Skip to main content

​
System Requirements

Windows 10 version 1903 or higher is required to run Dolphin.

​
Hardware Requirements

  • Processor: CPU with SSE2 support (modern 3 GHz Dual Core recommended, not older than 2008)
  • Graphics: Graphics card supporting Direct3D 11.1 or OpenGL 3.3 (Direct3D 11.1 / OpenGL 4.4 recommended)

​
Build Requirements

​
Required Software

1

Install Visual Studio

Dolphin targets the latest MSVC shipped with Visual Studio or Build Tools. Other compilers are not tested or recommended.Download Visual Studio with C++ development tools.
2

Install Git

Git must be installed for building Dolphin.Download from git-scm.com
3

Install Windows SDK

The latest Windows SDK must be installed when building.This is typically included with Visual Studio installation.

​
Building Dolphin

​
Clone the Repository

First, clone the Dolphin repository and initialize submodules: 
git clone https://github.com/dolphin-emu/dolphin.git
cd dolphin
git submodule update --init --recursive
Make sure to pull submodules before building. Building without submodules will fail.

​
Build with Visual Studio

1

Open Solution File

Open the solution file Source/dolphin-emu.sln in Visual Studio.
2

Select Configuration

Choose your build configuration:
The Release configuration includes performance optimizations for the best user experience.Use this for normal usage and distribution.
Release builds complicate debugging due to optimizations.
3

Build Solution

Build the solution using Build > Build Solution or press Ctrl+Shift+B.The compiled binaries will be output to the build directory.

​
Uninstalling

Simply remove the extracted Dolphin directory.
To completely remove Dolphin, also delete the global user directory if you don’t plan on reinstalling.

​
Command Line Usage

Dolphin can be launched from the command line with various options: 
Dolphin.exe [options]... [FILE]...

​
Common Options

# Launch a game directly
Dolphin.exe -e "path/to/game.iso"

# Run in batch mode (no UI)
Dolphin.exe -b -e "game.iso"

​
Available Video Backends

  • D3D - Direct3D 11 (Windows only)
  • D3D12 - Direct3D 12 (Windows only)
  • OGL - OpenGL
  • Vulkan - Vulkan API
  • Null - No rendering
  • Software Renderer - CPU rendering (debugging only)

​
Audio Emulation Modes

  • HLE (High Level Emulation) - Faster but less accurate
  • LLE (Low Level Emulation) - Slower but close to perfect
    • LLE has Interpreter and Recompiler submodes (cannot be selected from command line)

​
Troubleshooting

Ensure you’ve initialized and updated all submodules:
git submodule update --init --recursive
Install the latest Windows SDK through Visual Studio Installer:
  1. Open Visual Studio Installer
  2. Click “Modify” on your Visual Studio installation
  3. Under “Individual components”, ensure Windows SDK is checked
Update Visual Studio to the latest version through Visual Studio Installer.Dolphin targets the latest MSVC compiler.