Metroid Prime (Metroid Prime: Trilogy)

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Metroid Prime
MetroidPrimeTrilogy.jpg
Developer(s) Retro Studios
Publisher(s) Nintendo
Series Metroid, Metroid Prime
Platform(s) Wii
Release date(s) Original release
NA November 17, 2002
JP February 28, 2003
EU March 21, 2003
AUS April 3, 2003
Metroid Prime: Trilogy
NA August 24, 2009
EU September 4, 2009
AUS October 15, 2009
Genre(s) First-person action-adventure, First-person shooter, Action-adventure
Mode(s) Single-player
Input methods Wii Remote + Nunchuk
Compatibility 4Stars4.pngEdit rating: Metroid Prime (Metroid Prime: Trilogy)
Playable
See also...

GameCube Version
Wii Version
Dolphin Forum thread
Open Issues
Search Google
Search Wikipedia

Metroid Prime: Trilogy is an action-adventure video game compilation developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. It features Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption on a single dual-layer disc.

Metroid Prime in Trilogy has been updated with many features from Metroid Prime 3, such as its aiming system, bloom rendering, 16:9 aspect ratio, and reduced difficulty level (to play the original difficulty, play "veteran" instead of normal). The update also has higher resolution textures, and uses Trilogy's menus, save system, achievements, and unlockable soundtracks.

Game Pages

This page should be used for specific issues with the Metroid Prime sub-game of Metroid Prime: Trilogy. For other Metroid Prime: Trilogy games or launcher information, please see the following pages.

MPT Game Pages Trilogy.png
MPT Game Pages Prime2.png
MPT Game Pages Prime3.png

Problems

Performance

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

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 desync if a new effect or region is loaded.

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.

  • PAL users can disable "EuRGB60 Mode (PAL60)" in the Wii settings to prevent the black bar from appearing. The stuttering during shader generation will remain, however.

Constant Wiimote Disconnects

Since 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

Like Prime 3 and all the Trilogy games, Prime 1 Trilogy has bloom offset problems. Fortunately, it is not very noticeable with this game. The only solution is to disable Scaled EFB copies, which creates issues of its own. See issue 5573.

Refraction/Lava Slowdown

Refraction effects, such as raindrops on Samus' visor, cause slowdown in OpenGL. Even the strongest computers are affected by this issue, and there is no solution with the OpenGL backend at this time. D3D is not affected by this problem in this game.

There are also severe slowdowns with OpenGL in the Magmoor Caverns when you look down to a lava basin. Reducing the internal resolution helps a bit. It affects even strong systems.

Visors

Visors will only work if EFB to Ram is enabled. Though EFB to Ram is forced by the GameINI, visor corruption may still occur if you open the graphics configuration window during gameplay. Turn on EFB to Ram in the Dolphin GUI to avoid any problems.

Dot

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, alide the Helmet Opacity sliders all the way to the left).

Configuration

Only configuration options for the best compatibility where they deviate from defaults are listed.

Wii Remote

Config Setting Notes
Enable Speaker Data Off Causes constant Wiimote disconnects

Version Compatibility

The graph below charts the compatibility with Metroid Prime since Dolphin's 2.0 release, listing revisions only where a compatibility change occurred.

Δ
5.0-21264 (current)
Δ
Δ
Δ
Δ
Δ
2.0 (r5384)
Compatibility can be assumed to align with the indicated revisions. However, compatibility may extend to prior revisions or compatibility gaps may exist within ranges indicated as compatible due to limited testing. Please update as appropriate.

Testing

This title has been tested on the environments listed below:

Test Entries
Revision OS CPU GPU Result Tester
r7689 Windows 7 x64 Intel Core i5-2500K @ 4.4GHz nVidia GeForce GTS 250 Close to perfect -> constant 60FPS, 1280x720, 3xNative textures and DSP-HLE sound (still must use dol swap though) Zlutz
r7714 Windows 7 x64 AMD Phenom II X4 980 @ 4.2GHz nVidia GeForce 8800 GT DX9, 1.5x Resolution, 4x SSAA, 8x AF runs at 90-100%. HLE works with little to no issues. Use Accurate VBeam Emulation for a nice speedup. Very well emulated in current versions. MUST use dol swap to get working. Keller999
3.0-694 Windows 7 x64 AMD Phenom II X6 1090T @ 3.2GHz AMD Radeon HD 6870 For any Resolution up to 2.5x, any AA up to max, any AF up to 8x: With EFB->Texture, runs at ~30-45fps. With EFB->RAM, runs at ~7-10fps. EFB->RAM needed for X-Ray Visor, otherwise it's just a white screen. Thermal Visor works fine with EFB->Texture. No other settings seem to have any real effect on the framerate, although enabling Accurate VBeam Emulation in the properties does provide a speedup on the map screen, from ~10fps OGL and ~20fps DX9/11 to ~45fps with any settings.

(x64 Release, git master rev bfde41895f52 + ES_LAUNCH rev 52def7cebd32, compiled w/ MS VS 2010.)

eyeonus
3.0-766 Windows 7 x64 Intel Core i7-3770k @ 4.4GHz AMD Radeon HD 6970 DX11 at 1900x1200 (using internal resolution auto, 4xAA), game completed averaging 50-60fps, except for areas where X-Ray visor is required: EFB>RAM must be used, decreasing performance to 30-40fps. Recommend using save-states to switch EFB>RAM off except when x-ray visor is used (not very often). Other slowdowns common when entering/existing water, likely due to visor droplet effect. "Accurate V-Beam" in right-click options provides noticeable speedup in large rooms. DSP-HLE works fine, except for very occasional loss of BGM (can be resolved by save/load or reset); DSP-LLE does not drop BGM but instead causes crackling and clicking sounds whenever framerate drops below 60. OpenMP texture decoder and disable fog/pixeldepth recommended for slight speedup, no ill effects observed. DOL swap still required to run. anon
3.5-379 Windows 7 x64 Intel Core i5-2500K @ 4.3GHz nVidia GeForce GTX 680 x2 100% emulation, there's no stuttering or lagging. Minor problems, such as 3 pixels at the middle of the screen. It's a bit annoying but easy to ignore. Nvidia 3D vision isn't working, possibly a Dolphin problem. Settings used: Direct3D9, no AA, no Anisotropic filtering, HLE audio (seems to work right, without any problems), 1440x900 fullscreen resolution. Megamew28
4.0-2826 Windows 7 x64 Intel Core i7-4790k @ 4.6GHz AMD Radeon HD 7970 OpenGL at 1920x1080 (3x internal res), no AA, 4x AF, works consistently at 58-60fps - There was a halo around Samus during elevator cutscenes and in the menu screen that I did not see in 4.0-2591, I saw drops in FPS when entering or exiting water and MAJOR drops when fighting meta ridley (25 FPS at times), other than than such a great experience playing MP1 in 1080p anon

Gameplay Videos

Template:Navigation Metroid