an issue. There wasn't any problems using it for the footage here. If anything i'm thinking of shelfing my Wii and Wii U sensor bars just to have less clutter in my setup. Not sure how long the USB bar will last since I think it's always on when plugged in which may burn out the LEDs faster, but i'm not entirely sure.

[@mgz4670]

@@Mr.Welbig If you didnt knew: You can also use candles as they emit infrared light. Cool trick I showed others back then when there sensor bar broke.

[@goshator]

​@@mgz4670he said that in the video

[@EddiePReacts]

Pcsx2 is pretty good too

[@SuperFlashDriver]

I got myself the actual MayFlash DolphinBar which, while it was $50.00, it was worth every penny and I even bought one of those for my friend considering, well, I wanted them to get a much better sensor bar than the cheaper ones under $20.00 and such. And while it doesn't have any future firmware updates, if the firmware does go open source, I'd love to see updates that actually improve accuracy and connection and such.

[@zekmaster644]

That setup is incredibly impressive

[@atheist.christian]

Holy Capibara... I've never knew I needed this resampler. So much better than upping internal resolution, because. 4k feels just like those "HQ"/"HD" versions of Final Fantasy and others games...

[@AmusableKitten5]

"Now Dolphin is the best enulator" - Always has been

[@Cassava_1]

Is this new update available to set up for the xbox series x dev mode?

[@DJBathtub]

I have an M1 MacBook and I want to play Donkey Kong Country as graphically upscaled as possible. I've messed around with the settings but can't seem to get it to look really sharp. Is this possible and if so which settings should I be using please?

[@David2073]

Dolphin in phone is my only option, but for some reason, the framerate is reduced to 30 FPS, and for some reason, I can only customize the internal resolution, and I've searched DEEP into the settings, even messing up my gameplay, but there's only that one setting. And according to someone, Dolphin for mobile only supports correctly Metroid Prime, and although I'm not stuck with only that one game, I of course will never have a good experience because of that problem

[@justaadhdgamerwesley6244]

Are you using the google play version or the apk from the dolphin website?

[@David2073]

​@@justaadhdgamerwesley6244That explains a lot of questions, thanks. The only problem is that I already have many items in Metroid Prime, and I don't want to start over, does the new version recognize all the files from the old version? If so, that would be so nice!

[@apotatoman4862]

@@David2073 i assume it would since theyre both the wii save files unless you have savestates or smth

[@David2073]

@@apotatoman4862 GameCube, my phone isn't powerful enough to run Metroid Prime Trilogy. But anyways, thanks, in any case, I'm not that far in the game, it wouldn't be so stressful to get to where I was.

[@sonikku997]

As far as I understand, this STILL doesn't give you nearest neighbor scaling. If you want a 1:1 pixel match for your display, this is the trick I use: 1) Figure out the game's internal resolution by using the "dump XFB target" option and checking the screenshots 2) create a custom resolution on your GPU panel that is a multiple of the internal res (for example, 1280x960 for 640x480 works well on 1080p screens) and make sure you have either no scaling or nearest neighbor scaling on OR Edit the Dolphin.ini file like in this example: [Display] FullscreenDisplayRes=1280x960 While still making sure that you have the scaling options mentioned above in your GPU panel 3) in the aspect ratio options, pick "fill screen" 4) Enjoy razor sharp pixels! Note: using this method comes at the cost of having slightly weird aspect ratios for some games, but it IS the way to get the sharpest possible image without ANY pixel shimmer or scaling blur. This trick also works while rendering at higher resolutions and even then, the image is more stable and sharper than it would be by simply ramping up the internal resolution (although the higher the IR, the less noticable the effect is). Little extra: you can also add scanlines with reshade to get that 480p PVM look and it's gorgeous

[@kingzach74]

I've never understood why people WANT scanlines. They provide a WORSE experience in my opinion as they merely just mimic the slow refresh rates of the old rendering hardware.

[@sonikku997]

@@kingzach74 It's personal taste. When you display 240p on a CRT TV or 480p on a CRT monitor, the image is divided into scanlines instead of a pixel grid, so that's what the games actually used to look like (at least when talking about progressive resolutions). I tried it and I fell in love with the look. On one hand, it's a more accurate retro look, and on the other something magical happens with your eyes trying to fill in the details even when the resolution is very low, and the image can end up looking "sharper" than it does at 4k, since the texture detail just isn't there to begin with. Edit: ah, also the refresh rate isn't affected by scanlines, it looks like 60hz no matter what you do with them.

[@hughchester]

I had all my Gamecube games rendering at 1440 and I couldn’t help but to notice the seams on character models, outdated textures, and UI elements remaining in a lower resolution. It leaves only the gameplay to carry the experience and some of these older titles don’t hold up that well. Then I switched on Area Sampling and dropped the resolution back down to native and everything just clicked into place. I’m no longer distracted by any disjointed visuals and can appreciate what the artists working on these games had to offer. They were limited by the technology of their time and everything needed to be incredibly readable no matter the distance from the camera. They had to sell you a feeling and everything kind of comes out painterly and I’m so down for the “less is more” vibes. It’s actually making me enjoy these older games even more and it’s no longer nostalgia bringing me back. I’ve started my first playthrough of Metroid Prime and am thoroughly enjoying the experience despite the outdated control scheme because everything else works. Full disclosure, I do have the widescreen hacks on because, to me, it only adds to older titles. Courtesy of NGC Widescreen Project by Warped Polygon on YT.

[@ShamoaKrasieski-xm4ze]

Wish all emulators were good as Dolphin.

[@Monody512]

I have the same preference for either a CRT filter or crisp pixels… for 2D pixel art games and PS1 or pre-GPU PC games. For stuff from the Wii era I'd much prefer it to be smooth, even at native res. I'm glad you've got your ideal experience though. Also I swear there *is* a way to do per-game settings profiles. Did you thoroughly check?

[@aceae4210]

looking it up, it seems you can have per game (game ID to be exact) settings enabled give "GameINI dolphin" a search

[@enriquedossantos3283]

I actually got a couple of free wii sensor bar from a garage sale (the guy didnt even charge me for it) and i made a couple of holes to my old CRT tv and permanently set the ir blasters there, had my father build me a little electronic thingy to power them permanently from the inside of the TV and it works like a charm never again had to fiddle with the sensor bar, i also build a battery operated sensor bar for my other tvs, it runs with single 9v battery and another converter thingy (ask an electrician they know this) and it las forever, havent changed the battery yet

[@hemangchauhan2864]

You're exactly like me, playing games as vanilla and "as intended" as possible. But I can't deny, the resampler thing looks great

[@AnityEx]

just downloaded dolphin, amazing thanks