The UltraHLE initiliasition file, ultra.ini, is very important! Without it, most of the games that now work wouldn't. It also allows you to apply cheats, and to set some preferences in the emulator. At first sight the file looks confusing, but don't worry, I'll explain how it works...

introduction

At the top of the file is the credits: the authors of the emulator, the terms and conditions, all the people who contributed. Then there's a history (shows what was changed in each version). Next comes the compatibility list (fully playable games, almost playable games, intro works) Only games in the fully playable section are playable!! I can't stress this enough - ignore the rest, they won't work! This is a useful resource - if you ever want to know whether or not a particular game will work, this is the place to look. Next comes "Ultra.ini Help", a technical help section that you can ignore - I suggest you do not try to patch ROMs yourself, let the pros do it!

Any line starting "//" is just a comment, that line will be ignored by the emulator. So if you want to remove anything, don't delete it, just put // in front.

setting "savepath" & "rompath"

Look for the section "Defaults For All ROMs" There are three things here you need to set: "savepath", "rompath" and "resolution". Leave everything else alone! "savepath" tells UltraHLE where to put, and where to fetch, game saves. If you want to use a subfolder of your UltraHLE folder, just enter "SAVE" ("savepath=SAVE") and make a subdirectory of your uHLE folder called "SAVE". Now UltraHLE will use this folder for saves instead of the ROM folder - very useful if you want to back them up!

Set "rompath" in the same manner, but if you want to share one ROMs folder between multiple emulators, it would make sense for it to not be a subfolder of UltraHLE. For example, your could enter "C:\Games\N64ROMs" ("rompath=C:\Games\N64ROMS"). Then it wouldn't matter where UltraHLE is installed.

setting resolution

Now to set the resolution. Notice that the file contains all possible resolutions, commented out with "//". By default the resolution isn't set (since all the lines are prefixed by //) and so UltraHLE will default to 640x480, and can be changed in the emulator. If you have a fast PC, games will look better at a higher resolution, such as 800x600 or 1024x768. To set a resolution so that uHLE always uses it, remove the "//" before the line of your choice. I don't recommend going above 1024x768, the returns are minimal and you will most likely have problems.

If you want to disable sound in all games (perhaps to speed up emulation) set the line "sound=1" to "sound=0" The "Defaults for all ROMs" section should not be edited.

The rest of the file is taken up by individual games - settings, patches, cheats.

the [default] section

This sets default parameters, the settings UltraHLE will use unless something different is specified for a particular game. Individual game settings always override the defaults. I suggest you don't change anything other than savepath, rompath and resolution unless you know what you are doing.

• savepath=

This parameter sets the folder that uHLE will use to store and retrieve save game files. If left blank, uHLE will use its own folder. Path can be absolute (e.g. "=C:\Games\UltraHLE\Saves\") or relative ("=Saves"), where "Saves" is a subfolder of the uHLE folder). There must not be any spaces in the path. It is not case sensitive.

• rompath=

This parameter sets the folder that uHLE wil look in for ROMs. If left blank, uHLE will look in its own folder. If you don't set this parameter correctly you will not see a list of games in the main uHLE window - you will have to load each game manually using File>Load. Path can be absolute (e.g. "=C:\Games\UltraHLE\ROMs\") or relative ("=ROMs"), where "ROMs" is a subfolder of the uHLE folder. There must not be any spaces in the path. It ss not case sensitive.

• resolution=

This parameter sets the default resolution for all ROMs. If not present, you can set resolution inside the uHLE GUI. However, you are limited to three possible values (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768), and the choice is not saved on exit. By using the ini you can set a much wider range of values, and it will be 'remembered' whenever you start uHLE. You can only set one resolution at a time; there is a list of all possible resolutions in the ini, just remove the "//" from the one you want to use. Keep all the other remarked out with "//". Note that your graphics card and monitor must be capable of the resolution you selected! For example, a single Voodoo2 cannot do 1024x768. If you choose an unsupported resolution you will most llikely find that your monitor turns off when you start a game - don't worry, just press escape, alt+f4, alt-tab etc., until you get out of the game, then try a different resolution.

• sound=1

This parameter simply enables or disables sound in all games. You might want to set this to 0 ("sound=0") to improve performance on a slow PC. The default is "Sound=1" which enable sounds in all games. Note however that individual games can still have their sound disabled by patching, for example the game Aeroguage, which only works without sound.

• optimise=2

Sets level of MIPS->X86 compiler optimizations for any ROMs not identified explicitly. Do not change this.

• directsp=1

I'm not sure what this does, but leave it alone.

• viewport=320,240

Tells uHLE the native resolution of the game, usually 320x240.

• comment=??? unknown ??? Patch your Ultra.ini file

Set the comment uHLE will display for any unknown ROM. Usually something like "=??? unknown ??? Patch your Ultra.ini file" because it assumed that someone somewhere has included your ROM in an INI. If you see this message in the uHLE window, go look for an updated INI. It doesn't necessarily mean that the ROM won't work however, just that it won't have any special patches, cheats etc. applied.

individual game sections

The rest of the file is taken up by entries for individual games; first the games that are known to work, then all the games that are known to not work. So an unkown game may work, you just have to try it. The entries for games that don't work are simply to save the user the bother of trying them.

I'll use the entry for Mario64 from v1.0.2.7 as an example: