# Project 64



## LightyKD (Feb 22, 2010)

Hey everyone. Ive been playing with Project 64 for a long while and this month Ive been using the emulator a lot to play "Zelda TooT" I was wondering if there were any N64 games left that still had issues with the emu. Last I checked, the only one I could think about was "Resident Evil 2". Any others any of you could think of?


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## DarkWay (Feb 22, 2010)

well I haven't done much with my project64 except play a few games XD but I've had trouble trying to play star wars rogue squadron it just won't start up at all I might have a look and set up project 64 properly one of these days


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## MarkDarkness (Feb 22, 2010)

Quite a few. Pokémon Snap, both Quakes, Perfect Dark, Goldeney, Donkey Kong 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Banjo-Tooie...


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## raulpica (Feb 22, 2010)

I tried it not too long ago, and almost all games had glitches and issues.

It's really sad to see that the N64 emulation scene was abandoned. There hasn't been an update to the major emus in years.


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## Julian Sidewind (Feb 22, 2010)

I havent used it in a year or two but everything seems to have issues with bomberman the second attack...and ive been dying to beat that game since it got stolen


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## Maikel Steneker (Feb 22, 2010)

MarkDarkness said:
			
		

> Quite a few. Pokémon Snap, both Quakes, Perfect Dark, Goldeney, Donkey Kong 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Banjo-Tooie...


In case of Conker's Bad Fur Day and Pokémon Snap (and possibly others) you could make them work perfectly (without the graphical glitches) but it would require a really fast PC to run them full speed.


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## DarkWay (Feb 22, 2010)

almost everything I've tried works perfectly fine on my laptop including Pokemon Snap and Conkers Bad Fur Day and I haven't really done anything to my Project64 just as it is out of the zip file version1.6

and my laptop isn't that powerful they run full speed no problems


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## ganons (Feb 22, 2010)

mario 64, silicon valley
/thread


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## LightyKD (Feb 22, 2010)

O really don't see how anyone could have problems with "Conker's Bad fur Day". That was one of the few games that always worked for me. I just placed PJ64 on my auntie's PC (she lives 2 doors down and sometimes I babysit my niece there so sometimes I wanna play n64 there) and I need to figure out how to speed up PJ64 on that unit. I might just need to put more memory in her unit but yeah that wasnt the reason for this thread. I was never able to play Resident Evil 2 on Project 64 and I was wondering if it worked now. I guess not. Also, I think some of you guys really need to update your PJ64 version. Some of the games you talk about, not working, do work.


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## DarkWay (Feb 22, 2010)

my dad has resident evil 2 working on his pc I don't have it on my laptop so I wouldn't know if it worked for me he's on 1.6 aswell


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## MarkDarkness (Feb 22, 2010)

DarkWay said:
			
		

> almost everything I've tried works perfectly fine on my laptop including *Pokemon Snap*
> ... have you played the game to completion? If you have, you are probably a grade A hacker for having come up with object-detection code that not even Zilmar himself has produced! Praise to you and your skills.
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> QUOTEO really don't see how anyone could have problems with "Conker's Bad fur Day". That was one of the few games that always worked for me.


Here is the _most recent_ bug list for the game:

pause screen is incorrect, shows static 
a part of the matrix mode in heist level is incorrect 

motion blur unimplemented, not used often in this game. 
sky not rendered properly 
missing halo effects on lights 
shadow on main character not totally accurate 
static (coloured dots) around screen edge 
cinematic in "It's War!" chapter is in colour, should be black & white 
pixelation effect used in the part "Buga The Knut" is missing 
new pixel pipeline in v1.6 sometimes shows level of detail on textures wrongly (textures repeat more than they should) - Use legacy pixel pipeline option is a workaround for this.


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## DarkWay (Feb 22, 2010)

MarkDarkness said:
			
		

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haven't played it completely yet but so far I haven't had any problems at all no idea how far through the game I am though probably not that far only a light player on project64, have my friends, work and "hobbies" to keep me busy enough but so far I've encountered no problems.


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## EyeZ (Feb 22, 2010)

DarkWay said:
			
		

> I've had trouble trying to play star wars rogue squadron it just won't start up at all



Same for me.


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## MarkDarkness (Feb 22, 2010)

DarkWay said:
			
		

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Ergo, you have not yet reached the constellation snapshots, at which point you will not be able to proceed with the game. Do not report something as working before you have finished it.


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## LightyKD (Feb 23, 2010)

MarkDarkness said:
			
		

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...Lets be honest, not every gamer completes their games. Last I checked (on average) only 30 percent of a gamer's collection ever gets completed.


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## Gore (Feb 23, 2010)

30%? where does that come from?


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## granville (Feb 23, 2010)

If you have a decent computer, you can eliminate most, if not all graphical glitches and sound problems with most of the games listed above.

