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Metroid Prime (Metroid Prime: Trilogy): Difference between revisions

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m (Text replacement - "\<s\>(.*)\<\/s\>" to "{{s}}$1{{/s}}")
(Copying relevant changes from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii). I will test the scan visor later and see if it works in EFB to Texture.)
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Performance in general seems reduced compared to the game's GameCube counterpart. This may be related to the higher resolution textures and various new screen effects added for the Trilogy versions.
Performance in general seems reduced compared to the game's GameCube counterpart. This may be related to the higher resolution textures and various new screen effects added for the Trilogy versions.


=== Shader Generation Stuttering and the Black Bar ===
=== Constant Wii Remote Disconnects ===
This game suffers from severe stuttering during shader generation. Because of the differences between how the Wii works compared to personal computers, whenever something uses the Wii's GPU, Dolphin must generate a shader to emulate it on a PC GPU. Shader generation causes a slight emulation delay while it's being created, so Dolphin caches these shaders in its shadercache folder to help keep things smooth. Most games don't care about this and play fine, but with all of the games in ''Metroid Prime Trilogy'', the shaders are so massive that they cause a significant delay, which creates a hard stutter and desyncs the GPU and CPU threads. The game freaks out over this desync, creating a black bar at the bottom of the screen, which takes up 15% of the screen space and "squishes" the game in the remaining space. The black bar will remain there from then on whether stuttering continues or ceases. Going into new areas or showing new effects will cause the stutter and black bar, as well as going in and out of fullscreen and even taking a screenshot. Building up a shadercache of an area helps, but it will still stutter and desync if a new effect or region is loaded.
Since {{revision|3.5-471}}, when using the MS Bluetooth Stack (the default bluetooth stack on Windows) this game will think that the wiimote is constantly disconnecting. Pressing a button on the Wii Remote will restore it, but it will disconnect again seconds later. Windows users can disable "Enable Speaker Data" to solve this problem, or move to either the Toshiba Stack or the DolphinBar.


There is no solution at this time. Playing with Dual Core disabled or using Sync GPU Thread is the only solution currently available, and both result in a significant performance hit on one of Dolphin's most demanding games. See {{issue|5185}}.
=== Shader Compilation Stuttering ===
*PAL users can disable "PAL60 Mode (EuRGB60)" in the Wii settings to prevent the black bar from appearing. The stuttering during shader generation will remain, however.
The ''Metroid Prime'' games are some of the most susceptible titles to shader compilation stuttering, thanks to a combination of very complex effects and dynamic loading. The GC and Wii have no concept of shaders - everything runs directly "on the metal" without any APIs. Modern desktop and phone systems do not work in this way, requiring the use of shaders as an intermediary so your system's GPU can perform the tasks that the GC and Wii GPU performed. But shaders have to be created, and since GC/Wii games are not designed to create shaders ahead of time as a PC game would, when a new effect appears Dolphin has to delay the CPU thread while the GPU thread performs the compilation; a pause that does not exist on the consoles. For most games shader generation takes only a few milliseconds, but for the ''Metroid Prime'' series and a few other demanding titles, the shaders that they generate are so large that they can result in noticeable stuttering.
{{image|MP1Tri NoSquish.jpg|Correct emulation}}
{{image|MP1Tri Squish.jpg|Black bar and squishing|br}}


=== Constant Wii Remote Disconnects ===
Eventually stuttering will reduce as a shader cache is built up, but there is no solution to this problem at this time.
Since {{revision|3.5-471}}, when using the MS Bluetooth Stack (the default bluetooth stack on Windows) this game will think that the wiimote is constantly disconnecting. Pressing Alt-F5 will restore it, but it will disconnect again seconds later. Windows users can disable "Enable Speaker Data" to solve this problem, or move to either the Toshiba Stack or the DolphinBar.


=== Bloom Offset ===
=== Bloom Offset ===
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When playing above 1x Native internal resolution, there is a dot in the center of the screen. It's small and easy to ignore, but it's always there. There is no fix for this problem, but the dot can be removed by hiding the helmet display in the game's options (i.e. Visor, the 3rd option below Controller and Display, slide the Helmet Opacity sliders all the way to the left).
When playing above 1x Native internal resolution, there is a dot in the center of the screen. It's small and easy to ignore, but it's always there. There is no fix for this problem, but the dot can be removed by hiding the helmet display in the game's options (i.e. Visor, the 3rd option below Controller and Display, slide the Helmet Opacity sliders all the way to the left).
{{image|MP3-Thedot-zoom.png|The dot, zoomed in 8x|br}}
{{image|MP3-Thedot-zoom.png|The dot, zoomed in 8x|br}}
=== The Black Bar ===
During Shader Compilation, stuttering can become so severe that it desyncs the GPU and CPU threads in Dual Core mode. The game freaks out over this desync, creating a black bar at the bottom of the screen, which takes up 15% of the screen space and "squishes" the game in the remaining space. The black bar will remain there from then on whether stuttering continues or ceases.
After {{revision|4.0-7517}}, enabling Virtual XFB or Real XFB will fix and/or prevent the problem. If XFB is disabled the problem may still occur. Details can be found in the [https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2015/10/01/dolphin-progress-report-september-2015/#40-7517-derive-field-timings-from-video-interface-registers-by-booto September Progress Report].
{{image|MP1Tri NoSquish.jpg|Correct emulation}}
{{image|MP1Tri Squish.jpg|Black bar and squishing|br}}


=== {{s}}Refraction/Lava Slowdown{{/s}} ===
=== {{s}}Refraction/Lava Slowdown{{/s}} ===
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<!--A full list of options is available at Template:Config/doc-->
<!--A full list of options is available at Template:Config/doc-->
{{Config
{{Config
|xfb = Virtual
|xfbnotes = Needed to prevent the black bar
|efb2texonly = Off
|efb2texonly = Off
|efb2texonlynotes = Needed to avoid visor issues
|efb2texonlynotes = Needed to avoid visor issues
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