Dolphin Online - Melee Netplay

[Avalancer]

Is there a player list somewhere? If not, we should definitely have one (preferably seperate lists for different regions)

 

[Upke]

That's a good idea, but it's hard to determine who to put on the list when some people only pop in once a month or so.

 

[JMC4789]

We had our second completed biweekly tournament this weekend. It was fun; a little quieter but a lot less problems than usual. Special thanks to Andrewajt62, Saberprime and Mofat for joining in on commentary. Also, I'd like to thank the Dolphin Emu crew for joining in and supporting the stream!

For those of you who want to see the videos, we've uploaded them on youtube for convenience. The bracket and such is over on the tournament thread.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtT9Bg16KsftDT6aoTI5U9LR6RhLVBxBg

The emulator will keep getting better and better going forward; I look forward to having the online Melee community grow up along side it.

 

[Fishaman P]

Hey Smashbaords is back up!
Just a note for those who couldn't participate because of low-end hardware:

Comex has been working on making Dual Core sync exactly the same as Single Core for netplay. He's done it.
In other words, Dual Core will never desync with builds from his branch.

 

[Upke]

Yo, good luck updating this shiz, JMC.

 

[Mozart]

just got the emulator up and running, would love to play sometime!

Add me to the skype group please.

 

[Upke]

We don't use Skype anymore. https://qchat.rizon.net/?channels=dolphin-ssbm&uio=Nz10cnVlJjk9MzU3fe is the IRC.

 

[Mr.Lemon]

Trying to set this up now, but I'm confused on how to put the Melee ini file in my user/gameconfig directory and copy it over the previous INI. Where's my user/gameconfig?

Also, how do I set up a memory card and controller?

 

[_wzrd]

the user/gameconfig directory is in your Dolphin folder. just drag & drop the file in.

the cheat file eliminates the need for a mem card, so don't worry about that (in fact, you should set dolphin to mem card off)

as far as controllers go, there's a youtube guide around somewhere for the mayflash adapter

 

[Mr.Lemon]

the user/gameconfig directory is in your Dolphin folder. just drag & drop the file in.

the cheat file eliminates the need for a mem card, so don't worry about that (in fact, you should set dolphin to mem card off)

as far as controllers go, there's a youtube guide around somewhere for the mayflash adapter

Oh ok this clears up a lot. I'm using a mac though, has anyone successfully got this to work with a mac laptop?!!?

 

[Zyzyoro]

Edited post.

 

[SaggyG]

this is great, yay etc

 

[JMC4789]

Updated first post to add full dualcore support builds as well as cleaned it up because the old post pissed me off. If anyone has a problem with the information I removed, let me know as usual. Post is a work in progress as per usual.

 

[Fishaman P]

Oh ok this clears up a lot. I'm using a mac though, has anyone successfully got this to work with a mac laptop?!!?

In the DC-Netplay branch (the recommended Netplay build), Dolphin now ships with the Melee netplay INI.
If you don't like that solution, right-click Dolphin.app and select "View Contents" or whatever it says.

 

[KnitePhox]

if anyone is looking to make a Melee desktop soon, there will be a really great sale on a cpu+motherboard (2 of the 6 needed for a working tower) on newegg TODAY ONLY. under 100$ for both and it will play 1v1 any stage single core as well as teams any stage dual core solid 60fps.

if you want help building a melee capable pc on the cheap now or later, pm me and i'll gladly help out with a parts list

 

[Fishaman P]

if anyone is looking to make a Melee desktop soon, there will be a really great sale on a cpu+motherboard (2 of the 6 needed for a working tower) on newegg TODAY ONLY. under 100$ for both and it will play 1v1 any stage single core as well as teams any stage dual core solid 60fps.

if you want help building a melee capable pc on the cheap now or later, pm me and i'll gladly help out with a parts list

lolwut. It's a Pentium G3220. 2 cores, no Hyperthreading.
Since when can that run any stage full speed on Single Core?