The best graphical plugin is Glide64 "Napalm WX". It's in constant development and has gotten extremely accurate, eliminating almost all graphical glitches in games (that don't have to do with the emulator core). Even problematic games like DK64, which can never render framebuffer effects perfectly in Jabo's plugin, can be made to be 95% perfect. The only issue is polygons sticking out of the characters at times, but that is the fault of Project64 itself and the emulator's core having timing issues. Before PJ64 1.6, that game was almost unplayable (in certain spots, you could have issues) thanks to fucked up timing.

I've even found a fix for Resident Evil 2's voice acting. The priorities for the graphics still aren't perfect, but you can get the voice acting to work properly with the right counter factor (2 is best for this game's timing) and the right sound plugin (I use Azimer's HLE audio v0.56 WIP2). Make sure all game specific options in the emulator are disabled except "RSP Audio Signal" and "fixed audio timing". As i said, priorities still messed up in the level backgrounds and character models, but i imagine it will be fixed soon as Glide64 is always being updated every few days (via public compiled repositories).

There are a few games that won't boot at all, such as Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. The core can't handle that game at all yet, but at least there's a PC port of that if you want it. I think the unworking games are listed in the GameFAQ. Most all problematic games can be fixed with Glide64 though if your PC is decent enough. I'm sure a lot of us now have around 2.5-3ghz PC's by now, with at least some decent GPU's. Should work fine if you can configure it correctly.


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## MarkDarkness (Feb 23, 2010)

LightyKD said:
			
		

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Do not confuse your personal statistic with that of others. What you are describing is _pirate's syndrome_, which is how a fair number of people who pirate games hardly manage not commit to a single game and just juggle between titles in a constant and continuous manner, since the game did not cost anything to them and thus they do not _need_ to finish it like most players of originals would do.

Your argument fails on two accounts: A) Not everybody is a pirate B) not everybody has the attention span of a 9 year old.

I have finished about 80% of my collection, and am currently not acquiring anything new in order to get some DS games out of my backlog, such as Rune Factory... and there are a lot of people like me out there.


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## LightyKD (Feb 23, 2010)

Gore said:
			
		

> 30%? where does that come from?



An old issue of "Game Informer".  I HATE that magazine with a passion but the article stating that was a very good one and a very deep one when it comes to the mindset of developers and how games should be developed in the future.


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## MarkDarkness (Feb 23, 2010)

granville said:
			
		

> The best graphical plugin is Glide64 "Napalm WX".


Is a wrapper needed for that one, granville?


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## LightyKD (Feb 23, 2010)

Do I Stick the Glide64 wrapper in the same folder with the plugin files?

Quick Edit: I dropped...

Glide64.dll
Glide64.ini
GlideHQ.dll

Into the Plugins folder of Project 64 but where do I place the wrapper file...

glide3x.dll


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## granville (Feb 23, 2010)

Yes, a wrapper is needed for Glide64. You put the file "glide3x.dll" in the SAME DIRECTORY AS YOUR EMULATOR. So whichever folder Project64.exe is, put that glide3x.dll in the same directory. Should work fine if you do that.

Obviously, even the wrappers themselves aren't 100% perfect yet. They're getting there though. I think the wrapper that comes with the Napalm WX release is what is causing the background/3D model priority issue in RE2 64. However, there is no better wrapper at the moment. It's the fastest and most compatible at this time.

And the other files (glide64.dll, glideHQ.dll, and even sometimes glide64.ini) goes in your graphics plugin directory (you know, with the rest of your plugins).

It might get confusing, but it really is the best plugin and worth the extra trouble for. One of my favorite things is that you can check specific compatibility settings for individual games, in the plugin. Better than having to go into the options for every game every time you load a new game! Here are some examples of things it can do that other plugins can't-

Banjo Kazooie- this game WAS pretty perfect on Jabo's plugin, but i find the glide64 plugin can emulate some effects faster. The jigsaw effect when entering a level can be emulated by checking "read every frame" in the plugin options.
Banjo Tooie- supports full hardware framebuffer effects used for the pause screen and the jiggy puzzle screen. I also think the shadows are transparent in glide, whereas they're opaque and black in Jabo, not sure.
Donkey Kong 64- with "read every frame" checked in the plugin settings, it can emulate almost every single effect that other plugins can't. This includes the blurred pause menu, the bananaport zipper transition, and even some extra zipper/transition effects. Also supports some fading and transparency effects on certain objects (such as the non-activated bananaports, the pop-in when you get close to enemies, and even some activated switches). Polygons DO stick out of the characters at times, and when climbing trees it's possible to get stuck and have a glitch which resets the level, but those are the emulator's fault and we'll have to wait for an update on that. I'd recommend occasional savestates in case.
Conker's Bad Fur Day- Supports very accurate hardware framebuffer emulation to make the pause menu appear correctly (blurs the current screen as it's supposed to, not a garbled mess). I would assume the matrix effect works too, not gotten that far though. Everything here looks pretty much perfect from what i've seen. I've not played the original much though. Might want to tick "read every frame" if you spot something I missed, usually fixes everything, but is slower.
Resident Evil 2- best thing here is that glide64 support the full motion videos, something Jabo's can't do, and it's awesome! Good support for the hardware framebuffer effects. Apart from the background priorities, the game is pretty much perfect, even the voices work with the right emulator settings.
Paper Mario- this is probably my favorite improvement over jabo's plugin. Using glide, the game is 99% perfect from what i've seen. The graphics don't flash and induce seizures (like Jabo's), the enemy encounter transition works great, and even small details like Bowser's fire breath and background candles look correct. This game had a ton of trouble on other plugins, glide though works epically! "read every frame" is slow, but thankfully not required for this game.
Super Mario 64- last but not least, this game always had issues emulating certain pixellated fading effects such as the invisibility cap, Bowser fading, and even the warp effects. Then you have the infamous painting of Peach which fades into Bowser as you run towards it. All those effects are perfectly emulated here, and the game is now what i'd consider as "flawless". I've seen no glitches so far whatsoever. Awesome work here.

