Melee Netplay - The Future is Now (New and improved!)

[Grokbu]

Are you guys playing melee on dolphin emulator with the controller rumble function enabled?

I am doing that, yes. Currently using my Dualshock 3, though I'm gonna get a Raphnet GC -> USB adapter sooner or later, I'll assume that will work as well.

EDIT: Also, just a warning to anyone I'm playing in the future. I'm a huuge newbie to competitive Smash. I didn't even know about teching (which isn't advanced stuff at all) before this last weekend, but everyone's gotta start somewhere!

 

[fatman667]

Are you guys playing melee on dolphin emulator with the controller rumble function enabled?

Yep, I play Dolphin with rumble

 

[Luo_Zhao]

I am doing that, yes. Currently using my Dualshock 3, though I'm gonna get a Raphnet GC -> USB adapter sooner or later, I'll assume that will work as well.

EDIT: Also, just a warning to anyone I'm playing in the future. I'm a huuge newbie to competitive Smash. I didn't even know about teching (which isn't advanced stuff at all) before this last weekend, but everyone's gotta start somewhere!

Yep, rumble is working with the Raphnet adapter for me

 

[rustediron]

I'm pretty curious to see the code changes on this, improving the breadth/quality of dolphin's controller support is definitely on my list.

Here's the diff:
https://code.google.com/r/frugssms-...ControllerInterface/DInput/DInputJoystick.cpp

 

[fatman667]

I am doing that, yes. Currently using my Dualshock 3, though I'm gonna get a Raphnet GC -> USB adapter sooner or later, I'll assume that will work as well.

EDIT: Also, just a warning to anyone I'm playing in the future. I'm a huuge newbie to competitive Smash. I didn't even know about teching (which isn't advanced stuff at all) before this last weekend, but everyone's gotta start somewhere!

You're a new at competitive smash too? Can you play at 4:30pm pst tomorrow? That way we can both progressively get better at the same rate.

 

[L-J]

Wondering if anyone with Dolphin experience can help me out here. I've tried multiple versions of Dolphin with all kind of combinations of settings (dual core on/off, lock threads to cores on/off, hle/lle sound, etc) and I'm getting the same problem: my fps is constant at 60 and my 'speed' constant at 100% as they should be, but I'm still getting randomly stuttering framerate drops with dropped inputs. They seem to happen every 10 seconds or so but are pretty random all in all. I have a 3.3Ghz processor and as I say the fps is supposedly steady at 60 (so Dolphin tells me) so I find it hard to believe my comp just isn't good enough to run the game properly. I found this old post on another forum by someone who seems to have had exactly the same problem as me:

'RE: [GC] Super Smash Bros. Melee
Hoping someone might be able to help me with some stuttering issues I've been having.

Regardless of my settings or build, I'm having frequent stuttering of two varieties.

The first occurs the first time in a match when a special effect or article is loaded -- the most noticeable example is the first time Mario uses Fireball and the game halts for 20ish frames.

The much more common issue occurs every 10 seconds or so and is a general choppiness as if the game is dropping frames, regardless of whether or not Idle Skipping is enabled. The FPS shows a constant '60,' showing 59 occasionally, and the FPS still displays 60 during the stuttering period. Also during this stuttering it will drop inputs.

Specs:

Windows 7 x64
Phenom 966 at stock 3.6ghz
"SuperClocked" 460 GTX 1gb
8 gb 1600 mhz ram

Melee .iso running from a ram disk.'

If anyone has any ideas I'd be most grateful!

 

[Grokbu]

You're a new at competitive smash too? Can you play at 4:30pm pst tomorrow? That way we can both progressively get better at the same rate.

I'm from Sweden, so there might be a lot lag, but we can try at least! I'll try to be on the IRC channel att that time.

Wondering if anyone with Dolphin experience can help me out here. I've tried multiple versions of Dolphin with all kind of combinations of settings (dual core on/off, lock threads to cores on/off, hle/lle sound, etc) and I'm getting the same problem: my fps is constant at 60 and my 'speed' constant at 100% as they should be, but I'm still getting randomly stuttering framerate drops with dropped inputs. They seem to happen every 10 seconds or so but are pretty random all in all. I have a 3.3Ghz processor and as I say the fps is supposedly steady at 60 (so Dolphin tells me) so I find it hard to believe my comp just isn't good enough to run the game properly. I found this old post on another forum by someone who seems to have had exactly the same problem as me:

'RE: [GC] Super Smash Bros. Melee
Hoping someone might be able to help me with some stuttering issues I've been having.

