Mupen64 user guide

Hacktarux - Malcolm
September 5, 2003

Contents
1 Introduction

2 Technical Overview
2.1 Pure interpreter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 Interpreter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3 Dynamic recompiler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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3 Windows
3.1 Requirements . . . . .
3.2 Compatibility . . . . .
3.3 GUI . . . . . . . . . .
3.3.1 Shortcut keys .
3.3.2 Command Line
3.3.3 Other features
3.3.4 Configuration .
3.4 Compiling (Source) . .

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Support
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4 Linux
4.1 Requirements . . .
4.2 Compiling (Source)
4.3 Compatibility . . .
4.4 GUI . . . . . . . .
4.5 Plugins . . . . . .

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5 Thanks

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6 Contact Information

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Introduction

Mupen64 is a n64 emulator desgined to be multi-OS. It has been developped

on/for Linux originally but the emulator has already been ported succesfully on
Windows and MacOSX for example. Actually the program can be easily ported
on all OS supported by the SDL library.
In its current state, the emulator is highly compatible and use a plugin
system. With the correct plugins (correct can be computer dependent), it
can achieve nearly perfect graphics and sound in many games.
The biggest problem of this emulator until now was its speed but now its
progressively changing with a totally new core and theres still a huge room for
improvements. Anyway if you have a fast machine, you should already be able
to get many games running fullspeed.

Technical Overview

When you configure Mupen64, youll have to choose between three CPU emulation cores. Here well introduce the technology used by those three cores so
that you can understand what you are doing.

2.1

Pure interpreter

In the pure interpreter core, opcodes have to be decoded each time they are
executed. So if a loop is executed one million times, each opcode of the loop
has to be be decoded one million times. Needless to say its a slow core, but it
has theoretically less bugs than the others because its simpler to program.

2.2

Interpreter

In interpreter core, the opcodes are put in a cache after decoding them. When
programming such core, the biggest difficulty is to detect when the cache become
invalid when for example the game doesnt need some code anymore and erases
it with some new code. Thats why it can have some compatibility issues, but
in its current state im considering the compatibility is nearly the same. Of
course, this core is far much faster than the pure interpreter core and we are
encouraging people to use this core by default with this release.

2.3

Dynamic recompiler

The mupen64s dynamic recompiler is an extension of the interpreter core. Not

only it decodes the opcodes and caches the result, but it produces native assembly code like a compiler would do from the source code except we dont have
source code here but a list of opcode. This core will have the best speed when
itll be totally implemented but currently it doesnt work at all, so dont even
try to use it currently, the emulator will crash !

Windows

Here well tell you how to configure mupen64 to run on windows.

3.1

Requirements

To get yourself up and running youre going to need at least a 600MHz processor
based computer, with 64mb RAM, a video card that a N64 graphics plug-in supports (OpenGL1 , D3D2 or GLIDE3 ) and a keyboard/mouse/joystick depending
on what youd like to use for input.
Glide is bringing up the rear with Daves Glide644 plugin if you have a
voodoo card, but because more advanced cards (from NVidia5 and ATI6 ) have
optimizations for both OpenGL and D3D they are more commonly used and at
the time of this document provide better results.
For the D3D plugins your going to need to upgrade your Direct X versions
to at least 7 depending on the choosen plugin, but the newest Direct X is always
suggested.
For OpenGL most Windows users should be fine as long as they have the
latest drivers for their video card, NVidia GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) based
cards (TNT, GeForce) should go and install the NVidia detonator drivers, they
generally are faster.
Oh and of course Mupen64 will only run on versions of Windows 98 and up,
but will probably not run on NT4.

3.2

Compatibility

We didnt include any compatibility list in this version but we can say you that
many games are compatible, it would actually be easier to list games that arent
compatible. Thus said therere still a lot of roms that are not working or have
problems. Feel free to report them on the message board. You should also know
that many problems can come from the plugins you are using.

3.3

GUI

The Windows GUI7 has been refined starting from 0.0.90. We now run the
ROM inside the Mupen64 window, oppose to opening another dialog window.
Full screen now supported. There is also a toolbar, buttons done with Windows
XP type style, and the configuration of plugins has been redone to its own dialog.
Take some time and explore, nothing is hidden. There was many improvements
in 0.1 release. Firstly theres an ini file which can be edited using the gui. You
1 http://www.opengl.org
2 http://www.microsoft.com/directx
3 http://www.voodoofiles.com/
4 http://glide64.emuxhaven.net/
5 http://www.nvidia.com
6 http://www.ati.com
7 Graphical

