N64 NBA Hangtime runs slow

[DETOMINE]

Sounds like the same kind of problem as Goldeneye, where moving around in an open spot results in slow gun shooting, especially with a lot of guards. I seriously suggest you look for 1964 Ultrafast and set 1964's CPU overclock option to 200 Mhz. (Maybe 300 Mhz)
The problem may be the same as Goldeneye (High R4300i usage, IIRC.)

Get 1964 Ultrafast and don't forget to copy the PJ64 RSP plugin to 1964's plugin directory.

I just tested it.
Results :
ultrafast v3 (300MHz) + z64 +z64 rsp : speed is quite good with lowres = 1, but it looks really bad. With lowres = 0, it's slow as hell.
ultrafast v3 (300MHz) + glide + no rsp : slow as hell.
ultrafast v3 (100 - 200 - 300MHz) + Jabo D8 1.6.1 + pj64 rsp : doesn't boot
ultrafast v3 (300MHz) + Jabo D6 1.5.2 + pj64 rsp : slow as hell


pj64 v1.6.1 + Jabo D8 1.6.1 + (obviously) pj64 rsp : fast (like 100 - 300 fps without speed limiter)

It seems that Jabo D8 has affinity with this game.

[critler]

I just tested it.
Results :
ultrafast v3 (300MHz) + z64 +z64 rsp : speed is quite good with lowres = 1, but it looks really bad. With lowres = 0, it's slow as hell.
ultrafast v3 (300MHz) + glide + no rsp : slow as hell.
ultrafast v3 (100 - 200 - 300MHz) + Jabo D8 1.6.1 + pj64 rsp : doesn't boot
ultrafast v3 (300MHz) + Jabo D6 1.5.2 + pj64 rsp : slow as hell


pj64 v1.6.1 + Jabo D8 1.6.1 + (obviously) pj64 rsp : fast (like 100 - 300 fps without speed limiter)

It seems that Jabo D8 has affinity with this game.

yes, its actually playable! wow thank you my friends and me can finally play this game again! its like we meet an old friend again

[RJARRRPCGP]

I just tested it.
Results :
ultrafast v3 (300MHz) + z64 +z64 rsp : speed is quite good with lowres = 1, but it looks really bad. With lowres = 0, it's slow as hell.

Getting somewhere. But sadly, z64 is known to be real slow when rendering some things and I dunno why.

(With Goldeneye, even when not as video intensive as later games, is real slow like a sub 1.0 Ghz CPU when guards are entering the area. And Zelda: OOT seems to work fine for a major part and seems to only be slow for things that I can't understand.) Could be the RSP.

Looks like z64 only stays at normal speed when using an insanely low resolution!

[DETOMINE]

Getting somewhere. But sadly, z64 is known to be real slow when rendering some things and I dunno why.

Yeah z64 really takes a powerful CPU. The performances in ultrafast are only marginally faster than in project64. I may be CPU limited here.
If I can, when I search the best combination of plugins for a game, I always try the fastest video plugins first (audio plugin generally doesn't impact the performance that much).

From the fastest to the slowest, you have (generally and approximately) :
-Jabo D6 1.5.2 or Jabo D8 1.6.1
-all rice based plugins (including the 1964 video plugin)
-glide
-z64

edit : but who knows, maybe in 2-5 years, every plugins will run fluently

[Bighead]

Seeing that you guys are having good results with PJ64 and Jabo's latest plugin, can you please share more information with me such as your exact system specs, any special settings? E or U version? I know my PC is pretty beefy which is probably why I get good speeds with z64, but it doesn't make much sense as to why NBA Hangtime does not perform that well for me.

Here is a comparison of how it performs on my PC.

