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Dolphin emulator launches version 5.0, becoming most accurate and efficient release to date

The popular GameCube and Wii emulator, Dolphin, has reached a major milestone today as version 5.0 has just been released.

Daniel Perez

June 24, 2016 8:20 AM

The over 200 contributors that helped work on Dolphin over the years have finally released Dolphin 5.0.

Dolphin 5.0 is said to be more accurate and more efficient than previous builds in nearly every way possible. Previous iterations of the popular GameCube and Wii emulator laid the groundwork by following a very distinct pattern of sacrificing performance, hacks, and other features for higher accuracy of supported games. Of course, individual game support will vary, although you should probably expect big releases, like Super Mario Sunshine, Rogue Squadron, and Super Mario Galaxy, should be playable.

With the release of Dolphin 5.0, the system requirements to run the emulator have changed. Here’s what changed since the last release:

64-bit CPUs and Operating Systems are required.
Windows XP is no longer supported. Windows Vista is no longer officially supported.
Direct3D10/OpenGL3 Required
2GB of RAM or more is recommended

Since its previous release, Dolphin has received over 10,000 changes that span compatibility, crash fixes, new features, texture environment fixes, support for zFreeze, improved CPU emulation, and much, much more. To get a full list of its changelog, head on over the Dolphin's official website as well as watch its official release video below. Yes -- emulators now get their own release trailers in 2016. What a time to be alive!

Daniel Perez

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Shacknews

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June 24, 2016 8:20 AM

Daniel Perez posted a new article, Dolphin emulator launches version 5.0, becoming most accurate and efficient release to date
- mrnails
  
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  June 24, 2016 9:21 AM
  
  I'd LOVE to be able to try it out, but I can't for the life of me get a controller (or keyboard) to work on this emulator. My controllers work with everything else so they are in fact functional. No idea what the problem is. :(
  - Nat King Cobra
    
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    June 24, 2016 9:27 AM
    
    Really? That's very strange. I didn't even have to do anything for a controller, it just worked in the control binding page.
    - mrnails
      
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      June 24, 2016 9:35 AM
      
      I can bind and set up the controller to my liking without problems, but once I start a game NOTHING works.
      
      What OS are you using? I'm on Win10.
      - mrnails
        
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        June 24, 2016 9:36 AM
        
        I'd like to point out that the games work just find. Just the controllers do not function. I'm missing something. : /
        
        Marrbe
        
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        June 24, 2016 9:36 AM
        
        Have you tried the old Joy2Key trick? Guess it wouldn't do much for the analog sticks, though.
        
        mrnails
        
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        June 24, 2016 9:50 AM
        
        I have not, but like you've said if that doesn't make use of the analogs I'd rather not even try. Thank you.
      - Nat King Cobra
        
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        June 24, 2016 9:40 AM
        
        Same, Win 10. Worked fine in Win 7 too. Might have to go post in some emulator forums.
        
        mrnails
        
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        June 24, 2016 9:49 AM
        
        Way ahead of you. Posted in there too. Waiting on a response. All my emulators work just not dolphin. Thanks!
  - [deleted] 1243182645
    
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    June 24, 2016 1:35 PM
    
    [deleted]
- Nat King Cobra
  
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  June 24, 2016 9:51 AM
  
  I'm hoping this adds the performance bump I need to actually use it. With some games, I try like once a year and there's always something screwy. In Mario Galaxy it stutters or the music cuts out for example. There's always tons of info to read up on it, but nothing fully fixes it, and I just give up. Would love to play though, Mario Galaxy looks incredibly good.
  - mrnails
    
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    June 24, 2016 10:12 AM
    
    I'm looking forward to playing the Metroid Prime Trilogy myself. :)
    - Sapiens
      
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      June 24, 2016 2:04 PM
      
      This is what I tried to play a few times and it never ran very well. Hope it works better now.
      - vitek r
        
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        June 24, 2016 4:37 PM
        
        It's worked well for quite some time now
        
        ShXIII
        
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        June 24, 2016 6:19 PM
        
        Does it work well with KB/M or is that even possible?
        
        Hoax
        
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        June 24, 2016 7:20 PM
        
        Metroid is probably the one fps game where m/k is completely unnecessary. It has its own targeting, it's the definition of console fps and in a good way.
        
        pyide
        
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        June 24, 2016 7:25 PM
        
        Well, Metroid Prime 3 forces you to use the wii remote to aim and turn which is a bummer. And the trilogy versions add that scheme to the other two games. I'm not sure how well it maps to a mouse, but I would like to give a shot sometime.
        
        Hoax
        
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        June 24, 2016 7:37 PM
        
        I didn't know that. I played them originally on the console of release so it was z targeting on the cube etc.
        
        Sapiens
        
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        June 24, 2016 7:25 PM
        
        Does it work without any hitching/freezing now? That was what always killed it for me.
- godm0de
  
   reply
  June 24, 2016 10:27 AM
  
  Anyone know if the mario galaxy games still need 4.4ghz overclock to work properly??
  - peat
    
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    June 24, 2016 1:51 PM
    
    I've never had an overclock higher then 3.6 and I never had issues running them
    - godm0de
      
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      June 24, 2016 6:16 PM
      
      Well last time I tried was about 2 years ago and it was still kinda buggy... I normally dont oc my cpu but had to push my 3570k 4.4 to maintain 90%+ speed at all times. Im gunna give this new one a whirl once I have some time
- roushimsx
  
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  June 24, 2016 2:05 PM
  
  That release trailer is fantastic! It's amazing how far along the hobby as come...trying to decipher old release notes back in the day was like reading moonspeak (unless they were annotated with something like "Fixes Super Street Fury Shodown's shadow effect"). Now we get slickly edited and informative highlight reels that really showcase the strengths of modern emulators. So bad ass.
  - node
    
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    June 25, 2016 1:26 AM
    
    The Dolphin team are so good, and this video was brilliant, so much clearer than translating release notes like you said. What an amazingly tight, complete emulator, the work put into it is incredible.
- DinK
  
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  June 24, 2016 8:11 PM
  
  What a fun trailer! Looks like the emulator is pretty sweet these days too.
- [deleted] 354686
  
   reply
  June 24, 2016 8:42 PM
  
  [deleted]
  - node
    
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    June 25, 2016 1:28 AM
    
    Mayflash do a wired sensor bar that also does Bluetooth. It works flawlessly.
- bolneze
  
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  June 25, 2016 12:30 AM
  
  Need a Wii u one next
  - node
    
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    June 25, 2016 1:10 AM
    
    Cemu is making remarkable progress. A fairly hefty Patreon is probably helping.
    - bolneze
      
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      June 25, 2016 1:18 AM
      
      Cool seems like some stuff is actually playable on it
  - bolneze
    
     reply
    June 25, 2016 1:19 AM
    
    And what about the other last gen systems
    - node
      
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      June 25, 2016 1:31 AM
      
      PS3 emulation is basically nowhere as far as I can tell, mostly thanks to Cell.
      
      Xenia for Xbox 360 plays a handful of games well, I haven't followed progress on it for a while though.
      - node
        
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        June 25, 2016 1:34 AM
        
        Okay, I forgot about this for PS3. Still not huge compatability, but they're making gradual progress. http://rpcs3.net/