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Wind Waker vs. Twilight Princess

eye776

New member
I've been waiting for an oportunity to let in some light on the subject, so here goes, my humble 2 cents (tough I've never coded for a gamecube).

So.

WW tries to look JUST LIKE A CARTOON, which is why it neads heavy vertex interpolation (ganon's sleeve's alone are worth around 2-3k polys a piece). Also it doesn't just use the usual cel effect but some other framebuffer effects. The reason why it cracks up on items is that graphichs may be swapping reg values with the inventory :(.

TP has a LOT less polys per model (link has 3-3.5k max). Also it uses at most 3 images per blended texture. Also it has 16 bit indices (unlike TWW which probably has 32). Also the inventory is not blank (it has regs allocated). This is why TP DOESN'T crack up :D

My specs are:
AMD Duron 1300
396 MB DDR (266 Mhz)
GeForceFX 5200 TD (64 bit) 128 MB
Matrox DiamondMax8 (~7200RPM)
OS: Win2k SP4 Rollup1

And I get 3-7 fps in menus 1.5~3 fps ingame :D

Conclusion: TPP might just be playable. I'll try to get my hands on a functional memcard and see if it really is and how far it goes (in my spare time, logically).

EDIT: THIS GAME CREATES FUNCIONAL MEM CARDS PROOF IN SCREENSHOT.
 
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Doomulation

?????????????????????????
Well, Twilight Princess pushes the Gamecube hardware to its limits, while Wind Waker does not. I've actually seen Twilight Princess slow down a little at certain places. I doubt it will be faster.
 
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eye776

New member
Twilight Princess pushes the Gamecube hardware to its limits

True, but dolphin doesn't emulate the whole gamecube hw, so those areas will either not be rendered (black screen with character) or rendered without the sfx so on the emu it won't make much of a difference.

The game seems playable so far. A big fat impediment is no map. So you have to press Pad UP (T default) like mad in non rendered areas.
 

chiklit

New member
My results:

Wind Waker (dynarec on)

2d graphics: 30fps
Menus: 12-18fps
3d outdoors: 3-5fps

Wind Waker (dynarec off)

2d graphics: 9fps
Menus: 5fps
3d outdoors: 1-2fps

Twilight Princess (dynarec off)

2d graphics: 9fps
Menus: 4fps
3d outdoors: 3fps
 

Enzo Dragon

STFU, NAVI
At first I got a bit excited, but although the game itself is playable, the framerate would be a huge detractor. If TP runs at an internal 30/40 FPS (not sure if those ar even close), then 0.## just doesn't sound "playable" to me.

However, this is still a pretty great achievement as far as the emulation goes. Dolphin's coder(s) should be proud!
 

ShizZy

Emulator Developer
The reason why it cracks up on items is that graphichs may be swapping reg values with the inventory
Hmm... well, that might not necessarily be true. I could be wrong, but from the nature of the game's freeze, it doesn't look so much like a crash as it does a hang. I think it's actually waiting for a sound to be played, but once again, I could be wrong.
 
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eye776

New member
I just installed WinXP today on my PC (free M$ program from college). I booted up the emu, and had a BIG surprise. Massive FPS drops! (Luna disabled, no wallpaper, no 'special effects').
 
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eye776

New member
Got my hands on a Wind Waker gcm (test purposes only :D)

(dynarec on)
2d graphics: 50-60 fps
Menus: 3-4 fps
3d outdoors: 0.6-4 fps

(dynarec off)
2d graphics: 40-50 fps
Menus: 3-4 fps
3d outdoors: 1-4 fps


Twilight Princess - dynarec off

2d graphics: 30 fps
Menus: 2-4 fps
3d outdoors: 0.6-3 fps

So it's pretty much the same s**t for me. My theory was (wrongfully) based on my SSE processor. SSE2 processors and higher (SSE3, HT, DualCore) no longer have the 32-bit tangent vertex problem.

AND YES, Wind Waker's characters have far more polygons than TP ones.

PS: Shots are dynarec. Non-dynarec ones have similar fps (0.5-1 fps diff at most in 3d).
 
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chiklit

New member
I just installed WinXP today on my PC (free M$ program from college). I booted up the emu, and had a BIG surprise. Massive FPS drops! (Luna disabled, no wallpaper, no 'special effects').

I noticed that too. I'm not sure if I downloaded a newer version and didn't realize it, but on this same computer I used to get between 120-220fps in Wind Waker during the 2d parts (like the story in the beginning). But now I only get 30fps. Or else there's some fps limiter turned on somewhere that I don't know about.
 

Sav

New member
I was able to get the game past all the intro screens and accually get link moving(took like an hour), this game should be playable but the fps need to be inceased some way, i got around 1 fps in game. Took me 2 min to get link to run around in a circle lol.
 

Enzo Dragon

STFU, NAVI
The FPS will only improve as newer versions of the emulator are released, if at all. I have a feeling that we'll be waiting awhile for GC emu to get to the point where FPS will be anywhere toleratable on a gamer's terms.

It seems like a lot of people are seeing this thread and expecting to play TP with no hooks via emulation. What's more, instead of reading a bit more on the subject, they just go ahead and download the binaries and then wonder why everything is so slow and gritty.
 

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