Regardless of my settings or build, I'm having frequent stuttering of two varieties.

The first occurs the first time in a match when a special effect or article is loaded -- the most noticeable example is the first time Mario uses Fireball and the game halts for 20ish frames.

The much more common issue occurs every 10 seconds or so and is a general choppiness as if the game is dropping frames, regardless of whether or not Idle Skipping is enabled. The FPS shows a constant '60,' showing 59 occasionally, and the FPS still displays 60 during the stuttering period. Also during this stuttering it will drop inputs.

Specs:

Windows 7 x64
Phenom 966 at stock 3.6ghz
"SuperClocked" 460 GTX 1gb
8 gb 1600 mhz ram

Melee .iso running from a ram disk.'

If anyone has any ideas I'd be most grateful!

I get some occasional framedrops now and then. I also get framedrops, for example, the first time I hit someone or use a falcon punch for the first time in a match, this, as far as I know, is due to new effects being loaded.

I might have understood incorrectly though.

 

[L-J]

I get some occasional framedrops now and then. I also get framedrops, for example, the first time I hit someone or use a falcon punch for the first time in a match, this, as far as I know, is due to new effects being loaded.

I might have understood incorrectly though.

I think it's normal to get some framedrops at the beginning of a game, probably for the reason you suggested. Unfortunately my framedrops are continual throughout the game, about every 10 seconds; and they don't register on dolphin (fps stays at '60', speed at '100%' even during the framedrops). No changes to settings have helped, and I've tried a LOT of stuff lol. I feel like the issue is outside of Dolphin but I'm stuck for ideas :/

 

[Beat!]

@Grokbu
From Sweden, eh?

forum.smashbros.se - our forum.

There's also a Facebook group (there's a link to it in Lovage's stickied "Facebook groups" thread).

Always cool with new players. =)

 

[rustediron]

Melee .iso running from a ram disk.'

lol that's genius, totally doing that now

 

[rustediron]

Regarding the slider/Light shielding issue:

https://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/issues/detail?id=5010&q=Trigger

If you set your L/R Triggers using the method above, you won't have to download my build

A trigger which uses the full negative to positive range is not very typical.

You can map the full range to a single input in Dolphin by right-clicking one of buttons in the input config dialog and manually configuring it.

Set "Range" on top to 50
In the bottom text box enter (where Axis X is the axis): !Axis X-^Axis X+
Click the "Set" button.

Yes, this is not very intuitive.

 

[Fizzi]

L-J, I have very similar issues. My computer is excellent too... I was hoping it would feel nearly the same as playing on a TV but I guess you'll just never have the same exact feel. I mean, my input drops are pretty minor but sometimes like the timing on when I should dash slightly changes or just gets missed.

 

[L-J]

L-J, I have very similar issues. My computer is excellent too... I was hoping it would feel nearly the same as playing on a TV but I guess you'll just never have the same exact feel. I mean, my input drops are pretty minor but sometimes like the timing on when I should dash slightly changes or just gets missed.

Good to know it's not just me! I've just been playing around some more and by trial and error found that turning 'V-sync' on in the General tab of the Graphics menu seems to reduce the micro-stuttering quite a bit. I'll post here if I make any further progress with the problem.

Also rustediron's light shield fix really does work perfectly for those who are having trigger issues.

 

[Massive]

The jump on animation start is actually caused by dolphin loading new data into the texture cachefile.

You can pre-populate the cachefile by doing a number of special moves and visiting a number of stages to preload texture effects beforehand. IE and I did this a bit and it had a decent impact on performance, especially on match startup.

 

[JMC4789]

Also note that electricity attacks are very poorly (I say poorly as in slow) emulated by dolphin, and cause the GPU thread to shoot up over 100% for most computers. I speculate, after research, that something with the flashing on the electrified characters is causing this. It's not an EFB issue, since turning EFB off still has the slowdown.

