#project64

A general website for emulator troubleshooting? Nope, can’t help you there. Usually when I have an issue with an emulator, I check and see if there’s a compatibility wiki. For example:

https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

If something isn’t rendering properly in Dolphin, checking this Wiki will usually clue me in to what settings I need to tweak. The same applies to PCSX2.

I will say that Project64 has felt a bit old hat for a while now. I remember it went through a bit of a rough patch back in the early 2010′s. Maybe it’s gotten better in recent years, but I moved on to using the Mupen64 in RetroArch a long time ago. Better performance and better compatibility. A lot more stuff just “works” without having to spend 30 minutes tweaking settings.

It’s possible there’s also a good stand-alone version of Mupen64 if you don’t want to figure out RetroArch. (Maybe this? Or this? I guess you’re on your own.)

Edit:

I was the last anon, I just figured out the issue. Steam messes with emulator control settings! I never new that. That is so strange. I turned steam off and it stopped messing up!            

Right, yeah, if you run anything through Steam, it’ll automatically hook in to all sorts of Steam’s systems. That means the overlay (which can cause emulators like Mame to crash) and it means Steam Input, which is how the software handles and filters game controls (so keyboards, gamepads, mice, and whatever else).

Most N64 games implement their HUD, even the text, using simple 2D textures. By replacing those textures with transparent versions of themselves, we can effectively make a game's UI disappear.

Emulators and plugins

Project64, with the GlideN64 plugin, can be used to dump textures. Enable this capability in the plugin's Texture enhancement settings, and then visit the Hotkey menu to assign inputs for dumping textures, and loading/reloading custom textures. Be sure to use a Qt, rather than a WTL, build of GlideN64.

The plugin briefly displays an indication when you enable texture dumping. Play the game for a bit in this state, with an aim to get as many UI elements to appear onscreen as possible.

Once your texture_dump/GAMENAME/GLideNHQ folder is populated, find and bring the textures you want to replace into another workspace.

Mass-generating matching textures

We'll use Windows batch scripts to automatically generate transparent versions of each. First, dump-file-names.bat, which creates a filename listing of all textures on our workspace. And second, copy-texture.bat, which will take A.) that file list and B.) an image file, and create appropriately-named copies of that image.

There appear to be size constraints for the transparent image we want to swap in. Presumably textures need to be some power of 2 in both directions. A 1x1 PNG didn't work, whereas a 16x16 PNG did.

Loading the textures into GlideN64

Move your generated PNGs into GlideN64's hires_texture/GAMENAME folder. When you start the game, press your assigned hotkey to load these textures if the process doesn't start automatically.

GlideN64 will override all identically-named textures that it finds; you should see UI elements disappear.

The plugin will also (per the relevant option in Texture enhancements) pack your custom texture replacements into a HTC archive, at Plugin\GFX\GLideN64\cache. This cache can be used in other emulators, namely Retroarch with the Mupen64Plus core (via system\Mupen64plus\cache). Be sure to select GlideN64 under Core Options, and enable texture loading options inside GlideN64's own options menu.

Tiled HUD textures

Note that some HUD elements, like the Wave Race title screen logo, are made up of many smaller textures. Replacing all of these can be a painstaking process.

Other issues

Supposedly certain background textures are problematic to replace, such as Mario Kart 64's menus. Supposedly, GlideN64's options for older RICE texture packs (Alternative CRC calculation) can help with this.

My laptop charger broke months ago so I asked them to cancel it. The customer service rep apologized and said they'd reimburse me. Never happened.

They chose to ignore me after that.