Dreamcast Emulation Notes (Based on CD-R releases NTSC-U & PAL-E) usable for GD-Rom dumps

[Xavierlover]

I have a laptop with Windows Vista, downloaded the latest NullDC emulator, got a game downloaded (Resident Evil Code Veronica Disc 1), have all the plugins, BIOS, etc. Yet I have keep getting the message that the emulator has stopped working and it crashes. What is the problem and how do I fix it? Many thanks.

[Zorlon]

Are you sure it's the latest being v1.0.4 r150

P.S. being that you are using a laptop and on Vista I would kinda guess that your machine is a little under par for DC emulation anyway, though you have not given any spec info

P.P.S. what copy of CVX do you have?

[Xavierlover]

I actually just downloaded the Visual C++ and DirectX plugins and was able to open the Dreamcast screen without it crashing! YAY! I guess that's a good sign. Now I need to set Date/Time, according to the screen. Am I on the right track? Now what?

[Zorlon]

After setting the date and time just go to the controller icon or restart the emu booting the game

[Xavierlover]

Okay, Code Veronica comes on but it seems somewhat laggy and slow. How do I adjust the appropriate settings again, or rather, find them so I can test them out?

[Zorlon]

Most options are in the Options drop down menu

NullDC Settings + PowerVR & Aica are goes to effect the speed

I would guess though that your system is rather lacking for this though

If you find a dreamcast to buy though go for it most dreamcasts will just work Mil-CD burned games, no modding required (P.S. I did say most and not all)

[Xavierlover]

Can you give me a specific plugin setting that might help with fixing glitches. I seem to have only one option, and no other choices. When I downloaded ePSXe, it came with a variety of options to choose until I found the correct plugin to fix its glitches.

[Zorlon]

Best option is to buy a Dreamcast.

The options you see are the options you get and it has all the plugins included with it, sorry there are no special tricks and fixing issues makes the speed drop more, Dreamcast emulation is far from perfect, but ePSXe has been around for years there are plenty of plugins for it and is almost to perfection.

The Dreamcast however is closer to the PS2 than the PSX, so requires a strong computer to handle the emulation for most games, certainly stronger than what is needed for PSX emulation

Sega's PSX competition was the Sega Saturn that is emulated very well via SSF, the Dreamcast is way out of the PSX's capabilities

The 3 main parts to look at are all under Options
NullDC Settings [Enable Dynorec/Enale CP pass/Underclock FPU] (some cause problems rather than fixing, depends on the game)
PowerVR [Look at most there from Paletted Textures to Texture Cache] (some cause problems rather than fixing, depends on the game)
Aica [Sync Audio]

There is little choice for plugins but everything it comes with is everything you can use

[Xavierlover]

Also, how do I find my specs? And how do I save/load my games?

[Zorlon]

System specs...

press the windows key and in the text box shown type dxdiag and hit enter

once the new window pops open you want the info shown (System tab) and the info on the next tab (Display tab), Sound and Input tab info is not so important

For saves...
enable the first type of sub device on Port A slot 1 (NullDC VMU) this is what you save and load from

[Xavierlover]

Thanks for your help. I guess all I can do now is just wait and hope they release a better, updated version of NullDC, much like how they released ePSXe 1.8.0 and it finally fixed several problems and works great..... but waiting for a new version could take years! In any case, again thanks for the help.

[Zorlon]

ePSXe worked great from version 1.5.2 (It's very very old now) the updates have only been minor tweeks really you will I imagine need to update your hardware before NullDC will ever be that playable for you though.

But to be honest you could pick up a real DC for very little now (A VGA cable or box though will still cost a bit but worth it for HD) and just burn the games onto CD-R

Actually they are updating NullDC all the time with all sort of fixes there have already been 9 updates this year so far, last year was slow though, but you do need highish end PC hardware to take advantage of it

I can run NullDC for most games at a good speed though not full speed with minimal to no glitches [this is with all the speed fixes I can get away with that will in turn make the emulation less stable] only for a very few games can I get full speed and without glitches, no WinCE dreamcast games work in NullDC though, my hardware is not great though not enough for Dreamcast emulation, but then again I own a Dreamcast and play on my 43inch TV via VGA so I don't carre about emulation of this system too much I use it more for testing than actually playing

