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Overview

Welcome to the Dolphin Emulator project! This guide details how to properly contribute code to the project, including legal requirements, coding standards, and best practices.
Following these guidelines will help get your pull request merged faster, assuming the code itself has no mistakes.

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Trade Secrets

Following all relevant laws is of utmost importance for an emulation project like Dolphin.
If you know any confidential information related to the GameCube, Wii, or Triforce (either because you signed an NDA or looked at leaked materials), do not contribute code to Dolphin at all.
While accepting code from contributors who know confidential information is legal if the code is unrelated to the confidential information, we refuse to accept code from such contributors because it:
  • Greatly increases our review burden
  • Increases the legal risk we take
Piracy is strictly forbidden both on GitHub and in all other Dolphin channels.

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Code Licensing

If you make any contributions to Dolphin after December 1st, 2014, you are agreeing that any code you have contributed will be licensed under the GNU GPL version 2 (or any later version).

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Code of Conduct

Dolphin is a collaborative open source community comprised of a diverse group of contributors and users from around the globe. We ask all participants to adhere to our Code of Conduct.

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Core Principles

1

Be friendly and patient

We were all new or suffered from a lack of knowledge at one point in time. Please try to remember what it felt like to be on that end, and treat people accordingly.
2

Be welcoming

We strive to be a community that welcomes and supports people of all backgrounds and identities.
3

Be helpful

By helping others to learn, our entire ecosystem is enriched. We encourage mentoring and raising the general level of knowledge in the community.
4

Be considerate

Your work will be used by other people, and you in turn will depend on the work of others. Remember that we’re a world-wide community, so you might not be communicating in someone else’s primary language.
5

Be respectful

Not all of us will agree all the time, but disagreement is no excuse for poor behavior and poor manners. We cannot allow frustration to turn into a personal attack.

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Unacceptable Behavior

Harassment and other exclusionary behavior aren’t acceptable. This includes, but is not limited to:
  • Violent threats or language directed against another person
  • Discriminatory jokes and language
  • Posting sexually explicit or violent material
  • Doxing (posting other people’s personally identifying information)
  • Personal insults, especially those using racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory terms
  • Deliberately referring to others by names or pronouns counter to their identity
  • Unwelcome sexual attention
  • Repeated harassment of others

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Reporting Violations

If you feel that someone is in violation of the code of conduct, please email a detailed description to [email protected].

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Consequences

Except in flagrant or otherwise egregious cases, the first infraction will result in a verbal warning. Continued infractions may lead to:
  • Temporary suspension from one or all avenues of Dolphin community participation (IRC, Discord, GitHub, Forums)
  • Permanent suspension from participating in the Dolphin community

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Getting Started

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Before Contributing

1

Read the documentation

Familiarize yourself with the codebase structure and our coding style guidelines.
2

Check existing issues

Look for existing GitHub issues or discussions related to your planned contribution.
3

Set up your environment

Configure your development environment with the required tools, including clang-format 19.1.
4

Follow the workflow

Create a fork, make your changes, test thoroughly, and submit a pull request.

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Pull Request Process

  1. Ensure your code follows the C++ coding style
  2. Run clang-format on all modified files
  3. Add or update tests for your changes
  4. Write a clear commit message describing the changes
  5. Submit your pull request with a detailed description
In case of conflicts between the coding style guide and clang-format rules, follow clang-format.

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Technology Requirements

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Language Standards

The codebase currently uses C++20, though not all compilers support all C++20 features.
See CMakeLists.txt “Enforce minimum compiler versions” for the currently supported compilers.

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Platform Support

Dolphin supports multiple platforms:
  • Windows: Use UNIX-style line endings (configure git appropriately)
  • Linux: Native development environment
  • macOS: Native development environment
  • Android: Follow Kotlin code style for Kotlin code, use the provided Java code style for Java

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Getting Help

If you have any questions about Dolphin’s development or would like some help:
  • IRC: #dolphin-emu @ irc.libera.chat
  • Documentation: Check the Libera.Chat resources if new to IRC
  • GitHub: Create a discussion or issue for general questions

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Next Steps

Code Style

Learn about C++ coding standards and formatting

Testing

Understand our testing practices and frameworks

Debugging

Explore debugging tools and techniques