So, long post is long. If you have a fast computer, N64 emulation is now better than ever with PJ64 and Glide64. Just make sure you DO have a decent computer, even without filtering the emulation can get slow with "read every frame" checked (which fixes most problems in games). As long as you have a good recent processor, you should be good.

By the way, there's a guy named Orleans who compiles and uploads the latest SVN's of Glide64's current development. Here's his uploads- http://cid-ec92aae47a89073b.skydrive.live....64?view=details
He even uploads other emulators such as Dolphin, he updates daily, probably even hourly. If you don't mind the risk of trying something very WIP, you could try these. They're quite more up to date than the Glide64's on the official site, in fact there was a new version compiled today.


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## LightyKD (Feb 23, 2010)

I know this is a bit off topic but that plugin and or settings would some of you recommend for a lower spec (not my) PC? I'm curious as to what many of you will say.


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## granville (Feb 24, 2010)

Jabo's Direct3D plugin is probably your best bet. Here's my plugin setup with speed (not accuracy) taking the top priority-

Jabo's Direct3D8 1.6 (requires pixel shader, if you don't have it, use D3D6 1.5.2)
Azimer's HLE Audio v0.56 WIP2
RSP plugin doesn't matter THAT much, you MAY get a little better speed out of Hacktarux/Azimer's HLE RSP plugin though, i think it belongs to mupen. I've noticed maybe a 10% improvement in speed with that one, but it may just be me.

Obviously, Project64 1.6 is the best stable release. I'm not sure where the donation only beta of 1.7 is at the moment, if there's any more work on it lately. From what i've seen though, it is a bit slower, doesn't have TOO many epic new features that set it apart (i've found none at all so far), and i've heard of some issues with RARE games such as Jet Force Gemini. Not sure. Obviously, if you use Jabo's plugin, expect emulation to be far less accurate of course. That's the cost of speed.

In terms of settings for the emulator itself, leave most of those alone as they will likely garner no speed improvement and can break some games. You can mess with the counter factor to different levels and that can act as a sort of "frameskip" with higher levels. But this is unwise as it can effect the game's timing and break things. For example, the only really stable value I can play Donkey Kong 64 at is 1 or 2, DK64 had some very weird timing issues in the past, which can still be triggered by messing with the counter factor. Banjo Tooie's loading times in levels get very long when you set the counter factor to 3. Really, best to leave those things alone.

The slowest computer i've tried to emulate N64 on had these specs-

Mobile Pentium III @1ghz
256MB ram
16MB Radeon Mobile
Windows XP Home

My results were tolerable, and i got fullspeed in 90% of the games i tried (or close to it). I could get 98% fullspeed in all games by messing with the counter factor, which of course lowered compatibility and made things choppier. If you have a computer with better specs than this one, i'm SURE you could play N64 in an enjoyable way to an extent. Jabo's plugin is quite good on its own still, even if it's not as accurate. I don't think the memory makes much difference, i've upgraded memory in a PC before from 128MB to 256MB (and later 512MB). I noticed no difference there. It's really the CPU and GPU that makes the difference. CPU specifically, i would think. I've dealt with a fast Pentium 4 with an integrated GPU. Had some good results there. GPU is mainly good for higher resolutions and texture filtering/enhancement.


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## LightyKD (Feb 24, 2010)

granville said:
			
		

> Jabo's Direct3D plugin is probably your best bet. Here's my plugin setup with speed (not accuracy) taking the top priority-
> 
> Jabo's Direct3D8 1.6 (requires pixel shader, if you don't have it, use D3D6 1.5.2)
> Azimer's HLE Audio v0.56 WIP2
> ...



Thanks 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 Your pose was very helpful but I have one question...

"Where do I get D3D6 1.5.2?"


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## granville (Feb 24, 2010)

It should be included with PJ64 1.6, as a plugin. That's where mine came from when i downloaded the official installer from the official website. It should appear as a gfx plugin in the plugin selection if it's there.


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