What is Dolphin?

Dolphin is a GameCube and Wii emulator with high compatibility across the majority of titles for both platforms. It was first developed as closed source in 2003, and as open source since 2008.

What is Dolphin's License?

When Dolphin went open-source in 2008, it was released under the GPLv2 license. However it has since been relicensed to GPLv2+. According to the license, you may use Dolphin and its source code for any purpose, but distributing Dolphin requires that the source code be released and attribution given. For more details, see the license document.

Who Made Dolphin?

Over 200 people have worked hard over the years to create Dolphin. The list of contributors can be found on GitHub.

Dolphin is not affiliated with Nintendo in any way.

Que sistemas operativos se admiten?

Dolphin is a cross-platform emulator that runs on Windows (10 and newer), Linux, macOS (10.15 Catalina and up), and Android (5.0 and above). Other Unix-like systems (such as FreeBSD) may work but are not officially supported. Operating systems are required to be 64-bit to run Dolphin.

Que CPU debería usar?

Dolphin is a dual core application that relies upon IPC (Instructions Per Clock) and clockspeed for performance. Additional cores will not make Dolphin go any faster, though an "extra" core that Dolphin isn’t using may help slightly by keeping background tasks from using the same cores as Dolphin.

Accordingly, the perfect CPU for Dolphin has high IPC, a high clock rate, and four cores or more. With four cores, Dolphin has two cores for the main emulation threads, a third core for other tasks, and another core for the operating system and background tasks to run without taking resources from the emulator.

Newer processors are generally better than older ones, thanks to the increased IPC that comes with newer architectures.

  • Intel: Within a single generation of processors, the difference between i5 and i7 (hyperthreading/extra core counts) don't affect Dolphin very much. Newer generations will give higher performance per clock, and K series processors will allow for overclocking to gain extra performance. Be wary of U and Y series processors, as their reduced clockspeeds often struggle with Dolphin's workload.

  • AMD: Dolphin's workload didn't match the strengths of AMD processors until the Ryzen line. As such, we can only recommend Ryzen or newer for Dolphin among AMD's line of processors.

For more details, such as specific CPU recommendations, CPU comparisons, or what hardware you should purchase to get playable speeds on a specific game, please ask on our Hardware Forum before purchasing.

Note: For more information regarding CPU performance, please check out this handy benchmark that contains results from tons of users. It's important to remember that Dolphin is a console emulator with tons of optimizations and features. But, in the end, it does what the game instructs it to do. Some games only use features that are easy to emulate, and thus will run full-speed on just about any computer that supports Dolphin. Meanwhile, others struggle to run full speed at all times on even the most powerful of processors.

Que GPU preciso?

Choosing a GPU for Dolphin is a fairly simple task. The more powerful the graphics card, the more pixels and enhancements you can throw at it before you’ll see slowdown. However, the biggest thing to watch for is making sure the GPU supports DirectX11.1 and OpenGL 4.4. Dolphin emulates a console that functions very differently from a traditional PC, and uses the latest D3D and OGL features to reduce overhead. If you do not have those extensions, performance will suffer.

  • NVIDIA: Any modern mid-range or better NVIDIA GPU will be able to play Dolphin in HD resolutions with Ubershaders quite well. Old (6+ years) and/or low end GPUs may struggle, and are not recommended.

  • AMD: Any modern mid-range or better AMD GPU will perform well in Dolphin with Ubershaders. AMD generally favors D3D over OpenGL, so we recommend D3D for these GPUs. Old (6+ years) and/or low end GPUs may struggle, and are not recommended.

  • Intel: Iris Pro iGPUs will handle Dolphin well in D3D in Windows, though there are driver issues with the other graphics backends on that OS. A full fledged discrete graphics card is still highly recommended. IGPs older than the HD4000 are not supported.

Canta RAM preciso para executar Dolphin?

2GB or more is recommended. RAM speed or the amount of RAM generally has no effect on emulation speed.

Que versión de Dolphin debería descargar?

The latest beta version of Dolphin is a good choice to start with: our betas are well tested and should give a reliable experience. Development versions have the latest fixes and optimizations, but their constantly changing nature means that little testing has been done on them and unknown bugs may appear. Choose dev builds if you want to be on the bleeding edge of new features, and/or want to help with Dolphin's development.

Our buildbot provides each revision of Dolphin in four variants on the main site:

  • Windows x64 for 64-bit x86 Windows operating systems
  • Windows ARM64 for 64-bit ARM Windows operating systems
  • macOS for 64-bit macOS computers, ARM or x86
  • Android APKs for 64-bit Android

We no longer distribute Linux builds on our website, requiring users to build from source. Please see our Building Dolphin on Linux guide for instructions.

