DOLPHIN cores has been updated to current stream october 2025

[Drybonz]

@hunterk

If you’re getting crashes, try deleting your old dolphin folder in ‘config’ to clear out any stale core options. You’ll want to re-fetch the core system files, too, which updated automatically once the repo went live.

Thanks for the tip. I deleted my dolphin.opt file and things have stopped crashing so far.

[md2mcb]

I did all that. Unfortunately, nothing changed. Games either crash or have lots of graphical glitches. For now, I reverted everything back and locked the core.

Edit: oops, sorry. I read Drybonz reply and now it’s fixed. dolphin.opt should also be deleted and created anew. Thanks!

[thingsiplay]

This is an extremely nice tip for those of us doing some custom stuff. Do you know if we can set it up so that the configuration file or better yet, the config directory for the core can be separate too? Besides the display name, there is an internal core name and I don’t know if we can override it somehow. This way the configurations and other related things wouldn’t get mixed with old and new versions. Whenever you run the old version, the settings would break for the new one again.

[Elessar84]

Thanks a lot @Broski86, this method works.

[Broski86]

No, with this method the core will use the same cfg directory. So be mindful of this and any potential conflicts (although I have not stumble upon any so far).

In the past I have tried to set up different version of the same core completely separate by changing "libretro_directory = “:\cores” with something else but apparently this is not as simple and RA really didn’t play nice with this.

It’s possible to use an alternate system directory though on a per-game basis by changing system_directory = “:\system” to something else. I often use this for more “complicated” systems; DOS/PC-98/Amiga etc basically home computers with more complex configuration/booting environment. So some games use the default system dir, the others the alternate one. Works without any problems.

Setting up an alternate config directory on a per game basis is more complicated and I haven’t really done it. The problem is when RA first loads the content it will naturally look in the default config directory if there are any config files…but then you’re telling RA to use some other config directory afterward…well you see it’s kind of convoluted and at this point you’re better off to just use a completely separate folder of RA if you just want to test things, outside of the RA folder/environment you’re normally using.

So yeah, it’s just a quick and dirty way of having multiple version of the same core and I guess conflicts could occur in some cases so use at own risk.

TL;dr If you really want to use an alternate version of a core with its own cfg and all that folders and everything done by the book, I think you’d have to actually tinker a bit with the source code of RA itself and make your own built.

@Elessar84

Thanks a lot @Broski86, this method works.

Nice. So no more weird lines on EA games. Although, ideally, there really should be an option in the core’s option menu to change this instead of having to change the game’s ini. And as the user in the reddit post I linked to said, you should only disable this for games that needs it as it is slower.

[Elessar84]

Exactly. I’ll try to report this as well, along with the many bugs I’ve found. So far, no one’s responding to reports. I hope it won’t be like before, when no one responded to a report for years.

My next discovery is:

• A bugged toggle fullscreen option causes the entire game to freeze, along with the RA. Alternatively, a black or purple screen appears, along with the RA hang.

[md2mcb]

For anyone wondering, some games require fixes by toggling options that are not present within RetroArch’s UI, but you can still access them by manually inserting the correct lines in the game settings files (retroarch/system/dolphin-emu/Sys/GameSettings/).

• To find the correct game file and the fixes (if any), search the Dolphin Wiki: https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch
• To know to which commands each option translates in the GameSettings files, use this guide: https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=GameINI

Right off of the bat, I suggest changing the following options inside RetroArch’s Core Options, after loading any content using the Dolphin Core:

• Shader Compilation Mode to sync UberShaders
• Skip Presenting Duplicate Frames to Off
• Store EFB Copies on GPU to Off
• Texture Cache Accuracy to Safe
• Defer EFB Copies to Ram to Off

Close the core for the changes to be saved.

Many of those are speedhacks which can be disabled for improved accuracy, if your hardware can handle them (not very taxing, these days). You can actually go a little further, for enabling the BIOS, culling another speedhack and improving analog controls, but those are a little harder to do.

@Elessar84

A bugged toggle fullscreen option causes the entire game to freeze

This also happens here. Although only the core itself freezes, RetroArch works fine and I can just close the content. Logs registered this, when I toggled fullscreen:

[libretro ERROR] 22:56:456 VideoCommon/PostProcessing.cpp:56 E[Video]: Post-processing shader not found: /.config/retroarch/system/dolphin-emu/Sys/Shaders/default_pre_post_process.glsl
[INFO] [Vulkan filter chain]: Updating framebuffer size 640x528 (format: 37).
[INFO] [Vulkan filter chain]: Updating framebuffer size 1341x528 (format: 43).
[INFO] [Vulkan filter chain]: Creating framebuffer 1024x1024 (max 1 level(s)).
[INFO] [Vulkan filter chain]: Creating framebuffer 1341x1024 (max 1 level(s)).
[INFO] [Vulkan filter chain]: Creating framebuffer 1341x1006 (max 1 level(s)).
[libretro INFO] 22:56:479 DolphinLibretro/Boot.cpp:100 I[COMMON]: Suppressed popup: Warning - An error occurred.