User Interface

can access Rom Properties dialog, and from there add your own comments to
the roms,also you have an option to calculate MD5 checksum of the file and
emulator will automatically identify this rom,and will change its name in Rom
Browser if needed.
The emulator is now able to identify the dump version youre trying to play,
if its not a known good dump, the emulator will warn you. There is also a cache
which enable you to keep your roms on slow media such as CDROM without
having to wait for a long time before being able to use the emulator. The name
displayed in the rom browser is the good name as the goodn64 tool is giving it.
Theres a few possibilities that mupen64 dont identify bad dumps during the
first scan, but it will identify them the first time youll play them. Finally an
audit option will let mupen64 scan all roms to find the name of all the dumps
you have just as goodn64 would do.
If you have any suggestion on the GUI please post them on emutalk where
the mupen64s message board is hosted : http://www.emutalk.net/.
3.3.1

Shortcut keys

Alt+Enter or ESC
F1
F2
F3
F5
F7
,1..9
CTRL+A
CTRL+L
CTRL+S
CTRL+P
CTRL+R
ALT+T
ALT+S
+
.
TAB
...

Switch from Full Screen/Window mode

(can also be done using toolbar)
Reset Rom
Pause Emu
Make screenshot (plugin dependant)
Quick Save
Quick Load
Choose Save slots
you have up to 10 save slots for each game
Save as
Load previously saved file.
Note: you can only load if the same game is running.
Open settings dialog.
Open rom properties dialog.
Refresh rom browser.
Switch on/off toolbar
Switch on/off statusbar
Increase speed modifier
Decrease speed modifier
Put speed modifier to 100%
while pressed emulator will run without speed limit

You can use make a quick save state by hitting F5 key. To load it again
press F7. There are 10 slots to save states, you can switch between them using
number keys.

3.3.2

Command Line Support

Mupen supports command line arguments.Here are the options :

mupen64.exe -a <audio plugin dll name>
-v <video plugin dll name>
-c <control plugin dll name>
-rsp <rsp plugin dll name>
-g <full path to the rom>
-f
-nogui
write a
-save
on exit

,ex. -a audiobeta.dll
,ex. -v Jabod3d6.dll
,ex. -c JaboInput.dll
,ex. -rsp rsp.dll
,ex. -g c:\roms\mario64.zip
starts rom in full screen
enters nogui mode,usefull to
front-end
saves plugin and other params
from emulator

If you have spaces in one of the parameter,you can use ,for example :
mupen64.exe -g "c:\roms\mario 64 [u] [!].zip" -nogui -f -a audiobeta.dll

will start emulator in nogui mode,load audiobeta.dll as sound plugin,and will

take current default plugins for gfx,control and rsp,and will go fullscreen after
loading rom. In -nogui mode you can end emulation by pressing ESC key.All
usual hotkeys not available.
3.3.3

Other features

: Configuration Dialog : In this dialog you can access almost all available options
and settings for mupen. Configure plugins,sets directories,change emulation
options and so on.
Recent roms menu Store all recent roms,that you play,have option to freeze
recent roms,and not adding new,and to clear list.You can start a game by clicking on according menu item.
Rom Properties Dialog Here you can see most rom header information,calculate
md5 of the rom and identify it.Also you can pick what plugins you want to use
with this rom. Those settings saves in the romsetting.ini file .When starting
this rom next time, emulator will look in this file and if found will automatically change plugins.
Speed modifier Usefull when you want to run rom at any speed you like from
1 to 200%. Hotkeys are + for increase speed,- for decrease and . for default
100%.
Rom Browser Rom Browser allow you to view all your available roms,its
supporting multiple directories. Right click on any rom in rombrowser opens
menu with option to play game,rom properties, and refresh .You can select what
columns to show in rom browser in the configuration dialog. Rom browser uses
cache for storing all roms info,including crc,md5,name,country and so on, when
refreshing rom browser it clears all of its cash and make rescane of all roms.
Be carefull with this option,as it removes all previos md5 info as well.
Audit roms dialog Allows you to audit your roms,ie check them.Mupen stores
md5 info of all known good,hacked or bad roms available in mupen64.ini .Using
6

this file mupen can with 100% precision identify your rom, this utility can be
runned on all roms,that are inside of rombrowser cache and calculate their md5
checksum.You can stop scan process any time and return to it later,previously
scanned roms will be skipped.
Multy Languages support Mupen64 have Multi languages support.Main language file is mupen64.lng , when mupen starts it reads from this file what languages to put in the Languages menu.All languages files is inside /Lang directory
by default.If you want to make your own translation or fix errors in existing one,
dont hesitate to contact us ,new translations always welcomed :)
Here the list of files mupen64 windows port creates in its directory and
description of each of them : mupen64.exe - main executable mupen64.ini main ini file,used for storing md5,name,crc and saves types info. mupen64.cfg main gui configuration file,plugins and different options inside mupen64.cache cache file with rombrowser information mupen64.cch - rom browser directories
inside mupen64.lng - index file for languages whatsnew.txt - log file with changes
in all versions /Lang - directory with language files /Plugin - default directory
for plugins 9can be changed in config dialog) /Screenshots - default directory
for screenshots /Save - default directory for save states ...
3.3.4