Dolphin does not support 32-bit operating systems. To check if your version of Windows is compatible with 64-bit applications, open the Start Menu, right click on Computer and select the Properties option. A window should appear, showing "64-bit operating system" as the System type if your Windows version can run Dolphin x64. If you are running a 32-bit operating system, you should upgrade to a 64-bit version to better utilize the abilities of your hardware.

On Android, Dolphin also requires 64-bit (ARMv8 AArch64). To see if your Android phone has the necessary requirements, simply run the APK, and Dolphin will alert you.

Do note that sometimes various revisions may not have built correctly for all OSes, and some builds are missing. If this occurs, it will be fixed in a short time.

"This program can't start because VC_.dll is missing"

Dolphin now uses Visual Studio C++ 2022 on Windows. Windows users must have the latest Visual C++ 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2022 runtime installed in order to use Dolphin. If you ever encounter a MSVCP__.dll or vcruntime__.dll error, please download the latest Visual C++ runtime version from Microsoft's website.

Also, remember to extract Dolphin's files from the archive to a folder on your computer instead of running Dolphin directly from inside the archive.

"Esta aplicación fallou ao iniciar porque non se atopou XINPUT1_3.dll"

Update and/or repair DirectX or reinstall the Xbox 360 Controller Drivers.

"A aplicación non puido iniciar correctamente (0xc000007b)"

When people see one of the error messages about vcomp100.dll or xinput1_3.dll missing they often download 32-bit builds of these files from the internet and expect them to work fine with 64-bit applications.

If you're suffering from this issue, make sure to delete any manually downloaded DLL files which are stored in your system paths and in the path where the Dolphin binary is stored and reinstall them with the proper runtime installers instead. Refer to the two questions above for further information.

O meu portátil/GPU non esta rendendo tan ben como debera.

Laptops and modern GPUs use a variety of tricks to reduce their power consumption and overall temperature. Underclocking, reducing voltages, using integrated instead of discrete graphics, etc. Sometimes these tricks get in the way of Dolphin, and the system needs a little help to use its maximum capabilities with the emulator. Use the links below for assistance.

Configurei as ligazóns para o segundo control de GC pero non funciona

Asegúrate que o porto emulado GameCube port 2 atopase configurado como un controlador estándar na pestana de GameCube na xanela principal de configuracións. Se o mando aínda non funciona, revisa que o teu xogo utilice realmente un segundo mando de GameCube.

O meu audio está tatexando!

Sometimes when you're running a game you may run into occasions where Dolphin is unable to run full-speed. Because the emulated console isn't running full-speed, it doesn't output as much audio as Dolphin needs. As such there end up being gaps in the audio, commonly referred to as audio stuttering by users.

This is not actually an audio issue, but a performance issue. Audio stuttering can be avoided by running Dolphin full-speed, or, in the latest development builds, activating time-stretched audio. Time-stretched audio will "stretch" the currently output audio over the gaps, allowing the game to sound more natural at the cost of some audio latency.

Xogo "X" non funciona correctamente

Even with a decade of work, Dolphin isn't a perfect emulator. This means you may encounter various issues that range from minor sound or graphics defects to game breaking errors and crashes. In order to provide users with as much information as possible, the Dolphin website hosts a wiki with thousands of pages dedicated to games and various features of the emulator. Game Specific pages often list problems a game has, solutions, and what settings are needed to make it run as accurately as possible.

If you find a bug in a game that isn't listed on the Wiki, please checkout the issue tracker and see if it is reported there. If it isn't, feel free to report the bug you found so that the developers are aware of the issue. Be aware, one of the rules you must follow before reporting an issue is make sure the issue isn't already fixed on the latest development version.

Dolphin speeds up when I open the graphics menu?

Dolphin is configured to run as fast as possible by default. However, for some games, that will cause a lot of problems, and they need more accurate and more demanding settings to run properly. For user convenience, many games have had these settings preconfigured in the "GameINI", a file with custom settings for each game.

Note: The below is only relevant to Dolphin versions before 5.0-4171

By opening the graphics menu, you are overriding the GameINI default settings and instead using the settings within the graphics menu, which will be the global defaults or whatever you last set them to. If you are playing a game that needs accurate but demanding settings, opening the graphics menu will disable those settings and result in a speed up. However, you will then be subject to the glitches and problems the GameINI settings were protecting you from.

See the Dolphin Wiki for details on what games needs which settings to run correctly and why.

Como podo compilar Dolphin no meu ordenador?

The build instructions are available on GitHub:

Cal é o mellor xeito de seguir o progreso do desenvolvemento?

Todas as versións de desenvolvemento de Dolphin son compiladas e están dispoñibles en download page.

Todas as contribucións están dispoñibles en GitHub onde podes comentar sobre os cambios e ver novas pull requests para ter información sobre novos cambios.

Teño unha idea para mellorar Dolphin, como me comunico cos desenvolvedores?

