Emulator

How about using an "apply" button or "save changes" button in the config dialogs?

That is what dolphin-qt is currently doing, but it doesn't solve the problem that the user won't know that the game-config will be overridden until emulation gets restarted.

But then again, Dolphin could ask the user to confirm overriding the game config... just not sure how to make Dolphin check if per game settings are active.. :P

In fact it's not really the way it is currently doing, because when you're in-game and open the video config tab, the settings get overwritten immediately (without even waiting that you close the tab)...

Ya, that could get more or less easily get fixed though.
Right now when opening the video config, the global config is read into the currently active config. Instead, we could just allocate a temporary configuration structure and replace the currently active config once "apply" is selected.
At the moment we aren't doing this though because immediately applying the configuration changes is better suited for "trying out" stuff.

Hmm, I'm guessing a warning box like "any game specific settings will be overwritten! Continue? Yes/No" appearing only once per game should suffice?

That'd be just annoying. Remember, not only noobs are using Dolphin :P

True. Though you could make an option to skip it somewhere in the advanced options dialogue (i.e. under panic handlers) that is saved in the general ini. You tick it, we noobs don't :P

Shouldn't be hard to check if the game config is overriding some settings at game-boot, then setting some flag if said option isn't ticked, and clearing the flag once "yes" is clicked.

At least this way we would have the benefit of instant-applying options, and the (optional) warning for game-specifics that could get overwritten at the expense of two Boolean values and some extra checks during boot.

Unless the apply button has more preference, of course.

Well, I've been able to implement the following:

• Detection of any Game-specific setting being used
• Warning message for game settings being overridden when any config dialog is opened for the first time
• Option under "Use Panic Handlers" to disable the Warning message above, which is saved to the ini. Defaults to enabled if setting has never been changed.
• Cached the entire core config instead of just the few values that were being cached (for future undo option?)
• Optional Extended Info option (which toggles the Ticks data, even at Runtime)

Sadly, I have no idea how to make a patch-file or create a branch for this... I have the up-to-date (as of revision c3293b1a1cea) source with these changes ready though, so if anyone wants to review, I could upload it somewhere.

All Windows GUIs for Git provide a "create patch"-like option... it's easy to figure out how it works, just google it ;)

I think I did it...

http://studio88.nl/Hotlinks/more-options.patch

Whoops, there are a lot of changes in there I forgot to revert...

Fixed above patch file, though I seem to have forgotten to include NeoBrain's latest EFB fixes into my "original" (from revision e58692653afd to revision 3a9fed0ba285), so they are included in the patch as well.

Updated:

• Added a new function to the INI file class: GetIfDifferent, which sets the value only if the value from the INI is different, then returns TRUE. If the value from the INI is the same, or the value doesn't exist in the INI file at all, it returns FALSE.
• Re-factored all Game-ini loads on boot to use this new function and set the Warning flag accordingly.
• Updated to use the latest available source (revision c3293b1a1cea) which of course include NeoBrain's hard work ;)

Download: http://studio88.nl/Hotlinks/more-options2.patch

http://codepad.org/Zp48vJXK

Is this an acceptable solution? It adds an option, which when enabled loads the game's ini settings, when opening the graphics config dialogue. Otherwise, it just does the same thing as currently.

While it's the solution which requires the least work, it's IMO a terrible one. I know of no other application which needs to do something like this, i.e. having to resort to hacks like this is just a reminder of how awkwardly broken Dolphin's config management is.

Some steps to improve the situation include:
a) OSD messages should be displayed whenever settings are changed => users will know if stuff got changed
b) Somehow keep track of which settings are changed by the game ini => probably a requirement for any proper solution
c1) When opening the gfx config during emulation, show a message like: "Yo, game ini changed stuff. Want me to revert to default config or blank out the affected options? Changes won't affect the default config for the game!"
c2) An alternative would be to change the config dialog controls to reflect the overridden-nature of the affected settings. That is, a combobox that is changed in the game ini would have a new value like "use game's default" added. Push buttons would have a third state value (... I really don't like these though). Radio buttons and sliders .. dunno how to do it for them.
d) Possibly other stuff I can't think of right now. I've tried to get to a satisfying solution with SS before but I'm not sure if we actually found something reasonable.

Issue 5835 has been merged into this issue.

Issue 5835 has been merged into this issue.

Issue 6661 has been merged into this issue.

Issue 6661 has been merged into this issue.

Issue 7528 has been merged into this issue.

You're posting in the wrong issue, this isn't what you think it is.