NBA Hangtime with PJ64 1.6 + Jabo's D3D8 1.6.1


NBA Hangtime with Mupen64 0.5.1 + z64 r17


Mupen64+z64 doesn't skip a beat for me, but PJ64+Jabo is constantly slowing down and stuttering. This is my exact experience since my last computer (e8500 3.6Ghz/Geforce9600GT/4GBDDR2). So I could only assume by this point that z64 was the only plugin that was capable of solid performance regardless of system specs.

And please, read paragraph 3 in my intro, it's very short: http://bmgcl.emuxhaven.net/n64mgcl/N64ConfigList.htm

If you find something that works better, email me I check it often. I can only provide configurations from one viewpoint, but I'm always open to adding alternatives. In this case I cannot test it out, but if it can be verified that PJ64+Jabo config works better for you, I can add it to the list. But I'd like to know how PJ64 is not slow for you but it is for me, so if others have this experience, they can know why and which config to try first.

[DETOMINE]

I will send you an email next time if you want to.

My specs (cf profile) :
Operating System Win 7
CPU Intel 3820QM
Video Card Amd Radeon 7970M (catalyst 12.8 7900M Mod)
Memory 8 Go - DDR3 - 1600 MHz

Using :
-PJ64 with 1.6.1 update (updates the plugins but also the core I believe)
-Jabo D8 1.6.1
-Jabo DS 1.6.1
-Nrage 2.3c
-Unofficial RDB (Project64.rdb) v4.23 (default settings : Recomp/Cache/4Mo/default/audetect/CF=2/Register Caching)

Rom name : NBA Hangtime (U)

Video settings : Full screen 1920x1080x32bits 60Hz (transfer memory)
No option checked, except antialiasing (x2) and anisotropic filtering (x2)

Audio settings : Sync game to audio unchecked

I'm also using the latest directx9 available here (9.29.1974).

[RJARRRPCGP]

Looks a lot better than I thought. The pausing reminds me of PJ64 1.5 back in 2002, but it wasn't pausing that much. Usually when the level isn't fully loaded.

And I switched to 1964 Ultrafast for now, because Goldeneye 007 still lags on new CPUs when at standard N64 clock.

And it might help other Rare games, but even most Rare programs run fine, even with a 900 Mhz CPU.

Conker's Bad Fur Day runs virtually perfect on a T-Bird 900 Mhz.

Oh, and when running Perfect Dark with advanced block linking, it will pause more when loading a stage, but runs smooth when I'm been in the stage for a bit. (Resembles HDD lag before something gets cached.)

[DETOMINE]

And I switched to 1964 Ultrafast for now, because Goldeneye 007 still lags on new CPUs when at standard N64 clock.

As far as I can tell, ultrafast only help with games which are slow even on the real N64 (goldeneye, perfect dark, starcraft etc...).
Sadly I can't get every plugins working with it.

[Bighead]

Yeah there is nothing I can do to get it run nice in Project64. The only difference I can see that should affect performance this greatly is the Radeon vs Geforce. It would be interesting to note if whether or not there's a difference between mobile Radeons or desktop cards. It's been some time since I got to play with a system with a Radeon card, and I don't know anyone with one to test this out. I doubt the difference in processors would matter (but I could be very wrong). Perhaps AMD's graphics are doing something (or not doing something) that nvidia cards are which is causing the stutter I experience. It would be interesting to get feedback from more Radeon users, both laptop and desktop users. Whatever the case, I have updated the list for a PJ64 config since there is at least 2 users out there who are getting a good experience with it.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Yeah there is nothing I can do to get it run nice in Project64. The only difference I can see that should affect performance this greatly is the Radeon vs Geforce.

Looks more like a PJ64 emulation core issue. It might be a more extreme variation of the dreaded pausing bug that seemed to get a lot of folks with 1.5 in 2002. But even 1.5 was virtually perfect when testing after release. And the same with 1.4, which was released on Christmas, 2001, after summer of 2001's 1.3, which was a bummer, because summer of 2001's 1.3 broke Snowboard Kids, despite it was the first version that made Zelda: OOT work super!