Configuration

Before loading roms make sure, that you configured properly emulator plugins.
Graphics : For best graphics results use Jabo 1.4/1.5, Rices unofficial
Daedalus or icepir8s TR64 opengl graphics plugins for example. All plugins can be found on emutalk download section except jabos plugin that
can only be found inside PJ64 official package.
RSP : The RSP is a chip inside the n64 used to produce visual and sound
effects. At the time of this document, only two RSP plugins exists. The
first one is the Jabos RSP plugin included in PJ64 official package. Its a
pretty good lle8 RSP plugin very well optimized.
The second plugin is included with mupen64 and is emulating the RSP
using hle9 technic. It means its very fast but has some compatibility
problems. If you have a slow machine, this plugin can help you achieving
better frame rate. Currently this plugin supports the three main audio
ucodes10 as well as jpeg ucodes in zelda and rares mp3 ucode. It also
implements some boot codes for games such as banjo tooie or donkey
kong. If the game is using another ucode, itll have some problems that
may make it unplayable, in that case you will have to use jabos plugin.
The audio part of the hle rsp plugin is based on uhle source code which
is very fast but has some inacuracies. Again, if you get bad sound, try
8 low

level emulation
level emulation: technic that simulate the software run on a chip instead of emulating
every single low level aspects of it
10 a ucode is a program run on the RSP
9 high

jabos rsp plugin to see if the problem is coming from the rsp plugin or
not.
Both of these plugins can process the audio ucodes (also called audio
lists) or send them to the audio plugin. Only a few sound plugins are
able to process the audio lists, they are called hle sound plugins The
only existing hle sound plugins are the various Azimers sound plugins
and the ultrahle2064 audio plugin provided with ultrahle2064 emulator.
Azimers plugins are more accurate than uhle sound code used in the rsp
hle plugin and are still nearly as fast but some people are having problem
with the sound part of the plugin (that is different from the hle part that
is processing sound before sending it to the sound card). For this reason
i have also included an option in the hle rsp plugin that let you send the
audio lists to a specific audio plugin without using it to send the sound
to your sound card (the audio plugin specified in mupen64 configuration
will still be used for that purpose).
Sound : audio plugins are fully supported in this version. Theres not
much to say about audio plugins if you have read carefully the RSP explanations. If you have choosen to process the audio lists in the RSP plugin
or in a specific audio plugin, you may be wondering if some lle plugins
exists. If you have understood what has been said in the previous section,
all hle audio plugins can be used as lle plugins (only half of it will be used
but thats all). Some 100% lle sound plugins exists such as jabos sound
plugin or zilmars basic plugin.
Input : our preference for input plugins goes to nrage input plugin as it
seems to have most features than all the other ones.
Core : To choose the core read the Technical Overview section.

3.4

Compiling (Source)

Because the project has been open source for the past few versions I will give
some instruction to getting what software you need to begin developing Mupen64. Before I begin I must explain a few matters.
We give you the source for Mupen64 for two major reasons, for your own
reference (or help) and to aid us in the project. We dont want people taking the
source, renaming the dialog, changing the GUI around and releasing it. Please
honor the fact that we spend a lot of time toward the project and releasing a
renamed Mupen64 is dishonest and detours the authors from ever releasing the
emulator again. We trust you with the source; we trust you will use it honorably.
To download the source go to the Mupen6411 downloads page and grab a
source archive. After grabbing the source youre going to need to download Dev
C++12 . Dev C++ is the application of choice for the Mupen64 programming
team. It is a free open-source programming interface.
11 http://mupen64.emulation64.com/down.htm
12 http://www.bloodshed.net/dev/devcpp.html

Good luck, and if you have any improvements on the source that you think
we should know about please go to EmuTalk13 message boards and post the
source in the Mupen64 area14 . We will give you full credit if the source is used
in Mupen64s next release.

Linux

The linux version is very similar to the windows one, so i suggest you to read
the windows part of this guide first especially the plugins section to understand
how things are working.

