Dolphin Online - Global Melee Netplay Guide
Overview
Global Melee is a group of Super Smash Bros. Melee players dedicated to making SSBM, along with other GameCube and Wii games, standardized on netplay through Dolphin Emulator. Anyone can play, but we've created a guide that all of our players follow in order to create a stable and fun experience. By following the standards in this thread, you guarantee yourself the ability to sync with anyone else in the Global Melee Netplay Group.
Minimum Requirements (2 player)
- Core2Duo or AMD Phenom Processor (Lower Variants may need Overclocking)
- nVidia 8xxx or ATi/AMD Radeon 4xxx series graphics card
Onboard can work, but we will not support/assist with setup. Your mileage will vary.
- 2GB of RAM
- DSL or Broadband Internet
Recommended Specifications
- Intel Core i5 First Gen or AMD Phenom II
- nVidia 8xxx or ATi/AMD Radeon 4xxx Series Graphics Card
- 4GB of Ram
- DSL or Broadband Internet
Setup
DO NOT DOWNLOAD VANILLA 4.0.2 OR ANY OTHER BUILD FOR NETPLAY. THEY DO NOT SUPPORT DUALCORE OVER NETPLAY AND WILL NOT PROVIDE A GOOD EXPERIENCE.
Changelog
3.5-2468 - Fixed a Plethora of random issues, made input recording work. First build that perfectly synced.
4.0-515 - Introduced UDP Netplay. Caused instant desync bug that happens on 3% of games. Simply restarting the emulator will fix it. Introduced auto-connection that makes it so most people don't have to port forward.
4.0-646 - Fixed the instant desync, added Wii support features for Project M and Brawl. Some speedups to the emulator itself. Memory cards now work over netplay properly.
4.0-648 - Finally fixed the longstanding glitched server bug, fixed some disconnect issues.
Required Files
- Dolphin DC-Netplay 4.0-652 - Fixes Memory Card Desyncs, Adds Brawl/Project M features. UDP provides smoother connections as well as enhanced hosting abilities. Fixes minor UI issues as well.
- Super Smash Bros. Melee Revision 2 (1.02) ISO
As of the 4.0 builds, you no longer need to download an INI file. It is included with the emulator in the /sys folder.
For people on Windows XP or without UDP Supported Internet Connections
Procedure
Extract Dolphin to a folder that you want to use. From there, you will run the emulator. You will need to configure a few things before playing:
- Place the Super Smash Bros. Melee 1.02 ISO in a directory of your choice. Make sure it is either an iso or gcm file, extracted from any kind of archive. Within dolphin, you must set the default iso directory (under the File Menu,) to the folder where that ISO is being stored.
- Once Melee shows up in the ISO list, right click it and go to properties. Under the AR-codes section, there should be a bunch of cheats. The only cheat used in general play is "Global Melee Netplay Settings." Enable that.
- In the Options/Configuration Menu, we need to change a few settings. First, make sure Dualcore, Idleskipping and Enable Cheats are all checked. If your router cannot handle UDP automatic port forwarding, you can set the netplay listen port to a manually port. You must follow the port forwarding guide below if you want to do this.
- In the Options/Configuration Menu, move to the GameCube tab. Make sure you have at least one controller plugged in.
- In Options/Configuraton/GCPads, you can setup your controller. It should be self-explanatory for anyone who's setup an emulator. Those using SDL will have to update their controller when upgrading from 3.5 due to something in SDL's formatting within Dolphin changing. Xinput/Dinput users do not need to do anything.
- ALL FIREWALLS MUST BE DISABLED OR ALLOWING DOLPHIN AS OF 4.0-515. This allows us to connect/host netplay sessions without port forwarding. You no longer have to port forward on the 4.0-515/646/648 builds on 90% of routers/networks. Some university students can even host.
- Hosting has changed as of the 4.0-515/646 builds. You must right click the game in your gamelist and select the host netplay option. The code your given lets you host without giving out your IP/Port.
3.5-2468 Instructions
- Place the Super Smash Bros. Melee 1.02 ISO in a directory of your choice. Make sure it is either an iso or gcm file, extracted from any kind of archive. Within dolphin, you must set the default iso directory (under the File Menu,) to the folder where that ISO is being stored.
