# # # ##### #### # # # # #### #### # #### # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # ### #### # ### ### ### # # # # # # ## # # # # # # # # # # ## #### #### # # # # # # # #### #### # # # ##### UltraHLE FAQ by Zorkwiz Version .2 (First Public Release) Released on February 1, 1999 by Zorkwiz (pmv3@po.cwru.edu) Find me in #n64emulation, #ultrahle and #n64emuroms on EFnet DO NOT E-MAIL ME ASKING WHERE TO FIND ROMS!! Thanks to ^SeiGGy^ in #ultrahle for Joystick support info, and info on the key mapping problems. Thanks to Furon in #n64emuroms for his key remapper. Thanks to Emulators Unlimited (www.emuunlim.com) for hosting this FAQ, and being the best source for Emulation related content on the net. And most of all: Thanks to Epsilon and RealityMan for such an amazing piece of software. Please also read the Readme file which comes with the emulator. It will answer alot of questions. General Questions: Q: What is UltraHLE? A: UltraHLE is an advanced Nintendo 64 emulator for PCs with 3dfx chipsets. Q: Where can I get UltraHLE? A: UltraHLE is discontinued, and "officially" it has been removed from the web. Check on IRC if you can't find a copy otherwise. Q: What kind of system do I need to play games with UltraHLE? A: It is recommended that you have at least a Pentium 2 processor with a Voodoo1, Banshee, or Voodoo2 graphics board. A 3dfx board is required, although some have claimed to have some luck using a Glide wrapper to emulate the 3dfx instruction calls. To get full speed emulation in many games a 300mhz+ processor is recommended. Q: I have a TNT card (or some other non-3dfx board). Are you SURE I can't try out the emulator? A: Some people have claimed to have some success running non-3dfx boards with a Glide wrapper and being able to use UltraHLE. I have heard that TNT users in particular have had little success, but if you have a non-3dfx board, and want to try it out, goto http://www.angelic-coders.com/GlideUnderground Q: Where can I find N64 ROM images? A: Unless you own the N64 carts, use of commercial ROMs is illegal. This doesn't stop many people from downloading them anyway, however, It is not the purpose of this FAQ to help you find ROM images. If you want to find commercial ROMs to play, that is up to you. DO NOT E-MAIL ME ASKING WHERE TO FIND ROMS! Q: Which games work with UltraHLE? A: Although many of the best N64 games work quite well with the emulator, compatibility is quite low overall due to the method which was used in programming it. The name "UltraHLE" means "Ultra High Level Emulator" and implies that the emulator skips emulation of many of the N64's basic functions in favor of emulating the high level functions which the best games really need in order to run. Because of this, many demos and simple hombrewn games which have worked on other N64 emulators fail to even load with UltraHLE. For a very well done compatibility list, check out http://ppgr.webjump.com/n64/n64-playable.htm. Q: Why don't the ROMs I downloaded show up in the UltraHLE GUI?? A: You either need to edit the ultra.ini file to set up the directory in which the emulator looks for ROMs, or you need to change the extention of your ROM to one of the supported file types. (.n64 .v64 .u64 .rom .bin .mov) Q: Why doesn't my ROM work with UltraHLE???? The Compatibility page said that it would. A: There are a few reasons for this problem. First of all, you might not have the complete ROM, or the ROM that you have could be corrupted. Before you delete your ROM however, check to make sure that the filename has NO SPACES in it, and that the file extension is either .v64 .rom .n64 .u64 .bin or .mov The emulator's GUI can recognize spaces in filenames, and will correctly read a ROM's header, but the EMU will not load ROMs with spaces in their filenames. Lastly, if you get an error loading a rom, try to load it a few times, as sometimes the emulator fails to load it correctly on the first try. Hitting F5 when a game is trying to load also sometimes (but rarely) helps. Q: Why does sound skip when I play game X?? A: One of the most noticible problems with emulation in UltraHLE is the sound emulation. Although sounds is emulated very well in most cases, many games, like Waverace64, Mario, and Zelda among others have sound skipping problems to various extents. Q: Why can't I rotate the camera left in Mario and other games, and why doesn't the left d-pad button work correctly?? A: The key for left camera (left-c) is incorrectly mapped to the "F" key. The control setup screen shows that it should be mapped to the "J" key, but it is not. Unfortunately, the "F" key is also used for left on the d-pad (digital pad). This makes Pushing left on the D-pad impossible with the default keys. In games where you have the choice of using the d-pad or the analog pad, always use the analog, as it is correctly mapped to the arrow keys. You can use "F" for left-c, but another (better) solution is to use a nice little utility made by Furon called HLEconfig. This utility allows you to remap most of the buttons of the N64 controller to different keys than the emulator defaults to. Using this program, you can get the left-c button correctly mapped to "J", or whatever else you might want. HLEconfig can be found at http://www.locknload.net/n64/ Q: Joystick support sucks! The default joystick/joypad settings are too hard to use. What should I do? A: The solution to this is to use a key binder for your joystick/pad. You can set up a custom configuration for your stick/pad this way. Gravis products come with their own key binder, and MS Sidewinder pads also have their own key binder. If your joystick/pad doesn't fall into these categories, there are other binders floating around the net. One such program is called RB-joy, which you can find at http://alf.zfn.uni-bremen.de/~rbsoft/prod05.html. Also, if you are looking to buy a joypad for use with UltraHLE, the Gravis Xterminator has been recommended to me because of it's analog controls (just like the N64 controllers). Q: Why can't I save my game? When I quit out, my save is gone! A: You need to use the emulator's "Save State" option. When you want to save your game, hit escape to quit back to the GUI, then goto the file menu and choose "Save State" (or hit shift-F6). Now type in the filename you wish to use for your saved game. To load a saved game, start the game you wish to play, hit escape to get to the GUI, goto "Load State" in the file menu (or hit shift-F9), and choose the file which corresponds to the saved game you wish to load. You can also use F6 for a quicksave, and F9 for a quickload. Q: Game X runs too slow/too fast, is there anything I can do? A: Since there is no frame-skip or auto frame-skip in UltraHLE, the only way to speed up or slow down emulation is to change the resolution which you are running the game at, or disable the sound. Choose a high resolution to slow the emulation down, or a low resolution to speed it up. Disabling the sound also gives a speed boost. Also make sure that you have the most current drivers for your video and sound card, and that you aren't running any programs in the background while using UltraHLE. Of course upgrading your PC is always an option as well. Q: I found a patch for one of the ROMs, will it work on UltraHLE if I apply the patch? A: No, the patches are for backup machines only, and they do not effect performance in UltraHLE, in fact, many patched ROMs are incompatible, whereas their unpatched counterparts work fine. Game Specific Questions: Q: Why is there no in-game sound in Goldeneye? A: This is one of the most common complaints I have heard about any game, and the funny thing is, it's the easiest to fix. Simply press the start button ("S" by default) once the game starts to go look at your watch, then press left a number of times until you get to the options menu. You'll see that the music and sound are turned all the way down! Turn them up, and the sound is great. Not even any skipping that I heard. Q: Why can't I get WaveRace 64 to work? A: Only the Japanese version of WaveRace64 works with UltraHLE Q: Why can't I get Virtual Chess 64 to work? A: Only the European version of this ROM is compatible with UltraHLE. Q: Why is Banjo, the main character in Banjo Kazooie, so small? A: Due to a strange bug, Banjo is very small, and cannot make many of the larger jumps in the game. This makes it basically unplayable.