N64 emulation RetroPie x86

Panja

I'm running Ubuntu 18.04.2 on a x86 machine.
Intel NUC7
i5 7260U / 8GB ram / Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640

I'm using mupen64plus - GLideN64.
Changed my resolution to match my TV (1080p) but emulation is a tad slow.
For instance I notice a lot of slow downs in Super Smash Bros.

What can I do to make it better?
I thought that an i5 - 7th gen would be a nice machine for n64.

Any one care to share their settings which work good/fast?
Any other tips?

ericbsmith42

@Panja said in N64 emulation RetroPie x86:

nning Ubuntu 18.04.2 on a x86 machine.
Intel NUC7
i5 7260U / 8GB ram / Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640
I'm using mupen64plus - GLideN64.
Changed my resolution to match my TV (1080p) but emulation is a tad slow.
For instance I notice a lot of slow downs in Super Smash Bros.

Lower the resolution. You really won't notice 720p or even 640x480, the native resolution of N64 was lower than that.

Panja

@ericbsmith42

I do see a difference when I switch to 640x480 tbh.

Also changing to a different resolution other than tv native (1080p) results in my tv switching resolutions and giving me a menu bar (with current res) when going to mupen64plus and when going back to Emulation Station.

Would this hardware not be capable of running n64 with higher res?

Efriim

@Panja
I think the hardware is okay, but I also think there are better emulators for n64 on x86.

Some of the intel driver configs, there is a setting I've seen in /etc/~intel to set it correctly this may be required for some emulators, and it might help the performance if it is set right. I'll hook up the thread and info on this in a little, if you don't find it before me.

For better x86 emulators:

I think project64 has not been opensource.

Daedalus x64 might be worthwhile and has updated very recently.

Two of the libretro cores mupen64plus-next and mupen64plus-parallel are I think in the RetroPie packages for x86, they may need some configuration to get great performance. Of the two I think the next has seen more recent updates and performs about almost as good as the non-libretro on raspberrypi, if the angrylion or vulkan plugin for parallel work then this might be better, also the additional processing and memory speed will help with the retroarch a lot. If you want some help with either of the configuration on these specifically, I went over them recently and could try to help there.

I generally use the GlideN64 plugin too,
DisableFBInfo = True
BackgroundsMode = 0
EnableCopyColorToRDRAM = 0
EnableCopyDepthToRDRAM = 0
can on rare occasions improve the speed in a game, or it will ruin the framebuffer emulation, espescially true for DisableFBInfo. I can't really say for SmashBros in particular, I've never tried.

Efriim

This is what I found, and considered it was important. It is probably nothing
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Intel_graphics
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/17579/libretro-not-yet-ready-for-ubuntu-18-04/32

The 20-intel config would not need the DRI level set back, something like the emulator can have the API level set forward. This to affirm that it not needed.
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/21793/ubuntu-18-04-reicast-not-launching-games/20

API levels
Intel Iris Plus 640 [DirectX 12] [OpenGL 4.5] [OpenCL 2.1] [Vulkan 1.1.93]

Panja

@Efriim

Many thanks for your help and time!
Appreciated.
Gonna have a deep dive soon.

Panja

@Efriim

I'm trying the lr-mupen64plus-next core now on my machine.
Seems to be running ok at my end. Though I need to tweak it a bit as graphics are not pretty. ;-)

Can you share your settings maybe?

Efriim

@Panja
Aww, I wish n64 emulation was easier. I liked this one because a lot of the settings were accessible in menu and the framebuffer emulation was improved for some games like ocarina of time and animal crossing, but it wasn't perfect, at least not on RPI3. Megaman64 was alright, needed some more power. SimCityDD might have worked.

For settings you could try
virefresh = 1500
it might not do much, but I read that the fps will benefit by having a lower clock to sync to.

~~There isn't really anything else. If it isn't rendering various things there are ways to fix it.~~
~~Neither are needed and it slows down parts of the game.~~
Castlevania uses

EnableNoise = True
DisableFBInfo = True
EnableCopyColorToRDRAM = 1

and Starcraft64 uses
BackgroundsMode = 1
DisableFBInfo = False
Both are needed, but they slow down the game a lot.

Panja

@Efriim

Thanks! Gonna give it a go.