Project 64 Emulator: Serious Performance Complications

[8DXD8]

@Zaladane: Alright, I'll screencap this one for ya'!

[8DXD8]

@Zaladane(cont'd): And here are the default settings for Diddy Kong Racing, the current ROM that's giving me the most amount of trouble as of late ( that is crashing constantly )!

[8DXD8]

@MaslowK:

- I can't seem to find the "Power Scheme" drop-down menu you've mentioned.

- I followed all of your steps, but was only able to find "Copy Memory" in the drop-down menu, rather than "Transfer Memory" ( which is probably a version 1.7 thing ).



@Korra: Thanks. I'm already using the JaboDirect 3D8 video plugin, but the 1964 audio plugin that you gave me doesn't appear to cooperate when opening a ROM, giving me the warning message: "Cannot open a rom because plugins have not successfully initialised". What could that mean?

[MaslowK]

- I can't seem to find the "Power Scheme" drop-down menu you've mentioned.

What version of windows are you using? The instructions I gave for the power scheme deal are assuming you're using XP, I forget most people don't use XP anymore.

For Windows 7, go to your Control Panel, and click Power Options. Next check the circle next to High Performance, and then click Change plan settings next to that, and then Change advanced power settings near the bottom.

In the dialog window that pops up, scroll down until you see where it says "Processor power management" and expand it; it should show "Minimum processor state" and "Maximum processor state"; these affect how much of your CPU is used while plugged in vs on battery power. Expand the Minimum one and click where it says on battery, and set it to 100. Do the same for the "plugged in" option, and repeat these steps under the "Maximum processor state" option. Of course, if you only plan on using the full CPU power while say, plugged in for example, you can modify these accordingly.

...yeah, Windows 7 makes it a lot more complicated ;/

- I followed all of your steps, but was only able to find "Copy Memory" in the drop-down menu, rather than "Transfer Memory" ( which is probably a version 1.7 thing )

Correct, I tend to get the two confused. The two options are essentially the same as far as performance is concerned, they just decided to change what they call it in the 1.7 version of the plugin. On that note, if it still gives you issues you could always try PJ64 1.7 and see if it works any better for you, seems it does for some people. Here's a link; http://www.emuparadise.me/emulators/...(Oct-2010).zip

Let me know if this helps at all.

[treos]

hmmm... dunno about the pc settings related stuff (others here can be more helpful than me here on that) but for the emulator itself perhaps this can help http://bmgcl.emuxhaven.net/

...i don't remember who linked me to that site before but its got a good selection on optimal settings (or as optimal as it gets in most cases) and lists the problems a lot... scratch that, the problems most N64 games have (you wouldn't believe how many issues some games have listed there) on emulators and i think some fixes, its something to look through at least

N64 emulation is a big pain in the rear at times as you likely know :/

[8DXD8]

@MaslowK: Alright, I've changed those performace settings in the Control Panel as you specified, but it doesn't appear to have made the slightest difference. The sound still severely chops out during different ROMs and Diddy Kong Racing constantly crashes at random points during gameplay, complaining about the graphics plugin being used ( and the different explanations it's given me haven't made the slightest bit of sense to me ).

It's a shame because I was experiencing similar performance issues with my ePSXe emulator, but after some proper guidance and necessary changes made in the graphics plugin configuration options, every ISO file I've run so far has worked flawlessly. So I just KNOW that simple changes apply to the success of my Project 64's performance as well.


Any ideas on how I may be able to do that while running off of Windows 7 with the latest version of this emulator? ( version 1.7 )

[Iamerror]

Last night my game crashed FIVE times on n64 emulator. I'm really annoyed.

[MaslowK]

Any ideas on how I may be able to do that while running off of Windows 7 with the latest version of this emulator? ( version 1.7 )

Configure PJ64 1.7? Should be fairly simple, barring specific tweaks for specific games (don't know anything 'bout those);

After installing & running 1.7, go to Options > Settings, and confirm Jabo's Direct3D8 1.7.0.etcetc is selected under Video (graphics) plugin (should be by default, better safe than sorry tho)

Then, under Options > Configure Graphics Plugin, set Windowed & Fullscreen resolutions to 640x480, Full Screen Sync to Copy Memory & Anisotropic to Off (sounding familiar yet?); basically setting it to the lowest quality settings possible, which "should" produce the smoothest framerate.

As far as the choppy sound goes, you could try going to Options > Configure Audio Plugin and checking the checkbox next to "Sync game to Audio", and see if that helps at all.

[8DXD8]

@MaslowK: I applied each of your setting instructions and it still appears to have made little difference, if any! Is there any other possible graphic/audio plugin that must be downloaded for this thing, or possibly an add-on that I should download for my laptop itself in order to allow the ROMs on this emulator to run reasonably, at the very least?!

[MaslowK]

Honestly given the specs on your computer (from what I've googled based on the model name you posted) I'm surprised you're having the issues you're having. Normally the default "Jabos" plugins work the best (or at least on my system, which is much less powerful). The only explanation I have at this point is that your CPU "is" being throttled, if not by windows itself (since we've ruled this out adjusting the power settings), then maybe by your bios?