Actually, thanks for bringing up the topic. My family is getting a new computer soon (or rather having me build it), and the current budget is $500. I'm hoping to squeeze more Melee netplay from this than our current C2Q Q6600. I was thinking a Core i5 4670K as the CPU and using the Intel HD Graphics 4600 for budget concerns.
Do any of you guys know what kind of IR and AA I can expect at 1440x900? I was hoping 2xIR and the lowest AA Dolphin has (2x or 4x), but I hear AA is crippled for even light loads on the iGPU.

To clarify, I usually use windowed 1.5xIR and no AA, but AA is always nice.

 

[KnitePhox]

HASWELL is 10% IPC boost from ivy, aka 3.3ghz ivy dual core = 3.0 haswell

should be fine.
HYPER THREADING DOESN'T HELP IN SINGLE THREADED APPLICATIONS, LOL!
i would go out on a limb and say 90-95% of programs and games only use 2 threads max

if anyone's looking for a pc that can run melee online well ON THE CHEAP there's no reason to get anything AMD or i5 and above from Intel. i3's hyper-threading will not help either.



500$ builds for melee online for you/anyone

heres one from PCPartPicker http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1JSKA

mixed stores, this will run melee online teams just fine. nice 2xusb3 AND 2xusb2 on front side of case

heres one from newegg only http://www.mediafire.com/view/uv4dv5a0zdjnaww/1.pdf

the case isn't as nice, but you get everything in one stop


whatever pc you end up getting, i hope theres no integrated graphics being used or worse yet, a prebuilt...

good luck

 

[JMC4789]

Just letting you guys know, since the devs did get Dualcore working without a noticeable hit on performance, the CPU requirements have dropped pretty dramatically for playing online. I updated the first post with it, but I figured I'd say it here too!

This has another odd effect; a lot of games with people I used to play on Single Core are just smoother overall and feel much more fluid. When the net architecture/protocol get updated, we should get a boost in stability as well.

I took the changelog out of the first post as well because it makes no sense. I mean, Dualcore Netplay got half implemented (Only worked on fast computers when they're not under strain, which defeated the purpose) a while back. The current dualcore netplay implementation is now perfect, as proof with no one having any desync problems any more on the IRC or during tournaments outside of some minor setup issues.

 

[KnitePhox]

yo that's **** i wonder if it would run on a AMD 6800k system.

time to build an HTPC just to find out...or maybe ask a 6800k owner

 

[smakis]

Heya, I'm having some slight issues getting this to work.

Every time I play a new stage or a new character I get small lagspikes every two seconds or so, now from what I understand dolphin builds a shader cache and it should only happen once, thing is as soon as I restart the emulator I have the same thing happening again. Could it be possible that dolphin is trying to save this cache somewhere it does not have write access to and in that case where is that and can I change it?

Also I have the right version with the codes being found in the AR codes tab, I have checked the codes and disabled my memory card but the codes aren't active, no characters nor stages unlocked.

And from what I understand it's now safe to play dual core? My laptop can't play it on single core without using the high performance setting, which overheats it in minutes heh.

 

[JMC4789]

Dualcore is 100% in our latest builds. If the cheats do not work, then the ISO you are using is not the correct version.

 

[smakis]

followed the instructions, this is what it looks like

when I start the game it just says there is no memory card inserted, I continue anyways and nothing is unlocked.

 

[JMC4789]

Go into Options/Configuration and "Enable Cheats" Sorry I didn't notice that earlier!

 

[smakis]

oh now I feel silly, looked for that option and could have sweared I didn't see any, thanks.

Any idea about the spikes?

 

[JMC4789]

I think the issue may be a slow harddrive in your laptop? Does is still happen if you're in performance mode on your laptop?

 

[smakis]

yea, same thing happens, and the spikes do go away once I have played on the stage for a while, just that it would be annoying to have to start out every session cycling through all stages and characters for a few minutes on each stage. It just isn't saved until the next time I start the game (happens even if i don't restart dolphin altogether, just need to reset the emulation).


edit: seems like the shader cache is created, deleted the files and it started creating new ones during the next session, though next time I reset it doesn't load the cache and just starts recreating it (the file size goes up once I load something other than what I already cached the previous session, but I still get stutters on the stage I have cached until it is cached again).

