Manual / Guides for v1.6

Here is the reference manual for users of PJ64, based closely off Project64.chm included with the emulator but here we can keep working on it to make it better!

The cheat system has been supported on its own website, we aim to merge this soon

  • Requirements

    Minimum and recommended systems for running Project64.

  • Installation

    Help with installing PJ64 for the first time, adding plugins, games, through to removing PJ64 from your system or moving to another PC.

  • Using Project64

    Quick guide to basic tasks in PJ64

  • Configuration: Project64 application

    Guide to setting up and tweaking the Project64 main program, including all the Settings tabs.

  • Configuration: Jabo Direct3D8

    Guide to setting up and tweaking the Project64 video plugin.

  • Configuration: Jabo DirectInput

    Guide to setting up the Project64 input plugin.

  • Configuration: Jabo DirectSound

    Setting up the default audio plugin.

  • Reference

    in-depth information that doesn't fit anywhere else! verifying ROMs, GUI translation, how PJ uses support files, etc.

  • Troubleshooting

    Having stability or graphics, sound or speed problems? Here's how to go about solving almost any problem yourself.

    • Stability problems

    • Video Initialisation (Initialization) problems

    • Access Violations / AVs / Fatal Exceptions

    • Speed / Performance problems

      The first thing to understand is what speed to expect from Project64 - as a rough guide, the following specifications should be barely fast enough for each game at full speed with the default configuration:

      • Mario64 needs ~P2-450Mhz
      • Zelda needs ~Athlon 800Mhz
      • Perfect Dark needs ~Athlon 1.2Ghz

      These are approximate figures only, see detail below for factors.

      Important Points:

      1. As a general rule, FPS in Project64 depends on your CPU, not your graphics card, but the graphics card can become the limiting factor at high resolutions with high levels of FSAA, or if you have a below minimum spec. graphics card.
      2. Not all the suggestions below will improve performance for you. Some will only reduce quality, stability etc. You have to try them and see the effects for yourself.
      3. Some of these suggestions have the potential to do damage to your hardware or software or data or all three. Any such damage that results from your following the suggestions listed on this page is entirely your own responsiblity - take care and don't do anything you are no confident you understand - seek advice from hardware internet sites etc. if you need to.
      4. The generally most significant factors are listed first, descending to the least significant (i.e. the most to the least likely to help, in my opinion and experience).

      Check problem is not being caused by one of your plugins - plugins can stall the emulator by design or due to bugs in their coding.

      What you can do to speed up PJ64: 

      Hardware level

      1. increase CPU clock rate or upgrade CPU. This is the single most important hardware factor. But note there is no point having multiple CPUs or muti-core CPUs as they are not useful for emulation. You need one fast CPU.
      2. increase font side bus/RAM clock rate
      3. add RAM if you are short*
      4. choose a CPU with SSE (& MMX!) capability
      5. adjust RAM timings, cache timings etc.*
      6. increase graphics card clock rates*
      7. use PCI rather than ISA sound card
      8. disable any unneeded ports/hardware
      9. use USB rather than Gameport input devices

      Driver level

      1. update drivers, video card drivers, chipset drivers, sound drivers*
      2. use 16 bit colour desktop rather than 24/32*
      3. use lower level of anti-aliasing, or none at all*
      4. disable Vsync
      5. disable multi-display if your system supports it*
      6. use 16 bit z buffer (rather than 24/32)*
      7. use texture compression*
      8. lower or raise monitor refresh rate*

      Operating System level

      1. shut down all non essential (background) processes
      2. disable findfast/file indexing/system restore/task scheduler etc.
      3. adjust process priorities
      4. use Win2K/XP series OS if you have enough RAM (192MB+)
      5. use Win98SE if you don't have enough RAM (WinME seems generally a bad choice)
      6. update DirectX version
      7. just rebooting Windows can help free resources
      8. clean reinstall Windows in extreme problem cases
      9. compact memory
      10. fix pagefile size
      11. move pagefile to fastest drive*
      12. defragment hard drive
      13. lower debug levels on DirectX
      14. don't use debug (usually beta) builds of drivers or DirectX

      Application level

      1. don't run multiple instances of Project64
      2. fullscreen modes may be considerably faster than windowed modes*

      Emulator core

      1. use Recompiler instead of Interpreter**
      2. disable the speed limiter (!)
      3. enable Register Caching**
      4. enable Advanced Block Linking**
      5. enable Larger Compiler Buffer**
      6. use less secure method to handle self-modifying code**
      7. don't enable the expansion pack if it's not needed**
      8. state saving and loading sometimes helps the recompiler**
      9. disable TLB (but only if not needed!)**

      plugins

      1. use Direct3D HAL rather than RGB Emulation or Reference Rasterizer (!)
      2. use the RSP recompiler core rather than Interpreter core
      3. Send Audio Lists to Audio Plugin (and use an HLE capable audio plugin if you want audio!)
      4. don't use any form of Framebuffer emulation (!)
      5. don't enable Sync game to Audio**
      6. use a lower resolution*
      7. use 16 bit colour modes rather than 24/32*
      8. if you want true colour, use 32 bit rather than 24*
      9. use different buffer display mode e.g. Double or Triple Buffering rather than Transfer Memory*
      10. use External Geometry pipeline rather than Internal
      11. don't use anisotropic filtering*

       

      * effectiveness depends on system (hardware)
      ** effectiveness depends on game
      (!) indicates a very important point 


    • Video / Graphics problems

    • Audio / Sound problems

  • Error Messages

    Help with common error messages, what they mean, how to make them go away!
n64 usb