DolphiniOS version 3.1.0 has been released! This update adds some features from the PC version of Dolphin. In addition, non-jailbroken devices running iOS 13.7 and lower are now supported.
For installation instructions, head to our website: https://dolphinios.oatmealdome.me
Looking for the PC version of Dolphin? Get it from https://dolphin-emu.org! If you wish to support the official Dolphin project and its developers, consider visiting their website without an ad blocker enabled.
What is Dolphin?
Dolphin is an emulator for the GameCube and Wii consoles. It lets you play games made for these consoles on PCs, Macs, phones, and tablets.
For more information, go to https://dolphin-emu.org.
Odyssey Jailbreak Compatibility Note
DolphiniOS is currently incompatible with Odyssey. Version 3.1.1 will be released at a later date to fix this issue.
New Features
Non-Jailbroken Device Support for iOS 13.7 and Lower
Non-jailbroken devices running iOS 13.7 and lower are now supported. However, these devices will run DolphiniOS with a performance penalty.
Apple places a restriction on how much virtual memory a single app can allocate. DolphiniOS requires a significant amount of virtual memory for faster GameCube / Wii RAM emulation (fastmem), but because of the restrictions, it must fallback to the slower version.
iOS 14 is not supported under most circumstances, as Apple fixed a bug which lets us get fast CPU emulation (JIT) on a non-jailbroken device. Falling back to the slower CPU emulation (interpreter) is a significant loss, and unlike the loss of fast RAM emulation, most games will not run at playable speeds.
However, if you have a Mac, you may launch DolphiniOS tethered to Xcode and get fast CPU emulation. If you also have a $99/year Apple Developer subscription, you can get fast RAM emulation too. Just build your own copy of DolphiniOS – details in the README. If you are an inexperienced regular user, you can get a detailed tutorial here.
Finally, if you still have a device running iOS 13.4.1 or lower, you can still use the legacy version (version 3.0.0) to avoid this performance loss.
Note About Quitting DolphiniOS
Because of the hack used to achieve JIT on DolphiniOS, you cannot quit DolphiniOS in the app switcher or let iOS kill it in the background.
Please press the Quit button from the DolphiniOS settings menu when you are finished playing.
Action Replay Codes
Add cheats and hacks that are in Action Replay code format. Just go to the new Properties menu (tap and hold a game in the games list), and tap “Action Replay”.
Game Patches
The official Dolphin developers sometimes make patches to help increase performance, workaround crashing issues, and disable certain graphical effects.
The most notable example of a game patch is the Hyrule Field Hack for Twilight Princess. This patch can increase FPS significantly in Hyrule Field by removing unnecessary GPU commands that the game makes when drawing the minimap.
Find and activate Game Patches in the new Properties menu.
Disc Verifier
Make sure your game disc dumps are clean and not corrupt, and find any errors in bad dumps. Find it in the new Properties menu.
Numerous Game Fixes
Several temporary fixes have been added to fix bugs in some games. It appears these issues might be caused by bugs in some JIT (the fast CPU emulator) components. We have disabled the problematic components in these games.
However, this comes with a trade off. When the JIT attempts to use these components, it will fallback to the interpreter (the slower, but more accurate, CPU emulator). There will be some performance loss in the affected games.
Fixed games include:
- Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
- Sonic Unleashed
- Sonic Colors
- Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
- Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
- Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
- Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
- The Urbz: Sims in the City
In addition, the following games were affected by bugs in the touchscreen controller which are now fixed (there will be no performance loss in these games):
- Pokémon Colosseum
- Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness
Finally, these games had graphical issues fixed (again, no performance loss):
- Kirby’s Air Ride
- Star Fox Adventures
Detailed Changelog
Here are the changes for version 3.1.0:
- Added support for iOS 13.5 to 13.7 on non-jailbroken devices.
- This will come with a 30% to 60% performance trade off, even if you are on iOS 13.4.1 or below. (Jailbroken devices are not affected.)
- If you do not want the performance penalty, then you must jailbreak your device or enroll in the US$99/year Apple Developer Program.
- For those who are still on iOS 13.4.1 or below, you may stay on the old 3.0 build to preserve performance. This will be permanently accessible on our website at https://dolphinios.oatmealdome.me/.
- Added a properties menu to the games list.
- Long press on a game in the games list, and press the properties option.
- See information about your game dump here.
- Added support for Action Replay codes.
- Find it in the game properties menu.
- Added a menu which allows you to enable Game Patches bundled with DolphiniOS.
- The official Dolphin developers sometimes make patches to help increase performance, workaround crashing issues, and disable certain graphical effects.
- The most notable example of a game patch is the Hyrule Field Hack for Twilight Princess. This patch can increase FPS significantly in Hyrule Field by removing unnecessary GPU commands that the game makes when drawing the minimap.
- Added support for Dolphin’s disc verifier.
- Verify your game dumps and find potential errors.
- Find it in the properties menu.
- Added Simplified Chinese (简体中文) translation.
- Added an error message on devices running iOS 14 indicating that DolphiniOS is not compatible with iOS 14.
- Added a warning when running an NKit disc image to match PC Dolphin.
- Updated the Dolphin core to 5.0-12441.
- Please note that because the Dolphin core has been updated in this version, all save states from version 3.0.0 and older are incompatible.
- Notably, this core update includes support for the WIA and RVZ formats, which are intended as replacements for the NKit format.
- NKit disc images have issues which do not occur with other formats (see here for more information: https://github.com/dolphin-emu/dolphin/pull/8875), so the Dolphin Project is encouraging adoption of WIA and RVZ as alternatives.
- DolphiniOS cannot convert to WIA or RVZ yet, so you will need to use the PC version of Dolphin for now to convert your disc images.
- Updated MoltenVK to approximately 1.2.141.1.
- DolphiniOS is now using a custom build which includes support for LogicOps.
- This fixes the following games:
- Kirby’s Air Ride
- Star Fox Adventures
- Changed csdbgd’s entitlements to ensure compatibility with future jailbreaks.
- Synchronized build numbers between jailbroken and non-jailbroken builds.
- Fixed several games that have issues related to JIT components.
- The specific component(s) have been disabled in the affected games.
- However, this comes with a tradeoff. When the JIT attempts to use the buggy components, it will fallback to the interpreter (the slower, but more accurate, CPU emulator).
- Therefore, performance will be decreased slightly when running these games.
- Affected games include:
- Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
- Sonic Unleashed
- Sonic Colors
- Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
- Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
- Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
- Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
- The Urbz: Sims in the City
- Fixed several games which had issues related to the touchscreen controller.
- The fixed games are:
- Pokémon Colosseum
- Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness
- The fixed games are:
- Fixed “Defer EFB Copies to RAM” switch being inverted. (#115)
- Fixed the order of 16:9 and 4:3 in the Aspect Ratio menu. (#118)
- Fixed an issue which allowed the donation suggestion screen to be dismissed too early.
Special Thanks
Thank you to our Patrons for their support!
An even greater thank you goes out to our $5 Patrons: