================================================================================ UltraHLE - Ultra64 High Level Emulator Copyright (c) Epsilon and RealityMan, 1998 ================================================================================ Overview -------- Epsilon and RealityMan are very proud to introduce you to what we think may well be the emulation release of 1999, UltraHLE. UltraHLE is a Nintendo 64 Emulator for Win95/98 and WinNT based PC systems. Taking full advantage of Pentium processors and 3DFX (Glide) graphics cards this emulator allows you to play some of the biggest releases to date that the Nintendo 64 has had. Games such as Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 run superbly on PII 300Mhz systems. But don't be put off by the system requirements, PII 2xxMhz systems can runs this emulator just as well with Voodoo1 based technology as well as Voodoo Banshee. System Requirements ------------------- We cannot test UltraHLE on all combinations of system, although we do have several, so we cannot guarantee that UltraHLE will work on all systems. To give you an idea of what can run UltraHLE we have the following 3 requirements. a) MINIMUM REQUIREMENT PII 233Mhz Processor 32MB System RAM Voodoo1 Based 3DFX Card (Glide Drivers Required) b) RECOMMENDED REQUIREMENT PII 300Mhz Processor 64MB System RAM Voodoo2/Banshee Based 3DFX Card (Glide Drivers Required) c) IDEAL REQUIREMENT PII 400Mhz Processor 64MB System RAM Voodoo2/Banshee Based 3DFX Card (Glide Drivers Required) Running The Emulator -------------------- !!! PLEASE READ CAREFULLY !!! In order to use UltraHLE with commercial rom images, you MUST have purchased and own the original rom cartridge. If you use rom images that are illegally in your posession you are in violation of United States and International laws. THE AUTHORS OF ULTRAHLE DO NOT CONDONE THE USE OF ILLEGALLY OBTAINED ROMS Using UltraHLE is a fairly simple process but please read these instructions carefully before using the emulator. Once you have unzipped the downloaded UltraHLE distribution into a directory of your choosing you will notice 3 files. This README file plus ULTRA.EXE and ULTRA.INI. Before starting UltraHLE we recommend that you edit ultra.ini, with the text editor of your choice, to set the default rom directory. This setting is in the [default] section of ultra.ini and the parameter you will need to change is rompath=xxx. For example, if you have your rom images store in h:\roms then this parameter will need to read; rompath=h:\roms You can also adjust savepath, which tells where you want to store the emulator save files, and set the starting resolution. These are just defaults and can be changed when the emulator is running. There are also a lot of other settings that tell the emulator how to deal with some particular games. It's best to leave these untouched. Right, now you can start UltraHLE (ultra.exe). Once the emulator has started you will notice the GUI is broken down into four main parts. a) The Menu Bar Where you can access the functionality of UltraHLE. b) The ROM List This is where any roms the emulator finds in the directory that you specified when modifying the 'rompath' setting are displayed. c) The Debug Window UltraHLE does not yet run ALL available games so error and warning notifications will be displayed here. d) The Status Bar This will display general statistics about a rom whilst it is executing. The Menu Bar has five main menus which allow you to do the following: + File|Open (Ctrl+O) Using this calls the standard windows file open dialog window. From here you can select a rom image that may not be located in your preferred rom directory. + File|Load State (Shift+F9) Once a rom has been loaded you can load a previsouly saved state file. Put simply, this allows you to save game states so that you can come back and play on from where you left off. + File|Save State (Shift+F6) This option allows you to save a game state file with a name of your choosing. The state takes about 2-4MB of disk space depending on how much memory is in use. + File|Quickload 'ultra.save' (F9) Ultra.sav is the default save state filename. This option and Quicksave allows you to load and save state files without flipping out of a game. + File|Quicksave 'ultra.save' (F6) See Quickload. In addition to saving the current state as Ultra.sav, a backup of the previous Ultra.sav is renamed Ultrabak.sav. See 'Known Problems'. + File|Exit Allows you to shutdown the emulator. + Emulation|Start (F5) Start a rom executing. The 3DFX becomes active when the game starts to draw graphics. You can return to the user interface by stopping emulation using ESC. + Emulation|Stop (Esc) Stop a rom executing. This also closes the 3DFX so you can see your desktop. + Emulation|Pause (F7) Pauses execution. The difference to stopping is that the 3DFX remains active, so you can see the graphics. Useful for screenshots. Press again to continue. + Emulation|Reset Restart rom execution. + Emulation|Unlock If the game becomes stuck, this option might help. See 'Known Problems'. + Options|Sound Emulation Allows you to Enable/Disable Sound. Sound does take a notable amount of processing time, so disabling it will make a game run faster. Also useful if the game has sound problems. + Options|Graphics Emulation Allows you to Enable/Disable Graphics. This is mainly useful if you want to hear the sound properly with a slower computer. If the computer is not fast enough in most games the sound is the first thing that starts to have gaps (when the sound data is not calculated fast enough). + Options|Screen Resolution Allows you to change the default resolution. + Options|Wireframe (Ctrl+W) Turns Wireframe Mode on and off. This is mainly a debugging feature, but it can also be used