Dolphin 4.0 Released

[Rydian]

Dolphin, the GC/Wii emulator named after the GC's internal development name, hit a milestone today. 4.0.1 is considered stable enough to release and has quite a number of changes. In addition to coming in an installed format and using the user's documents folder (opposed to running standalone from whatever folder the user dumps it in and reading config files relatively), the DSP HLE code has been rewritten and the changes have been merged.

Dolphin 4.0 introduces a full rewrite of the audio emulation used in 99% of games, fixing hundreds of audio related bugs in Dolphin. On the flip side, it is now required to run a game at full speed to get full speed audio out of it, which is a direct consequence of fixing these bugs.

Audio bug fixing is likely to be very welcome for some games, as we've seen time and time again in emulation that audio emulation is not limited to just the noise that comes out of your PC speakers and can heavily affect game compatibility.

Those aren't the only major changes, however. Something new, and this one came out of left field, is beta support for the Wii official online multiplayer. That's right, the main branch now supports games like Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Bros Brawl online. There's other changes as well, check out the source for the full list.

Source
Download

 

[TheDreamLord]

Wow. How does it support Wi-Fi correctly?

 

[JoostinOnline]

I wonder if it works better with homebrew.

 

[FAST6191]

I am trying to think if this is the first emulator we have seen that supports multiplayer like this when the official servers as it were are still up, the closest I have got otherwise is VBAlinkreal. Granted we have not had the most consoles with online connectivity like this.

Wow. How does it support Wi-Fi correctly?

As far as I am aware the wifi is handled by the IOS and thus can be a bit abstracted compared to certain other types of emulation. If you mean how does it handle network communications then generally to sign onto a network you have to ask and respond to certain challenges, I guess the Dolphin people observed this, reverse engineered it and implemented it in such a manner that the official servers are OK with it. I am curious to see how they dodged any Wii identification/uniqueness challenges but given what we have seen with the "banning" and the general shambles that is their online infrastructure I am probably going to go with that.

 

[jonthedit]

Sweet! I've been dying for the announcement!
And yes, JoostinOnline the homebrew support is much better!

 

[kristianity77]

Ive always been interested in trying out the Dolphin emulator and when I build a new PC later this year I'll be getting something capable of running this.

Whats generally considered to be the hardware required in order to get this emu running at full speed at say 720p?

 

[Deleted member 473940]

How about the motion plus controls?

 

[Gahars]

What's with the "Dolphin" name? Is it just random, or is there some greater porpoise?

 

[Deleted member 473940]

What's with the "Dolphin" name? Is it just random, or is there some greater porpoise?

Gamecube was codenamed Dolphin

 

[Clarky]

How about the motion plus controls?

They work yes, as does the balance board these days

 

[Deleted member 473940]

They work yes, as does the balance board these days

So if i buy a bluetooth adapter, I will be able to use Motion Plus controls? Fully functional?

 

[Clarky]

Yep, works well with Skyward Sword and some Bluetooth dongle I picked up for a few pennies

 

[SifJar]

Gamecube was codenamed Dolphin

He (probably) realises that, he was just making a pun.

 

[Deleted member 473940]

Yep, works well with Skyward Sword and some Bluetooth dongle I picked up for a few pennies

Skyward Sword was exactly the reason I was asking the question lol

 

[Clarky]

Skyward Sword was exactly the reason I was asking the question lol

Upon checking my version of dolphin it appears it was an unofficial build with motion plus support added in, I don't know if the official build has it yet. The dolphin forums maybe the place to check, sorry if I got your hopes up

Edit- seems 4.0 works with motion plus wiimotes, you may need to use a to shi'a Bluetooth stack instead of the Microsoft one to get it working though

 

[3bbb7]

wish it improved performance issues. Only get 75-80%~ on wind waker

 

[Deleted member 473940]

Upon checking my version of dolphin it appears it was an unofficial build with motion plus support added in, I don't know if the official build has it yet. The dolphin forums maybe the place to check, sorry if I got your hopes up

Edit- seems 4.0 works with motion plus wiimotes, you may need to use a to shi'a Bluetooth stack instead of the Microsoft one to get it working though

what bluetooth stack? google search didnt give me any info lol.

 

[Fishaman P]

Wow. That wasn't late at all.

Honestly, 4.0 sucks. 4.0.1, on the other hand, is teh shitz. You know, in the good way.

 

[Clarky]

what bluetooth stack? google search didnt give me any info lol.

Toshiba Bluetooth stack, fucking auto correct.

 

[Rydian]

Ive always been interested in trying out the Dolphin emulator and when I build a new PC later this year I'll be getting something capable of running this.

Whats generally considered to be the hardware required in order to get this emu running at full speed at say 720p?

A strong CPU and a decent GPU. Like if you pick up a standard-model i5 you should be fine. The i7's upgrades over an i5 don't do much for emulation.

How about the motion plus controls?

I just finished synching my Wii remote with the built-in plus to my PC and testing it in Dolphin, using the instructions on forcing the Toshiba bluetooth stack that are linked in the source.