Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader

Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
Developer(s)	Factor 5, LucasArts
Publisher(s)	NA/JP LucasArts EU Activision
Series	Rogue Squadron, Star Wars
Platform(s)	GameCube
Release date(s)	NA November 18, 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	GSWP64, GSWF64, GSWJ13, GSWD64, GSWS64, GSWI64 , GSWE64
See also...	Dolphin Forum thread Open Issues Search Google Search Wikipedia

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.

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

Random Hang on Mission Start

Occasionally, the game may hang upon starting missions. Unfortunately, the cause for this is unknown and the best solution is to simply close and reopen the game. This should only happen rarely.

GPU Texture Decode Crash

Leaving GPU Texture Decode enabled will cause Rogue Squadron II to crash on a fairly regular basis.

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 cannot be avoided by disabling dual core, contrary to what is stated in the official ticket: issue 8493. This is fixed on single core by 5.0-14019.

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. Refer issue 7228.

Fixed in 5.0-3260.

Enhancements

HD Texture Pack

There is a high definition texture pack for Rogue Leader on the Dolphin forums.[1].

Widescreen Gecko Code

The built-in Widescreen Hack has severe clipping and scaling issues. Using the below Gecko code instead is recommended for 16:9 gameplay.

NTSC-U

$16:9 Widescreen NTSC-U
48000000 800AC1C0
DE000000 7E007FFF
3016B380 38600020
14014D08 4848B2F8
1416B378 48334C99
140DB618 483C49F9
141F6F78 3FE38E39
E0000000 80008000
060A0000 00000038
C0C20000 EC2101B2
D023012C 4BB74D00
C0220000 C0030000
EC000824 D0030000
C003000C EC000824
D003000C 38800001
4E800020 00000000
0409EA20 3FAAAAAA
48000000 80096220
DE000000 80008180
14000E84 3B19999A
14000E90 BF400000
E0000000 80008000
0409935C 3FE38E39

Note that this code causes intermittent crashes on real hardware and may be dependent on unique Dolphin behavior.

Configuration

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

Graphics

Config	Setting	Notes
GPU Texture Decoding	Off	Avoid crashing

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.

r4869

r5994

4.0-1503

4.0-1636

4.0-5279

5.0-14828

5.0-14835

Δ

5.0-20580 (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
r7561	Windows 7	AMD Phenom II 945 @ 3.0 GHz	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 @ 3.8 GHz	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 @ 2.2 GHz	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 @ 4 GHz	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 @ 4.9 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti	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
4.0-8750	Mac OS X 10.11.2	Intel Core i7 @ 2.6 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M	No good here. Very poor, especially during cut scenes. Audio just gave static noise, with low framerate. Will try to adjust and update if I see better results.	N64BOY39
5.0	Windows 10	Intel Core i7-2600k @ 3.8 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070	Stable framerate without any special config adjustments. Audio works without issue. FPS is rather stable but framerate drops are noticeable at times. Otherwise working as expected.	Unforgiven
5.0	Windows 10	Intel Core i5-3470	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti	Occasional short stutters during cutscenes. Constant 60FPS on space levels. Battle of Hoth and Prisons of the Maw are slightly laggy. Otherwise playable.	MISSINGNO.
5.0-9	OpenSUSE Tumbleweed	AMD FX-8320	AMD R9 Fury	Audio is ok but laggy due to low FPS. Cutscenes and movies play very poorly varying 8-48FPS. Menu is smooth but audio lags. Star Wars text plays perfectly and in game is stable ~30FPS.	MajorNyuutabaru
5.0-1615	Windows 10	Intel Core i5-3470	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970	Occasional stutters disappear as a shader cache is built up. Constant 60 FPS on all stages and cutscenes at 4K. Setting XFB to Virtual fixes the twitchy pause and mission complete screens. Runs Perfectly.	MISSINGNO.
5.0-5075	Windows 10	Intel Core i7-7700K	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti	Edging ever so closer to perfect. Gameplay is practically perfect now thanks to Ubershaders but loads and some dialogue cause brief lag.	IceStrike256

Gameplay Videos

Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader - GCN 1080p upscaled in Dolphin with Iris Xe Graphics

Rogue Leader (with HD textures) Dolphin 5.0 vs Wii Comparison - The Retro Byte (2160p60)

Star Wars - Rogue Squadron 2. Dolphin (GameCube) 1080p60. (zfreeze hack)

• How to Run RS2 & 3 in Dolphin (4.0-9327. 720p60.)
• Star Wars Rogue Squadron II- Rogue Leader - Gameplay Nintendo Gamecube HD (Dolphin Emulator 5.0-127) (720p max)
• RS2 Mission 2 Ison Corridor Ambush W/ HD Texture Pack !UBERSHADERS! (1080p60)
• Star Wars Rogue Squadron II - Dolphin 5.0 - HD Textures- Gamecube Emulator - HD.1080p 60ᶠᵖˢ