to see the world if there are graphics bugs that make it black or otherwise unvisible. + Options|Screenshot (F10) At any point during a game you can take a screenshot of the current frame. Pressing F10 creates graphics files in 'targa' format in the current directory. These files are incrementally named, e.g. 01.tga, 02.tga etc. Please Note: You cannot take a screenshot when the emulator is stopped. + Controllers|Configure Currently, UltraHLE only supports one controller. Selecting this option allows you to see the predefined keys for the emulated controller keypad. The only option that you may configure currently is whether you wish to have the analogue joystick emulated on the keyboard or using a joystick. The other controllers and configurability will be added later. The current Controller 1 setup is as follows: Start S A Button A B Button X Trigger Z (Underside of Controller) Left C (On Front Left of Controller) Right V (On Front Right of Controller) C-PAD (Up) I (the keys are arranged to a similar T-formation C-PAD (Down) K as the normal arrow keys) C-PAD (Left) J C-PAD (Right) L D-PAD (Up) T (the keys are arranged to a similar T-formation D-PAD (Down) G as the normal arrow keys) D-PAD (Left) F D-PAD (Right) H Stick (Up) Up Arrow Stick (Down) Down Arrow Stick (Left) Left Arrow Stick (Right) Right Arrow Shift Key - When used in conjunction with a Stick movement the movement is slower. In most games holding shift means walking instead of running. Ctrl Key - When used in conjunction with a Stick movement the movement is even slower than with the Shift Key. This makes mario tiptoe. Enough Already, I Want to Play a Game ------------------------------------- OK, there are two ways to start a rom executing. The easiest method is to select a rom, from the Rom List, by double clicking the rom name. The rom will auto- matically load and start executing. The other way is to use the File|Open menu option which will allow you to browse you system for any rom images. Select a rom image and then click Open. Again, the rom will automatically load and begin executing. Known Problems -------------- We have tried to concentrate on the "best" N64 games first. The two most tested games are Mario and Zelda, which have been played very far using the emulator. We are most interested in hearing about your problems, if they happen in Mario or Zelda. We do about a number of minor graphics bugs, so please only report about either major graphics or sound glitches, or crashes. Other games marked playable in the compatibility list (on our website) have been tested only briefly, so new problems might surface when you play them further. In addition there are many games that start up, but crash at some point. This is simply because the emulator does not try to emulate everything, only the minimum set of features required for our target games to run. Emulated features are added one at a time. One known problem is with save games (save/load state). The emulator generates a lot of special structures in the process of emulation to speed things up. These take several megabytes and are not saved due to their size. Instead, they are cleared when you save the state, and regenerated when execution continues. However, in some cases the game gets stuck or corrupted in the save process. If the game stops running (usually graphics stop, sound might continue), there are two things you can try: 1) stop emulation, and select Emulation | Unlock. It does some "magic" stuff that sometimes gets the problem fixed 2) try restarting the whole emulator and then loading the savegame. Sometimes an emulation bug corrupts the emulator itself, and then this helps. If these don't work, that savegame is lost. So use at least a few savegames and save to them alternatively, so you won't lose everything in case of problems. If you use the QuickSave/Load features, they do this for you. The state is saved to Ultra.sav, and the previous Ultra.sav is renamed to Ultrabak.sav. So if you notice that Ultra.sav got corrupted, you should still have the previous savegame left. You can load a new game without exiting the emulator. In some cases this can lead to problems though, if the previous game left the emulator in some undefined state (most often happens if the previous game crashed). In this case restarting the emulator helps. There are also some differences between 3DFX-cards. On Voodoo1 some graphics modes are not correct (Mario works pretty ok). On Banshee dual texture is not supported, and some complex transparent textures are rendered in a simplified way (like flames in Zelda). On Voodoo2 (which is our main test card) all features should work. If windows starts beeping when you play, you have probably accidentally selected the listview or the status window in the user interface with mouse. Press ESC and F5 to temporarily stop emulation. Contacting Us -------------- Before you fire up your mail program and send me mail, keep these in mind: - Don't email if you're looking for ROMs. - Don't email and ask when game 'x' will work. - Don't email when the next release will be out. - Don't email and ask if your system will work. If you proceed to email us for any of these reasons (or anything that can be explained on my webpage) you won't get a reply. If you still want to email us, send mail to: ultrahle@emuunlim.com ================================================================================ All references to Nintendo, Nintendo 64, or N64 are copyright Nintendo of America, Inc. and Nintendo of Japan, Inc. Nintendo 64, N64, and the Nintendo 64 logo are registered trademarks of Nintendo of America, Inc. and Nintendo of Japan, Inc. Nintendo is in no way affiliated with UltraHLE. ================================================================================