Emulator Issues #7031
closed
Xenoblade crashes frequently, probably desynch issue
0%
Description
Game Name?
Xenoblade (PAL)
Game ID?
SX4P01
What's the problem? Describe what went wrong in few words.
Crashes every few minutes.
What steps will reproduce the problem?
I just run a savegame, wander around the first town, it eventually crashes.
Which versions of Dolphin did you test on?
4.0-864, but I have this problem since the first time I tested it, a year or more ago. It only behaved differently.
Does using an older version of Dolphin solve your issue? If yes, which
versions of Dolphin used to work?
Nope.
What are your PC specifications? (including, but not limited to: Operating
System, CPU and GPU)
Core Duo E8400, Window 7 64 bit, ATI 4850
Are you using the 32 or the 64 bit version of Dolphin?
64bit
Is there any other relevant information? (e.g. logs, screenshots,
configuration files)
Yes, the crash happens a couples of seconds after the rendering misses a step. It either shows some polygons warping or disappearing, just a flash, and then it crashes even if the screen goes back to normal.
I want to stress that this is not an hardware issue. I play on this PC with zero problems, no overheating of any sort, my system is stable and never crashes (beside specific bugs like in this case). I have no problems using other emulators for other systems, only Dolphin gives me these issues.
I think the problem here is related to how you code multithreading support, and I guess my Core 2 Duo isn't compatible or resilient for the kind of coding you do. This because I get constant freezes (but in that case not crashes) on Skies of Arcadia too, and these freezes go away only if I disable dual core support in the options.
http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/issues/detail?id=6705
If you look at that bug you see that the Netplay branch fixes the freezes on that game. I wanted to try if maybe it fixed Xenoblade too, but I can't test it, since for some reason the wiimote controls won't work no matter the configuration. I just can't press keys into the game. Whereas the gamecube pad emulation was working fine on Skies.
So, it's probably a related issue. It would be nice if these fixes are incorporated into the main release. The only problem is that the netplay build seems to perform slower, so I hope there's way to get both the performance and the fixes.
Is it possible? Can a dev explain what's the actual issue here?
Updated by delroth almost 11 years ago
- Status changed from New to Questionable
Nothing to do with the SoA dual core issue, and given the experience of everyone with Xenoblade Chronicles I'd say you have hardware issues.
Check CPU and GPU temps and MCEs.
Updated by abalienostats almost 11 years ago
And I wanted to add that compared to last year the emulator now runs really well on the 4.0-864. The whole intro sequence could be quite stuttery and with some lag on my hardware, but now that I tested it again it ran basically flawless.
So performance is really good. The problem are those constant crashes.
I used to have a different issue with this game:
http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/issues/detail?id=5928
The difference is now that Skies of Arcadia has freezes like the one described in that old bug for Xenoblade: only the game freezes, but you can close it since the emulator doesn't crash.
Whereas now Xenoblade crashes the whole emulator. But I still suspect these crashes are related
Updated by abalienostats almost 11 years ago
Believe me, this hardware is old but rock solid. I have no temperature problems, I play all the time with equally intensive emulators for hours. I played just before Guild Wars 2 WvW with hundreds of players onscreen for about two hours. I've recently played DmC, Tomb Raider and Borderlands 2. I never have issues.
The problem here happens in just a couple of minutes, most of the times.
Dolphin has always given me these crashes and freezes, one way or another. It has happened for years now. So believe me if I say it's something in the code (or maybe some configuration, or driver, or whatever, but not stability or hardware).
Updated by abalienostats almost 11 years ago
By the way, is there a way to test this game with the netplay build? Trying wouldn't harm, but I have that issue with the controls not working.
Updated by JMC4789 almost 11 years ago
Dualcore Netplay branch does not have support for Wiimotes at all.
Updated by
Updated by JMC4789 almost 11 years ago
Dualcore Netplay branch fixes quite a few games with dualcore problems even on single player.
I guess there are some old builds in the branch before Wiimote support was broken if you want to dig around and see if it helps you.
Updated by abalienostats almost 11 years ago
Anyway, testing more.
I can somewhat make the crash reproducible if there's some program in the background lagging the game, or saving state repeatedly.
Before, I ran around with the limiter off for about half an hour without being able to make it crash, so it's not my hardware.
Instead I can reproduce the crash right away, for example spinning the camera and saving states one after another. This produces that weird polygon warp and stuttering that I was seeing just a couple of seconds before a crash happened. It usually takes 10 seconds or so to fix itself and go back to normal, but sometimes it can't seem to figure out a way, so it lags and stutters till it crashes.
So IT IS a kind of desynch thing. In normal conditions and with only the game running, it can happen after 30 minutes as it can happen after 5. It's just random. If instead there's a program in the background or if the game is running slowly, then this crash is more likely to happen.
It's a problem I had with Dolphin for years, basically. I remember that on Zelda Windwaker you only needed just a small lag and the sound would die. That bug was apparently fixed, but it seems I still get freezes (like in Skies of Arcadia, fixed with the netplay build), or random crashes like in Xenoblade. They always happen when there's a framerate drop. Sometimes the emulator figures it out and goes back to normal, but some other time it can't seem to recover and just crashes.
Updated by abalienostats almost 11 years ago
I've tested Twilight Princess too. On the 4.0-864 sometimes some sound effects turn off and I get rather bad performance overall (whereas these last version instead run much faster with Xenoblade). I also get freezes (FPS 0 VPS 50 100%) like I used to get in Xenoblade:
http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/issues/detail?id=5928
Even in this case the Netplay build fixes completely these problems. No sound cut off, no freezes or crashes, and even much better performance.
Is there a reason why the multicore code of that branch can't be ported on the main? Because I'm suspecting it will fix ALL my issues. Especially if I can keep the same performance of the latest commit in Xenoblade.
Updated by delroth almost 11 years ago
- Status changed from Questionable to Invalid
This is a bug tracker, not a support forum. Please keep your wild guesses out of there and maybe come back when you have some real data/source code to prove your theories.