A few questions

[Ksonic]

Hi. I am generally new to gamecube emulation, as I only just recently aquired a decent machine. I've ripped a bunch of my games to my pc and many are playable, perhaps a bit slow, but decent. My questions are, a. Should most games not have sound- Most of mine, except ssbm, do not. And b. Is super paper mario playable(wii)? I tried to play my rip and got to a screen that instructed me to tip my wiimote sideways, which I was obviously not able to do.

Thanks.

Specs:
2 gb 1100mhz ram
2.0Ghz dual core amd athlon64
512 mb pcie ati radeon x1900
Lg 8163b DVD reader
Other stuff

[MasterPhW]

Long questions, short answers:
a. Yes
b. No
addition to a.) because the sound hardware isn't documented well enough, most non Nintendo games are without sound, because they use a different music format
to. b.) Wii Input isn't emulated yet, they work on it! =)

[cerebus5]

Don't bother trying to play Wii games yet, it's quite a ways from being ready. Main thing as masterphw says is the emulation of the remote.

[Ksonic]

O ok thanks. Also, I hear that nVidia cards are better for GC emulation, as they have better support for OGL. So, is it worth it to sell my ati x1900 and buy an nVidia?

If so, any recommendations? I would buy on ebay and purchase for a max of 100 US dollars.

[cooliscool]

You could buy a gamecube and games with $100....

But yes, having an nVidia card is optimal, but I wouldn't call it significant enough to go through the effort you're describing.

[Ksonic]

I actually do have a Wii and gamecube games. :bouncy:

However, is it likely for ati support to improve?

[cerebus5]

Improved ATI support is dependent upon their own willingness to work on the Opengl drivers. But I think they have been recently recognising the need to work on their drivers so there is hope.

[p_025]

I think historically, NVidia has had worse support for OpenGL. However, the Dolphin team are using NVidia's OpenGL SDK or something, so naturally it still works better on NVidia cards.

[NepSquare]

I beg to differ on that last note, not even the FireGL in it's time could compete with the Nvidia's chipsets at that time in rendering openGL... Even before that actually.

On topic:
@MasterPHW: I actually get more sound from third party games, due to them using more common sound formats...

[cooliscool]

I beg to differ on that last note, not even the FireGL in it's time could compete with the Nvidia's chipsets at that time in rendering openGL... Even before that actually.

Yep, seconded.

[Ksonic]

What games are known to have nearly complete sound- if any besides smash bros?

Also, what does it mean exactly that there is "not much documentation" on the sound formats used by gamecube?

[NepSquare]

Resident Evil Remake, mostly. Burnout 2... Should be a few others but I don't own them..

That means that most licensed nintendo games use sound formats we can't emulate yet due to the lack of knowledge to the public about them.

'N

[Toasty]

Also, what does it mean exactly that there is "not much documentation" on the sound formats used by gamecube?
It means that the Dolphin developers are trying to write an automatic Wookiee->English translator, only they don't have a Wookiee->English dictionary or a Wookiee grammar/syntax textbook.

Actually I was lying; Wookiees and their language are not involved at all. But if you replace Wookiee language with Gamecube audio programming and English with PC soundcard programming and apply it to the above paragraph, you get the idea.

[Ksonic]

lol thanks. i see.

Also, my I have an ATi 1900X 512 mb card or something, and it uses the Catalyst Control Center. Ive noticed an Overclocking panel. Ive set the GPU clock to 688mhz and the graphics mem clock to 792mhz using the auto configuration. It is possible to increase both speeds, GPU max 690mhz, memory max 800mhz. My card runs at about 51 degrees when emulating with dolphin. Would it be ok to increase to the max values or is that dangerous?

Thanks

[cerebus5]

Your card doesn't actually make a big difference to the emulation of Dolphin. It's mainly your CPU.

[NepSquare]

Jup, I wouldn't go for OC'ing your card, unless you are using PCSX2.. ;)

Seriously though, I'm a vivid fan of both, OC'ing your CPU if you have the headroom will have an impact on most emulators or applications, heck your whole machine will benefit from it if you have good ram..

But only if you know what you are doing...ONLY. There's a lot of people who review their OC'ing adventures online, I would look for those on the net to start.
Running on 51 degrees is not bad, but it differs a lot from gpu to gpu, I once had one that went on black over 57degrees actually. You can seriously damage your hardware if you just move the sliders on impulse.

Uhm go for the DX plugin for now...

[cerebus5]

DX plugin is horrible though, compatibility is nowhere close to OGL.

I personally have a really lousy GPU (7300GS) but it doesn't seem to have any adverse affect on performance. On the other hand the more I OC my CPU (E2160), the better FPS I get, definitely. I can pick up 6-7 FPS by overclocking.

[NepSquare]

@cerebus: I know, but he has an Ati card, hence my suggestion..

[cerebus5]

Yeah you can't do too much about that one, sorry. Even overclocking isn't going to help you with an ATI card.

[Ksonic]

Currently I have a 2.0Ghz AMD athlon 64 dual core processor. Approximately how much of an increase in FPS would I gain in upgrading to a 3.0Ghz Dual core?

[Toasty]

Theoretically about 50%, though in practice it may be a little less. (Assuming you're talking about upgrading to another Athlon X2, or speeding up the one you have.)