Emulator

Titles?
Super Smash Bros Brawl (RSBE01), Wii Menu (any version), Opera Internet Channel (any version), Wii Shop Channel (any version)

What went wrong?
The titles mentioned above uses VFF files to store data. When running the title for the first time, the .vff files will be created, however, the emulation will be veeeery slow (FPS 0-2/VPS 0-2) while the file is being populated, and it may take around 2 to 5 minutes, depending of the title. In fact, the emulation seems to be frozen, but waiting patiently gives the speed back.

It's most noticeable when creating a new save file for Super Smash Bros Brawl (it creates a collect.vff file around 16MB) or when booting Wii Menu for the first time (it creates a cdb.vff file around 20MB), but the same apply with Opera Internet Channel and Wii Shop Channel. It's less noticeable because the .vff files created by these two are very small..

What did you expect to happen instead?
It appears that the code responsible for handling the .vff creation isn't asynchronous, to, the emulation will be severely slow until the file is created. The titles shouldn't get slowed down while creating the file, like a real Wii does.

What steps will reproduce the problem?
It's important that you use an empty folder as Wii NAND root to be able to reproduce this. After that, just boot the channel WAD or ask Super Smash Bros Brawl to create a new save file.

Which versions of Dolphin did you test on?
All stable releases (2.0, 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0.1) and the latest master branch build, all of them x64

Which version of Dolphin used to work?
As far as I tested, none of them work. Some builds have a small piece of code to create the .vff file instantly, but it works only with Wii Menu, the other titles still have the issue.

What are your PC specifications?
CPU: Intel Core i7 3630QM @ 2.4GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost)
GPU: nVidia GeForce GT635M @ 2GB GDDR3 RAM
OS: Windows 8 x64
RAM: 8 GB

Operating System?
Windows 8 x64

Any other relevant information?
There is code for creating .vff files in the emulator, and it seems to be used only in Wii Menu. I know that this code were reverted and reimplemented sometimes while ago, and perhaps it could be reused as a possible workaround.

More information about .vff files are available at WiiBrew: http://www.wiibrew.org/wiki/VFF