Massive is right about Falcon Punch and most other special moves. The first time you throw a special move and the first time you hit with one can cause an abnormal amount of slowdown compared to later hits.

 

[Grokbu]

Yep, rumble is working with the Raphnet adapter for me

Sorry, I missed this post earlier. But that's nice, thanks for the confirmation.

I think it's normal to get some framedrops at the beginning of a game, probably for the reason you suggested. Unfortunately my framedrops are continual throughout the game, about every 10 seconds; and they don't register on dolphin (fps stays at '60', speed at '100%' even during the framedrops). No changes to settings have helped, and I've tried a LOT of stuff lol. I feel like the issue is outside of Dolphin but I'm stuck for ideas :/

Hm, weird. Hope it works out for you guys with this problem.

@Grokbu
From Sweden, eh?

forum.smashbros.se - our forum.

There's also a Facebook group (there's a link to it in Lovage's stickied "Facebook groups" thread).

Always cool with new players. =)

Thanks for the introduction to the forum and the FB group. I might start posting a bit in the forum sometime down the line.

 

[Ritkusa]

Thanks for the replies. It looks like the Raphnet adapter works really well.

 

[Luo_Zhao]

You might want to ask on the dolphin forums. I got the raphnet one because I know everything works, and he provides good email support.

 

[Jolteon]

Would it be possible to make this work for online Brawl? It'd be great if we could get real online play for Project M. =D

 

[Zodiac]

I have playing this for a few days and...I'm actually going to be getting back into melee because of this! Thanks a lot!

 

[Dan Salvato]

Would it be possible to make this work for online Brawl? It'd be great if we could get real online play for Project M. =D

Wii emulation is considerably less deterministic, meaning it's more likely to desync. Also, system requirements are higher for Wii emulation in general, so that makes this quite a bit more difficult. Also, Project M was unstable last time I tried it in Dolphin.

However, I hope to at some point improve PM's built-in wi-fi capability.

 

[Jolteon]

Wii emulation is considerably less deterministic, meaning it's more likely to desync. Also, system requirements are higher for Wii emulation in general, so that makes this quite a bit more difficult. Also, Project M was unstable last time I tried it in Dolphin.

However, I hope to at some point improve PM's built-in wi-fi capability.

Lame. I'm totally hyped to hear that you have that planned, though, that would be great.

 

[Izuhu]

Project M isn't unstable... I play it on dolphin from time to time.

There are few problems though. Skyloft is demanding as **** and will eat half of your fps and Delfino Plaza is somewhat demanding. I can get 56-60 fps with 4 people on Delfino. I can drop 4 ICs (in vanilla brawl) on all stages with a steady 60 with the exception of Delfino which gives me 45 fps. The game is fully playable if you have a good PC though I highly doubt online play is stable.

 

[Jolteon]

I can emulate Project M fine offline, just worried about online.

 

[JMC4789]

Brawl should work with the netplay system we use for Melee, but the process is a lot more difficult. It's single core only, period, and you can only use the GC pads, but, it does sync up over good internet connections.

If you mean using Dolphin over Nintendo Wifi, no, because the emulator would be too easily detected and Brawl's wifi is bad to begin with. Internet Explorer at least knows how to fix it, though, which is good news.

If you're using Single Core, LLE Audio, and Identical Settings (which includes syncing SD cards in dolphin too... which is hard) I can confirm that Mario Kart Wii and Brawl both sync.

Edit 2: We're currently building a new version of Dolphin for release later this week; it will include the 30 FPS hack with working Audio.

 

[Turnerfield77]

anyone who wants to play, please hit me up on skype: falconwithaph, and also, i couldnt get the 45 fps code to work, i followed the directions but for some reason it just won't play at full speed

 

[Jolteon]

Brawl should work with the netplay system we use for Melee, but the process is a lot more difficult. It's single core only, period, and you can only use the GC pads, but, it does sync up over good internet connections.

If you mean using Dolphin over Nintendo Wifi, no, because the emulator would be too easily detected and Brawl's wifi is bad to begin with. Internet Explorer at least knows how to fix it, though, which is good news.

If you're using Single Core, LLE Audio, and Identical Settings (which includes syncing SD cards in dolphin too... which is hard) I can confirm that Mario Kart Wii and Brawl both sync.

