Perfect Dark - Game freezes while selecting next mission - Save state uploaded

[Mustang5Point0]

I have read up on this issue. I'm sure many of you are very familiar with this. I got past the first mission, now i'm on the part where you have to escape the building. At first, I had a freeze problem while trying to start the very first solo mission, but I read up on this and tried using the SP Hack. It worked. But now it's freezing again. I tried the interpreter but still no luck. It is set to Protect Memory and ll the other required settings are set to where they are supposed to. Don't know what's wrong. My save state is right at the mission status/completed screen, ready to go on to the next mission. I have re-loaded a couple dozen times to no avail.

So, I have uploaded my save state for anyone here to take a look at. If anyone can get this to work, please let me know what you did. Thanks

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SAYLJT53

[Mephostophilis]

There are also crashes in Perfect Dark that can occur even just by letting the intro scene loop a random number of times--eventually after which you get a crash.

These, based on testing I did with someone else, don't seem to have configuration fixes. (i.e. They are internal to Project64.)

I will have to more closely at your save state tomorrow though.

[Mustang5Point0]

Yes I have gotten those freezes by letting the intro loop. It goes to a blank screen while the music continues to play.

Does this freeze on everyone in the same location I posted about? Meaning, there may not be a user workaround? I wonder if 1.7 has this issue.

[Mustang5Point0]

So, I tried 1964 v 0.99. Got the plugins set up and unzipped and copied the save state from PJ64. Loaded PD in 1964. Loaded PJ SS, went to accept mission, SAME friggin problem..freezes up. I don't know what the issue is, but whatever it is, none of the emulators can get past it.

[Mephostophilis]

1964's save state loader rarely works properly and, if so, for PJ64 1.4 save states.

Reset the excess by trying to reproduce the crash without loading any save states. Project64 itself might have created negative parts that would cause the crash if the state were loaded in another emulator.

And the problem is within Project64 1.6 and can't be worked around afaik.

[Mustang5Point0]

So I decided to try something different. I looked over the eeprom save files associated with this game. PJ64 had a 2kb .eep while 1964 had a 4kb eep. I copied PJ64's .eep , pasted it somewhere else, renamed the eep so it had the identical .eep name in 1964. That is , 1964 names it's .eep files as (Game Title-CRC1CRC2.eep) , deleted the .eep that 1964 created earlier and pasted this one in it's place. Loaded up 1964 and PD... and BING, there is my latest native save. Loaded it up, hit Accept, and it worked. So far I have played 2 more missions past the other spot and no problems.

Notes
I had to play this the rest of the way on 1964. Firs, after loading the native eep save, as soon as the mission loaded up, I saved it afterwards with save state (saved as PJ64 save) , exited game and started PJ64. Loaded PD up and after I got it running, loaded up the save state I just made..... NOPE... black screen. So I figured there was corrupt data saved in PJ64's state file so that must be why PJ64's state created the same problem on 1964, yet it worked on 1964 when I loaded up the native state. The only reason I kept trying PJ64 was due to the fact that I could not get any audio out of 1964. Jabo's Direct Sound and Zilmar's Audio plugin both wouldn't work properly with 1964. for some reason both output no Alist ( 0% ).I tried Schibo's Audio plugin and it's working now with sound. A little more tinny (sample rate conversion a little off) but it still sounds good. Anyways, this must be a PJ64 thing. Looks like I will use 1964 for this one (Sorry Zilmar ). Just using what works hey. All is good. Thanks for trying to help out, it is appreciated. If anyone ever figures this one out on PJ64, please do add to this thread. Any info is important info. :)

[Mustang5Point0]

Interesting...

So I'm on the G5 Building mission in Chicago. Get to the part where you have to use the Camspy. Use the Camspy, umm no picture in camspy mode. So I do the reverse and copy 1964's .eep save file into PJ64's save folder. Move PJ64's .eep into another folder, rename 1964's eep accordingly. Start PJ64 and load PD. My native save is there. And... the G5 mission loads. Wow. Some levels work on one emulator. Use another emulator to get around the other emu's problems and vice versa. Native saves are interchangeable.. just rename accordingly. Guess PJ64 does come in handy, cause the camspy in PJ64 shows the video screen.

