Dolphin (emulator)

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Dolphin

Dolphin-logo.svg
Screenshot
Screenshot of Dolphin
Basic data

developer Dolphin team
Publishing year September 22, 2003, July 13, 2008
Current  version 5.0
( June 24, 2016 )
operating system Unix-like ( Linux , macOS , FreeBSD , Android ), Windows and macOS
programming language C ++ , C , Objective-C ++
category emulator
License GPL 2+ ( free software )
dolphin-emu.org

Dolphin is a free GameCube - and Wii - emulator for Windows , Linux , MacOS and Android . The name corresponds to the code name of the GameCube console used during development by Nintendo .

History and more details

Dolphin was the first GameCube and Wii emulator that could emulate commercial games. Most games now run without any problems, even in higher resolutions.

The Dolphin team released the source code on July 13, 2008, and since then new versions have been published daily on the project's developer page. These drastically improve emulation compatibility and speed, and since then there are also 64-bit versions for all operating systems.

On April 12, 2010, Dolphin 2.0 was the first official release since the project was developed as free software . Dolphin 3.0 was released on June 24, 2011, 3.5 with FreeBSD support on December 25, 2012. Version 4.0 was released on September 22, 2013. New were a version for Android, which is still in the early development phase, and the option to use the official online mode of the Wii Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection . Shortly afterwards, important bug fixes followed with version 4.0.1 and 4.0.2. Version 5.0 was released on June 25, 2016, which further improved the emulation accuracy and speed.

The project is being actively developed. There are so-called nightly builds with the current development progress.

In March 2014, the emulation quality could be increased significantly because problems with the integer calculation of the GPU were fixed. In May 2014, support for the x86 processor (32-bit) was removed in the nightly builds . The reasons were that today almost every modern processor is 64-bit capable, Windows XP is no longer supported anyway, the 32-bit versions ran poorly and the development effort could be significantly reduced. In February 2015, a possibility was announced to run games at 60 FPS that are actually only designed for 30 FPS.

In mid-2017 the problem of the shader compilation was solved. Online functions such as full use of the Wii Shop Channel have also been implemented. This enables games to be purchased from the official Nintendo shop and downloaded content from the console again.

Dolphin has had automatic updates and integration with Discord since 2018 .

In 2019, the emulation of Wii MotionPlus was added, which enables the motion control typical of the Wii without having to use official hardware such as the Wii Remote .

Netplay is a function in the Dolphin Emulator that allows GameCube and Wii games to be played online. In order to be able to play online with friends, all participants must have the same Iso or wbfs, whereby the individual memory status is irrelevant. Only the speech output of the game and that all players have not activated any hacks or mods is decisive. If this is the case, all settings must be identical. The game is displayed in the same way on each player's screen, as if several controllers were connected to a console.

variants

Dolphin Triforce

A version of Dolphin to emulate the Triforce Arcade System . This system was originally under development by the Dolphin team but was eventually not further developed after the development priorities shifted.

Dolphin VR

Dolphin VR is a third party project with the aim of enabling the Dolphin Emulator to play games in virtual reality . HTC Vive and Oculus Rift are supported by Dolphin VR.

The source code is available on GitHub .

DolphiniOS

DolphiniOS is a third party Dolphin project for Apple iOS . An iOS jailbreak and Cydia are required for this.

The source code is available on GitHub .

Ishiiruka

In response to the removal of the DirectX 9 -support Dolphin developers Tino has an unofficial on October 18, 2013 spin-off created the software called Ishiiruka. The name is Japanese for white-flanked porpoise .

Although the focus is on Windows with DirectX 9 and 11 support, there are also Linux versions.

The version tries to fix existing performance problems in Dolphin like micro stuttering due to the shader compilation.

PrimeHack

PrimeHack is a version of Dolphin created by shiiion that has been modified to play the Metroid Prime trilogy on a PC with keyboard and mouse controls. There are two flavors of PrimeHack - one based on Ishiiruka and the other based on Dolphin. The latter will be the focus of development from October 2019.

The source code is available on Github.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release 5.0 . June 24, 2016 (accessed July 20, 2018).
  2. ↑ Dolphin 4.0.2 Release Announcement (English) - Dolphin Blog , November 30, 2013
  3. ↑ Dolphin 5.0 Release (English) - Dolphin Blog , June 26, 2016
  4. ↑ Dolphin Emulator Downloads
  5. ↑ Pixel Processing Problems: On the Road to Pixel Perfection (English) - Dolphin Blog , August 3, 2014
  6. ↑ Obituary for 32-bit (English) - Dolphin Blog , May 21, 2014
  7. ↑ Game Modification: 60 FPS Hacks in Dolphin (English) - Dolphin Blog , February 9, 2015
  8. ↑ Ubershaders: A Ridiculous Solution to an Impossible Problem , Dolphin Blog, July 30, 2017.
  9. ↑ Kyle Orland: This Wii emulator lets you buy actual games from Nintendo's Shop Channel. March 21, 2017, Retrieved March 25, 2020 (American English).
  10. ↑ Dolphin Emulator. Retrieved March 25, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Dolphin Emulator. Retrieved March 25, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Dolphin Emulator. Retrieved March 25, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Dolphin Emulator. Retrieved March 26, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Dolphin Emulator. Retrieved March 25, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Carl Kenner: CarlKenner / dolphin. February 22, 2020, accessed March 25, 2020 .
  16. ↑ OatmealDome / dolphin. Retrieved March 25, 2020 (English).
  17. ↑ [UNOFFICIAL] Ishiiruka-Dolphin Custom Version. Retrieved March 25, 2020 .
  18. ↑ EmuCR.Com: Ishiiruka-Dolphin Custom Version (2015/04/06) - EmuCR. Retrieved March 25, 2020 .
  19. ↑ r / smashbros - I've made a script for installing Faster Melee on Linux. Help me test it! Retrieved March 25, 2020 (American English).
  20. ↑ John Papadopoulos: You can now play the Metroid Prime games on the PC with mouse and keyboard, and better FOV. In: DSOGaming. August 7, 2019, accessed March 25, 2020 (American English).
  21. ↑ shiiion: shiiion / Ishiiruka. March 5, 2020, accessed March 25, 2020 .
  22. ↑ shiiion: shiiion / dolphin. March 10, 2020, accessed March 25, 2020 .
  23. ↑ shiiion: shiiion / Ishiiruka. March 5, 2020, accessed March 25, 2020 .
  24. ↑ shiiion: shiiion / dolphin. March 10, 2020, accessed March 25, 2020 .