 

[Fishaman P]

yea, same thing happens, and the spikes do go away once I have played on the stage for a while, just that it would be annoying to have to start out every session cycling through all stages and characters for a few minutes on each stage. It just isn't saved until the next time I start the game (happens even if i don't restart dolphin altogether, just need to reset the emulation).


edit: seems like the shader cache is created, deleted the files and it started creating new ones during the next session, though next time I reset it doesn't load the cache and just starts recreating it (the file size goes up once I load something other than what I already cached the previous session, but I still get stutters on the stage I have cached until it is cached again).

Do you have at least 4GB of RAM?
If so, you should be able to spare 100MB for a RAM disk to hold the shader cache.

 

[smakis]

I do, have never made one before but I'm guessing it's somewhat like a portion of your ram that is always held and not deleted once it's no longer used or the computer is restarted?


edit: made a ramdisk, I don't think it's the shader cache anymore, when I create a new shader cache the lag spikes are more frequent and longer, the next session these disappear but I still get mucher small lagspikes that behave just like the shader cache as in they disappear after a while. Is there another cache that is created every session and not saved inbetween?

clarification: new shader cache = heavy lagspikes for a while, only happens first time I run dolphin. Every time after that = very small lagspikes on every new stage for a few minutes and then they also disappear.

 

[JMC4789]

I can't exactly help you if your harddrive is the problem, which appears to be the case. Once everything's loaded into ram, it seems to be fine. Some Laptops have really lame harddrives, and that would appear to be the problem here. Maybe there's a way to change your power settings that'd affect your harddrive, but I can't be sure.

By the way, this weekend we will be hosting Lagtacs III; people who want to enter and be a part of the biggest online Melee Tournament yet can read the rules and join here http://challonge.com/lagtacsIII

 

[smakis]

http://www.harddrivebenchmark.net/hdd.php?hdd=TOSHIBA+MK6475GSX

that's my hdd, which doesn't appear to be that good I guess (feel free to take a look, if it really is a bad harddrive I'll see if I can invest in a new one). Though what is it that is loaded into ram every session except the shader cache and why can't I preload it somehow?

 

[SpiderMad]

By the way, this weekend we will be hosting Lagtacs III; people who want to enter and be a part of the biggest online Melee Tournament yet can read the rules and join here http://challonge.com/lagtacsIII

Any chance of having the Check-in time be closer to 1 or 2?

I've ran Melee Dolphin Netplay a long time ago with someone, and my normal PC runs it kind of bad but I have a laptop that I just need to figure out how to fix Dolphin to make it work on Windows 8 cus I get this error message. This is the Laptop I have, is the core and 4gigs of RAM adequate? or does the graphics card matter?
2.5 GHz Intel Core i3
Graphics Coprocessor
Integrated Intel HD Graphics
Hard Drive Rotational Speed 5400 RPM
http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Brown-Metal/dp/B00ATANVMA
http://reviews.officedepot.com/2563...-i3-processor-refurbished-reviews/reviews.htm

 

[Fishaman P]

Any chance of having the Check-in time be closer to 1 or 2?

I've ran Melee Dolphin Netplay a long time ago with someone, and my normal PC runs it kind of bad but I have a laptop that I just need to figure out how to fix Dolphin to make it work on Windows 8 cus I get this error message. This is the Laptop I have, is the core and 4gigs of RAM adequate? or does the graphics card matter?
2.5 GHz Intel Core i3
Graphics Coprocessor
Integrated Intel HD Graphics
Hard Drive Rotational Speed 5400 RPM
http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Brown-Metal/dp/B00ATANVMA
http://reviews.officedepot.com/2563...-i3-processor-refurbished-reviews/reviews.htm

I don't know about the error message; I would think Windows 8 would come with DirectX updated, which is the only thing I can think of.

Your CPU may work, but it'll be on the slow side. Don't expect FoD to run full speed, even on Dual Core.
Your GPU is just as dependent on model # as your CPU is. It can be anywhere from sucktastic to bitchin.

