Skip to main content

Dolphin 5.0 is here, and brings with it awesome improvements

If you have ever wanted to play Metroid Prime in stereoscopic 3D, now is your chance. The Dolphin development team released the long-awaited 5.0 update to its excellent GameCube and Wii emulator.
Recommended Videos

Related: Burger King toy turns into a “Game Boy Color Nano”

The new 5.0 update brings about a ton of new fixes. The most notable fix was making Dolphin perform a lot faster. According to the Dolphin 5.0 blog post, each version of Dolphin would sacrifice cool features for accuracy, which would also hinder performance. It was more important for games to perform as they were originally intended than to enable cheats. Well, with 5.0, not only is it the fastest Dolphin yet, a lot of those cool extras that could only be done on an emulator should be working.

There are a lot of graphical improvements as well. Depth matrix shader accuracy has been improved, which allowed textures in the distance to have depth and look more accurate when approaching. Other texture glitches, that had given games like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker a stuttery effect, were also addressed. With improvements in depth emulation, certain objects that were obscured by other objects aren’t so much an issue anymore, and objects in the distance look sharper.

Games that required time, like The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask now are much more playable. Also, because GameCube and Wii were part of the standard definition generation, games that took advantage of progressive scan now run more smoothly.

Now there is proper system emulation as well, meaning that you can boot Dolphin to look as if you’re turning on your Wii. If someone wants, they can truly make an awesome HD Wii under their television. Another big improvement has been more accurate sound emulation. Previous versions of Dolphin would either have choppy music or sound latency. That’s not the case anymore. 5.0 sounds much more like a console experience. It works especially well with games that require frame-accurate button presses like Guitar Hero or Super Smash Bros. Melee.

As Dolphin continued through its years of development, there were some games that notoriously did not work correctly. Some thought that emulating “zfreeze” would be impossible. But the Dolphin development team muscled through and games like Mario Power Tennis and Star Wars Rogue Squadron 3: Rebel Strike now work.

There are a slew of other fixes, but for competitive gamers, the increased Netplay performance is a godsend. Netplay is the ability to play local multiplayer games online. For the Super Smash Bros. Melee competitive scene, this is very important. Because the GameCube had very limited network access, the only way to play Melee was at a friend’s house. As the Melee scene continues to grow in popularity, Netplay will be the way many hone their skills.

Dolphin 5.0 is available to download now for free.

Imad Khan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Imad has been a gamer all his life. He started blogging about games in college and quickly started moving up to various…
Intel Battlemage GPU: everything we know so far
Intel Arc A770 GPU installed in a test bench.

Despite a rocky start, Intel's Arc GPUs are now among the best graphics cards you can buy. Targeting budget PC gamers, Intel has established itself as a major player in gaming graphics cards, and all eyes are on Team Blue with its next generation of GPUs, codenamed Battlemage.

We know Battlemage GPUs are coming, and Intel has slowly been dropping hints about the graphics cards over the past year. Although we're still waiting on an official release date, specs, and pricing details for Battlemage GPUs, there's a lot we can piece together already.
Intel Battlemage: specs

Read more
Spotify vs. Pandora: which streaming service should you choose?
spotify vs pandora on iphone

Let's settle a musical debate: which music streaming platform should you use: Spotify or Pandora?

Both services have their unique strengths and weaknesses. Spotify boasts a more extensive music catalog, robust social features for sharing and discovering music with friends, and a more polished user experience across devices.

Read more
Ryzen AI nearly hits 60 fps in Black Myth: Wukong, but it’s not that simple
OneXFly F1 Pro gamig handheld.

Although AMD APUs appear in some of the best gaming handhelds, the latest Strix Point chips are still hard to find in new releases. However, the new OneXFly F1 Pro gamin handheld is making its debut with the Ryzen AI HX 370 chip in tow, and according to a benchmark in Black Myth: Wukong, it managed to average an impressive 58 frames per second (fps) at a 15-watt thermal design power (TDP). That's an impressive result, but digging deeper reveals that AAA gaming on the go is still not without any sacrifice.

The OneXFly F1 Pro comes with the Ryzen AI HX 370, which sports a total of 12 cores -- four Zen 5 and eight Zen 5c -- as well as 24 threads. The maximum boost clock on the Zen 5 cores reaches 5.1GHz, but the smaller Zen 5c maxes out at 3.3GHz. The default TDP was rated at 28 watts, but it can be configured between 15W and 54W. For an APU, the AI HX 370 delivers solid graphics capabilities, as it's equipped with the AMD Radeon 890M. It also sports a 7-inch OLED screen with a refresh rate of 144Hz.

Read more