DOLPHIN cores has been updated to current stream october 2025

General
#1

Hi, the dolphin core has been updated to the current stream by the help of cscd98 and other contributors. thanks. Is someone could help us to remind how to install the core (with best settings) and all system dependencies in order to use it? thanks again regards mikty

7 Likes
#2

How to install a core depends on how you installed RetroArch. A general installation guide for cores can be found at https://docs.libretro.com/guides/download-cores/ and general information about how to setup Dolphin core can be found at https://docs.libretro.com/library/dolphin/ .

Core - If you can, the best and simplest case is to use the RetroArch builtin Core Downloader. Otherwise either install with your operating systems system manager or if you have to manually install it, just download the core file and put it into the ā€œcoresā€ subdirectory of RetroArch. And donā€™t forget to update the ā€œinfoā€ files too, which are supplementary information for the core.

System Files - Then you need Dolphin System files too. Again, the best and simplest case is to use the RetroArch builtin Core System Files Downloader. If this is not possible for you, then you have to manually install these system files. A detailed explanation can be found at https://docs.libretro.com/library/dolphin/#setup . BIOS files are optional. I only use it with a BIOS, so not sure how compatible it is without.

For the configuration, well that depends on your system.

3 Likes
#3

Thanks for your tips. I had a doublt of using the standalone files to transfer in retroarch. I will use as you said, the builtin Core System Files Downloader. thanks again

1 Like
#4

Thanks for the heads up

2 Likes
#5

Nice, but no m3u support?

#6

According to this thread .rvz and m3u in Dolphin? M3U is already supported (since years). Right? I never tried it, so cannot report first hand.

#7

Yes, m3u is supported in the previous version. Now, in the latest build, selecting m3u crashes the entire RA (build for Windows 11). I donā€™t know and have no way to test it on other systems.

#8

Hi, you could report the bug to:

Cscd98 seems to be reactive to solve the bug

regards

1 Like
#9

Well, a lot of people have been requesting and waiting for this update, so thatā€™s good news and hopefully the joy will flow. :crazy_face:

1 Like
#10

Did the issue with the dual core setting and the rebirth games get fixed?

#11

I tried a few games and they all crashed, so the system files might not be updated on the online updater yet. Iā€™m just guessing thoughā€¦ it could be some other issue.

1 Like
#12

Would it be in the core options, I did see some new options that were not there before.

#13

The system files are just additional files you need to run the core. You can get them from the RA online updater, but Iā€™m speculating that they havenā€™t been updated there because I was getting a bunch of crashing even after dlā€™ing them. If thatā€™s the case itā€™s just a matter of wait and try again later.

#14

Also, a minor complain, the core options are still not organized as in every other recent core, it looks like the old days of RA where all core options were in a single list.

#15

Was going to post this as I just saw it. Thatā€™s great news. Huge thanks to cscd98 and others who made this possible.

That should fix, among other things, games like Castlevania and Contra Rebirth crashing or any games that didnā€™t worked because you needed to disable the Dual Core option -which was not supported in the older core.

Unfortunately, it being based on an extremely recent Dolphin build means the core no longer works on Windows 8 (and any older Win version as well, probably).

Dolphin standalone dropped support/stopped working on Win 8 and older quite a while ago (5.0-16391 I believe so more than 3 years ago I think) but this is most likely no doubt due to standalone no longer working on pre Win10 as well. So I donā€™t think thereā€™s a fix. Regardless, I understand itā€™s a very tiny minority of users at this point and compatibility between older Win versions canā€™t always be kept so honestly I donā€™t mind -And honestly, the -now older, core is still extremely usable for me for the time being.

Again, huge thanks to cscd98 for taking the time to update/refactor the Dolphin core.

edit: Just read dual core games still crashes. Yeah, might be because the core system files havenā€™t been updated yet.

edit2 If anyone wants to test, try editing the corresponding gameā€™s ini in the coreā€™s gamesetting folder. On Windows, it should be normally located in ā€˜system\dolphin-emu\Sys\GameSettingsā€™.