Okay, I read the links. Your CPU should run all but the most demanding stages (e.g. FoD) full speed on Dual Core.
Teams might be an issue.
Your GPU should be able to handle 1.5x IR without issue, though you might wanna experiment.

 

[SpiderMad]

I don't know about the error message; I would think Windows 8 would come with DirectX updated, which is the only thing I can think of.

Your CPU may work, but it'll be on the slow side. Don't expect FoD to run full speed, even on Dual Core.
Your GPU is just as dependent on model # as your CPU is. It can be anywhere from sucktastic to *****in.

Okay, I read the links. Your CPU should run all but the most demanding stages (e.g. FoD) full speed on Dual Core.
Teams might be an issue.
Your GPU should be able to handle 1.5x IR without issue, though you might wanna experiment.

Thanks. What made you change your mind on seeing the settings as suboptimal to optimal?

I got it working using the DirectX the guy provided in this https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-windows-8-xinput1-3-dll-missing-directx-update-error
I opened Dolphin, Set my Folder to where Melee is, it's revision 2, enabled cheats, disabled the memory card slot. Put the INI file in the documents/dolphin/gamethingsorwhatever folder.

Battlefield runs 60fps, dips to 58 when I do combos
YS: 54 fps, 52 when I do combos
Fod Runs ~40 fps

The Netplay IRC doesn't seem to the have main chat available to talk for me

 

[JMC4789]

Your processor should be fine on dualcore; I guess laptops really are slower. I'm sorry if I wasn't available when you needed me for help, I try to idle in the IRC as much as possible. Keep trying and you'll catch me, if you do need other assistance you can also message me on here.

 

[SpiderMad]

For anyone who may not have yet done this: A person in the IRC told me to switch my graphics from 3d11 to 3d9, it gives me 59fps on FoD now! =D

 

[JMC4789]

D3D9 is not recommended by me except for speed purposes. It glitches up a few stages. But it is faster than D3D11 and OpenGL on Radeon Cards.

 

[Orancube]

Hey guys,

I am not that tech savvy, so I was wondering if someone could help me.
I downloaded dolphin 3.5-2468 like posted here, did all the INI stuff, configured the controller and basically I've got a nice offline version of melee running (1.02, revision 2).

But when I went to the IRC, people said It's smarter to run the 3.5-1655 version with melee revision 3.0 .
So I downloaded this version of dolphin, installed it aswel, but here's the problem:

I assume the INI file you place in > my documents/dolphin emulator, is used to connect and use a ''global'' memory card or w/e?
Because I have the emulator folder for the 2468 version, but not for the 1655 version.
In short, when I run the 1655 version I have no chars unlocked, and I can't put the INI file in a second dolphin emulator folder.

Is this because you can only have one version of dolphin installed? Because if everyone uses a different version =\...

Thanks!

 

[JMC4789]

3.5-2468 DC-Netplay and the forum threads are correct. We no longer use memory cards because it lowers the chances of user error.

Revision 3, the old global memory card, and 1655 are all outdated instructions. Wherever you went, it was either a while back, or an unofficial channel where people aren't keeping up with the official builds.

 

[Orancube]

3.5-2468 DC-Netplay and the forum threads are correct. We no longer use memory cards because it lowers the chances of user error.

Revision 3, the old global memory card, and 1655 are all outdated instructions. Wherever you went, it was either a while back, or an unofficial channel where people aren't keeping up with the official builds.

Thanks,

I just went back to the IRC and warriorknight helped me a bit ^^. (what a bowser!).
Turns out it's all properly installed, as we could play a game right away!
However the lag was really bad =\, I'm from Europe so that might explain it.
Do other players from Europe have the same problem when playing VS Americans? Or is my internet just ****ty .

 

[smakis]

You are always gonna have a high delay europe - usa, 5 frames at least I'm guessing if they are on the east coast so if you want to play low delay games you would have to play against europeans.

I'm from Sweden and would love to play sometime once I retrieve my adapter (though the first few games would contain some small lagspikes since I have some lagspike issues until everything is loaded into ram, usually takes a minute per stage to get rid of).