Dolphin, a popular emulator for Nintendo’s Wii and GameCube consoles, has recently undergone a series of significant updates. These updates introduce new features, improve performance, and address compatibility issues on the Dolphin emulator.
The Dolphin Emulator team is entering a new phase of more active development and frequent releases. The Progress Reports, which accompany each release, now serve as changelogs, providing detailed information about the changes and improvements included in each version. The emulator has also recieved new features and fixes for various games. For example, the audio quality in Pikmin and Pikmin 2 has been improved, addressing issues with menu sounds and missing sounds in the opening cutscene. Additionally, a bug in Project Zoo that caused corrupted shadows has been fixed by forcing display list alignment. The emulator also preserves pixels by preventing rounded corners in windowed mode on Windows 11.
In terms of performance, the Cached Interpreter has received significant improvements, making it faster than ever before. This is meant to help games with lots of idle loops, like Cave Story. That was mostly for games with specific bugs, because Dolphin claims its Just-In-Time compilation (JITs) is still the fastest option for most games. Dolphin has also addressed compatibility issues with Windows 11, which was a big issue for many users, so no need to revert to Windows 10 if you want to play Dolphin. The fix removes any visual distortions or performance issues. This is great news for PC players and those who use a Steam Deck to emulate older Nintendo games.
One of the most notable additions is the integration of RetroAchievements support, which rolled out back in July. The emulator has made an improvement to be more stable, with plans for further improvements. The company also stated that Android support for RetroAchievements is coming in the future, but there are still some bugs to work out.
Source: Dolphin Emulator
