Dolphin
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Revision as of 07:23, 28 March 2023 by Mrtnptrs (talk | contribs) (→Availability: Improve availability note)
This article is about the emulation of a console or deprecated PC platform on Windows, macOS (OS X), or Linux.
Developers | |
---|---|
Dolphin Team | |
Release dates | |
Windows | 2003 |
Linux | July 13, 2008 |
macOS (OS X) | 2010 |
Dolphin is an open-source[1] GameCube and Wii emulator that supports many extra features not present on the original consoles.
About 36% of the original GameCube and Wii games are considered to run perfectly (no issues) and 60% are considered playable (minor glitches).[2]
General information
- Dolphin Website
- Dolphin Blog
- Dolphin Source Code (GitHub)
- Dolphin Compatibility List
- Steam Discussion Forum
Availability
Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Official website | Does not contain any games for copyright reasons. | |||
Steam (unavailable) | Does not contain any games for copyright reasons. Will release into Early Access in Q2 2023 with full release expected at the end of 2023. Will support in-development builds. |
- Has a built-in auto-updater in the Development builds.
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
System | Location |
---|---|
Windows | %APPDATA%\Dolphin Emulator\Config\[Note 1] %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\Config\[Note 2] |
macOS (OS X) | |
Linux | |
Steam Play (Linux) | <SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1941680/pfx/[Note 3] |
Save file(s) location
System | Location |
---|---|
Windows | %APPDATA%\Dolphin Emulator\Wii\[Note 4] %APPDATA%\Dolphin Emulator\GC\[Note 5] %APPDATA%\Dolphin Emulator\StateSaves[Note 6] |
Windows | %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\Wii\[Note 7] %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\GC\[Note 8] %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\StateSaves[Note 9] |
Steam Play (Linux) | <SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1941680/pfx/[Note 3] |
Save game cloud syncing
System | Native | Notes |
---|---|---|
OneDrive | Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers. | |
Steam Cloud |
Video
Graphics feature | State | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|
Widescreen resolution | Per-game basis. Natively supported by a few GameCube games and most Wii games. Non-native titles can be patched with an AR/Gecko code, if either exists, or forced with the Widescreen Hack combined with forcing an aspect ratio. | ||
Multi-monitor | |||
Ultra-widescreen | Can be patched per-game with an AR/Gecko code, if either exists. | ||
4K Ultra HD | Games can be rendered at various resolutions, up to and including 4K, although this causes issues with some games. | ||
Field of view (FOV) | Can be patched per-game with an AR/Gecko code, if either exists. | ||
Windowed | |||
Borderless fullscreen windowed | |||
Anisotropic filtering (AF) | Up to 16 samples. | ||
Anti-aliasing (AA) | Up to 8x MSAA, 8x SSAA, and/or FXAA via a Post-Processing Effect. | ||
Vertical sync (Vsync) | |||
60 FPS | Per-game basis. Natively supported by some games, others can be patched with an AR/Gecko code, if either exists. | ||
120+ FPS | |||
High dynamic range display (HDR) | No HDR on GameCube and Wii hardware. | ||
Ray tracing (RT) | No Ray-Tracing on GameCube and Wii due to age of systems. |
Input
Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Remapping | ||
Mouse acceleration | ||
Mouse sensitivity | ||
Mouse input in menus | The front-end can be navigated with a mouse. | |
Mouse Y-axis inversion | ||
Controller | ||
Controller support | ||
Full controller support | ||
Controller remapping | ||
Controller sensitivity | ||
Controller Y-axis inversion | Per-game basis. Natively supported in some games, can also be accomplished by swapping the button mappings for up and down. |
Controller types |
---|
XInput-compatible controllers | ||
---|---|---|
Xbox button prompts | All games use Wii or GameCube button prompts by default. Xbox button prompts can be added using custom texture packs on a per-game basis. | |
Impulse Trigger vibration |
PlayStation controllers | ||
---|---|---|
PlayStation button prompts | All games use Wii or GameCube button prompts by default. DualShock button prompts can be added using custom texture packs on a per-game basis. | |
Light bar support | ||
Adaptive trigger support | ||
DualSense haptic feedback support | ||
Connection modes |
Tracked motion controllers | Native Wii Remote support. | |
---|---|---|
Button/gesture prompts | All games use Wii or GameCube button prompts by default. Different button prompts can be added using custom texture packs on a per-game basis. |
Generic/other controllers | ||
---|---|---|
Button prompts | All games use Wii or GameCube button prompts by default. Different button prompts can be added using custom texture packs on a per-game basis. |
Additional information | ||
---|---|---|
Controller hotplugging | ||
Haptic feedback | ||
Digital movement supported | ||
Simultaneous controller+KB/M | Up to 4 virtual Wii/GameCube controllers. |
Audio
