Emulator Aid

[Atomi]

hey guys


i recently purchased a gamecube controller to USB port to do some analysis with an emulator.

however, there are a few important questions that i have first


1. how many frames per second should i be carrying? it's a constant 61, but it feels clunky and slow compared to the console itself.

2. is online netplay "worth it"? it seems that, while I would be able to practice against players who I had not played with before, the delay / frame drops would make it useless if not outright detrimental.

thanks!

 

[Spak]

1. It should be running at 60fps on a console at all times (unless you're in FoD with doubles; then the game should lag slightly).

2. I've never used it, but it would be more useful than nothing. The frame drop would effect your tech a bit, but other than that, you could learn more about how to learn other people's tendancies and adapt, train comboing against a human opponent, and do many other things which you couldn't train alone.

 

[Blarg]

Yes, I second what Spak said. If you're not running at a constant 60 fps offline something is wrong. As for netplay, I personally have found it pretty useful for training against human opponents. Just don't grind out your tech skill there. Learn that offline, preferably on CRT.

 

[Y-L]

hey guys


i recently purchased a gamecube controller to USB port to do some analysis with an emulator.

however, there are a few important questions that i have first


1. how many frames per second should i be carrying? it's a constant 61, but it feels clunky and slow compared to the console itself.

2. is online netplay "worth it"? it seems that, while I would be able to practice against players who I had not played with before, the delay / frame drops would make it useless if not outright detrimental.

thanks!

Sometimes it will go to 61 fps, that's not something to worry about. If it feels clunky, use fullscreen on new dolphin builds (4.0-5886) and if you have a wii u adapter using direct connect, that removes all input lag (excluding monitor lag). Fullscreen should help (the exclusive fullscreen feature isn't in 4.0-652).

2. It is definitely worth it. Despite playing in a few frames of lag, you learn a lot of valuable information. You get to play against a plethora of different players with different mains and different playstyles. Definitely beneficial if you plan to play in tourney to learn a how to play against a multitude of different playstyles. For me, I feel I can play even better on crt after playing on netplay for awhile.

 

[Kadano]

Which controller adapter did you buy? Only the four-port ones, using Dolphin’s Direct Connect feature, are known to be comparably fast to the Gamecube itself.

Also, make sure to disable Windows Aero and use fullscreen mode to eliminate a good portion of lag.

 

[Atomi]

Which controller adapter did you buy? Only the four-port ones, using Dolphin’s Direct Connect feature, are known to be comparably fast to the Gamecube itself.

Also, make sure to disable Windows Aero and use fullscreen mode to eliminate a good portion of lag.

the issue was with Dolphin itself. even frame-by-frame TAS inputs were registering exactly 3 frames late.

the emulator i got was a simple GC > USB adapter i found on amazon, with no recognizable lag (although tbh i dont know how to accurately check for this).

 

[Y-L]

the issue was with Dolphin itself. even frame-by-frame TAS inputs were registering exactly 3 frames late.

the emulator i got was a simple GC > USB adapter i found on amazon, with no recognizable lag (although tbh i dont know how to accurately check for this).

Well if you use fullscreen on dolphin on the dev builds there is no input lag. The lag would be from your monitor, or more likely your adapter. Non Wii u Adapters tend to have about 3 frames of input lag.

 

[Kadano]

the issue was with Dolphin itself. even frame-by-frame TAS inputs were registering exactly 3 frames late.

the emulator i got was a simple GC > USB adapter i found on amazon, with no recognizable lag (although tbh i dont know how to accurately check for this).

For me, Dolphin frame advantage has two frames delay. A few weeks ago I compared Dolphin+CRT lag against Gamecube+CRT, using the same CRT for both, and when Vsync and Aero were disabled, the difference was negligible / within the error of my testing method (which is quite inaccurate, but should be sufficient to detect substantial lag).
Playing Dolphin on LCD monitors does feel laggy for me and other players. I don’t have any low-latency gamer LCDs, so if you have one of those, it might be a proper setup.

 

[Atomi]

For me, Dolphin frame advantage has two frames delay. A few weeks ago I compared Dolphin+CRT lag against Gamecube+CRT, using the same CRT for both, and when Vsync and Aero were disabled, the difference was negligible / within the error of my testing method (which is quite inaccurate, but should be sufficient to detect substantial lag).
Playing Dolphin on LCD monitors does feel laggy for me and other players. I don’t have any low-latency gamer LCDs, so if you have one of those, it might be a proper setup.

do you know why this situation would occur?

1. run Dolphin 4.-whatever (newest build)

2. emulate melee 1.02 from Dolphin 4.-whatever

3. pause the emulation once in a stage

4. input shield for player 1. advance frame by frame while holding the input.

5. shield does not come out until 3 frames after the first input. every input is delayed by exactly the same number of frames.


that lag made me switch to an older version of Dolphin do to some experimenting i wanted to do. its unfortunate, because its much harder to do multiplayer frame-by-frame inputs on older versions.

any ideas?


edit: i have a benQ 144 hz monitor, if that matters?

 

[Kadano]

do you know why this situation would occur?

1. run Dolphin 4.-whatever (newest build)

2. emulate melee 1.02 from Dolphin 4.-whatever

3. pause the emulation once in a stage

4. input shield for player 1. advance frame by frame while holding the input.

5. shield does not come out until 3 frames after the first input. every input is delayed by exactly the same number of frames.


that lag made me switch to an older version of Dolphin do to some experimenting i wanted to do. its unfortunate, because its much harder to do multiplayer frame-by-frame inputs on older versions.

any ideas?


edit: i have a benQ 144 hz monitor, if that matters?

I’m sure it’s a Dolphin bug. Your monitor doesn’t affect this at all. I and a few other people told this on the Dolphin forums but the developers didn’t believe us, and I hardly ever use Dolphin’s frame advance anyway.
I’m on 4.0-5921, and it’s 2 frames delay for me. The very first frame advance press doesn’t do anything at all, so it might seem like 3 frames due to this, but while staying in frame advance mode, every subsequent action will have a 2-frame delay.

I think that this bug only affects frame advance mode and not playing in real-time. But anyway, for testing out stuff, just get a .iso with the debug menu and go into develop mode. The controls are listed here: tcrf.net/Super_Smash_Bros._Melee/Master_Debug_Menu

 

[Ed94]

I like to use fast depth calculation , skip efb access and and disabling external frame buffer. Those three gave me a consistent frame by frame.

 

[Kadano]

I like to use fast depth calculation , skip efb access and and disabling external frame buffer. Those three gave me a consistent frame by frame.

I did all of that, but there is still one frame lag for the animation output and two frames lag for the develop mode animation / frame list. I’m on 4.0-5921-Win-x64 btw.