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3 User Manual
-------------------------
Table Of Contents:
1. What is it?
2 System Requirements
3. Preparations/Other Requirements
4. Usage
5.1 Menus
5.2 Plugin Specific Menus
6. NetPlay
7. Tips, Known Problems and Possible Solutions
8. About
1. What is it?
--------------
nullDC is a plugin based Dreamcast emulator for x86 based computers running Win
dows Operating Systems.
2. System Requirements
----------------------
Minimum :
- Cpu : Any CPU that supports SSE1 (AMD Athlon XP and later, Intel Pen
tium 3 and later)
- Video Card : DirectX9 compliant video card with Projected Textures support.
(Geforce MX, ATi Radeon)
- Ram : 256 MB
- OS : Windows 2000/XP/2003
- December Redistributable of DirectX 9c. Latest version as of now can be fou
nd here:
Online Installer:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b
-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&DisplayLang=en
Offline Installer:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c1367bc3-4676-481a
-bfaa-5c15d1d7199d&DisplayLang=en
- VisualC++ 2005 Service Pack 1 Runtimes. They can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=200B2FD9-AE1A-4A14
-984D-389C36F85647&displaylang=en
- winpcap. It's needed for modem emulation and it's not required otherwise. I
t can be found here:
http://www.winpcap.org/install/default.htm
The above requirements are considered as the absolute minimum in order to run
the emulator with just a few errors
as long as the selected plugins/options are supported by the hardware. The em
ulator is expected to malfunction
or to not work at all on systems that don't meet these requirements.
Recommended :
- CPU : AMD 3000+ or Intel Pentium 4 at 2.6GHz or equivalent.
- Video Card : DirectX9 compliant video card With shader model 2 support. (Ge
force FX, ATi Radeon 9600)
- RAM : 512MB Dual channel DDR333
Systems that meet the recommended requirements should get acceptable speeds f
or most games with minimal errors.
Ideal :
- CPU : Fast Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD 4000+ or equivalent.
- Video Card : DirectX9 compliant video card With shader model 4 support. (Ge
force 8 series, Radeon HD series)
- RAM : 1GB Dual channel DDR400
Systems that meet the ideal requirements should get full speed for most games
using even the most demanding options.
Notes:
- Some games have higher requirements than the rest and have speed issues eve
n on systems that meet
the recommended requirements. In that case a system close to the ideal requ
irements is necessary to reach full speed.
- Pentium 4 CPUs perform some tasks slower than other CPUs, thus the clock sp
eed of 2.6GHz is needed.
On the other hand, Pentium M CPUs perform the same tasks much faster
(A Pentium M 750 at 1.86GHz should be enough to reach full speed).
Intel Celeron and AMD Duron CPUs are slow and it's expected to perform wors
e than the rest.
- nullDC will run on Windows Vista. However, hardware requirements will be a
bit higher than the ones mentioned
above and there will probably be sound related issues (as with many other a
pplications running on Vista).
3. Preparations/Other Requirements
----------------------------------
Before running the emulator make sure that you have the necessary Dreamcast BI
OS and Flash files dumped from your
Dreamcast.
The BIOS must be named "dc_boot.bin" and the Flash must be named "dc_flash.bin
". Both files must be placed in the "Data"
directory which is in the location where you installed the emulator.
The emulator will fail to load if you don't have these files.
Please note that original Dreamcast discs (GD-ROMs) are special discs that can
not be accessed by common PC DVD/CD drives.
Because of this it is not possible to run these discs directly on an emulator.
The only way to run such a disc is
to make a backup copy (a dump) of it using some "special" methods either by usi
ng a Dreamcast or a modified PC DVD/CD drive.
4. Usage
--------
Running the emulator and selecting the "Options -> Select Plugins" option will
open the plugin selection menu.
Here is a list of the plugins that come with the emulator:
-PowerVR (Graphics) Plugins:
"nullPVR" is the graphics plugin that was made by the nullDC team. It's the re
commended graphics plugin.
"Chankast's video" is a port of the PowerVR (graphics) core that was used on C
hankast (another great Dreamcast emulator).
-GDRom Plugins:
"Image Reader" is used to run images of discs. Supported images are GDI, CDI,
NRG and MDS/MDF images.
-AICA (Sound) Plugins:
"nullAICA" is the sound plugin that was made by the nullDC team. It's the reco
mmended sound plugin.
"Chankast's AICA" is a port of the AICA (sound) core that was used on Chankast
(another great Dreamcast emulator).
"Elsemi AICA" is an audio plugin that was made by Elsemi.
"Empty AICA" is an audio plugin that produces no sound. It has reduced compati
bility but is faster than the rest.
-Maple (Input/Saves) Plugins:
There is only one available maple plugin available that covers all the maple
related functions. It has 2 divisions.
