Dolphin Version 3089 release!!!

[yocho182]

* Notable changes since the last bi-weekly build: Tons of progress on the DSP LLE front
* Correct texture scaling (now works correctly when adding output together from indirect stages which use power 2 and non power 2 textures)
* Fix a bug which could keep memcards from being created
* Fix controls in Sonic Adventure DX
* Fix using XFB in single core mode
* Fix OSX build :p
* Begin fixing bounding boxes, paper mario and such show benifits from this
* Fix existenze demo! (I love this thing, haha)
* GUI usability fixes

* New features: Info Window added for easy system statistics viewing.
* Free Look added to OpenGL plugin! (see http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/source/detail?r=3005 for details)
* Experimental Wii USB keyboard support
* Wii SD Card support (see forum thread)

…And of course, a host of other bugfixes and smaller changes. :)



http://www.dolphin-emu.com/news.php

[yocho182]

Alrighty, so here's the lowdown on the SD Card support:

Dolphin will automatically create a 128MB, FAT32 formatted sd card image when a game tries to access the sd card, and dolphin does not find a file called "sd.raw" in the main dolphin directory.

From there on, you can use sd card features in games and homebrew with no problem, with some exceptions (of course...), which I'll state later.

OK, so in order to edit the memcard image, just mount it as a vfat disk if you're on *nix, or use a program such as winimage or gizmo to mount the sd card file in windows. Easy enough.

The other big question is how to get your current sd card into a format dolphin can use. This is easy too...on linux at least. Just use dd to create an image of the card, name it "sd.raw", and put it in the correct location. In windows, you will have to have dolphin create an image (or create a FAT16/32 image in any manner you want), then open it in one of the aforementioned programs, and copy the files you want from your real sd card into the image that way.

OK, so now for the exceptions I noted earlier: if the software running on dolphin tries to use any key other than the public SD Card key to securely transfer data to/from the card, IT WILL NOT WORK. This may or may not be fixed in the future.

[yocho182]

Perfect on Dolphin

games that you are running on Dolphin!

http://spreadsheets.google.com/lv?key=pmSKnNaSoLuNqLjSCSk8rfg

[yocho182]

======= System Requirements =======
* Operating System: Microsoft Windows (2000/XP/Vista or higher) / Linux / Apple Mac OS X (Intel version).
* Processor: Any Fast CPU with SSE2 supported (recommended at least 2Ghz). Dual Core for speed boost.
* Graphics: Any graphics card that supports Direct3D 9 or OpenGL 2.1.
* Your Brain: Understanding the FAQ, Forum Rules, and that we don't support Piracy.

Note: OpenGL plugin is the best working video plugin for Dolphin, do not expect great results with the Direct3D9 plugin compared to the alternate one.
Note: Direct3D9 plugin is still in the works and has more kinks than the OGL one, so expect to run into black screen, shading errors, and other graphical bugs.
Note: Dolphin is not 100% perfect at its emulation. Running into crashes, errors, and whatnot is expected!

======= Runtime Library Requirements =======
Dolphin needs you have to have the libraries listed below installed.

[Windows]
-MS Visual C++ Runtime 2008 SP1: This fixes the "side by side" / "application config" & model errors
Microsoft VC++ 2008 SP1 Redist x86 - For 32bit Windows
Microsoft VC++ 2008 SP1 Redist x64 - For 64bit Windows

-The DirectX March 2009 Runtime: This fixes the plugin loading errors
Note: THIS MEANS UPDATE YOUR DIRECTX EVEN IF YOU HAVE THE VERSION 9.0c or 10 or 10.1!!!!!!
Microsoft DirectX Updater

[Linux]
-install libbluetooth: fixes the "PANIC failed to load plugin Plugins/libPlugin_wiimote.so" error for linux users

======= Video Card Requirements =======
You must have a video card that support OpenGL 2.x fully or Direct3D 9.0c.

Note: The Direct3D9 video plugin is old/outdated and it looks like it doesn't work anymore. We recommend using the Dolphin OpenGL Video plugin for better video emulation.

[color=red]Note: Make sure your drivers are up to date!
NVIDIA Drivers
ATI Drivers

[Models that Dolphin likes]
- NVIDIA GeForce 6 to 9 Series and GeForce 200 Series
--* GeForce 6 Series
--* GeForce 7 Series
--* GeForce 8 Series
--* GeForce 9 Series
--* GeForce 200 Series
- ATI Radeon R200 to R700 Series
--* ATI Radeon Processor Generations
--* Radeon 300
--* Radeon 420
--* Radeon 520
--* Radeon 600
--* Radeon 700

[Model thats Dolphin doesn't like]
- Any Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) Chipset (These cards do not support OpenGL 2.x fully)
--* Intel Graphics Media Accelerator
- Older NVIDIA Chipsets
--* GeForce 256
--* GeForce 2
--* GeForce 3
--* GeForce 4
--* GeForce FX Series
- ATI Radeon R200 and Older
--* ATI Radeon Processor Generations
--* Radeon 100
--* Radeon 200
--* RIVA TNT
------+ RIVA TNT
--* RAGE
------+ Rage

[yocho182]

[Audio]
Most Wii/Gamecube games uses the Digital Signal Processor (DSP) to decode data into Audio data (like the DSP could be used to decode MP3 files into audio). The games load a small program into the DSP called a UCode. the game can send data to the UCode which processes the data into audio and writes the audio data back in the system RAM. In Dolphin, we have to emulate the DSP chip but there is only 1 doc on how this chip works. The DSP_HLE can 95% accurately emulate the AX UCodes, note that all 3rd part games use AX UCodes. Nintendo made games use non-AX UCodes. The HLE doesn't understand the non-AX codes, we are still in progress in turning the non-AX codes into C code. The LLE (Low Level Emulation) DSP plugin emulates the chip by simulating the chip instead of turning the UCodes to C code. Currently the LLE is really buggy and barley works and you also need dsp_rom.bin and dsp_coef.bin, which is a bunch of data you have to dump off your gamecube/Wii system.

[Graphics]
Most of the graphics is working now but there are still problems with the XFB and Texture Cache and the zbuffer. The OpenGL plugin is mostly worked on than the Direct3D9 one. The D3D9 plugin is old and needs to be re-written. Also I suspect the EFB is missing some shader functionality. Note the Video plugins are still in the works, so expect bugs. Also the emulator can speedown from the vertex loaders loading too many verticies that the games wants to draw to the screen. Also the GatherPipe emulation system might still be bugged, we hacked a WatchDog for it since the watermark is not to be fully trusted to protect the GX FIFO buffer from getting corruptions.

[Core]
There are still bugs in the CPU emulator and some missing parts like TLB emulation. Dual Core mode is unstable and usually it causes random crashes/bugs during the execution of the game. The Command Processor is still buggy and it is only used in DC Mode. It tries to emulate the CP on the real system when CPU and GPU threads are running on seperate ALU Cores.

[yocho182]

Long live to DOLPHIN!!!!!!