Edit 2: We're currently building a new version of Dolphin for release later this week; it will include the 30 FPS hack with working Audio.

I'll give it a try, thanks.

And yeah, I'd really prefer to use the Netplay if it's possible, lol.

 

[Dan Salvato]

Edit 2: We're currently building a new version of Dolphin for release later this week; it will include the 30 FPS hack with working Audio.

Can you please commit these to the main Dolphin branch, possibly with the 30fps hack in the Netplay menu? This would make more sense, in my opinion, so that people can simply download the latest build from the site instead of having to separately distribute your version.

 

[nmn]

Can you please commit these to the main Dolphin branch, possibly with the 30fps hack in the Netplay menu? This would make more sense, in my opinion, so that people can simply download the latest build from the site instead of having to separately distribute your version.

Of course not; the commits would not be allowed into the main branch. The 30 FPS hack is just that; a hack, and not an exceptionally compatible one.

Some modifications we'll make I will try to get into Dolphin's main code. Example: we're going to work on syncing problems that surround the DSP, and if we accomplish that we will likely attempt for merge.

 

[Dan Salvato]

Of course not; the commits would not be allowed into the main branch. The 30 FPS hack is just that; a hack, and not an exceptionally compatible one.

I think the 30fps hack would be suitable for a main commit if it was tucked away in the netplay menu or labelled as a hack. An example of this is the "Widescreen hack" feature in the Graphics options, which is also not exceptionally compatible. Glad to hear you hope to merge your other fixes, though.

 

[Luo_Zhao]

We played for around a half hour with no desync yesterday through Hamachi, with dual core 60 fps. It was pretty smooth, but with a bit of input lag. Great and very playable considering the distance (CA to PA)
Hamachi works if you can't figure out connection problems. I haven't played a game without using Hamachi yet so I'm not sure how much it changes the ping

 

[Zodiac]

Hey everyone I think if we had a skype group for ssmbo match making that would really help with uh, well match making. Anyway I have taken the liberty of starting one up, if you are interested in joining it message me on skype "Rinku-san" is my skype contact.

 

[Zodiac]

Also sorry for the double post but for anyone using a 360 controller I messed with the settings and this is as close as I got to a gamecube controller.

Xbox360 Controller settings for Dolphin

Button threshold: 40
Dead Zone: 20 (Most melee like, makes faster more technical moves easier to manage)
L-R button Threshold: 75-80 (Allows Light shielding, but not very good light shielding)

 

[Dan Salvato]

Hey everyone I think if we had a skype group for ssmbo match making that would really help with uh, well match making.

Not sure if you meant this or not, but please try not to confuse our project, SSBMO, with simply playing Melee using Dolphin's netplay. That said, the SSBMO client will have a built-in lobby room containing chat, a list of players online, and their pings. In the meantime, a user group sounds like a good idea. Personally, I would recommend IRC.

 

[Luo_Zhao]

Not sure if you meant this or not, but please try not to confuse our project, SSBMO, with simply playing Melee using Dolphin's netplay. That said, the SSBMO client will have a built-in lobby room containing chat, a list of players online, and their pings. In the meantime, a user group sounds like a good idea. Personally, I would recommend IRC.

Do you guys have an estimated timeline or is it more of a side project for you? It sounds really interesting

 

[fatman667]

Do you guys have an estimated timeline or is it more of a side project for you? It sounds really interesting

According to Massive, it will be finished when it's finished. And it's kinda more of a main project, it's been happening for quiet some time now.

 

[C.SDK]

Keep in mind that they do this in their spare time as well.

 

[Luo_Zhao]

Keep in mind that they do this in their spare time as well.

Okay. Yeah, that's what I meant by side project.

If you upgrade to Windows 8 and dolphin stops working, download directx 9. The web installer works. Just happened to me...

 

[Dan Salvato]

I don't mean to turn this into a SSBMO discussion thread, so if you have questions please direct them as comments to http://ssbmo.com

 

[C.SDK]

Okay. Yeah, that's what I meant by side project.

If you upgrade to Windows 8 and dolphin stops working, download directx 9. The web installer works. Just happened to me...

Sorry, I didn't see your post, haha.