Setting up stand-alone Dolphin for the first time with LaunchBox, I have questions and am soliciting tweaks/settings...

[FamShoppa]

I'm kind of a noob at LaunchBox.
I'm trying to set it up so that my GameCube section uses RetroArch for some games (I know it's outdated, but I want to take advantage of its cool bezels)...but also stand-alone Dolphin emulator for other games (ones that require bug fixes the latest Dolphin has).

So far...

• I've installed stand-alone Dolphin emulator. I'm not sure this is relevant, but my arcade setup is all "portable". So based on what I read online, I added a "portable.txt" file to my Dolphin program folder. Hope that doesn't interfere with LaunchBox.
• I've gone into LaunchBox and used the 'Add Emulator' option to add "Dolphin"...and I also pointed it to my custom Dolphin path.

Now I'm kind of blanking out, and I have some questions...
If experienced users could answer any of them, I'd greatly appreciate it:

1) Are there any important settings I need to apply within Dolphin itself (to make sure it plays nice with LaunchBox)?

2) Are there any personal settings/tweaks you recommend for Dolphin (related to performance, quality, etc.)?

3) Right now, all my GameCube games launch with RetroArch by default...how can I change certain games to launch with Dolphin?

System specs
LaunchBox paid version on PC
OS: Windows 10 x64
GPU: Nvidia 1660 TI
CPU: Intel Core I7-4790K 4 GHZ
RAM: 31.95 GB
Monitor: 1080p

Edited April 14, 2023 by FamShoppa

[C-Beats]

19 minutes ago, FamShoppa said:

1) Are there any important settings I need to apply within Dolphin itself (to make sure it plays nice with LaunchBox)?

Command line is the same regardless of your settings so the default values we prepopulate should work fine to open your games regardless of what in-app settings to change.
 

19 minutes ago, FamShoppa said:

2) Are there any personal settings/tweaks you recommend for Dolphin (related to performance, quality, etc.)?

I use upscale hacks when possible for games, outside of that I don't really recall having to change much. Been a minute since I set mine up though.
 

20 minutes ago, FamShoppa said:

3) Right now, all my GameCube games launch with RetroArch by default...how can I change certain games to launch with Dolphin?

Really ALL your games should be running through the standalone. The core is pretty far behind and doesn't run anywhere close to what standalone does. To answer your question though you can select the game, edit it, and then to go emulator section and change out which emulator it defaults to. I believe you can do this using bulk edit as well.

[FamShoppa]

8 minutes ago, C-Beats said:

Command line is the same regardless of your settings so the default values we prepopulate should work fine to open your games regardless of what in-app settings to change.
 

Oh! When I added Dolphin to LaunchBox...I noticed a command-line column that was populated with some letters. I guess that's what you're referring to. Okay that's very cool it works so easily!

 

2 minutes ago, C-Beats said:

Really ALL your games should be running through the standalone. The core is pretty far behind and doesn't run anywhere close to what standalone does....

People have told me this, and I certainly understand the point. But I've played like a dozen GameCube games so far...and never experienced any performance issues. In terms of picture quality, I use Duimon's Bezels and and tweak things like blur/sharpness/colors...and again, I think it looks pretty amazing.

But as you said, it's far behind - and that's why I'm using Dolphin right now for the first time. Retroarch hasn't solved bugs that Dolphin has - in my case, it was the game 'Happy Feet'.

Anyways, I'm going to research what you said about "upscale hacks". If I can see a real visual difference, that'll certainly motivate me to sacrifice Duimon's retroarch bezels and get everything running on Dolphin.

Thanks for your answers!

[C-Beats]

There are other tools that can be used to display bezels or use shaders on emulators that don't natively. Programs like Reshade

[FamShoppa]

Hey guys, I'm confused about a certain setting within Dolphin: "Graphics > General > Aspect Ratio"

By default, it's set to "Auto - Uses the native aspect ratio".

I read online that most GameCube games were 4:3 aspect ratio, while some were "16:9".

Does the auto setting mean it uses the "native aspect ratio" of the game...or what my monitor is set to?
Basically, I don't want 4:3 games awkwardly stretched out (and vice versa, 16:9 games compressed if I change the setting to force 4:3).
So I'm wondering if this setting needs to be adjusted.

 

 

[C-Beats]

Auto uses the games output to determine size. So it should match whatever ratio the game is rendering.

[FamShoppa]

EDIT/UPDATE: After tinkering and researching, I found out you do have to configure the controllers in Dolphin.

At first, it felt overwhelming because I've never done it before - and I have no idea what a GameCube controller looks like.

So this reference image really helped explain what Dolphin was referring to in those various controller options:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GCController_Layout.svg

I also saved separate profiles for both my PS4 and Shield controllers. There was a slight difference between the two, as they have different mappings for the start button. The profiles should also help me apply the mappings quickly, in case the wiring or device detection changes in the future.  

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PAST POST:

Hey guys, another question...do I have to setup my controller manually in Dolphin - or does it do it automatically?

For example, I have two controllers plugged into my PC right now.
One is a PS4 controller that's going through the software "DS4Windows" to make it "xinput".
The other controller is an Nvidia Shield controller that's "xinput" by default.

Both controllers have similar layouts...only difference is that the PS4 controller has those extra "share" and "options" buttons at the top - whereas Nvidia Shield controller just has that logo-button in the middle.

Edited April 14, 2023 by FamShoppa
Solution edited in.