Most of the Dolphin developers read the "Development discussion" forum. Posting a thread there might be a good idea to get some feedback from developers but also from users.

Dolphin developers also communicate via IRC, which is better for instant discussion than a forum. Join us on #dolphin-emu @ irc.libera.chat.

Even if your idea is very good, note that developers are doing their work on Dolphin on their free time and don't necessarily have the time to implement everything people suggest. If you can, implementing a first draft of your idea might be a good way to get developers attention.

Non pode Dolphin usar máis núcleos do meu CPU para ir máis rápido?

Os CPU non funcionan desa maneira.

Cada núcleo funciona paralelamente. Dúas tarefas poden correr ao mesmo tempo moi ben se elas non precisan comunicarse ao mesmo tempo moi seguido ou se non precisan correr exactamente á mesma velocidade. Por exemplo, comprimir ficheiros pode executarse en núcleos separados porque a compresión dun ficheiro é unha tarefa completamente distinta da compresión doutro ficheiro, polo que non precisan comunicarse.

En Dolphin, as únicas tarefas pesadas que poden correr ben en paralelo son as do CPU, o GPU e o DSP. Separar estas tarefas en tarefas máis pequenas para correlas por separado en varios núcleos sería facer o programa máis lento. É por iso que Dolphin soamente corre en 3 núcleos e non vai a utilizar tódolos núcleos de procesadores de 4 ou 6 núcleos.

Por que preciso un ordenador potente para emular unha consola vella?

Aínnda que é certo que tanto a GameCube como a Wii son moito máis lentas do podería agardarse á hora de emular as consolas usando Dolphin, o hardware que te atopas nesas consolas é moi diferente do que atopas nun PC de xogos tradicional. Por exemplo:

  • No canto dunha CPU Intel ou AMD x86, tanto GameCube como Wii usan unha CPU IBM Power PC os xogos están programados para correr nesta CPU: cando emulas cada pequena instrución básica nun xogo, esta precisa ser traducida a algo que o teu PC poida executar. Dependendo da instrución, isto pode custar de x2 a x100 ciclos de reloxo, o que explica por qué precisas unha CPU de máis de 486Mhz para emular unha GameCube.

  • As memorias RAM destas dúas consolas, son de tipo SRAM son máis pequenas, pero son máis rápidas cas SDRAM que se usan nas PC. Esas memorias tamén son compartidas entre a CPU e a GPU, o que fai que as cargas das texturas (da memoria do CPU á do GPU) ou as copias dos framebuffer (da memoria da GPU á do CPU) sexan menos demandantes que as feitas nun PC.

  • A GPU non utiliza shaders: cada efecto gráfico e cada cálculo realizado no xogo, executase directamente en hardware sen unha linguaxe de programación que faga de intermediario. Isto non se axusta ao que fai unha GPU de PC. Dolphin fai uso de shaders na GPU do teu PC para traducir o que o GPU da GameCube pode facer directamente en hardware, isto causa que funcione moito máis lento.

  • Un PC executa un sistema operativo a fin de poder correr varios programas ao mesmo tempo. Unha GameCube ou unha Wii non teñen os mesmos requerimentos e poden executar directamente as cousas no hardware sen ter que pasar polo sistema operativo, facendo que a comunicación entre os chips sexa máis rápida.

Se ben non é unha lista moi detallada, pode darche unha idea aproximada do que fai que a emulación precise dun ordenador potente para funcionar.

Where can I download game ISOs/ROMs?

Resposta curta: Non o fagas. Merca xogos e converteos cunha Wii.

Resposta longa: Descargar xogos comerciais é ilegal, e polo tanto moi mal visto polos desenvolvedores de Dolphin. Para previr problemas legais, isto inclue áreas pouco claras como o descargar xogos que ti xa mercaches antes. Non necesariamente debes ter unha consola para ti, porque podes mercar o xogo e poñelo na consola dun amigo para convertelos. Por outro lado, copiar os xogos dos teus amigos é considerado ilegal tamén.

Para converter os xogos cunha Wii, deberás instalar o homebrew channel e correr unha aplicación como CleanRip.

Que formatos de baleirado admite Dolphin?

Dolphin soporta xogos convertidos nos seguintes formatos:

  • GCM/ISO (conversión sen comprimir, pode pesar 1.4Gb para xogos de GameCube e 4.7Gb para xogos de Wii
  • GCZ (Dolphin pode usarse para comprimir o teus xogos neste formato)
  • CISO
  • WBFS (non é soportado por Dolphin 3.0 ou anteriores)

Ten en conta que WBFS e CISO son formatos de compresión con perdas: estes descartan a información que non se usa nos discos para facer máis pequenos os ficheiros. Como tales, recomendamosche tratar de converte osr teus xogos a GCM/ISO se é que tes problemas usando un ficheiro WBSF.