Dolphin (emulator)

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Dolphin
Dolphin Logo.png
Dolphin (Emulator) screenshot.png
Dolphin's GUI in R2984 with some games listed.
Original author(s) F|RES, ector
Developer(s) 40+
Initial release 2003
Preview release r4525 / (2009-11-09; 50 days ago)[1]
Written in C++, C
Operating system Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X
Development status Active
Type Console emulator
License GNU General Public License
Website www.dolphin-emu.com
Free software portal

Dolphin is an open-source Nintendo GameCube, Wii, and Triforce emulator for Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS X (Intel-based), it is the first emulator to successfully run commercial GameCube and Wii games, and is still the only emulator capable of running commercial Wii games.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Origins (2003 - 2007)

Dolphin was first released in 2003 as an experimental Nintendo GameCube emulator which could boot up and run commercial games, however it had terrible performance and many games crashed on start up or barely ran at all. Average speed was from 2 to 20 FPS depending on the chosen game and system configuration and had no sound support. Its name is derived from the original code name for the GameCube, "Dolphin" in 1999.

Dolphin was officially discontinued in 2004, with the developers releasing version 1.01 as the final build of the emulator. However, the developers decided to revive the project in 2005 and then in 2007, version 1.03 was released with minor improvements and with little sound support as compared to version 1.01.

[edit] Open Source and Wii Emulation (2008 - Present)

Dolphin became an open-source project on July 13, 2008 with the developers releasing the source code under the GPLv2 as well as creating a public SVN repository on Google Code with basic Wii emulation implemented. This attracted various developers and development on the emulator has continued since with SVN builds being released regularly since, unlike before, when it was closed-source.[2] Coders began releasing builds under the label of 'unofficial SVN builds' rather than the previous 'official' releases, as well as the new builds being released by their revision number (e.g. RXXXX) instead of version numbers (e.g. 1.03) like in the previous builds, differences between consecutive builds are also usually minor.[1]

Dolphin(R2464) running the Wii System Menu

Dolphin's Wii emulation reached a milestone in February, 2009 when it made a breakthrough managing to successfully boot and run the official Wii System Menu v1.0.[3] By now, Dolphin can boot all versions of the Wii OS. There is however not yet support for Wii channels, except for the disc channel.

By April 2009, most commercial games, Gamecube and Wii alike, have been able to be fully played albeit with a few minor problems and errors, with a large number of games running perfectly. Many changes to the emulator have improved speed for both x86 and x86-64 users achieving full speed or higher speeds than the Gamecube and Wii itself. Sound has dramatically improved. Graphics in most games are also almost perfect except for a few minor problems.[4]

By late October 2009, numerous new useful features were incorporated into the emulator such as automatic Frame-skipping, which increases the performance of the emulator as well as increased stability of the emulator overall. Also improved was the NetPlay feature of the emulator, which allowed players to play multiplayer Gamecube and Wii games online with friends. The GUI was reworked to make it more user-friendly. The DirectX plugin has also been fixed and brought up to speed with the current OpenGL graphics plug-in.[5]

[edit] Features

The newer builds of Dolphin have many new features, including cheat support, netplay, high-resolution support and Xbox 360 controller support. Dolphin's team is currently asking the community for suggestions for new and more useful features they want in Dolphin.[6] Current features include:

  • Action Replay Support
  • Xbox 360 Controller support, with rumble
  • Experimental NetPlay
  • Anti-Aliasing, Anisotropic Filtering
  • Save states
  • Memory Card Manager
  • Real and emulated Wii Remote support
  • DSP HLE and experimental LLE
  • WAD(DLC games) Support
  • Some support for Homebrew and XFB Emulation
  • Hi-Res Support, Texture Dumper, Free Look[2]
  • Frameskipping[7]
  • Tool-assisted speedrun Support[8]

[edit] High-definition Support

In-Game Screenshot Dolphin(R3903) running Super Smash Bros. Brawl in High-Resolution 720p

Dolphin supports high resolutions through its OpenGL plugin, e.g. 720p or 1080p, which are not supported by the actual console (the Wii can only support 480p resolution).[4] This feature has been widely applauded by the gaming community as the emulator has surpassed the limits of the original console and has received features on numerous gaming networks.[9]

[edit] Notable games compatible

Dolphin is able to play many popular Wii and GameCube games with almost full emulation with a few minor errors. In addition many other Wii and GameCube games are also compatible with Dolphin, some official and unofficial compatibility lists can be found here:

A list of notable games that are compatible with Dolphin:

[edit] System requirements

Dolphin runs best on a PC with a dual-core processor as well as a graphics card which supports OpenGL and Pixel Shader 2.0. Preferable graphics cards would be of those made by nVidia or ATI.[13] Dolphin's team promises better performance in the near future. Dolphin is now able to use mice, keyboards, joypads, joysticks, Wii Remotes and microphones; there are a few issues though.[14] It is also able to use the Xbox 360 Controller for Windows. However in most games there are still a few minor graphical and sound glitches - or even gameplay glitches - which may stop the player from progressing further in the game. The community can report technical issues on the project's Google Code site.[2]

[edit] Minimum requirements

  • Operating System: Microsoft Windows (2000/XP/Vista/7) / Linux / Apple Mac OS X (Intel version)
  • Processor: Pentium 4 or Athlon 64 with SSE2 (recommended: a dual core processor above 2GHz)
  • Graphics: OpenGL 2.1 or DirectX 9.0c compatible[13]

[edit] Reception

Dolphin has received widespread acclaim across various independent gaming sites such as Kotaku and 1up for its achievements most notably the ability to play games in high-definition.[15] It has also been highly praised for the high compatibility of games with the emulator and the ability not just to emulate one but two consoles. It has also received the attention of many websites due to it being the only emulator to properly emulate a seventh generation console.[16][17]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Changes - dolphin-emu". Dolphin Team. http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/source/list. Retrieved 28 July 2009. 
  2. ^ a b c "dolphin-emu - Project Hosting on Google Code". Dolphin Team. http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/. Retrieved 28 July 2009. 
  3. ^ "Wii-OS Boots!!". chaoscode. Dolphin Team. February 27 2009. http://www.dolphin-emu.com/news.php?readmore=44#content. Retrieved 29 July 2009. 
  4. ^ a b c "Super Smash Bros. Brawl on Dolphin the Wii Emulator (720p HD) - News". renebarahona. Youtube. March 18, 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXEwDsssA94. Retrieved 28 July 2009. 
  5. ^ [dolphin-emu team] Unofficial build 4460
  6. ^ "Feature Request Thread". omegadox. Dolphin Forum. March 15, 2009. http://forums.dolphin-emu.com/thread-2.html. Retrieved 28 July 2009. 
  7. ^ "r3949 - Frameskipping! Complete with GUI!". Xtra.Krazzy. Google Code. 7 August 2009. http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/source/detail?r=3949. Retrieved 11 August 2009. 
  8. ^ "Latest Bin release R3972 Thread". Chaoscode. Dolphin Forums. 13 August 2009. http://forums.dolphin-emu.com/thread-3519.html. Retrieved 29 September 2009. 
  9. ^ "How Your Wii Games Would Look In 720p - Wii - Kotaku - News". Luke Plunkett. Kotaku. March 27, 2009. http://kotaku.com/5187762/how-your-wii-games-would-look-in-720p. Retrieved 28 July 2009. 
  10. ^ "Super Mario Galaxy on Dolphin the Wii Emulator (Full Speed - 720p HD)". renebarahona. Youtube. July 15, 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojrq5DgEZuQ. Retrieved 28 July 2009. 
  11. ^ "Mario Kart Wii on Dolphin the Wii Emulator (Full Speed - 720p HD)". renebarahona. Youtube. July 15, 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlwFQ6bed4U. Retrieved 28 July 2009. 
  12. ^ "Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King on Dolphin the Wii Emulator (720p HD)". renebarahona. Youtube. March 19, 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvOmWODFF88. Retrieved 28 July 2009. 
  13. ^ a b "Getting Started With Dolphin". omegadox. Dolphin Forum. March 15, 2009. http://forums.dolphin-emu.com/thread-4.html. Retrieved 28 July 2009. 
  14. ^ "Issue 549: Enable use of multiple wiimotes". Google Code. Dolphin Code. February 3, 2009. http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/issues/detail?id=549&q=multiple%20wiimotes. Retrieved 28 July 2009. 
  15. ^ See What Super Mario Galaxy Looks Like in 720p
  16. ^ Wii emulator runs Mario Galaxy in 720p
  17. ^ Latest Dolphin emulator build available

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin_(emulator)"