dolphin

Table of Contents

Sys Files
Folder Structure
Packaging and udev
User Folder Structure
Custom Textures (Not Resource Packs)

Sys Files

wiitdb-*.txt: Gamecube and Wii language-specific title databases from GameTDB
totaldb.dsy: Database of symbols (for devs only)
GC/font_western.bin: font dumps
GC/font_japanese.bin: font dumps
GC/dsp_coef.bin: DSP dumps
GC/dsp_rom.bin: DSP dumps

The DSP dumps included with Dolphin have been written from scratch and do not contain any copyrighted material. They should work for most purposes, however some games implement copy protection by checksumming the dumps. You will need to dump the DSP files from a console and replace the default dumps if you want to fix those issues.

Wii network certificates must be extracted from a Wii IOS. A guide for that can be found here.

Folder Structure

These folders are installed read-only and should not be changed:

GameSettings: per-game default settings database
GC: DSP and font dumps
Maps: symbol tables (dev only)
Shaders: post-processing shaders
Themes: icon themes for GUI
Resources: icons that are theme-agnostic
Wii: default Wii NAND contents

Packaging and udev

The Data folder contains a udev rule file for the official GameCube controller adapter and the Mayflash DolphinBar. Package maintainers can use that file in their packages for Dolphin. Users compiling Dolphin on Linux can also just copy the file to their udev rules folder.

User Folder Structure

A number of user writeable directories are created for caching purposes or for allowing the user to edit their contents. The current user folder can be opened by going to "File" -> "Open User Folder".

On macOS and Linux, these folders are stored in ~/Library/Application Support/Dolphin/ and ~/.dolphin-emu respectively, but can be overridden by setting the environment variable DOLPHIN_EMU_USERPATH.

On Windows, the user directory is stored in the roaming AppData folder by default. Prior to #10708, the user directory was stored in the My Documents folder. If a user directory exists at the old location, Dolphin will continue to use it to preserve backwards compatibility. The user directory can also be overridden via registry keys:

If the registry string value LocalUserConfig exists in HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Dolphin Emulator and has the value 1, Dolphin will always start in portable mode.
If the registry string value UserConfigPath exists in HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Dolphin Emulator, the user folders will be stored in the directory given by that string. The other two methods will be prioritized over this setting.

On Windows and macOS, creating a file called portable.txt next to the Dolphin executable / app will force Dolphin to run in portable mode. While in portable mode, the user directory will be stored in a local directory called User next to the Dolphin executable / app.

List of user folders:

Cache: used to cache the ISO list
Config: configuration files
Dump: anything dumped from Dolphin
GameSettings: additional settings to be applied per-game
GBA: GBA saves
GC: memory cards and system BIOS
Load: custom textures
Logs: logs, if enabled
Maps: Symbol maps generated by Dolphin
ResourcePacks: A way of managing custom textures, separate from the Load directory
ScreenShots: screenshots taken via Dolphin
Shaders: post-processing shaders
StateSaves: save states
Styles: color themes for GUI
Themes: icon themes for GUI
Wii: Wii NAND contents

Custom Textures (Not Resource Packs)

Custom textures have to be placed in the user directory under Load/Textures/[GameID]/. You can find the Game ID by right-clicking a game in the ISO list and selecting "ISO Properties".

Dolphin GitHub Wiki

Building
- Linux
- Windows
- macOS
- OpenBSD
Feature explanations
Dolphin Infrastructure
Reference