Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader is an arcade-style flight action game co-developed by Factor 5 and LucasArts. The second of three games in the Rogue Squadron series, it was published by LucasArts and released as a launch title for the Nintendo GameCube. The game was praised for its amazing visuals, thanks to an impressive game engine that uses advanced GameCube features.
Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader | |
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Developer(s) | Factor 5, LucasArts |
Publisher(s) | JP/NA LucasArts EU Activision |
Series | Rogue Squadron, Star Wars |
Platform(s) | GameCube |
Release date(s) | NA November 9, 2001 JP March 22, 2002 EU May 3, 2002 |
Genre(s) | Action, Arcade flight simulation |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Input methods | GameCube Controller |
Compatibility | 4 Playable |
GameIDs | , |
See also... |
Dolphin Forum thread |
Similar to its predecessor, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Rogue Leader is a fast-paced, flight action game. Each of the game's ten levels introduces mission objectives such as search and destroy or protection that must be completed to progress to the next level. The players performance on each level is compared to three medals (bronze, silver, and gold), based on completion time, enemies killed, etc. Getting more medals results in unlocking more levels and spacecraft. Rogue Leader also has a large collection of hidden items throughout the game, from powerups, hidden ships, and hidden levels.
Because of its technical prowess, use of rare GameCube features, and plethora of hacks, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader has proven difficult for Dolphin to emulate.
Emulation Information
Shader Compilation Stuttering
Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader is one of the most susceptible titles to shader compilation stuttering. The GC and Wii have no concept of shaders - everything is executed directly by the hardware without an intermediate programming language (API). Modern computers and mobile 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 directly. Shaders have to be generated though, 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 a few demanding titles, the shaders that they generate are so large that they can result in noticeable stuttering, in severe cases pauses of over a second may occur.
Since 5.0-4869, this problem can be solved by enabling ubershaders. Changing GPU, updating GPU drivers, or updating Dolphin may invalidate the shader cache, requiring specialized shaders to be compiled again. Since 5.0-6461, Dolphin caches shader pipeline UIDs independently of the video backend and compiles them on game start. This allows cached shaders to work across different video backends, platforms, hardware configurations and even Dolphin versions as long as changes aren't made to Dolphin's actual shader pipeline. These shaders are compiled in the background when the game starts, which may cause stuttering for a short period. Enable Compile Shaders Before Starting to avoid this.
Problems
Distorted Music
Music is garbled and distorted with DSP-HLE. Use DSP-LLE to rectify this, or disable music in the game's options as a workaround.
Incorrect Targeting Computer Colors
As of 4.0-5205, the targeting computer no longer requires EFB Copies to Texture Only disabled to function. However, with EFB Copies to Texture Only the colors will be washed out. EFB Copies to Texture Only disabled has proper emulation with full color, but the targeting computer runs at 1x native regardless of the internal resolution used in the rest of the game. There is currently no solution that has higher IRs with proper colors. Disable EFB Copies to Texture Only for the most accurate emulation.
Hang on Pause or Targeting Computer
Using the targeting computer or pressing Start to bring up the menu can occasionally both result in a hang. Fixed by 4.0-4889, but broken again by 4.0-5971. This hang can apparently be avoided by disabling dual core, and taking a big performance hit. See issue 8493 for details.
Template:SBlack EffectsTemplate:/s
With EFB Copies to Texture Only, numerous EFB effects are inky black instead of smoothly transparent. Missiles, cloaking fields, and heat effects are just a few of the many effects that are broken. Disable EFB Copies to Texture Only to emulate these effects properly.
Template:SIncorrect Scaling in Introductory ScenesTemplate:/s
The mission introductory scenes scale the image to narrower than 2:1 aspect ratio for a cinematic effect, with black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. This effect is not emulated in Dolphin, resulting in a weirdly tall image during the intros. See issue 7948 for details. Fixed by 4.0-7138
Template:SzfreezeTemplate:/s
Rogue Squadron uses zfreeze for the skydome. Lack of support for this feature makes the skydome appear over nearly everything, and gives the impression of an extremely short draw distance. See issue 4113 and issue 3334. Fixed by 4.0-5279.
Template:SFlickering MenuTemplate:/s
The main menus suffers from flickering issues in D3D. Enter/exit fullscreen or resize the window to fix the flickering. Since the GLSL merge in 3.5-1025, OpenGL does not have this issue. Fixed by proper D3D depth emulation in 4.0-3748 and the epsilon fixes in 4.0-4480.
Template:SHangs During BootTemplate:/s
Starting with the merger of the New PPCAnalyst Class branch in 4.0-1503, the game no longer boots in JIT or JITIL. It can only boot in Interpreter, which is obscenely slow on even the most powerful computers. See issue 7251. Fixed by 4.0-1636.
Template:SNo Menu VideosTemplate:/s
The background videos in the main menus do not always appear in D3D9, appearing then disappearing as you go through the menus. Use D3D11 or OpenGL and they will appear normally. Fixed by the removal of D3D9 in 4.0-155.
Configuration
Only configuration options for the best compatibility where they deviate from defaults are listed.
Graphics
Config | Setting | Notes |
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Store EFB Copies to Texture Only | Off | Required for correct effects and targeting computer colors |
Audio
Config | Setting | Notes |
---|---|---|
DSP Emulator Engine | LLE | Prevents music distortions |
Version Compatibility
The graph below charts the compatibility with Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader since Dolphin's 2.0 release, listing revisions only where a compatibility change occurred.
Testing
This title has been tested on the environments listed below:
Test Entries | |||||
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Revision | OS | CPU | GPU | Result | Tester |
r7561 | Windows 7 | AMD Phenom II 945 @ 3.0GHz | ATI Radeon HD 4890 | Non-stop "Trying to reinterpret pixel data with unsupported conversion type 1 and 4" errors when starting. Using OpenGL works, but the sound is super wonky, parts run weird/bad, and the game doesn't render much in front of yo at all | |
3.0 | Windows 7 | AMD Phenom II X6 1090T @ 3.8GHz | ATI Radeon HD 4870 | Wonky sound, parts runs weird/bad. Lots of framerate issues and the game doesn't render much in front of you. | |
r7687 | Windows 7 | AMD Phenom II X6 1090T | ATI Radeon HD 5770 | Non-stop "Trying to reinterpret pixel data with unsupported conversion type 1 and 4" errors when starting. | |
3.0-373 | Mac OS X 10.7.2 | Intel Core i7-2675QM @ 2.2GHz | AMD Radeon HD 6750M | Wonky, slow, and unpredictable regardless of CPU/Sound emulation setting. | jedivulcan |
3.0-415 | Windows 7 | Intel Core i5-2400 | Intel HD2000 | Is 100% speed all the time but the draw distance problem is too important. You can't see anything until is in front of you. Shame. If that get fix the game will work excellent at full speed. | InterlinkKnight |
3.0-865 | Windows 8 | Intel Core i5-3570K | AMD Radeon HD 7870 | Runs around 25FPS, screen flickers, throws unknown opcode 0x3d and 0x62 frequently, crashes at Star Wars logo before beginning mission, music continues to play. | Whacka |
3.5-1387 | Windows 7 | AMD FX 6350 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti | Menu screen flickers, throws unknown opcodes few seconds into first mission, audio is garbled throughout. Ship selection still runs full speed, slight screen flicker, the only bit of the game that works almost 100%, everything else is messed up. | Slarlac249 |
3.5-1729 zfreeze branch | Windows 8 | AMD FX 6350 | AMD Radeon HD 7850 | intro/logos still really slow, audio is garbled throughout. Ship selection still runs full speed, slight screen flicker, depth issue only fixed in OGL. fast depth calculation must be disabled in game. game is still far from playable due to low FPS and broken audio. | Slarlac249 |
4.0-2826 | Windows 8.1 | Intel Core i5-4670K | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 | same as Slarlac249 above. Attempting to run with software rendering causes multiple unknown opcode errors. | Nontheist |
4.0-3214 | Windows 7 | Intel Core i5-4570 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 | game running at full speed but audio is mostly garbled. Very limited draw distance during the main game | guybrush |
4.0-3810 | Windows 7 | Intel Core i7-2760QM | AMD Radeon HD 6990M | Running with EFB to RAM external frame buffer to Virtual, audio works perfectly with LLE but the game runs slow. Need to optimize the settings, however as indicated earlier the drawing distance is too low which makes the game unplayable. | |
4.0-5283 | Windows 8.1 | Intel Core i7-4790K | AMD R9 290x | Running at perfect 60FPS. Using EFB to RAM w/ safe cache and LLE audio on separate thread. Graphics run better in OGL on this game and I am running at 6X IR | IceStrike256 |
4.0-5420 | Windows 8.1 | Intel Core i7-4790K | AMD R9 290x | Running even better then last entry with the need for safe texture caching eliminated. Still need LLE Audio which causes slow downs on slower systems. Also make sure to check skip EFB access to CPU for a bit of a speed boost. This game has become extremely more accessible to more players over the last month thank you Devs!! | IceStrike256 |
4.0-6029 | Windows 8.1 | Intel Core i7-4770K | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 | Runs without errors when using LLE audio and DX11 backend. Hoth intro and Vengeance on Kothlis when close to or shooting water have severe slowdowns | LtRoyalShrimp |
4.0-7157 | Windows 10 | AMD FX-8350 @ 4GHz | AMD Radeon R9 280x | Works fine on missions that don't take place on planet surfaces, with occasional slowdowns. On planet surfaces (like the mission on Hoth or the one in the Maw), the framerate about halves, likely due to the sloped environments. Tested at 3xIR, 16xAF and the HD texture mod by General_Han_Solo. | Alpha284 |
4.0-8526 | Windows 10 | Intel Core i7-4790K @ 4.9GHz | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980ti | Perfect! All slowdown has been eliminated except where present on real hardware (Y-Wing Bomb Spam). If your system doesn't have high specs don't expect these result. Tested at 6xIR D3D11 Backend, LLE Audio with HD texture pack by General_Han_Solo. | IceStrike256 |
Gameplay Videos
- Death Star Attack W/ HD Texture Pack
- Ison Corridor Ambush W/ HD Texture Pack
- Battle of Hoth W/ HD Texture Pack
- Prisons of the Maw W/ HD Texture Pack
- Razor Rendezvous W/ HD Texture Pack
- Vengeance on Kothlis W/ HD Texture Pack
- Imperial Academy Heist Night W/ HD Texture Pack
- Battle of Endor W/ HD Texture Pack
- Strike at the Core W/ HD Texture Pack
- The Asteroid Field W/ HD Texture Pack
- Triumph of the Empire W/ HD Texture Pack
- Endurance W/ HD Texture Pack
- (60FPS) Dolphin Emulator 4.0-5462 - Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader HD TEXTURE PACK (1080p HD) - Nintendo GameCube