Project:Wiki Conventions

This is a generalized outline of how things are done here on the Dolphin Emulator Wiki. These are all "common law" concepts; no one has ever set in stone how these things work, they are simply what has grown out of the wiki over its many years of existence. And they will continue to evolve as the wiki grows, and this page will be updated periodically to reflect the changes that have occurred. These conventions are not "rules" in any sense of the word, but guidelines, instructions, and help for those new to the wiki.

Our mission is to be the best resource for accurate and up-to-date Dolphin information. Everything on the wiki is built around that goal. As such, pages, problems, ratings, and everything else on the wiki is aimed at the very latest development release, updating and changing based on what goes on with development. Furthermore, accuracy matters, and anything that can be reproduced is favored, and subjective information is avoided.

Ratings
Ratings show the compatibility of a game for the latest master branch Git release. The compatibility guide is below. Secondary branches are not included in these ratings.

Description
A description can be anything the editor wants. But generally, they should be brief but include some basic information about what the game is and what its gameplay is like. Usually we put the name of the game fairly early in the description, and put it in  bold italics . Links to relevant articles, such as prequels or the system the game is on, are always good. Most of the time we just pull descriptions from wikipedia and tweak them a bit, removing things like references to other systems and release dates or other info covered in the infobox.

Infobox
Infoboxes use the Infobox VG template, and have various options. Most of the general information bits can be taken straight off Wikipedia with minimal fuss, except for images: Wikipedia's are too small for us. Ideally all of these bits of information will be filled, but it's not required. Wikipedia, GameTDB.com, GameFAQ.com, and Nintendo.com's gameguide are our primary sources for information.

These are the rules for Infoboxes used on game pages. For complete details of how to use the Infobox template, read its template documentation.


 * |image = Provide thumbnail size tag based on software type. The standard is:  for GameCube, Wii and Virtual Console games,   for Wii Channels screenshots, and   for WiiWare titles. Cover preference order would be: US NTSC, UK PAL, Other PAL, JP, Other.


 * |developer = and |publisher = Only use developers and publishers of Dolphin emulated platforms. For instance, the PlayStation 2 and XBOX version of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon was developed by Midway, but the Wii version was developed by Just Games Interactive, so in this case only Just Games Interactive should be included.


 * |released = Release dates use the vgrelease template, and should be in chronological order. We cut out any outside systems from our release date entries, as it doesn't matter to us when a game came out on the PlayStation 2, for example. Usually we can copy paste these straight off Wikipedia.


 * |genre = Just get it off Wikipedia. Should list just the "genre", not "genre game" (i.e. "Action" instead of "Action game"). Should be plain text, and not contain wiki/html markup. Please use spelling and capitalization from Category:Genres.


 * |modes = Information of possible modes of play of the title. Utility titles don't need this information.


 * |input = Displays all input combinations of the title. Wikipedia doesn't have this information, but gametdb.com and game reviews will have it. The Wii Zapper, Wii Wheel, and the like are accessories for controllers and not controllers themselves, so they should not be included.


 * |forumlink = The forum link directs the user to the forum thread that has the same wiki page embedded within it.

Emulation Information
This area is used to describe behaviors or information that aren't necessarily emulation issues (e.g. GameCube titles that have native widescreen support, details of Wii titles that accept different input methods, titles with shader compilation stuttering, etc). Information present on this area shouldn't be taken in consideration when assigning a compatibility rating of a given title and this section is absent from the page if there's no suitable entries for that game, otherwise it's listed right before Problems area.

Problems
The problems area is a list of problems that affect the current development version. If a problem is fixed in the current development version but is still in the latest stable version, it should be moved to the bottom and the title of the problem crossed out with the slash  tags, , with a note in the problem on when and how it was fixed if that info is known. Once a Release occurs all existing fixed problems are purged, so it is vital to fill out when and why a problem was fixed so it can be cleared later. Each problem is listed on its own without grouping, to make it easier to deal with. Problems are generally ordered with the most severe ones first, such as crashing or hanging bugs, then going to down to the least severe. Fixed problems are at the bottom.

If the problem has a screenshot showing the issue, the screenshot should be included using Image template and must have a caption (mandatory) with a brief description of the image. Captions bigger than one line will be automatically truncated.

Anytime a revision is mentioned, it should use the revision template. It would appear like this in the page source:.

