Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike

Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike
Developer(s)	Factor 5
Publisher(s)	LucasArts
Series	Star Wars, Rogue Squadron
Platform(s)	GameCube
Release date(s)	NA October 15, 2003 EU November 7, 2003 JP November 21, 2003
Genre(s)	Action, Arcade flight simulation
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer (2), Co-op (2)
Input methods	GameCube Controller, Game Boy Advance
Compatibility	4 Playable
GameIDs	GLRP64, GLRF64, GLRE64, GWXJ13, GLRD64
See also...	Dolphin Forum thread Open Issues Search Google Search Wikipedia

Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike is a Star Wars video game developed by Factor 5 and published by LucasArts exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube. Rebel Strike was developed as a sequel to Star Wars: Rogue Squadron and Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader.

In addition to the arcade flight gameplay of the previous games, it added the ability for the player to leave their starfighter to participate in ground battles as well as to enter and pilot other vehicles during certain missions. The game also adds multiplayer; both a versus mode and a co-op mode that allows two players to play all but two of the missions from Rogue Leader together. Rebel Strike features the ability to use the Game Boy Advance screen and controls to issue orders privately in versus mode, via the Nintendo GameCube–Game Boy Advance link cable.

Rebel Strike uses the same base engine as Rogue Leader, but with even more advanced effects and hacks, including atmospheric weather, more enemies on screen at once, etc. The game has proven even more difficult to emulate than its predecessor.

Emulation Information

Technicolor Garbage on Textures

Sometimes in levels you will see technicolor garbage on some textures. There is a consistent spot on Defiance on Dantooine on a rock by the last (4th) turret. This is a game bug that happens on console. If you pause at any point during the segment, the garbage will disappear and the texture will render normally.

Force 4:3 Not Respected

Using Aspect Ratio: Force 4:3 will not maintain 4:3 output on 16:9 displays with this title. It will swap to a near 16:9 display during its intro animations. This does not distort the graphics in any way; but rather is zooming in because Dolphin is detecting parts of the screen not in use.

Shader Compilation Stuttering

Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike 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 Crashes

Whenever the game loads a large amount of code/data from ARAM, there's a chance that the game will crash. This usually happens during a level load, but can also happen during levels and at the end of levels. There is no known solution at this time.

Purple Models in Distance

Some models have level of detail models that rely on "Store XFB Copies to Texture Only" being disabled. It is unknown how this effect works or why.

Unknown Opcode Errors

Unknown Opcode Errors was seen when starting a game. Apparently turning on Dual Core and Synchronize GPU Thread in game-specific settings (right-click on the game from game list and select Properties) avoids this error. No longer happens in single core since 5.0-14019.

Transparent Objects Layering

Some transparent objects, such as rocket thrusters, are not layered correctly appearing on top of objects that should obscure them. Refer issue 8859. Fixed by 5.0-14092.

Rocket thrusters visible through ship

Purple Transitions

There should be fades between various scenes that are missing in revisions prior to 5.0-5874 and rendered purple after the implementation of Hybrid XFB. Prior to Hybrid XFB this is noticeable in the intro of the initial stage "Revenge of the Empire" when transitioning from the Death Star explosion to the ship flyby, where edges of video effects that should be hidden by a fade out remain visible. After Hybrid XFB this is visible in the initial fadeout in the intro scenes. Refer issue 8881. This can be corrected by disabling "Store XFB Copies to Texture Only". Fixed by 5.0-7151.

Visible edges on video generated effects

On Wii refer 2m11s.

Distorted Audio

Audio is garbled and distorted with DSP-HLE. Use DSP-LLE to rectify this. See issue 7228. Fixed in 5.0-3260.

Enhancements

HD Texture Pack

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

Widescreen Gecko Code

The Widescreen Hack has clipping issues that can be resolved by using this Gecko Code instead.

$16:9 Widescreen Region-Free
F6000001 80008180
FFA01090 93E10024
D2000000 00000003
3DC03FAA 61CEAAAB
91C20000 C2620000
EFB300B2 00000000
E0000000 80008000
F6000001 80008180
FF601090 7C7F1B78
D2000000 00000004
3DC03FAA 61CEAAAB
91C20004 C2220004
EF7100B2 39C00000
60000000 00000000
E0000000 80008000

Configuration

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

General

Config	Setting	Notes
Enable Dual Core	Off	Fixes "unknown opcode" errors

Graphics

Config	Setting	Notes
Store XFB Copies to Texture Only	Off	Fixes purple transitions and purple models at far distances

Version Compatibility

The graph below charts the compatibility with Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike since Dolphin's 2.0 release, listing revisions only where a compatibility change occurred.

r0

4.0-3473

4.0-8526

5.0-683

5.0-3260

5.0-14828

5.0-14835

Δ

5.0-19552 (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
4.0-1843	Windows 7	Intel Core i5-3350P	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti	Hangs at splash screen.	Viremaster
4.0-3976	Windows 7	Intel Core i7-4770	AMD R9 280X DCII	Get ingame and fly with the targetcomputer to see enemies, because dolphin cannot handle the zfreeze buffer; RealXFB doesn't improve it; The Jump and Gun part of Rebel Strike is rendered correctly. Sound is limited by emulationspeed around 75 percent(very slowly). Tested only on NTSC-Version	ToniStereo
4.0-5394	Windows 8.1	Intel Core i7-4790K	AMD R9 290x	Using settings of LLE audio on thread, EFB to Texture, skip EFB to CPU, and emulate format changes on the Open GL Backend. After caching I can maintain 95-100% speed. Because EFB to Texture is being used targeting computer doesn't work and some other graphical glitches occur.	IceStrike256
4.0-8684	Windows 10	Intel Core i7-4790K @ 4.9 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980ti	Using default setting and LLE audio on D3D backend. outside of the graphical glitches on transition screens everything is perfect. Game is now full speed after caching and plays like I remember it being on console. MUST HAVE A STRONG CPU!!	IceStrike256
5.0-9	Windows 10 x64	Intel Core i5-3570k @ 4.5 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070	Game is running extremely well on DX11, x3 internal resolution, no AA/AF, LLE audio on, both Singleplayer & Multiplayer. After some more caching the game should play at 100% speed.	Turnspit
5.0-4607	Windows 7	Intel Core i7-3770K @ 3.5 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780	stops working after intro. never makes it to the menu.	xALPHAxOMEGAx
5.0-8449	Windows 10	Intel Core i7-7700K @ 4.9 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670	Same as above, initially tried to play this Star Wars game after a while only to find out it won't make it past to menu. Then I've tried the portable Dolphin setup to see if it's just my profile, still same. Have even tried single core, DX11, and OGL, nothing works.	Lucario
5.0-11109	Windows 10	Intel Core i7-7500U @ 2.7 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M	Dual core, Synchronize GPU thread, HLE, Native resolution, Direct3D 12, Asynchronous (Ubershaders) shader compilation, No AA, Store EFB copies to Texture only. Got through the intro and started the Tatooine tutorial. Not really playable due to emulation not keeping up, but pretty sure that's because 2.7 GHz just won't cut it for this title.	Garaden

Gameplay Videos

W1 RS3 Raid at Bakura on 4.0.8684 21:9

01 RS3 Revenge of the Empire on 4.0.8684 21:9

(60FPS) Dolphin Emulator 4.0-6286 - Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike (1080p HD) - Nintendo GameCube

• W2 RS3 Relics of Geonosis on 4.0.8684 21:9