Its first division handles each controller port and its second division handle
s the expansion slots of the peripheral
connected to each controller port. Each division has various states. Divisions
and states are explained below.
Controller Division:
"nullDC Controller [WinHook]" connects a normal dreamcast controller using i
nput from the keyboard.
"nullDC Controller [no input]" connects a normal dreamcast controller using
no input.
"nullDC Keyboard [WinHook]" connects a dreamcast keyboard.
"nullDC Mouse [WinHook]" connects a dreamcast mouse.
"nullDC Controller [WinHook.NET]" connects a normal dreamcast controller usi
ng input from the keyboard but for
NetPlay usage. It will make the emulator freeze if it's used for offline ga
meplay.
*Refer to the NetPlay section for more information about NetPlay.
"None" acts like no controller is connected to the port.
Expansion Slots Division:
"nullDC VMU" declares that a VMU (memory card) is connected to the expansion
slot of a peripheral.
"None" acts like nothing is connected to the expansion slot of a peripheral.
In case the above looks confusing... Imagine a Dreamcast, it has four ports,
you connect a controller (peripheral)
to a port, then a memory card to the controller (the Dreamcast controller has
two slots for memory cards etc.).
Maple uses the same structure. See? Simple. ;)
-External Device (Modem/Broadband Adaptor) Plugins:
"nullExtDev" acts like a peripheral is connecter to the external device slot o
f the dreamcast.
After all the necessary plugins are selected and the "OK" button is pressed the
emulator window and console will appear.
5.1 Menus
---------
Here's a brief explanation of the menu options and their usage. Whenever a men
u option has an arrow next to it it will
expand revealing more options. If it doesn't have an arrow then clicking on it
will pop up a configuration/message box.
Clicking on the "Options" tab will reveal the following options. Note that the
options of "PowerVR", "GDRom",
"AICA", "Maple" and "ExtDevice" change according to the plugins used.
"nullDC Settings" has the core options of nullDC. It expands revealing some op
tions.
Clicking on the "Show" option will open a configuration box with the most of
these options and more information.
Available core options:
"Enable Dynarec" enables the dynamic recompiler if selected. The interpreter
is used when this is not selected.
Recommended setting: Enabled
"Enable CP Pass" enables a Dynarec optimization if selected. Recommended set
ting: Enabled
"Underclock FPU" underclocks the Floating Point Unit if selected. It can spe
ed things up if enabled but it might
also break some games. Recommended setting: Disabled
"Cable Type" defines what cable that the emulated Dreamcast uses to connect
to the output screen.
Recommended setting: Depends on the game. Change it if some games give an e
rror about unsupported cable type.
"Select Plugins" opens the plugins selection box.
"PowerVR" contains the available options of the selected PowerVR (graphics) pl
ugin.
"GDRom" contains the available options of the selected GDRom plugin.
"Aica" contains the available options of the selected AICA (sound) plugin.
"Maple" contains the available options of the selected Maple (input/saves) plu
gin.
"ExtDevice" contains the available options of the selected External Device (Mo
dem/Broadband Adaptor) plugin.
Clicking on the "Debug" tab will reveal the "Debugger" option which opens the S
H4 debugger.
Clicking on the "Help" tab will reveal the "About" option which opens the about
box.
Chankast's video:
"Fullscreen" enables fullscreen. You can enable or disable it only before st
arting emulation!
You have to open nullDC.cfg and set a resolution manually or the emulator w
ill use 640x480.
Recommended setting: 640x480, 960x720, 1280x960 and any 4:3 resolution that
is a multiple of 640x480.
Other settings might produce artifacts on some games with specific video ca
rds (blame ATi).
"Use ZWrite" enable writes on the Z-Buffer. Recommended setting: Depends on
the game.
"Use Alpha Test ZWrite" enable writes of the alpha channel on the Z-Buffer.
Recommended setting: Depends on the game.
"Wireframe" enables wireframe mode. Recommended setting: Disabled.
"Show Stats" shows various GFX related statistics on the screen.
"About" shows the about box.
Elsemi's AICA:
"Sync Audio" limits the emulator and the audio speed. Recommended setting: E
nabled.
"About" shows the about box.
Chankast's AICA:
"About" shows the about box.
8. About
--------
Credits :
drk||Raziel : Main coder
ZeZu : Main coder
GiGaHeRz : Plugin work/misc stuff
PsyMan : Mental support, management,
beta testing & everything else
General Plot : www & forum WIP
soully : www WIP
Beta testing :
emwearz, Miretank, gb_away, Raziel, General Plot,
Refraction, Ckemu,Falcon4ever, ChaosCode
Many thanks to :
Ector, Jim Denson, Flea, Jupi, Chankast team, lev|,
GameCop and everyone else we forgot