- On Windows, run dolphin once. It will generate the folder "My Documents/Dolphin Emulator/GameSettings". This is the Global User Directory GameSetting's folder where the cheat INI file needs to be placed. On Mac, to get to the correct INI folder hit cmd-shift-g, and type ~/Library/Application Support/Dolphin and find where INIs are stored. That is where you overwrite the GALE01. On Linux... if you're using Linux, you should know what you're doing by now.
- In Dolphin, right click the Melee ISO and go to properties. Head over the info tab and confirm it is revision 2. The INI file only works with revision 2, and you will not sync with other players on other revisions.
- Options/Configuration, Enable Cheats, ensure Dualcore is Enabled as well as Idle Skipping.
- Options/Configuration/GameCube tab, Turn off all Memory cards
- Options/GameCube Pads: Configure your controller to your liking
- If you setup everything and cheats still don't seem to be working, right click Melee in the Dolphin Window and click Properties. From There, go the AR Codes tab and make sure Global Melee Netplay Settings is the only cheat enabled!
- Optional: Port Forward a port on your router. This allows you to host. For more information please check out http://portforward.com as every router is different and we cannot provide a personalized guide.
Finding Matches and playing online
Dolphin currently uses a peer to peer system. That means the best way to find matches is to find a group of people who want to play online. Thanks to work put in by users, a netplay ladder with full rankings has emerged as the best option. Please go to
http://ladder.anthrzy.com/ for friendlies, ranked matches, tournaments and more using Netplay with support for Melee and Project M!
To host a Netplay Game in Dolphin, you simply right click the game you want to host and select the "Host Netplay Session" option. There you will see an ID code on the upper right. You can copy that and give it to anyone else on the same build. You can still get the port by switching from ID to IP. The IP will be your localhost IP, so you have to google for your external IP for others to connect.
Connecting to Netplay is simple. You just go into the Tools tab and hit connect to netplay session and input the 8 character ID or the IP: Port combination as such.
Host then can set buffer before or during the netplay session. The way to get optimum buffer is to stay in the menus and lower buffer until the framerate starts to drop. Lower buffer means less latency, you want the lowest buffer possible without affecting the framerate!
All a client can do is join another netplay session. You must first get the IP and port from the person hosting, and then enter it. Once joined, you just need to wait for the host to start the game.
Recording Input is broken as of 4.0-515, and will be fixed as soon as possible. We'll keep you updated. For games that use memory cards, when you configure pads in Dolphin on 646, you can also configure the memory cards! This is useful when playing other games than Melee and one person has a partially completed save file.
Graphics Settings
General Tab lets you change some general settings. Auto Adjust Window Size lets the window size get locked to Internal Resolution. The rest of the settings are for personal preference and self explanatory.
Under Enhancements, depending on the strength of your graphics card, turning up Internal Resolution can greatly increase your picture quality without sacrificing framerate. Anti-aliasing and anisotropic field will cause problems in Melee, so don't use them. Under Hacks, Cache Display lists can be used for a small speedup, but can break other games. Everything else is fine as default.
All backends sync with one another over netplay, so don't be afraid to try them and figure out which one suits you.
nVidia Users
OpenGL plugin will be fastest, especially with the Vertex Streaming Hack enabled. It will not cause any issues in Melee. OpenGL does suffer from some very intermittent background flicker in Melee; if you have extra processor speed, you can use D3D11 to play with no graphical errors. D3D9 can also be used to fix the background flicker, but will introduce other errors.
AMD/ATI Users
D3D9 and D3D11 will perform better than OpenGL, but D3D9 has significant problems because of how old it is. Despite this, it will also be slightly faster than D3D11. Use D3D9 if you must, but D3D11 will provide more accurate graphics.
Running Project M 3.0 on Dualcore Netplay
Thanks to dilligent work done by Nuckels_EU on our IRC Channel, we discovered that with a few extra steps that you can also run Project M on Netplay with headaches (Brawl, you actually can't due to it requiring cheats/savefiles to setup.) Project M works in 3.5-2468 and the newer 4.0-648 using Dualcore Netplay. The steps we support are:
- Install Project M (fullset) into a FULL Brawl ISO. When you dump, you cannot trim or scrub it, it must be a legitimate Brawl ISO. I highly recommend using a Wii to dump it as it's the easiest and safest way.
- NOTE: While Wifiset works too, but there's literally no reason to use it on netplay.
- You want it to use a different savefile than Brawl when setting up, or else you MUST delete your brawl save file for this to work.
- On your already setup Dolphin, Go to Options/Wiimote Settings and make sure every Wiimote is disabled.