Easiest way to check (which I should have had you do originally) would be to download and install cpu-z, which you can get here; http://www.cpuid.com/downloads/cpu-z...1-setup-en.exe. Once it's installed run it, and it should pop up a window showing your system specs, including your processors current clockspeed under "Core Speed". Assuming I've correctly identified your laptop (this? http://www.amazon.com/Compaq-Presari.../dp/B0040JHMZI) it should read somewhere in the neighborhood of 2200 Mhz on Core Speed; if it reads something significantly lower, then your CPU is being throttled by something, which would explain the issue.

Edit: Another thought, a lot of times when you buy a computer with windows pre-installed it'll have all sorts of unnecessary crap preinstalled, and furthermore often they have a lot of stuff set to run automatically when you start your computer, wasting resources and being detrimental to performance overall. Assuming you haven't done this already, you could try disabling unnecessary startup programs if you'd like.

Here's a guide that would do a lot better job explaining the process than I could through this; http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/msconfig_win7.html

[8DXD8]

@MaslowK: Alright, I downloaded the application and found that my core speed currently remains in and around 1197 Mhz, sometimes briefly jumping up to 2294 Mhz at random. Could this mean what you had suggested? If so, how would I go about cranking this core speed up to an average 2200 Mhz?

And I switched off all uneccessary programs running in the background through the MSCONFIG menu, but it didn't seem to induce any improvement to this stubborn emulator!

[MaslowK]

@MaslowK: Alright, I downloaded the application and found that my core speed currently remains in and around 1197 Mhz, sometimes briefly jumping up to 2294 Mhz at random. Could this mean what you had suggested? If so, how would I go about cranking this core speed up to an average 2200 Mhz?

Yes; what that tells me is it's set up to allocate CPU resources as they're needed, which unfortunately doesn't always work as well as it should. When you adjusted the power settings as described earlier in the thread (Minimum processor state, Maximum processor state, etc), did you set both the On Battery and Plugged In options to 100 on both (so 100% all around)? If not maybe try that, rather than only 100 on "Plugged in" etc.

If they are all set to 100 and it's still throttling the CPU, it's more than likely a BIOS setting you'll need to adjust (probably SpeedStep). This is where it gets slightly more complicated; you'll need to enter your BIOS settings, find the option, and change it.

First shutdown your computer, then turn it back on. At the first screen it gives you (most likely either a red compaq logo or a black screen with various text describing the startup), try pressing F1, F10 or F2 (most likely F1 or F10), which should bring you to a new screen (most likely blue), similar to this;



Use the arrow keys to navigate through the various tabs/menus (ESC to go back a screen), and look for options related to the CPU or "SpeedStep". You're looking for something similar to this;



What you're trying to do is change the setting from "Automatic" to "Maximum Performance" or something similar. After changing the setting hit Esc until it asks if you want to save and exit, which you do. Now get back into Windows and run CPU-Z again and see if Core Speed has changed to what it should be (2200MHz). If it still doesn't read right, go back to the BIOS settings and try selecting Disabled instead of Maximum Performance, and see if that does it.

Let me know if this works for you.

[8DXD8]

@MaslowK: The BIOS settings found on my particular laptop don't appear to have the same options that you specified.

The only subheadings I found were "Main", "Security", "Diagnostics", and "System Configuration". Where must I go in order to tweak these power settings?!

[MaslowK]

I would imagine somewhere under System Configuration. Each tab should have several submenus in them. There's nothing named anything like CPU, Processor, SpeedStep? I've also found more information on a different forum;

Disable C1E Enhanced Halt under your BIOS.
- It's usually listed as one of the following: C1E Support, C1E Function, CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E), D.O.T. Control
- This setting is essentially the setting that decreases the voltage supplied to the processor. In the low-clock state (266*6), it doesn't make sense to continually push large voltages through the chip if it's not making much use of it. Hence, if you aren't doing anything, lets save electricity and slow the CPU.

Disable Enhanced Intel Speedstep (EIST) under your BIOS.
- It's usually listed as one of the following: Intel(R) SpeedStep(tm) Tech, PPM(EIST) Mode, CPU EIST Function, Intel EIST, EIST Function
- EIST, in conjunction with C1E, tells the processor to decrease the FSB as well as the Multiplier. Lowering this decreases the performance of the CPU during idle conditions, and increases them to whats set in the BIOS when the CPU comes under a load condition.

Seems the setting we're looking for (still assuming your laptop does in fact have said setting) has many many possible names. I would just go through every option under every tab (without editing any unless they're the one we're looking for) in the BIOS and see if you can find anything that looks anything like the terms listed above.

[8DXD8]

I looked through each of the possible BIOS Settings options that were available and looked through each possible sub-menu ( of which there were only TWO ) , and STILL wasn't able to change those particular power saving settings.

Is it possible that I have to look through a section OTHER than BIOS Settings?