r150 [Memleaks and misc patches by mathew1800. Closes Issue 477. Closes Issue 478. Thanks. =)] Mar 9, 2013
r149 [audio:nullaica doesn't play nice with the configurable high precision timer(Revert & todo: fixed global timing to 50(PAL)/60(NTSC) ~ 20/16.7ms/frame)] Feb 11, 2013
r148 [release-build-conf:Disable STL exceptions/Disable FPU exceptions/Disable vertifications/Align POD/Struct data/Disable FP generation for a speedup of 10-15%] Feb 9, 2013
r147 stable [renderer:Moved testing code to separate branch renderer:All stable optimization changes have been integrated to the stable branch renderer-naomi:Protect texture cache from unknown/unsupported formats (Fixes crashes in few games)] 2013
r146 [Revert back a mindless change in pvrlock] Feb 1, 2013
r145 [renderer:Prevent textures for being updated more than once per pass. renderer:Rm/ unused code Emitter:Some temporary cleanups/fixes as an excuse for it 'screaming' for a complete rewrite] Feb 1, 2013
r144 [+Impl/ ImgReader MDS/MDF Support] Jan 31, 2013
r143 [*Render state cache : Do not reset single pass states *Texture cache : Do not destroy textures if S0(w,h,bpp) match S1(w,h,bpp) (where S stands for state) but update them. *Do not map/unmap already mapped/unmapped codeblocks +Impl/ sequential_stream] Jan 30, 2013
r142 [+New texture cache manager w/ O(1) find() method +Impl/ render state manager +Impl/ faster sorting method for alpha/z-ordered poly renderer -Removed/Replaced (unused)code *Optimizations for streaming textures *Optimized emu main loop *Tons of fixes/opts] Jan 27, 2013
r141 [Missing return statement in ioctl code ! Fix issue 432 (thanks for reporting !)] Apr 10, 2012
r140 [chd: support for newer format chds arm: read rotates for unaligned, force alignment (fixes audio in some games)] Mar 20, 2012
r139 [pvr/threading tweaked the render timing a bit, further 2-3% speedup on 3d heavy scenes for multicores ..] Sep 13, 2011
r138 [nullAICA/audiosteam: --Improved the way audio sync works, editing some code that called to win32 way too often --moving 1 line around: +10% on speed (from 440 to 485% on my pc ..)] Sep 13, 2011
r137 [(Very) primitive d3d11 renderer: Sets up stuff, draws geometry, nothing much more ..] Sep 13, 2011
r136 [Updated SDL binary. drkMaple: -. Re enable LG LCD (VMU) support by default, again.] Aug 21, 2011

[Xavierlover]

I was thinking more along the lines of comparison between ePSXe 1.7.0 and 1.8.0. The new plugins for the latter version (when testing out Resident Evil 3 or Final Fantasy VII and VIII, for example) completely eradicated any and all glitches, skips, hiccups, etc. (I can't even begin to tell you the issues I had with these games!) Now, very-little-to-zero problems, and I enjoy the PSX emulator and games so much more now.

Whatever NullDC is cooking up for their upcoming versions, they need to make Resident Evil Code: Veronica work smoothly. That's really the only game I want to play on the Dreamcast. No reason for me to buy the hardware really.

[Zorlon]

Code Veronica has done for others that further backs up it's your hardware and not so much the emulator

All Final Fantasy games have worked perfect since 1.5.2 as have the other games you mentioned as long as you set the emulator up correctly asides from the odd protected game 1.5.2 of ePSXe can run everything 1.8.0 can just about, it's mostly minor things that make 1.8.0 better, not so much the general compat that has changed very little.

Code veronica is also on GameCube and PS2 that are also emulated but if you can't handle Dreamcast very well then you are not going to get much different results with GameCube or PS2 emulation

The best version of those is the GC version as it happens I have all 3 plus the PS3 HD version

For you I would recommend sticking to PSX, Sega Saturn and under and hand held emulation DS at a push then GBA and under

DS is kinda half way for high end system requirements

Dreamcast PS2 GameCube/Wii and PSP are all reasonably high end emulation

Edit:- actually I think I would put DS in the high end list as well it is rather resources heavy and if you do not have the needed resources i.e. your system is not high end enough you will see lots of errors and slow downs

[Xavierlover]

Would you say, if a person has a desktop PC computer, they would be able to get high-end emulators and games that actually work? I'm pretty realistic, and I know that anything beyond Dreamcast on my laptop is really pushing it. Still, if it can be done, I'll get it done.

Maybe 1.5.2 has always worked for all games as you claim, but whatever new video plugin I put in when I installed 1.8.0 did the trick on my laptop Vista computer. Different strokes for different folks, but I can attest that 1.8.0 had a plugin that neither the 1.5.2, 1.6.0, or 1.7.0 and it fixed up MY machine to play games.

And while I am just chomping at the bit to play GameCube and PS2 games, I'm a realist and quite satisfied with the emulators I have. That includes: Atari 2600, ColecoVision, NES, SNES, N64, Sega MasterSystem, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, PlayStation, and now Sega Dreamcast.