Each game has its own ini. For example Castlevania Rebirth is ā€˜WD9.iniā€™. Under [Core] there should be an option ā€œCPUThread = Trueā€. Try changing it to ā€˜falseā€™ if itā€™s not already so. See if that fixes it.

If that doesnā€™t fix it, maybe itā€™s simply a matter of the dual core enable/disable setting in the coreā€™s menu option not being implemented yet.

1 Like
#16

Problem with m3u reported. Can someone confirm?

And thereā€™s still no ā€œmanual texture samplingā€ option for EA games (for example, SSX3). Otherwise, the videos have graphical errors (vertical stripes).

1 Like
#17

Yeah, thatā€™s another one that was fixed over time. Affects games like Def Jam. You can see it here as Max was using Dolphin.

I canā€™t test the newer core myself, but again, if anyone wants to give it a go: try this

in the gameā€™s ini (for SSX3 for example itā€™s ā€˜GXB.iniā€™) add this line below [Video Hacks] or set it to false if itā€™s already present and set to true

FastTextureSampling = False

2 Likes
#18

Hmmā€¦ No dice for me. Games are buggy and RetroArch freezes. Log says lots of similar errors to this one:

[libretro INFO] 19:22:441 DolphinLibretro/Boot.cpp:100 I[COMMON]: Suppressed popup: Warning - An error occurred.


IntCPU: Unknown instruction 7b888080 at PC = 805a798c  last_PC = 00000000  LR = 800698dc


  Condition: 0
  File: /builds/libretro/dolphin/Source/Core/Core/PowerPC/Interpreter/Interpreter.cpp
  Line: 313
  Function: unknown_instruction

For now, Iā€™ll revert to the old core.

EDIT: if anyone needs the latest working version of the dolphin core, Iā€™ve uploaded it here: https://files.catbox.moe/mtrxy6.zip

#19

If youā€™re getting crashes, try deleting your old dolphin folder in ā€˜configā€™ to clear out any stale core options. Youā€™ll want to re-fetch the core system files, too, which updated automatically once the repo went live.

The rebirth stuff is still broken, AFAIK, because they still require the dual-core stuff, which is incompatible with the way the libretro-ization works to hand off threads. That is, the updated core is still primarily the same libretro-ization, so a lot is going to be the same between the two, for better or for worse.

5 Likes
#20

Random tip but on the subject of reverting back to a previous core version, you can keep multiple versions of the same core and be able to choose between them at will. (I have only tested this on Windows so I canā€™t speak for other platforms)

1 3

As you can see, here I made it so I can select between the latest, new version of the Dolphin core and the last (older) version of it.

In order to do so, take your older version of the core (dolphin_libretro.dll) copy it, and rename it to something like dolphin_last_older_libretro.dll. Make sure there are no spaces (use underscores instead) and also (I think, havenā€™t tested extensively), make sure that the name ends with ā€˜libretroā€™.

Next, copy the corresponding core info file (in this case Dolphin) located in the info folder and rename the copy (leave the original alone) to the exact same name as the renamed copy of the coreā€™s dll. So in this case: ā€œdolphin_last_older_libretro.infoā€

Third, (this is technically optional but highly recommended) youā€™ll want to edit the newly created info file. The 2nd line (display_name =) is used to display the coreā€™s name info when selecting a core like you see in the second pic. Change it to something like

display_name = ā€œNintendo - GameCube / Wii (Dolphin - Older - Last Version)ā€

Finally, go to Online Updater and select ā€œUpdate Core Info Filesā€ otherwise the display name in the selectable core list wonā€™t update for some reason.

That being said, itā€™s always better to make backups of older core versions regardless.

The rebirth stuff is still broken, AFAIK, because they still require the dual-core stuff, which is incompatible with the way the libretro-ization works to hand off threads. That is, the updated core is still primarily the same libretro-ization, so a lot is going to be the same between the two, for better or for worse.

So that explains it. Damn, thatā€™s a bummerā€¦Hopefully -if at all possible, in time a solution is found to make it work.

2 Likes