Enhancements
The enhancements area is generally absent for most game pages, but it may be used to capture:
 * Issues related to Dolphin's Enhancement options
 * Links to HD texture packs
 * Gecko/AR codes that overcome emulation issues, make titles run at higher frame rates or allow using wider Aspect Ratios

If the game article doesn't have that section yet, feel free to create it, right after Problems section. Please note that any AR/Gecko code that doesn't fit in any of those categories are not allowed and should not be included in this wiki.

Configuration
Only non-default settings for maximum emulation accuracy or explicitly broken enhancement options should be used in the Configuration area. An ideal configuration setup lists all the settings needed for flawless emulation regardless of performance.

Each configuration entry should include a "notes" entry with a short explanation of the addressed issue(s).

Performance information, like telling users to go with EFB to Texture because it works fine, shouldn't be included. The principle is that if a more compatible isn't mentioned, then the high performance setting is assumed to work fine. If an unusual setting improves performance and does nothing else, it still shouldn't be included here, but a note may be placed under Emulation Information or in relayed under testing.

Hacks not related to compatibility should also be left off the configuration list. For example, if someone turns on the widescreen hack or 3D Vision, they know what they are getting, and we don't need to tell them not to turn it on cause it might glitch out. The exception to that is if it causes something usual, like a crash.

Please do not use this area for recommended control configurations. What buttons are assigned to what role varies based on the game, the console, the controller the player is using, and personal tastes. It is up to the user to figure that out, with a little help from our Configuring Controllers guide.

Testing
Each page's testing entry should consist of the following

Test entries using the Testing/entry template with a full set of required parameters, should be inserted after the blank entry comment. Options should include:
 * |revision= The Dolphin revision used for testing (i.e. 5.0-6000).
 * Categories will automatically be generated to indicate testing on major revisions: 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, and 5.0.
 * |OS= The OS (Windows, Mac OS X, macOS, Linux, Android) and OS version (i.e. Vista, 7, 10.6.8) used for testing (i.e. Windows 7, Ubuntu 10.10, Mac OS X 10.11, macOS 10.12).
 * Categories will automatically be generated to indicate testing on the related OS, if it includes Windows, macOS or Android. Anything else is assumed to be a Linux distro and thus is tagged as tested on Linux.
 * Omit OS package modifiers (i.e. Home Premium, Professional, etc.) and edition names (i.e. Yosemite, Trusty Tahr, etc.). These have no impact on Dolphin behavior.
 * |CPU= The title of the CPU vendor (AMD, Intel, etc.) and CPU (i.e. Core i7-960) used for testing (i.e. Intel Core i7-960).
 * Align with names used in: Intel Product Listing, AMD Product Listing, or other official vendor product listings, omitting the text: ™, ®, Processor, or AMD's "Black"/"Black Edition" identifiers.
 * Include CPU speed with a "@ #GHz" postfix listing the stock or overclocked frequency (i.e. Intel Core i7-960 @ 3.4GHz, Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 @ 3.3GHz).
 * Categories will automatically be generated to indicate testing on the related CPU vendor.
 * |GPU= The title of the GPU vendor (AMD, ATI, Intel, NVIDIA) and GPU (i.e. GeForce GTX 580) used for testing (i.e. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580).
 * Align with names used in: Intel Product Listing, AMD Product Listing, NVIDIA Product Listing, or other official vendor product listings, omitting the text: ™, ®.
 * Omit any speed/overclocking information on GPUs.
 * Use chipset vendor names (Intel, NVIDIA, AMD, ATI) rather than the board vendor names (i.e. Asus, VisionTek).
 * Categories will automatically be generated to indicate testing on the related GPU vendor.
 * |result= An English description of the test results. Linking to video of results is appropriate.
 * |tester= A wiki user name or other identifier used to identify multiple tests performed.

Gameplay Videos
Only include video links by using the VideoGallery template. Please note that only 3 thumbnails will be shown here, even if the page has more than 3 videos, and additional videos will show up as links below the thumbnails. The template pseudo-randomly chooses which 3 videos will appear as thumbnails, so the order of the videos in the gallery does not effect which will appear.

For more details, read the template documentation.

Categories
Most Categories are generated automatically from the infobox. However, please place a category for the system(s) the game is on. Here are some examples.

Images
The sidebar has an Upload file link, use that to upload images. So we can actually find the images, they should be appropriately named, and they should have categories for whatever they are. Below are the most commonly used image categories.


 * Cover arts:  (example: Category:Wii covers)
 * Screenshots showcasing emulation problems:

Disagreements
If two editors are changing things back and forth in a disagreement, they need to STOP and head to the talk pages. The wiki is entirely open, anyone can edit it, so disagreements need to be settled with communication and compromises.