FE: Path of Radiance /Dolphin emulator issues

[Skippers]

I never played the western releases of the Fire Emblem series for the consoles. So I 'd thought I'd try to emulate them. I've already had experience with emulators such as Visualboy and Zsnes, but I've never used Dolphin before. I've downloaded the Path of Radiance rom from Emuparadise, but when I try to open/run the game on Dolphin; nothing happens. I've tried re-downloading the rom, but yielded the same results. Am I doing something wrong, because I have no clue what to do anymore. If anyone can help, that'd be fine because I've been struggling with this for over 3 hours.

[Zorlon]

In what exact way is it nothing happening

e.g. you load the *.iso or *.gcm and it goes to a black screen or you go to load the iso/gcm and you can't find it..

the game should work according to https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.p...th_of_Radiance

[Skippers]

Well, this is what I tried doing. I extracted the files from the Path of Radiance rom to a folder on my desktop so I could open through Dolphin (from what I saw on tutorials, this is how they did it). However when I select the 'open' option on the Dolphin program and go to the folder on my desktop, no .iso or .gcm is to be found. I then tried to open the raw WinRAR file itself with all the files. This led to a black screen (as you mentioned) appearing for about 30 seconds before closing itself on its own.

[meganova]

Make sure you have extracted the .gcm or .iso file from the archive first, then only after that the game will run on Dolphin.

If you try to run game directly while it still in archive, then all you get is the black screen or some errors.

Post screenshots of the archive files if you're still unsure what or which files you should extract.

[Zorlon]

Well, this is what I tried doing. I extracted the files from the Path of Radiance rom to a folder on my desktop so I could open through Dolphin (from what I saw on tutorials, this is how they did it). However when I select the 'open' option on the Dolphin program and go to the folder on my desktop, no .iso or .gcm is to be found. I then tried to open the raw WinRAR file itself with all the files. This led to a black screen (as you mentioned) appearing for about 30 seconds before closing itself on its own.

This would be because you do not have an iso or gcm file... yet

You need to fullt extract the files chances are what you got is a split archive inside of a single archive use 7-zip to extract the main archive to it's own folder then extract the split archive via the the first file, depending on how it was split look for the lowest numbered file or if it is a rar split file with r00 ect check if there is an rar file as that is the first file (not always the case, sometimes r## split files do not have a rar file at all so then extract via the lowest number)

[Skippers]

Make sure you have extracted the .gcm or .iso file from the archive first, then only after that the game will run on Dolphin.

If you try to run game directly while it still in archive, then all you get is the black screen or some errors.

Post screenshots of the archive files if you're still unsure what or which files you should extract.

(Above is a screenshot showcasing what I currently have on my screen)
I've tried extracting the files to my emulator folder, and an .iso file appeared. However when I attempted to use the .iso in the Dolphin emulator, like you said; I was met with both a black screen and errors.

-EDIT-
The link I originally posted was in fact broken. I posted the image instead; as suggested below.

[deadlegion]

Is it just me or is that photobucket link useless

Make a screenshot on your computer, and then upload it as an attachment in a post in this thread here on EP.
The site will resize so you don't have to worry about it being to big to fit on the page or whatever.

[Skippers]

Is it just me or is that photobucket link useless

Make a screenshot on your computer, and then upload it as an attachment in a post in this thread here on EP.
The site will resize so you don't have to worry about it being to big to fit on the page or whatever.

Yeah, I just checked the link and it was indeed a broken link. Apologies for that, but I posted the raw screenshot of it on the post.

[deadlegion]

Yeah, I just checked the link and it was indeed a broken link. Apologies for that, but I posted the raw screenshot of it on the post.

It looks like a split archive, as Zorlon said.

This would be because you do not have an iso or gcm file... yet

You need to fullt extract the files chances are what you got is a split archive inside of a single archive use 7-zip to extract the main archive to it's own folder then extract the split archive via the the first file, depending on how it was split look for the lowest numbered file or if it is a rar split file with r00 ect check if there is an rar file as that is the first file (not always the case, sometimes r## split files do not have a rar file at all so then extract via the lowest number)

Use 7zip.

[Skippers]

I extracted the files using 7zip. This time the game appeared on the list in the Dolphin program. I'm still met with a black screen, and a bunch of errors. I can hear the game audio, but no actual game itself. I honestly have no idea what to do; as the neurons in my brain are slowly disintegrating one by one.

[deadlegion]

Well you extracted the image fine, but you have emulator issues now. Can't help you with that myself as I'm a console guy.

[meganova]

I extracted the files using 7zip. This time the game appeared on the list in the Dolphin program. I'm still met with a black screen, and a bunch of errors. I can hear the game audio, but no actual game itself. I honestly have no idea what to do; as the neurons in my brain are slowly disintegrating one by one.

Those errors are GPU related, which will likely to happen if you're using integrated GPU and looks like yours is one of them judging from the image you posted previously (HD4200).

You can try few suggestions below. But if none of them is working, then you probably need to upgrade, at least the graphic card (if possible).
1) Go to Options -> Graphic Settings, and change the backend to Direct3D9. Leave everything else as default, try running the game after that.
2) If that's not working, go to Dolphin site and download the latest Development Version, apply the same setting as above, and run the game.
3) IF it still not working, go back to the previous site and this time download latest Stable Versions, 4.0.2 and the older version, 3.5. Use the same settings, and run the game.

Also, before you going through all the way fixing the emulator on your current specs, do remember that, the game itself is very hardware demanding and not recommended to run on the lower specs,
because you'll not only experiencing slowdowns but it will also leads to several issues as you go through the game, such as freezes/crash, graphics, sounds, etc.

Btw, are you running on laptop?

[Skippers]

Well, the first suggestion you gave solved my problem instantly. I'm currently running a maybe 4 - 5 year old desktop as of now. It's pretty bad, I know but it can handle most game and such without much error. The game runs smooth, there is a bit of slowdown during the cut scenes, but it's nothing too awful really. Anyways I appreciate the help greatly.

[meganova]

Good to know, at least you were still able to run it despite having an old desktop, others won't have much luck with it even after going through all that.

and enjoy the game.