Rice's Video 6.1.1 very minor GFX error in Zelda: MM

[Prince Kassad]

I am using Rice's Video for emulating Zelda: MM for some months now, and never had any major problems. But there is one very minor problem I want to know if it can be fixed. It is:

In East Clock Town there are two jugglers with colored balls. The balls are colored in the emulator too, but only if you look at them from far away. When you get close to the balls, they turn pitch black. Once you go away, they get colored again. There seems to be a field around the jugglers that triggers this error.

Is this problem known and can it be fixed?

I use Project64 with Rice's Video 6.1.1 beta 10, computer specs are in my profile.

 

[Iconoclast]

First of all, the recommended plugin for this game is Glide64, not Rice's Video Plugin.

Second, if you still want to use Rice's Video Plugin, this is the configuration I use for the game. I will test out what you mean later, but for now, see if this configuration works.

Open the plugin configuration for Rice's Video Plugin, and, under the Current Game Options tab, set the following options:

• Accurate Texture Mapping: Disabled
• Fast Texture Loading: Enabled
• Normal Alpha Blender: Disabled (probably the fix for your problem)
• Normal Color Combiner: Disabled
• Framebuffer Emulation: Basic Framebuffer
• Render to Texture: Basic Render to Texture
• Disable Big Textures: Enabled

 

[squall_leonhart]

even with those settings, the shield is still rendered incorrectly, and certain textures are applied to heavily (don't blend properly) such as the green grass near the observatory

 

[Prince Kassad]

I want to use Rice's so I don't have to switch plugins when playing another game, except when Rice's fails completely.

So, these are the settings I use now (the problem is still not fixed, because technically the settings have not changed):

• Framebuffer: None (basic framebuffer causes big FPS drop)
• Render-To-Texture: Hide Render-To-Texture effects (basic R-T-T causes big FPS drop)
• Normal Blender: Disabled
• Normal Combiner: Disabled
• Fine Texture Mapping: Enabled (required for map select)
• Fast Texture: Use Default (Default: Disabled) (required for map select)
• TMEM Emulation: Enabled (required for map select)
• Disable Big Textures: Disabled (what is it used for, anyway?)

I don't know what's the problem with the shield texture, as I've noticed nothing wrong with it. I can confirm the blend problems, though.

Also, Glide64 does not work with this game for some reason, it spits out infinite error messages and then quits.

 

[Iconoclast]

You shouldn't have disabled rendering to texture. Rendering to texture does not slow down your game and basic frame buffer runs at about 30 FPS at the beginning of the game but then speeds back up again once you get to the File Select menu.

Disable Big Textures is needed so you can see the gameplay in the Majora's Mask battle room. If this option is not on, you cannot see anything but a black screen in that part of the game. I told you to go with the options I suggested to you, not to go against my recommendations just because they seem pointless.

Accurate/Fine Texture Mapping is not required to see the Map subscreen, and if it is on, the Map subscreen image will be glitchy as well as other graphics in the game.

squall, I am aware that this plugin is incapable of perfectly emulating this game. I was only suggesting the settings that I think work best for it.

Really, though, you shouldn't be using Rice's Video Plugin to emulate this game. Either you use Glide64 or you use Direct64. Just because using Rice's Video Plugin reduces plugin-changing in between running different games is no reason to use Rice's Video Plugin all of the time. In fact, I switch my plugins 20 times a day, as every day I am testing several games and trying to find out which emulators and plugins and configurations work best. It isn't that hard to change plugins in between games; should be quick to get over with. If it's really that hard to put up with, use 1964 or Mupen64 to assign certain plugins to certain games. Both of those emulators should work just fine with the Zelda and Mario games.

If Glide64 does not work, that means your video card has a problem with it, judging by the errors you reported. You probably have some Microsoft-manufactured video card. You may need to reinstall your video card drivers from your video card brand's site. For example, I used to have NVidia GeForce (Microsoft Corporation). To get rid of that Microsoft part to get Glide64 working, I had to go to nvidia.com and reinstall their latest drivers. If you are still having trouble getting Glide64 to work, give it a rest, use Direct64 instead.

 

[Prince Kassad]

You shouldn't have disabled rendering to texture. Rendering to texture does not slow down your game and basic frame buffer runs at about 30 FPS at the beginning of the game but then speeds back up again once you get to the File Select menu.

When having both activated, I get slowdown at least in these cases:

• Using a transformation mask
• Invisible tektikes turning
• Intro
• Lens of Truth
• Goron curl-up in snow (also happens with both disabled, though)
• probably some other things

which is the majority of the game. And I want speed more than quality, really. (apart from not seeing the advantages of having framebuffer and Render-To-Texture enabled)

Disable Big Textures is needed so you can see the gameplay in the Majora's Mask battle room. If this option is not on, you cannot see anything but a black screen in that part of the game.

