Playing melee on Dolphin

[SonBunns]

I'm currently practicing melee on Dolphin and wanted to know if there are any downsides when using Dolphin rather than an actual console. I have a Gamecube controller adapter and a laptop that has no problem running it. Is there any delay or other problems I should know about?

 

[Pwii]

I'm currently practicing melee on Dolphin and wanted to know if there are any downsides when using Dolphin rather than an actual console. I have a Gamecube controller adapter and a laptop that has no problem running it. Is there any delay or other problems I should know about?

*Lag. You might make bad habits that only work when your opponent's reaction time is a bit off. Emukiller talked about this in his post after winning Sktar 3, how he used to uSmash OoS a lot with MewTwo, but it only really worked when people were on wifi. You can actually see him do this and get punished for it a bit at that tourney. Of course he still won, so.

*Not being able to see salt with your own eyes.

I'd just advise you to go for it, but also try and play with people offline if you're about to go to a tourney. Correcting bad habits is something you have to do constantly as a smasher anyways, so it's not like playing with lag is going to increase it tenfold, just add a bit more possibly.

 

[steakhouse]

OP didn't talk about netplay, just Dolphin

Dolphin, in my opinion, is superior to CRT-and-console setups because of ease of hacking (boot from CSS), improved graphics (Melee HD is already out) and ability to netplay. Knock yourself out.

 

[Blarg]

To replicate a CRT as close as possible you'll want to eliminate as many sources of lag as possible. Use a GC adapter that works with Dolphin's "direct connect" native mode. These include the Wii U official one and Mayflash 4-port. For display lag, use a fast monitor and disable Windows Aero. Dolphin's exclusive fullscreen is supposed to bypass Aero but I turn it off anyway just to be safe (plus I sometimes play windowed). As for netplay, you're going to get lag regardless so just use that for matchup practice, not for tech practice.

 

[SonBunns]

I'll have to check if my laptop monitor has any significant delay, but dolphin should run without any lag. Thanks for all the answers!

 

[Kadano]

Disable Windows Aero and run Dolphin in full-screen mode. Also, I hope you are using a 4-port GCC adapter; the 1- and 2-port ones by Mayflash do lag.

 

[Y-L]

As everybody else said, play in fullscreen mode with a wii u adapter using direct connect (Dolphin's native support). By doing this, the only source of lag is from your monitor which is usually about a frame. This assumes you are using a recent dolphin build, like 4.0-5886. Don't practice on 4.0-652.

 

[Mwauthzyx]

As long as you eliminate as many possible sources of lag as possible, there should be no problem.