Dolphin / Gamecube / Wiiware / Wii Compatibility on Pi 5

abj

I think the best way to run the games with standalone Dolphin are to add them in the gui and start them from there and not from Emulationstation, something similar to scummvm.

Why? Because a lot of gamecube games are multi disks and it's not possible to change the disks, atleast i didn't find a working solution. If i start the game from ES and choose to open the gui then i am loosing the controls.

update: The disk is changed by the gui, automatically (when the appropriate setting is enabled), but the controller stops responding when this happens.

retropieuser555

@abj I do wish the GUI had gamepad support, it's not that practical to keep a mouse plugged in just for selecting games.

I haven't gotten that far in Tales of Symphonia, but how does Dolphin handle multi disc games usually?

abj

@retropieuser555 I don't know if it's like psx that you have to enter the disk while the emulator is running or it is like dreamcast. SO far i just boot from disk two of Resident Evil to test how the disk swap is working.

Yes, I hope it will be possible to control Gui with gamepad.

I asked on discord, in some games emulator must be running to change the discs.

abj

I managed to change the disks from the Gui without issues. It's the best approach so far. The only thing that missing to make the experience near perfect (for a standalone emulator) is the control of the Gui with the gamepad.

First set as game folder in the Dolphin Gui the gc folder in the roms folder of RetroPie.
Configure correctly the gamepad from:
Dolphin GUi -> Controllers: evdev device/ gamepad. After configuration i create a profile and save.
Create some neceserry shortcuts from:
Dolphin Gui -> Options => Hotkey settings. I create one shortcut for open and exit .
Set automatically disk swapping from:
Dolphin Gui -> Options -> Configurations -> Change Disk automatically.

This is it. You have to start the game from The Gui for the above to work. The game will change automatically the disk and with the press of start bottom will continue to next disk.

Now i have to find a way to create a launch script to open the Gui, similar to scummvm and amiberry.

abj

Maybe is possible to control the Gui with the gamepad with the use of xdoxdrv: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Universal-Controller-Calibration-&-Mapping-Using-xboxdrv/

ExarKunIv

@abj if you can use a mouse or keyboard on the gui, then yes you can use xboxdrv to map it for that.

might get a conflict when you play a game though since you have the controls mapped elseware.

mitu

@abj said in Dolphin / Gamecube / Wiiware / Wii Compatibility on Pi 5:

This is it. You have to start the game from The Gui for the above to work. The game will change automatically the disk and with the press of start bottom will continue to next disk.

I think if you create an .m3u file and toggle the aforementioned option, starting the game from the playlist file should work without invoving the GUI. But I don't think .m3u is enabled by default in EmulationStation for the Wii/GC systems.

retropieuser555

It's worth noting Dolphin itself has a "automatically change disks" option in the config/GUI. No idea how that works though or how it would know when to swap, bit of googling suggests you can use an m3u for that. But haven't played far enough in any of the GameCube games see it myself

abj

@mitu Yes i added this extension to es_system.cfg file but i have to find a save file from a multi-disk game to check if the changed will happen. Thanks.

abj

@retropieuser555 This is how i am changing the disk right now, and they suggesed me the same thing in the Dolphin discord server, It's working very well, the disk change automatically but this only works if you start the game from the Gui.

retropieuser555

This post is deleted!

AwesomeKingClem

@retropieuser555 👀👀👀

abj

@AwesomeKingClem said in Dolphin / Gamecube / Wiiware / Wii Compatibility on Pi 5:

@abj 👀👀👀

Sorry i don't understand what this means.

AwesomeKingClem

@abj It's nothing important. Just a joke because @retropieuser555 deleted his post, and he was responding to one of mine.

Edit: OOH I tagged the wrong person. My bad.

abj

@mitu said in Dolphin / Gamecube / Wiiware / Wii Compatibility on Pi 5:

@abj said in Dolphin / Gamecube / Wiiware / Wii Compatibility on Pi 5:

This is it. You have to start the game from The Gui for the above to work. The game will change automatically the disk and with the press of start bottom will continue to next disk.

I think if you create an .m3u file and toggle the aforementioned option, starting the game from the playlist file should work without invoving the GUI. But I don't think .m3u is enabled by default in EmulationStation for the Wii/GC systems.

I managed to test this and it's working! Disk changed successfully without to launch the game from the Gui. I had to do the following:

-First added to the Gui the path for gamecube roms.
-Set Dolphin option: Automatically change disks.
-Add .m3u support for Doplhin in the es_systems.cfg

retropieuser555

@abj you don't need to use a hotkey to change the disk then using that?

abj

@retropieuser555
Disk changed automatically without to press any button or open the Gui.

I tested with Resident Evil 1. Because i didn't find a save file to try the disk swap, i rename the Disk 1 to be the Disk 2 and to 2 to be 1 in the m3u file.

When i start the game (Disk2) from ES (m3u shortcut), in one point, game ask for Disk 1.Then a message appear that disk changing automatically and finally the game start from Disk1.

retropieuser555

@mitu is there a way in the dolphin.sh to set the path but it gives the user's name rather than say pi?

[General]
ISOPath0 = /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/gc
[Core]
AutoDiscChange = True

Then we could have this setup by default for users when installing dolphin?

mitu

@retropieuser555 said in Dolphin / Gamecube / Wiiware / Wii Compatibility on Pi 5:

@mitu is there a way in the dolphin.sh to set the path but it gives the user's name rather than say pi?

Look at the existing scriptmodule, a .ini file is already created on the 1st installation. You can use either $user or $home to refer to the installation user or the user's home path (not to be confused with $USER or $HOME).

abj

Another one parameter we can add to dolphin.ini 'file, is to hide the yellow letters that appearing in the upper left corner when a game starts.

[Interface]
OnScreenDisplayMessages = False