Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Metroid Prime: Trilogy)

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Developer(s)	Retro Studios
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Series	Metroid, Metroid Prime
Platform(s)	Wii
Release date(s)	Original release NA November 15, 2004 EU November 26, 2004 AUS December 2, 2004 JP May 26, 2005 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, Multiplayer
Input methods	Wii Remote + Nunchuk
Compatibility	4 Playable
See also...	GameCube Version Search Dolphin Forums Open Issues Search Google Prime: Trilogy Wikipedia page

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 2 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 2: Echoes sub-game of Metroid Prime: Trilogy. For other Metroid Prime: Trilogy games or launcher information, please see the following pages.

• Metroid Prime: Trilogy
• Metroid Prime (Metroid Prime: Trilogy)
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Metroid Prime: Trilogy)

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.

Black Bar and Severe Stutters

At seemingly random points throughout the game, the game will freeze for an instant, flashing to black and "redrawing". When it comes back, a black bar will be at the bottom of the screen, taking up 15% of the screen space and "squishing" the game in the remaining space. From thorough testing, this apparently occurs whenever the emulator stops the GPU thread for a split-second, causing the GPU and CPU threads to desync. Most games don't care about this, but Prime 2 freaks out and creates this error. Creating a new shadercache, from first run of the game or from going into a new area, will immediately cause the desync, 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. Playing with Dual Core disabled or using Sync GPU Thread is the only solution at this time. See issue 5185.

• PAL users can disable "EuRGB60 Mode (PAL60)" in the Wii settings to prevent this issue.

Correct emulation

Black bar and squishing

Constant Wiimote Disconnects

Since 3.5-471, the game will think that the wiimote is constantly disconnecting. Pressing Alt-F5 will restore it, but it will disconnect again seconds later. Disable "Enable Speaker Data" to solve this problem.

Micro-stuttering

All of the Prime games suffer from micro-stuttering: small stops in the video that can become very annoying. It occurs in all graphics backends, but the OpenGL backend has consistently been the most resistant to the problem. Its severity varies depending on the revision and settings used, so if you want to play the game you should try a wide variety of combinations.

Excessive Reverb

Since the new-ax-hle 2.0 merger in 3.5-1154, all sound effects in Metroid Prime 2 have excessive reverberation when using DSP HLE. The only solution at this time is to use DSP LLE. See issue 6241.

Bloom Offset

Like Prime 3 and all the Trilogy games, Prime 2 Trilogy has bloom offset problems. Fortunately, it is not very noticeable with this game. There is no known solution to this issue. See issue 5573.

Refraction Slowdown

Refraction effects, such as raindrops on Samus' visor and the heat effect after firing her weapon for an extended period, 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. D3D11 and D3D9 are not affected by this problem in this game.

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.

The dot, zoomed in 8x

Visors

Visors will only work if EFB to Ram is enabled. However, EFB to Ram is set as default within the game INI, preventing the user from using anything but EFB to Ram for this game. Additionally, the graphics hack "Skip Dest. Alpha Pass" needs to be OFF for the Scan Visor to work.

Distorted Audio with DSP HLE

The New-AX-HLE 2.0 merger in 3.5-1154 causes SEVERE audio problems with DSP HLE with DSP on Dedicated Thread disabled. Run DSP HLE with DSP on Dedicated Thread on, or use DSP LLE. See issue 6237. Fixed by 3.5-1224.

Wiimote Lag

The game may experience a small amount of Wii Remote lag. Use "Alternate Wiimote Timings" in the game settings to correct it. Fixed and the option removed by 3.5-354.

Configuration

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

Audio

Config	Setting	Notes
DSP Emulator Engine	LLE	Fixes excessive reverb

Wii Remote

Config	Setting	Notes
Enable Speaker Data	Disabled	Causes constant wiimote disconnects

Version Compatibility

The graph below charts the compatibility with Metroid Prime 2: Echoes since Dolphin's 2.0 release, listing revisions only where a compatibility change occurred.

r7689

Δ

5.0-21455 (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
3.0-766	Windows 7 x64	Intel Core i7-3770k @ 4.4GHz	AMD Radeon HD 6970	DX11 at 1900x1200 (using internal resolution auto, 4xAA), averages 50 FPS. EFB-copy-to-RAM must be used 100% of the time for the scan visor to function (contrast to MP1 where it is only required for the rarely-used x-ray visor), but fastest cache option can be used (causes very minor graphical glitches). "Skip Destination Alpha Pass" also breaks the scan visor and should be left off. "Accurate V-Beam" (in right-click options) provides noticeable speedup in large rooms with no ill effect. 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 FPS. OpenMP texture decoder, cache display lists, and disable fog/per-pixel-depth are all recommended for slight speedup. DOL swap still required to run.	anon

Gameplay Videos

Metroid Prime Trilogy (MP1 & MP2) HD Gameplay