Just a little heads up for those of you out there trying to play PD. A little hassle, but it's doable.

[TopGun1986]

Haha that sounds like a whole lot of job just to play this game Mustang5Point0.

I have been using Project64 since 1.5 and played this game a lot in the 1.6 version and never had these kind of problems you seem to have.

I played it from start to finish on all difficulty levels and never experienced something like this ever, but maybe I'm just lucky who knows?

Even now when I'm using the 1.7.0.49 beta with all the latest plugins etc. there seems to be no problems at all.

The only small problems I have ever encounted in Project64 was with Yoshi's Story and Paper Mario in 1.6 with all the flickering but they run quite well now.

Back in the days when 1.6 was the one I used, I had a computer with these specs:

Fujitsu-Siemens Scaleo T bought 2004 mainly for programming
Pentium 4 HT, 3.0GHz
1GB Ram (2x512mb sticks) - Upgraded 2009 with 2x1gb sticks and removed the others
ATI Radeon X600 - Upgraded with ATI Radeon Sapphire 4670

It wasn't the best back then but it did the job, but last year I bought a real gaming machine so that old Pentium is used for what it was intended for.

I would like to know your specs and what you are using, surely if you have something from the last decade you should not have these kind of problems you have.

[Mustang5Point0]

I'm not the only one with this problem. I have searched and seen a lot of others with this same problem, even on newer systems.

I have..
Asus A7N8X Mobo
AMD Athalon 2800+ XP (CPU @ 2Ghz)
400Mhz FSB w/1GB DDR
ATI Radeon X1300 AGP 8X (VisionTek)
512Mb DDR2 on GPU board
ATI Omega display drivers (latest)
Windows XP Pro - DX9.0 C

So I finish the G5 mission last night. Get to the mission complete menu and go on to the Area51 mission, get the freeze on accept again. Haven't done the eep swap to 1964 yet. 1964 works fine with this game, except for the spycam not showing video. PJ64, it seems like every other or every 2 missions, it will load the level fine. I didn't try PJ64 in the first Chicaggo mission as I was still in 1964. It wasn't till I ran into the spycam issue that I swapped back over. Most games run nearly flawless in PJ64. Castlevania is one of them. I also have LOD and tried it , it appeared to work just as well as the first game. Turok 3 also worked very well. PD is the first game I have run into issues like this (now out of 15 games).

OT but related to PD. That first Chicago mission was a bitch. Probably the hardest one I played so far. Stupid ass robot that keeps coming around trying to drill your ass full of holes. Having to use H2H combat ... wow.. tough game, but I love it. Too bad I missed it while it was on sale back then.

[TopGun1986]

I can't see anything wrong with your specs, they are more then enough for Nintendo 64 emulation.

I don't know if you have tried this or not but have you downloaded the latest RDB for 1.6, that did seem to make emulation better for some games, maybe not miracles but still some improvement.

We can only hope that it is solved when 1.7 comes out officially in the future.

I think it's weird that I never experienced anything like this, since so many report the same issue, 1.6 was the one I used and it worked great, I completed the game several times, even unlocked some of the harder cheats.

[Mustang5Point0]

Trying a later RDB now. Will see if that improves anything.

[Mustang5Point0]

I tried an unofficial RDB which is an edited version of the latest officlal RDB by Smiff. I didn't see any edited changes in PD from the official release but I figured I'd try it anyway to see if other games would work better. As to PD, I loaded it up, and the Area51 mission loaded up this time with no problem. Played through the level, got to the next A51 mission and the game fromze upon level load. So I shut down PJ64 and re-opened it. Then reloaded PD. Started the game via the native save and loaded the level, this time, it loaded. Odd. then I remembered that the first A51 mission I loaded, I started it in windowed mode. When I had got to the next mission, I was in FS mode. When I re-loaded again after it froze, I was in windowed mode yet again. I don't know if this makes any difference or if it's just a cooincidence but it seems like the levels will load properly if the screen is in windowed mode first. I will research this further. I will also take into account what magma noted in his thread about the 16k EEP rom. I don't see what this would have to do with it, but i'll check it out anyway.