N64 NBA Hangtime runs slow

[critler]

hi guys,

ive tried really alot, looked around in forums but i cant solve the problem
i tried nearly every emulator but the rom just seems to be broken. heres the problem:

the very first time i downloaded nba hangtime with p64 everything was just fine. i could play singleplayer and multiplayer matches without any problems.
i never unistalled or deleted the roms, it always was in my hdd i just didnt play it anymore. now after serval months i want to play it again but it just doesnt work.
i can select players, create one etc. the menue runs great. but everytime i start a match the game runs horribly slow and unplayable.
my computer is quite decent so i dont think this is the problem.
how can i play my old favourite game smothly again? (

 

[dsx]

odd, because afaik pj64 never ran NBA hangtime at full speed; there's probably something i dont know haha

 

[DETOMINE]

Please try the set-up given by Bighead here. If using glide or z64, you may want to use his glide.ini or z64.conf files too. You can find them here.

 

[critler]

odd, because afaik pj64 never ran NBA hangtime at full speed; there's probably something i dont know haha

it did i had a 23 games winstreak

well is it possible to play this game again on any emulator?

 

[DETOMINE]

See my post above. BigHead suggests the use of 1964 with the z64 plugin.

 

[critler]

wow thanks, ive got hope again
but im very new at emu and stuff can you explain it a bit more precisely?

 

[DETOMINE]

First, you will need to download 1964.
You can find the 1.1 version here. The interface look somewhat like project64.

Second, you will need some plugins, you can find them here. (Many thanks to Bighead again ).

As you will see in the README file, you will have from your downloaded file to put files in the "plugin" ([path]/EMU_1964_11/plugin) folder : Glide64.dll, Glide64.ini, GlideHQ.dll, z64gl.conf, z64gl.dll, z64-RSP-Ziggy-z64RSP.dll, AziAudio0.56WIP2.dll, NRage_Input_V2.dll. If unsure, you can put all the files from the plugin directory of the plugin pack in it.

You will also have to put several files in the emulator folder (i.e. the one with 1964.exe in it, probably named EMU_1964_11) : every files in the "Required Files" folder of the plugin pack of Bighead (starting from BMGlib.dll and ending with xinput9_1_0.dll).

Then start 1964.exe and click on "Plug-ing", Change Plug-ins.
Select Glide64 (video), Azimer HLE audio v0.56 (audio), nrage plugin (input), no rsp (rsp).

Confirm, do some tests (i.e. play the game).

Then click on "Plug-ing", Change Plug-ins.
Select z64 (video), Azimer HLE audio v0.56 (audio), nrage plugin (input), z64 rsp emu. plugin (rsp).

Confirm, do some tests (i.e. play the game).

Keep the one that works better for you.

edit : don't forget to configure the plugin video if using glide64 (resolution mostly).

edit 2 : z64 seems to be faster

 

[critler]

thanks for the help and the time you took!
unfortently it still runs very slow. glide video plugin just shows a black screen when i load the rom. z64 runs great near the baskets, but in midfield its just crap.
which rom did u use?

edit 2: the z64 config seems to run better, but its still unplayable. any ways to increase the performance?

 

[DETOMINE]

thanks for the help and the time you took!
unfortently it still runs very slow. glide video plugin just shows a black screen when i load the rom. z64 runs great near the baskets, but in midfield its just crap.
which rom did u use?

edit: with the z64 plugin nba hangtime doesnt even start without the rsp plugin.

Maybe I shouldn't trust the Bighead list too much.
After doing some testing (man the music is so catchy is this game ), I think I have a way faster set-up.

Emulator : PJ64 1.6.1 (don't forget to get the 1.6.1 patch over the 1.6 install)
Video : Jabo Direct3D8 1.6.1
Audio : Azimer's HLE audio v0.56 WIP2 or Jabo's DirectSound 1.6.1 (select the fastest, I'm going full speed with both so I wouldn't know)
Input : N-Rage Input Plugin (I'm using V2 2.3c, but any version should do fine)

Link for PJ1.6/1.6.1 here

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

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.

 

[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!