Emulator

It can't be a hardware issue whatsoever, I have 2 computers I use for dolphin, one has a 3770k @ 4.5Ghz and a GTX 680. And the other one has a GT 650m.

The game is not demanding at all, it has severe lag when you view NPC's but once in a while it clears the block cache and it runs perfectly smooth with all NPC's in view, then returns back to severe lag in about a minute.

I will try those settings and report back also.

OK even at the lowest settings possible it did that same severe lag when I viewed 4-5 NPC's at once, when the block cache clears its solid 60fps with all NPC's in view

Okay. The best thing to do right now is to go back and try some older revisions and find out exactly which revision caused this.

You can use the main site older version pages to go back and try some builds -> http://dolphin-emu.org/download/list/master/1/

If you need to go back further than the main site pages have, use this -> http://dl.dolphin-emu.org/oldbuilds/

Finding out exactly which revision caused your issue will really help the chances of this issue getting fixed.

It still occurs in Dolphin 3.0.

Regardless of the revision this issue is persistent.

Did you go back to versions before 3.0? The issue had to have started somewhere. The game doesn't just have these issues unless it's an issue on your end or from a revision you haven't tried yet. I'm very skeptical that this is an emulator related issue, or if it is, there must have been a revision that caused this that you can point to.

Woooow! I just tried r7636 and it works perfect! I was pleasantly surprised as I have never been able to play this game at full speed, it ran solid 60 fps. Now I should narrow it down to a specific revision. Can you change this from questionable, since it's no longer a question that it's a regression?

Okay upon further playing this old revision still has lag but its almost unnoticeable compared to later revisions. What could be going on here? Super Mario Galaxy 2 runs solid 60 fps but Nightfire doesn't?

This must have to do with how NPC's are rendered onscreen. Once again it runs perfectly smooth for a minute or so when it clears the block cache, the emulator could be running out of memory to draw the NPC's.

I hope a dev that deals with this sort of thing could make a comment on this.

Agreed, this has been fixed for a while.

Awesome. Even though I marked it as fixed, it's great to hear confirmation from the original reporter! Very much appreciate it.