Super Mario Galaxy on Dolphin — Best Settings, Motion Controls Without Wiimote, and Fix Guide (2026)

Super Mario Galaxy (RMGE01 for NA, RMGP01 for EU) and Super Mario Galaxy 2 (SM8E01/SM8P01) both run at 60fps in Dolphin on modern hardware. These are the optimal settings:

Graphics backend:

• Vulkan — preferred for both AMD and Nvidia on Windows and Linux. Vulkan handles Galaxy's layered EFB copies (used for the star-collect flash, rainbow road reflections, and the galaxy background compositing) most accurately.
• D3D12 is a stable alternative on Nvidia. D3D11 works but is slightly slower in Galaxy's outdoor galaxy scenes.

Internal resolution:

• 3× (1080p) for most systems. Galaxy's character models and environments were designed with Wii-era texture budgets, but they upscale very well to 3× — the star particle effects and galaxy backgrounds look spectacular at this resolution.
• 4× (1440p) if you have an RTX 3060 or better. The Observatory hub world and the cosmic galaxy environments reward the extra resolution.

Enhancements:

• Anti-Aliasing: 4× MSAA — Galaxy's rounded surfaces and curved planet edges show aliasing at native, but at 3× internal res + 4× MSAA they look entirely smooth.
• Anisotropic Filtering: 8× or 16× — improves ground texture sharpness on flat planet surfaces.
• Scaled EFB Copies: Enabled — Galaxy uses EFB copies for the launch-star trail effect, luma fades between galaxies, and the Comet Observatory water. Scaled EFB makes these effects crisp at high resolution rather than blurry native-resolution blobs.
• Per-Pixel Lighting: Enabled — Galaxy's directional lighting on Mario and NPCs benefits from pixel-accurate lighting, especially in underground and cave galaxies.

CPU settings:

• Dual Core (DC): Enabled (Options → General). This is the most important setting for Galaxy performance — splits GPU and CPU threads. Galaxy runs at a locked 60fps in DC mode on any modern CPU.
• GPU Texture Decoding: Enabled (optional, Graphics → Advanced). Offloads texture decoding to the GPU. Useful on older 4-core CPUs where the CPU is the bottleneck in large outdoor areas.

Super Mario Galaxy was designed for Wii's motion controls: you point the Wiimote at the screen to aim the Star Pointer cursor (used to collect Star Bits and aim them at enemies), and shake the Wiimote for Mario's spin attack. Playing without a real Wiimote requires remapping these actions to a standard controller:

Method 1 — Emulated Wiimote with standard controller (recommended for most players):

1. In Dolphin: Controllers → Wiimote 1 → Emulated Wiimote. Click Configure.
2. Map the standard controls: A button → your controller's A/B, D-pad → D-pad, +/- → Start/Select, Home → Home button.
3. Shake (Spin attack): map the Wiimote's Shake (Wii Mote Shake or Attachment Shake) to any button — typically right bumper (RB/R1) or a face button. This replaces the physical Wiimote shake for Mario's spin.
4. IR Pointer (Star Bits cursor): in the Motion Controls section of the Emulated Wiimote config, set IR to "Point" mode with Relative Mouse Input — this maps your mouse to the Star Pointer cursor. Move the mouse to collect Star Bits and aim. Alternatively, map IR to the right analog stick for a fully controller-based setup (less precise but fully playable without a mouse).
5. For the right analog stick IR option: set the IR Sensitivity to ~0.3 and ensure center-reset is enabled so the pointer returns to center when you stop moving the stick.

Method 2 — Real Wiimote over Bluetooth (the intended experience):

• If you have a real Wiimote, connect it via Bluetooth (Windows Bluetooth settings → pair as "Nintendo RVL-CNT-01"). In Dolphin: Controllers → Wiimote 1 → Real Wiimote. This gives authentic motion controls with the built-in speaker and rumble.
• For Wii MotionPlus required games (Galaxy does not require MotionPlus — only a standard Wiimote).

Nunchuk mapping: Galaxy uses both the Wiimote and Nunchuk. The Nunchuk's analog stick controls Mario's movement. In Emulated Wiimote config, make sure Nunchuk → Stick is mapped to your controller's left analog stick.

Super Mario Galaxy and Galaxy 2 natively support 16:9 widescreen via an in-game setting (Options → TV → Widescreen). Enable this in the game menu first. Then in Dolphin:

Setup:

1. In-game: go to Wii Menu → Super Mario Galaxy → Options (wrench icon) → TV Type → 16:9. This enables the game's built-in widescreen mode.
2. In Dolphin: Graphics → General → Aspect Ratio: Force 16:9. The combination of in-game 16:9 + Dolphin's forced aspect gives you a correct widescreen output.

Do not use Dolphin's "Widescreen Hack" checkbox for Galaxy — Galaxy has native 16:9 support, and the widescreen hack overrides the perspective matrix in a way that causes incorrect star-collect animations and warped planet surfaces. Use the in-game setting + Force 16:9 in Dolphin instead.

Anti-epilepsy filter: Galaxy has a built-in anti-epilepsy flash filter (enabled by default in PAL versions). If you notice the star-collect flash looks dimmer than expected, check Options → Anti-Epilepsy and verify it matches your preference.

Luma fade glitch (screen goes white or black when transitioning between galaxies or after collecting a star):

• Root cause: Scaled EFB Copies disabled. Galaxy's transition system uses a full-screen luma copy at native resolution; at high internal resolution with non-scaled EFB, the luma fade samples from a tiny native-res buffer stretched to fill the screen, producing a washed-out white or black flash instead of the smooth fade.
• Fix: enable Scaled EFB Copies in Graphics → Enhancements. This resolves luma fades, star-collect white flashes, and the Observatory water distortion effect at high resolution.

Bloom haloing / oversaturated bright areas (corona around Mario, blinding white from the Observatory):

• Galaxy's bloom is rendered at native resolution regardless of internal resolution setting. At 3× or 4× internal res, the bloom filter outputs at 3×/4× scale, which makes it disproportionately large and bright.
• Fix: in Graphics → Advanced, enable Defer EFB Copies to RAM. This causes the bloom pass to composite correctly at your internal resolution rather than being over-scaled. It reduces performance slightly but fixes the bloom intensity.
• Alternative: enable the "No Bloom" Gecko code via Dolphin's Cheat Manager if you prefer no bloom at all. Right-click the game → Properties → AR/Gecko Codes → search for "No Bloom Galaxy" community codes. This is a subjective preference — some players prefer clean no-bloom, others want the intended soft glow at reduced intensity.

Galaxy 2-specific: screen flickers during Yoshi sections:

• Yoshi's tongue mechanic uses an EFB peek to detect fruit colors. At high internal resolution this peek misreads the color values, causing the targeting reticle to flicker.
• Fix: right-click the game → Custom Configuration → Graphics → Hacks → enable "Skip EFB Access from CPU". This disables the EFB peek (Yoshi targeting still works via approximate logic) and eliminates the flicker. Note: this same setting may cause minor water reflection loss in other parts of Galaxy 2 — test per-galaxy.