- As of 646, Brawl will start in 4:3 to prevent desyncs. Go into the Options after booting up Project M and manually set the screen to 16:9 to prevent it being stretched (Unless you want it to be 4:3, then you must change your Wii mode to 4:3 in the Options/Configuration/Wii area)
- Make sure you don't have a save file. Games will no longer automatically save in netplay, so don't panic if you accidentally create a save file during a netplay session. Offline will still create savefiles so don't do that.
- As of 4.0-646 it will start in 4:3 mode no matter what to prevent desyncs. To enable widescreen, go into Project M's options menu and change the screen mode to 16:9.
The Project M ISO MD5 needs to be correct. It turns out there are multiple possible good ISO hashes that you can get depending on the texture/sound files you have. These two are both confirmed to work without desyncing.
dcfcafca21ab415838382f229ee65794 - Brawl 1.0 ISO creates this
503c1536a35709043846cd15b871ae7e - Brawl 1.1 ISO (update partition, won't show up in dolphin) makes this ISO. It syncs perfectly with 1.0 due to the partition being separate.
As I find more possible combinations that work, I will add them to my list of good ISOs.
Project M Guide, Performance and Issues
- OPTIONAL: If your Brawl extracts as multiple part files from Cleanrip, there is an easy solution on all OSes to fix it. Because I'm on Windows, I'll detail the windows method, but Mac and Linux both have similar commands. On Windows, just hold shift and control then right click in the folder you have multiple part files in and click "Open Command Prompt". Then fill this command out: COPY /B source file1+source file2 destination file This command will give you one full ISO from the multiple part files. Depending on your SD/USB stick, you can have up to nine source files. Just add as many source files as you need with the + indicator shown in the example.
- Project M's Skyloft Island is perhaps the hardest stage to emulate between both Melee and Project M. Unless you're on a powerful i5 or i7 processor, stay away from it.
- Metal Cavern can run on very weak computers.
- Roy, Mewtwo, and the special costumes affect Dolphin just like the Wii. No matter how powerful your computer is, using four of them will knock it down to 50 fps. There's nothing we can do about it, it's a bug in their code.
- OpenGL and D3D are a lot closer in speed on Brawl compared to Melee. NVIDIA and AMD users should try both if they're having problems.
- Please keep your ISO builder around in case we edit/change things to make it easier.
- For widescreen to work in Dolphin build 4.0-648 DC-Netplay, you must manually enable it in the game's options menu.
Text guide for convenience,
http://pastebin.com/sr4DjCnz
Extra
Mayflash Setup Guide by Andrewajt62
Dolphin-emu official site
Disc Integrity Checker for Windows
Melee 1.2 Correct Integrity
Dolphin Recommended Accessories Guide - Must disable adblock for it to work right!
http://ladder.anthrzy.com/netplay - Requires registration, but is the best site for netplay matchmaking!
FAQ
Why are my inputs not working right? Can't run, use C-stick
The GameCube uses a radius of 100 for Mayflash adapter, you need to set the controllers in the GCPad to use a radius of 100 on both sticks. For Project M, the c-stick requires a deadzone so that the stick can return to rest.
Why am I desyncing?
There are multiple reasons for desyncing right now. The main reasons would include
1. Different Cheat Codes set
2. Different versions of Dolphin
3. Frameskip can RARELY cause desyncs in Dualcore
4. Setting Framelimiter to something other than "auto" can cause desyncs if the other player does not follow.
5: 4.0-515 has a random startup desync. We advise not using it unless you must.
6: all 4.0-xxx builds have a possibility of startup spectator desync. We are investigating it.
What is buffer? What should I set it at?
Buffer is basically the amount of inputs that the game stores before playing it back during netplay. Each buffer is about a half-frame give or take. Under good conditions, about 17ms of ping per buffer will give you a smooth experience. Lower Buffer means lower lag.
The game locks-up on startup, what gives?
Usually this means you have the wrong revision of Melee. Please go into the game properties and check the revision under the information tab. If you are still getting a black screen or crashing, it is likely a bad dump.
Why are the CPU requirements so high to run such an old game?
Because emulators require a lot of CPU to do their job. You wouldn't want to use a computer from the 1980s to emulate an NES just like you wouldn't want to use a computer from the early 2000s to emulate a GameCube.
Where do I go for extra support with Dolphin issues?
http://dolphin-emu.org has a forum and IRC chat specifically for helping users with Dolphin. We advise those with strange/obscure problems to check there for assistance.