4.1

Requirements

Before downloading Mupen64 make sure that your video card is compatible with
OpenGL (Mesa). The current N64 Linux plugins are only OpenGL compatible.
At present NVidia based cards are the best ones to use under Linux for OpenGL,
ATI is in second, and the rest are. . . the rest ;-). Make sure you have Mesa
4 or higher installed, and the Mesa GL, GLU and GLUT packages installed.
Now your also going to need to have XFree86 4 installed. If your running off
a NVidia based card you better mozzie over to the NVidia site and grab the
Kernel and GLX updates, they will be essential for your card. Because I dont
own an ATI based card I have not used any ATI Linux drivers, but I have found
some information on ATI Linux drivers, which can be found here. Always try to
use the drivers for your video card, the default Mesa drivers are pretty slow. If
your card is OpenGL compatible and isnt NVidia or ATI go to RPMFind and
search for your GPU, youll probably find something. Once those are in place
you should be up and running.
The Linux version of Mupen64 comes in a compressed tar/gzip archive. Once
you download the file simply use Archiver, or in a Terminal type:
# tar -zxf mupen64{version}.tgz
After this you should have a nice Mupen64 directory formed in the same
directory as the compressed archive.
Now you have a Mupen64 binary. To launch simply type ./mupen64 in the
Mupen64 directory, you should now be in the GUI.

4.2

Compiling (Source)

Before compiling Mupen64 make sure you have gcc installed. To compile mupen64 you just have to decompress source code archive and to run make command.
# make
13 http://www.emutalk.net/
14 http://www.emutalk.net/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=50

Maybe youll have to modify a few things in the Makefile but if you are
a developper i dont have to explain you all these things so thats all for this
section ;)

4.3

Compatibility

The compatibility in Mupen64 is the exact same as the Windows version, the
only thing holding the Linux version back is the graphics plugin.

4.4

GUI

Thanks to Blight, the linux gui is almost the same as the windows one. So look
at the windows section of this document ;-)

4.5

Plugins

Graphics :
At the time of this document, three plugins are available. Firstly theres the mupen64s gfx plugin. Its very basic and should
only be used for 2d demos. The second graphic plugin is TR64 plugin.
Its very compatible and should work on most video cards that supports
OpenGL 1.2. But theres a but. . . this plugin can be hard to use as
you have to choose the ucode each time you run a game and there are
graphic glitches sometimes, mainly caused by the fact that icepir8 only use
OpenGL 1.2 without any extension. The third plugin is GlNintendo64, it
has lower compatibility than TR64 and needs a video card supporting at
least OpenGL 1.4 or nVidia extensions but it has nearly perfect quality
and is easier to use.
RSP : Only one plugin exists for linux, its the hle rsp plugin and its
bundled with mupen64. Currently, there are no third party hle sound plugin so we dont have implemented a config dialog box like in the windows
version.
Sound : Mupen64s sound plugin is using the OSS library and should
give you nice results in most cases.
Input : The best linux input plugin is the latest blights input plugin. It
allows you to use keyboard or any joystick supported by the SDL. Another
plugin is provided with mupen64 (mupen64s input plugin) but its very
basic and cant be configured, it can be of some help if you have some
difficulties with blights plugin.

Thanks

Special thanks to Icepir8 for his gfx plugin, and to NRage and Obsidian for
their input plugins.

10

All the authors of an open source n64 emulator, they all have helped me
accidentally at some point: Zilmar, Jabo, Niki Waibel, Schibo, Rice, Dave2001,
StrmnNrmn and sorry for the ones i have forgotten ! Thanks also to Azimer for
giving me some info on how he made his audio plugin. Thanks to Martin and
the emu64 team for hosting mupen64 website and to DOUG and Mesmann for
the time they spent on the web site design.
I would also like to thanks all the beta testers (you know who you are guys
!).

Contact Information

Firstly, to get the latest news about mupen64, you should visit our web site at
http://mupen64.emulation64.com.
For main support please go to EmuTalk.net, there are many Emulator Experts there who can solve the bulk of any problems. We also run a IRC channel,
#Mupen64 on EfNet. If you would like to contact us directly here are our email
adresses below.
Id like everyone to note that we will not even respond to ROM requests.
Also that using Mupen64 or any other emulator is a privladge, not a right.
Telling us to release the next version or to do anything else isnt very respectful.
We understand that you want all your games to work, and work perfectly. It is
a goal, but one that will not be here any time soon. Please have patience.
Hacktarux: [email protected]
Main Coder
Blight
linux GUI coder,
input plugin coder and
gfx plugin porter
DavFR
debugger coder
ShadowPrince
windows gui coder,
web site programming. . .
Malcolm: [email protected] Original creator of this help file,
GUI contributor,
General Emulator specialist,
Support dude ;-)
CoDeX, Pir4nhaX
GUI Contributors
Flea
MacOSX port
Muad
QNX port
Claus Windeler
BeOS port

11