Dolphin / Gamecube / Wiiware / Wii Compatibility on Pi 5

gvx64

@DTEAM I was just curious, what command(s) are you using to install your new MESA drivers via backports on your Pi? I tried manually compiling 25.1 on my Pi4 but I am getting a compiler error and I think it would just be easier to go with the backport route for when these new drivers become available.

I am really excited to hear about the performance improvements with the 25.1 drivers. I would really like to try this out on the Pi4 and see just how much of a boost it can provide for Gamecube/3DS emulation.

DTEAM

@gvx64

Follow the instruction on my last post here

If you use sudo apt install -t bookworm-backports mesa-va-drivers MESA will not be broken. With this, you don't have to play with dependancies.

Edit: For now, Bookworm Backports = mesa (25.0.4-1~bpo12+1) and not 25.1.

Scapps

@retropieuser555

Sorry to bump an old post, but I was wondering if you could share how you got RE4 to work on the Pi5? I have Mesa installed, but it’s still washed out in game and I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.

If I choose Vulcan, the game is slow and washed out. If I choose OpenGL it is the right speed, but washed out.

Thanks in advance.

RapidEdwin08

@Scapps You need to use that dolphin-rpi fork based on 0lder version of dolphin for RE4 on the Pi.
See here

retropieuser555

@RapidEdwin08 said in Dolphin / Gamecube / Wiiware / Wii Compatibility on Pi 5:

@Scapps You need to use that dolphin-rpi fork based on 0lder version of dolphin for RE4 on the Pi.
See here

That's one option, however there is an easier way using that newer version of Mesa imo. @Scapps when dolphin starts what does it say in the top left corner in yellow? It should mention mesa25.1 something. Raspberry pi OS has Mesa by default but the newer version of Mesa has the dual source blending support that are needed for a bunch of games that handle textures slightly differently

Scapps

@retropieuser555

Thanks for the response.

So, I didn't have 25.1 installed, so I got that done and the wash out is going, but now I have a ton of glitching when I move in the game: textures dropping in and out and the like. I am running it on OpenGL. If I switch to Vulkan, the wash out returns.

retropieuser555

@Scapps interesting, is that the case in other dual source games? Such as Double Dash or Battalion Wars? Can you post your settings for gfx.ini and dolphin.ini from the config folders? Also do you have any RE4 game specific ini settings?

Also yeah, the correct in Mesa 25.1, the dev has corrected it for OpenGL's driver, not Vulkan (yet anyway, I think they have a ticket open to work on that)

Pestarzt

Hello, just wanted to report that using a newer version of the Mesa drivers also worked for me. So big thanks for retropieuser555 for the post on reddit that made me aware of this solution.

I installed version 25.1.5. I configured it to be used system-wide, not via dolphin or similar.

Tested with Mario Kart Double Dash, blue tint is gone and performance was the same as before for me.

EDIT: My gamecube games crash after some time. Lowering the resolution helps, allowing me to player longer. Latter gives me the feeling it has something to do with VRAM filling up, but Im not a developer and did not run further diagnostics on this.

DTEAM

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

@gvx64

Follow the instruction on my last post here

If you use sudo apt install -t bookworm-backports mesa-va-drivers MESA will not be broken. With this, you don't have to play with dependancies.

Edit: For now, Bookworm Backports = mesa (25.0.4-1~bpo12+1) and not 25.1.

mesa (25.0.7-2~bpo12+1) is now available for the Bookworm stable-backport

gvx64

@Pestarzt My understanding is that, on the Pi, VRAM gets dynamically allocated from system RAM as needed and so I don't think that your issue relates to VRAM. That said, there are two possible issues that come to mind that might be causing the crashes you describe in Mario Kart DD:

You have overclocked your GPU too much. Double Dash (especially Rainbow Road) is very GPU intensive. For example, I have my Pi4's GPU overclocked to 938MHz. If I push to 940MHz, the Pi will generally crash on Rainbow Road but will be stable for most other games. Assuming that you are overclocking your GPU, try bringing it down a bit and see if that helps,
(more likely) you are running out of system RAM. In certain Gamecube/3DS games my 2GB Pi4 often runs out of memory after I play for a long time. If your Pi model has 2GB or less than this could also be what is causing your problem. The solution I use is a FAT formatted 4GB USB 3.0 stick that I keep plugged into my Pi. When I play more advanced games I mount it and configure it for swap file using a script which I added to the RetroPie-Setup menu.

Pestarzt

@gvx64 Thanks for your reply! Do you perhaps have a resource where I could read about the memory allocation of the pi?

I still wonder why running in lower resolutions seems to help then.

Unfortunately, your suggestions do not apply to me.

I run it in stock version. Let me know if there are more diagnostics I could provide you though! I monitored the CPU usage via htop but I do not know how to do the same for the GPU.
I have the 8 gigabyte version, that should be plenty right? While monitoring with htop there seemed to be enough headroom.