I'm pretty sure this is related to motion blur, as this room works fine for me when Render-To-Texture is disabled/hidden (haven't tried with it on, though)

I told you to go with the options I suggested to you, not to go against my recommendations just because they seem pointless.

I just wanted to know what it's for, because an option such as this is likely to cause some side-effects.

Accurate/Fine Texture Mapping is not required to see the Map subscreen, and if it is on, the Map subscreen image will be glitchy as well as other graphics in the game.

I'm not talking about the Map Subscreen (which doesn't glitch here), I'm talking about the Map Select, a developer tool hidden in the game that can be activated with hex editing or gameshark codes. It can be really handy for testing glitches, emulator problems, and such.

Really, though, you shouldn't be using Rice's Video Plugin to emulate this game. Either you use Glide64 or you use Direct64. Just because using Rice's Video Plugin reduces plugin-changing in between running different games is no reason to use Rice's Video Plugin all of the time. In fact, I switch my plugins 20 times a day, as every day I am testing several games and trying to find out which emulators and plugins and configurations work best. It isn't that hard to change plugins in between games; should be quick to get over with.

I know that switching plugins should be done for some games, and can be useful at times, just this one has so minor bugs that I don't care about it.

If it's really that hard to put up with, use 1964 or Mupen64 to assign certain plugins to certain games. Both of those emulators should work just fine with the Zelda and Mario games.

I know these emulators and sometimes use them, I prefer the Project64 interface though.

If Glide64 does not work, that means your video card has a problem with it, judging by the errors you reported. You probably have some Microsoft-manufactured video card. You may need to reinstall your video card drivers from your video card brand's site. For example, I used to have NVidia GeForce (Microsoft Corporation). To get rid of that Microsoft part to get Glide64 working, I had to go to nvidia.com and reinstall their latest drivers.

I'm sure I downloaded the latest drivers when I got this computer. But while I'm thinking about it, there are probably newer drivers I can download. It just takes a while to disable the NVIDIA background processes...

And I'm pretty sure the Glide64 thing is not a global issue, as other games used to work fine, and here emulation stops when the title screen should pop up, which, as we all know, uses motion blur.

If you are still having trouble getting Glide64 to work, give it a rest, use Direct64 instead.

I haven't tried Direct64 yet, but I may give it a shot.

 

[Iconoclast]

Frame buffer emulation slows down emulation speed, not render-to-texture. Just because both frame buffer emulation and rendering to texture are on doesn't mean you can assume that both of them are causing slow speed.

If you can't get Glide64 to work, the next best thing is Direct64.

Do you know what GameShark cheats are? Start the Zelda MM ROM, and pause the game the moment it starts. Open the GS Cheats dialoge, and enable the "Fight Demo Majora's Mask" GameShark cheat. Close the cheats dialoge, and resume the game. Wait for the logo to pass by, and the screen should be black. You should hear music, but the screen should be pitch black. Now, enter the plugin configuration and turn on "Disable Big Textures." NOW you can see the game. Therefore, you need to have this option on in order for the final boss arena part of the game to be playable.

 

[Prince Kassad]

Frame buffer emulation slows down emulation speed, not render-to-texture. Just because both frame buffer emulation and rendering to texture are on doesn't mean you can assume that both of them are causing slow speed.

...indeed Render-To-Texture doesn't cause problems (just tested it with the known slowdown points), so I'll go enable it. Thanks.

Do you know what GameShark cheats are? Start the Zelda MM ROM, and pause the game the moment it starts. Open the GS Cheats dialoge, and enable the "Fight Demo Majora's Mask" GameShark cheat. Close the cheats dialoge, and resume the game. Wait for the logo to pass by, and the screen should be black. You should hear music, but the screen should be pitch black. Now, enter the plugin configuration and turn on "Disable Big Textures." NOW you can see the game. Therefore, you need to have this option on in order for the final boss arena part of the game to be playable.

I tried it. The screen is not pitch black, but it's very dark (you can still see things if you look closely). Disabling Big Textures brightens up the area a lot and helps vision. So it's indeed a problem, but because my screen is fairly bright it's only minor.

 

[mudlord]

Prince Kassad, have you tried this for Glide64? That should fix those LOZ MM framebuffer errors...like the crash when motion blur is used.

 

[Prince Kassad]

...apparently hardware framebuffer emulation was causing the crash problem. I disabled it and the game seems to run fine (except being slow in the usual slow down areas, plus map select). But I'll do a little more testing before laying down my final decision.

EDIT: Meh, it's nice apart from an annoying graphics error. I'll definitely consider it an option in emulating this game.