CoreTiming Event "CPInterrupt" is already registered. Events should only be registered during Init to avoid breaking save states.

  Condition: !m_event_types.contains(name)
  File: /builds/libretro/dolphin/Source/Core/Core/CoreTiming.cpp
  Line: 66
  Function: RegisterEvent

Ignore and continue?
[libretro INFO] 22:56:479 DolphinLibretro/Boot.cpp:100 I[COMMON]: Suppressed popup: Warning - An error occurred.

CoreTiming Event "SetTokenFinish" is already registered. Events should only be registered during Init to avoid breaking save states.

  Condition: !m_event_types.contains(name)
  File: /builds/libretro/dolphin/Source/Core/Core/CoreTiming.cpp
  Line: 66
  Function: RegisterEvent

Ignore and continue?

Alt-tabbing works fine.

[GemaH]

You could get the sys folder from the standalone, to get all the latest per-game fixes.

Also, do the Ubershaders even work in this core? I’m still getting shader cache stutters no matter what.

[md2mcb]

Thanks for the tip about the GameSettings.

I’m not sure about Ubershaders here. I still have a little bit of stutter, but things are mostly smooth, though I play on native resolution. If I’m remembering right, Dolphin says stutters are vastly diminished, but not gone; it depends on the strength of your hardware.

[Drybonz]

I noticed that Eternal Darkness for GC launches with a black screen. I’m trying to figure out if this is my game copy, or a known emulator issue. If anyone knows, thanks for the help.

[GemaH]

You need the correct GameSetings file for this in the sys folder.

Download the standalone Dolphin emulator and copy the “sys” folder inside RetroArch\system\dolphin-emu

[Drybonz]

Thanks for the tip. I copied all that stuff over to RA, I’m sure it won’t hurt to have it. It did get me past the black screen to the first screen with the Edgar Allen Poe quote, but then it hangs again.

[GemaH]

I also had a black screen without the gamesettings file but after i got it the game works for me, i played it for a few minutes.

[Drybonz]

Hm… must be a setting then. I read something about dual core settings for this game, but I don’t see any settings for that in the core.

[md2mcb]

https://files.catbox.moe/og2wj7.zip

Download that zip and add/replace to the GameSettings folder from the Dolphin Core. See if it helps you.

[Drybonz]

Well, what fixed it is that I went back to the RA online updater and re-downloaded the system files and re-updated the core files and after that it ran… making me wonder if I had somehow done that before the files were on the updater? Really not sure, but after that it went right past that quote screen and into the game… it’s actually one of the more cool games on that system. I had it years ago when I had the gamecube.

[md2mcb]

Don’t even sweat over it. Those GameSetting files are a mess, and it makes even more complicated that RetroArch works differently than standalone Dolphin.

If you want a good example, let’s take a look at Soulcalibur II. Game performs bad with the “dual core” option enabled, so you need to turn it off. Dolphin disables that by default, since recently, so you don’t need a ini file for that, and they naturally don’t have one for that. When you go back to RetroArch, you can’t turn off “dual core”, and there’s no ini file to rely upon. So you need to put “SyncGPU = True” into the GRS.ini GameSetting file, a hackish way to make things work. That’s only needed in RetroArch, thus you won’t find it in standalone Dolphin.

In the end, you always need to check case by case, individually. I’m registering this information here, for they have taken it out of the Dolphin Wiki (since they don’t need it anymore).

[Drybonz]

@md2mcb

When you go back to RetroArch, you can’t turn off “dual core”, and there’s no ini file to rely upon. So you need to put “SyncGPU = True” into the GRS.ini GameSetting file

So, I had been under the impression that the dual core didn’t work at all in RA, so the Castlevania .wad game, etc was broken. Will they work with this SyncGPU option, or is there some other purpose to having the dual core on at all?

[md2mcb]

From what I gather, SyncGPU was a workaround that standalone Dolphin had. It was intended to remedy issues caused by the “dual core” option, whilst being faster. In the end, it wasn’t as good as turning off “dual core”, and was barely speedier. So the devs just ignore it these days.

On the plus side: it works on RetroArch, so games that requires disabling “dual core” still have a chance to be played. The bad news: since it’s a worse option, it doesn’t always work out. Regrettably, that’s just what happens with the ReBirth series from Konami: failure (black screen before stage starts). Those games do need to specifically disable “dual core”, no workaround besides that. Too bad. They’re only playable on the standalone.

[Mr_Jake]

Is there a list of the retail Gamecube/Wii games that don’t work because of this dual core issue?