Audio feature | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Separate volume controls | Per-game basis. Not all games contain the ability to adjust the audio mix. | |
Surround sound | Per-game basis. If the game being played supported Dolby Pro Logic II on the Wii or GameCube, it can be converted to 5.1 surround sound. | |
Subtitles | Per-game basis. Not all games support subtitles. | |
Closed captions | Per-game basis. Not all games support closed captions. | |
Mute on focus lost |
Localizations
Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
English | ||||
Polish |
VR support
3D modes | State | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|
Native 3D | Side-by-side, top-and-bottom, anaglyph, HDMI 3D, and passive. |
Other information
API
Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
---|---|---|
Direct3D | 11, 12 | D3D12 backend was added on February 16, 2016 through update 4.0-8933.[5] D3D12 backend was temporarily removed on May 19, 2017 through update 5.0-3774[6] and subsequently brought back in completely redone form on April 1, 2019 through update 5.0-9878.[7] The D3D9 backend was removed on October 6, 2013 through update 4.0-155.[8] |
OpenGL | 4.4 | |
Software renderer | Extremely slow. Only for debugging purposes. | |
Metal support | Native Metal backend support added on July 23, 2022 through update 5.0-16965.[9] MoltenVK backend support added on November 30, 2018 through update 5.0-9173.[10] |
|
Vulkan | 1.1 | Vulkan backend was added on October 1, 2016 through update 5.0-748.[11][12] |
Executable | 32-bit | 64-bit | ARM | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Windows | 32-bit support was dropped on May 20, 2014 since update 4.0-1624.[3][4] | |||
macOS (OS X) | ||||
Linux |
System requirements
Windows | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | 10 | |
Processor (CPU) | Quad core | |
System memory (RAM) | ||
Hard disk drive (HDD) | ||
Video card (GPU) | Vulkan 1.1 compatible OpenGL 4.4 compatible DirectX 11 compatible |
- A 64-bit operating system is required.
macOS (OS X) | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | 10.14 (Mojave) | |
Processor (CPU) | Quad core | |
System memory (RAM) | ||
Hard disk drive (HDD) | ||
Video card (GPU) | Vulkan 1.1 compatible OpenGL 4.4 compatible |
- A 64-bit operating system is required.
Linux | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | ||
Processor (CPU) | Quad Core | |
System memory (RAM) | ||
Hard disk drive (HDD) | ||
Video card (GPU) | Vulkan 1.1 compatible OpenGL 4.4 compatible |
- A 64-bit operating system is required.
Notes
- ↑ New default location only on brand new Dolphin installations made with version 5.0-18242 or higher.
- ↑ Legacy default location only on old Dolphin installations made with version 5.0-18242 or older.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
- File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
- Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
- The app ID (1941680) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.
- ↑ New default location only on brand new Dolphin installations made with version 5.0-18242 or higher. Equivalent to the internal storage of a Wii console.
- ↑ New default location only on brand new Dolphin installations made with version 5.0-18242 or higher. GameCube data, separated by region.
- ↑ New default location only on brand new Dolphin installations made with version 5.0-18242 or higher. Save states are stored here.
- ↑ Legacy default location only on old Dolphin installations made with version 5.0-18242 or older. Equivalent to the internal storage of a Wii console.
- ↑ Legacy default location only on old Dolphin installations made with version 5.0-18242 or older. GameCube data, separated by region.
- ↑ Legacy default location only on old Dolphin installations made with version 5.0-18242 or older. Save states are stored here.
References
- ↑ GitHub Commits activity
- ↑ Dolphin Compatibility List
- ↑ Obituary for 32-bit - Dolphin - last accessed on 2023-02-11
- ↑ master branch - page 472 - Dolphin - last accessed on 2023-02-11
- ↑ Dolphin Progress Report: February 2016 - 4.0-8933 - D3D12 Backend by hdcmeta - Dolphin - last accessed on 2023-02-11
- ↑ https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2017/06/03/dolphin-progress-report-may-2017/ - Dolphin - last accessed on 2023-02-11
- ↑ Information for 5.0-9878 - Dolphin - last accessed on 2023-02-11
- ↑ D3D9: Why It's Not a Part of Dolphin's Future - last accessed on 2023-02-11
- ↑ Dolphin Progress Report: July and August 2022 - 5.0-16965 - macOS: Add Metal Backend by TellowKrinkle and 5.0-17206 - MoltenVK: Update to v1.1.11 by OatmealDome - Dolphin - last accessed on 2023-02-11
- ↑ Dolphin Progress Report: November 2018 - 5.0-9173 - Vulkan: Add Support on macOS via MoltenVK by stenzek - Dolphin - last accessed on 2023-02-11
- ↑ Dolphin Progress Report: September 2016 - Dolphin - last accessed on 2023-02-11
- ↑ Information for 5.0-748 - Dolphin - last accessed on 2023-02-11
- ↑ Dolphin Blog -- Leaving a Legend: Saying goodbye to Windows 7 - last accessed on 2022-06-09
- "With the merging of Qt6 support on the Windows buildbot in 5.0-16393, Dolphin has dropped Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1. Our minimum spec for Windows is now Windows 10."