How the Dolphin Emulator solved an impossible problem...
A nerd talking about how the Dolphin Emulator solved an impossible problem, to avoid shader compilation stutter during gameplay (Ubershaders).
No so-called "Generative AI" was used to make this video.
Sources:
Ubershaders: A Ridiculous Solution to an Impossible Problem: https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2017/07/...
GameCube Architecture - A practical analysis by Rodrigo Copetti: https://www.copetti.org/writings/cons...
Why old PC games didn't compile shaders: / iz3xc94
OpenGL code example to render a triangle: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/blogs/r...
Wii memory map: https://wiibrew.org/wiki/Memory_map
Gamecube memory map: https://hitmen.c02.at/files/yagcd/yag...
Dolphin Emulator Github repository: https://github.com/dolphin-emu/dolphin
Quake 3 gameplay used in the video: • Quake 3 Arena - Multiplayer Gameplay
Background and music used in the video: • Nintendo GameCube menu music (10 hours)
UltraHLE website: https://web.archive.org/web/200008160...
Nvidia silicon die shots: https://locuza.substack.com/p/nvidias...
Nintendo's "Ask The Developer" - Nintendo Switch 2: https://www.nintendo.com/us/whatsnew/...
Gamecube's architecture: https://cubemedia.ign.com/media/news/...
Why GPUs don't have standard instruction sets: https://computergraphics.stackexchang...
Even though the Godot example footage was recorded by me, the project itself is the product of a tutorial from Alva Majo that I was following and I feel like I didn't credit him properly in the video: • Godot para retrasados [Tutorial]
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0:00 Introduction
0:31 GPU architecture vs CPU architecture
1:14 OpenGL, DirectX and Vulkan
2:00 Shader compilation
4:18 Emulators
5:50 The Gamecube's architecture
7:50 The Gamecube's TEV unit
8:36 How Dolphin solved it