Rock Band 3

Rock Band 3
Developer(s)	Harmonix, Backbone Entertainment
Publisher(s)	MTV Games
Series	Rock Band
Platform(s)	Wii
Release date(s)	NA October 26, 2010 AUS October 28, 2010 EU October 29, 2010
Genre(s)	Music, Rhythm
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer (4), Co-op (4), Online (8)
Input methods	Guitar Controller, Drum Controller, USB Microphone, Keyboard Controller
Compatibility	4 Playable
GameIDs	SZBE69, SZBP69
See also...	Dolphin Forum thread Open Issues Search Google Search Wikipedia

Rock Band 3 is a music video game, and the third main game in the Rock Band series. Harmonix Music Systems is the primary developer for the game, with additional development by Backbone Entertainment on the Wii and DS versions. The game is published and distributed by MTV Games and Electronic Arts, respectively. As with previous games in the series, Rock Band 3 allows players to simulate the playing of rock music and other genres using special instrument controllers mimicking lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals. Rock Band 3 expands upon previous games by including three-part vocal harmonies—previously used in The Beatles: Rock Band and Green Day: Rock Band—and support for a keyboard instrument, a MIDI-compatible 25-key unit.

Emulation Information

Online Play

Official servers are still up, once Dolphin is set up for online play on official servers. A original NAND dump is needed, mainly for serial number and already online activated profile. Even though all online functionalities works (playing, leaderboards, score posting, etc) the music store doesn't, believed to be due to some error with the Wii Shop Channel.

Menu Framerate/Audio Issues

The Main Menu for the game can lag and have audio stutter even when Dolphin is running full-speed. This is normal, and actually happens on console as well.

Microphone Input

Microphone reported to work as of Dolphin 5.0-2428 with USB Passthrough support via USBdk and white-listing Rock Band Logitech USB microphone in Dolphin Configuration.

Problems

Microphone Crashes

Dolphin often crashes when running the game with the microphone added to the list. Fixed with libusbK as of 5.0-10270 and 5.0-10344.

Configuration

No configuration changes are known to affect compatibility for this title.

Version Compatibility

The graph below charts the compatibility with Rock Band 3 since Dolphin's 2.0 release, listing revisions only where a compatibility change occurred.

r6561

r6591

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5.0-20130 (current)

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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
r6561	Windows 7	AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.7 GHz	ATI Radeon HD 5770	Black band members, Menu laggy, fwrite errors in menu, in-game (solo)=great!
r6569	Windows 7	AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.7 GHz	ATI Radeon HD 5770	Menu laggy, fwrite errors in menu, in-game (solo)=great! Rock Band 3 (Wii) on Dolphin Emulator (720p)
r6591	Windows 7	AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.7 GHz	ATI Radeon HD 5770	Great! Menu is laggy...
r7330	Windows 7	Intel Core i3-530 @ 3.2 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+	Menu renders at 7-10FPS, massive audio and video lag makes it difficult to calibrate, in game FPS is usually 35-40. It's playable but at times the lag makes controller presses happen far later than the physical button is hit...practice is smooth though.	TehMinja1134
r7419	Windows 7	Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66 GHz	ATI Radeon HD 3870	Starting menu lags a lot. Main menu renders quite faster (~20FPS). Playing a song is great (60FPS), sometimes it drops to 55-57FPS but I don't even notice it.	KrlzGmz
r7461	Windows 7	Intel Core i3-540 @ 3.06 GHz	ATI Radeon HD 5670	Playable. Freezes at strap screen, but just press A or 2 when it freezes and it works fine. Menu goes under 10FPS, songs are 55-60FPS (but luckily this game isn't picky about lag and syncs the music anyway). Using wired guitar requires 167ms calibration. Controller works fine on all difficulties. Black band members. DO NOT enable "Limit by FPS"!	Fishaman P
r7689	Windows 7	Intel Core i3-2100 @ 3.1 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+	Great! Black band members. Menu is laggy...	djlastnight
3.0-201	Windows 7	Intel Core i5-2500K @ 4.6 GHz	ATI Radeon HD 6950	Black band members, laggy menu, stuttering gameplay (despite enabling "limit by FPS"). Game had trouble picking up quick successive notes on both the GH World Tour guitar and drumset. Unplayable for difficulties hard and expert. Extreme audio and video calibration needed.
4.0	Windows 8.1	AMD FX-8320	AMD Radeon HD 7770	Black band members, major slowdown on menu, full speed while playing songs	Zcair
4.0.1	Windows 7	Intel Core i5-3570K @ 4.2 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480	Black band members, slow menu, stuttering gameplay with "limit by FPS". Needed to redo calibration multiple times to become playable for hard and expert. It is hard to hit successive notes, but still playable on expert.	Darkinferno3
4.0.2	Windows 7	Intel Core i5-3570K	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti	Black band members, audio emulation is very demanding (LLE), fine 60FPS	Zcair
4.0-9392	Windows 10	AMD FX-9590 @ 4.7 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 x2	DX12 gives colored band members, otherwise black members. Inconsistent speed in the menus; main menu is particularly slow, between 20-45FPS, music library is between 50-60FPS and in-game while playing a song is solid 60FPS. Game is really playable outside of the menus lags, which isn't a big deal.	Alternity
5.0-1023	Windows 10	Intel Core i5-3570K @ 3.4 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070	Unable to reproduce black band members on OpenGL, D3D11 or Vulkan. Real USB Instruments (drums, pro guitar) confirmed to work.	JMC4789
5.0-5636	Windows 10	AMD FX8320E @ 3.5 GHz	AMD RX 560	No black members using Vulkan renderer, the menu is laggy as always but in-game it is stable 60FPS, Real wii guitar works.	Panchovix
5.0-8244	Windows 10	Intel Celeron G1820 @ 2.70 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 2GB	Using USBDk is still crashing Dolphin, but at least it's random times. May or may not work at all with microphones. Intro and main menu so very sluggish (>=15FPS), but gameplay runs at 60FPS.	clorophilla

Gameplay Videos

Rock Band 3 (Wii) on Dolphin Emulator playing online

Rock Band 3 (Wii) on Dolphin Emulator (720p)

Dolphin 5.0-5636 on Vulkan

• Dolphin 5.0 running Rock Band 3