Getting the best N64 experience on a Pi 4

Stevewp

@dankcushions Unfortunately the games I’m trying to improve performance with, Cruis’n USA for example, doesn’t even work with that emulator...

It seems like we are half way there, I can run many N64 games on the Pi 4 that I couldn’t on the Pi 3 but they have issues. Either the emulators will need to improve, which probably won’t happen, or maybe a Pi 5 will run them properly

George Spiggott

There are still improvements to the GPU drivers like Vulcan implementation that may have benefits for N64 (also PSP and Dreamcast) performance.

dankcushions

@Stevewp said in Getting the best N64 experience on a Pi 4:

@dankcushions Unfortunately the games I’m trying to improve performance with, Cruis’n USA for example, doesn’t even work with that emulator...

just tried it - works fine for me? some slowdown but it 'works'

quicksilver

@Stevewp said in Getting the best N64 experience on a Pi 4:

Cruis’n USA for example, doesn’t even work with that emulator...

For that particular game use gles2rice. You'll also need to modify the mupen64plus.cfg located at /opt/retropie/configs/n64/mupen64plus.cfg at the bottom under the video-rice section change screen update setting to 7 and it will get rid of the strange "jitter" issue that gles2rice has on the pi 4. The game is still a little slow here and there but it's certainly "playable".

rittnasty

@George-Spiggott Where did you edit this for mupen64plus-next? I cannot find the config file or the option to edit this setting like I could find for mupen64plus. I am only experiencing the 'line' when I use mupen64plus-next.

quicksilver

@dankcushions https://github.com/gonetz/GLideN64/commit/438bcc460f07ad3c9e25b8bd4e72581a443c2a7c

I'll test this out and see if it fixes our slowdown issues with the hybrid filter.

Edit: looks like youre already aware of this change, sorry for pinging you :p

janderclander14

Is there anything specific that is needed to run the standalone Mupen64plus? I've installed the latest binary and source versions from the Retropie setup but it keeps giving this error (even though this file is available at: /opt/retropie/emulators/mupen64plus/lib/mupen64plus)

UI-Console Error: Specified Video plugin not found: mupen64plus-video-GLideN64.so

George Spiggott

@rittnasty Hotkey + X takes you to the menu to change the settings, there is no file to edit.

@quicksilver I fixed Pilotwings, thanks.

shavecat

Hey,
So whats the news about the n64 ?
any moves to make it better ? (pi4 )

akamming

Hi,

mupen64plus (not the libretro core, but the normal one) runs quite OK on my PI4. Most game work quite OK on 640x480 with no sound issues.

Just a few settings i found to tweak performance on pi 4

Resample set to "trivial"
resolution (in runcommand menu) set to 640x480 or 720x480. Some games can go higher, but on this resolution till now i got every game to work.
Skipframe=true
Screenupdate setting = 7 (otherwise rice plugin will not work)
Video plugin: I decide per game which works best...
switch off hybrid filter

on lr-mupen64plusnext i am still struggling and i hope to get bettter performance, cause i want to use gamebezels for the better look, whic . i found almost all games to be working on 320x240. But i don't like the lower resolution. I want to run at least on 640x480. So here are my settings which increased performance the most. Hopefully people can give me hints on how to better performance in lr-mupen64plus next:

sound: changed latency to 512 reduced a lot of sound issues, but not all.
Could not find the trivial resampler. it is default on sinc. If i change to CC or null i have no audio. if i change to nearest i experience the same issues (stuttering sound in a lot of games).
Video: In lr set to 4:3. In runcommand: Set resolution to 640x480 or 720x480
i think the biggest performance draw is on the hybrid filter. I could not find this option in libretro

Who can help me to tune the libretro core further?

dankcushions

@akamming the resolution and hybrid filter issues with -next will need to wait for code changes. we will have to wait for the developer, but they are aware.

akamming

@dankcushions tx! do you know other options to get better performance? I noticed that PSP and dreamcast performance is much better dan N64 in retropie.

N64 is an older machine with lower specs, so i would expect a better performance… it feels like i'm missing a setting which causes bad performance...

dankcushions

@akamming said in Getting the best N64 experience on a Pi 4:

@dankcushions tx! do you know other options to get better performance? I noticed that PSP and dreamcast performance is much better dan N64 in retropie.

no, any good options will generally already be the defaults :) for -next, i would just wait a few months for the next release of it. mupen64plus-GLideN64 should be the better choice for now.

N64 is an older machine with lower specs, so i would expect a better performance… it feels like i'm missing a setting which causes bad performance...

it doesn't quite work like that. modern systems like the dreamcast and PSP have GPUs and architectures that are more similar to modern architectures, so it can be "easier" to emulate them in terms of computer power and programming. n64 is a very unique beast, very little in common with current GPUs (except the 3dfx voodoo series, with some fun consequences for emulation)

quicksilver

@akamming said in Getting the best N64 experience on a Pi 4:

Could not find the trivial resampler. it is default on sinc. If i change to CC or null i have no audio. if i change to nearest i experience the same issues (stuttering sound in a lot of games).

This is likely because the game is not running fullspeed. It's not the same as the crackling/popping issue on standalone mupen64plus.

akamming

Tx for the anwsers. Just have to wait for new releases of lr-mupen64plus....

Brunnis

@akamming Yep, the upcoming release of lr-mupen64plus-next will definitely improve things. In the meantime, you could test changing RetroArch’s audio driver to ’tinyalsa’. Notice any less stuttering? I’ve made some tests with this and have noticed improvements. It’s something I’d like to look into some more, but unfortunately rarely have much spare time these day.

akamming

@Brunnis said in Getting the best N64 experience on a Pi 4:

In the meantime, you could test changing RetroArch’s audio driver to ’tinyalsa’. Notice any less stuttering? I’ve made some tests with this and have noticed improvements. It’s something I’d like to look into some more, but unfortunately rarely have much spare time these day.

A nice… i'll give it a try…

Something else: I noticed on my rpi4b in SW episode I racer i noticed the racer, pod and character grahpics are not always OK. Same behaviour in mupen64plus (also if a change the the video plugin: same behaviour on all plugins) and lr-mupen64plus and lr-mupen64plus next.

Since i als have a dell laptop with debian on it i did a little test by installation retropie. On that laptop all is fine. both mupen64plus and lr-mupen64plus next show correctly.

I searched on the internet and it looks exactly like this issue. this issue refers to a 'depth hack' option.. but i can't find it … does any now how i can enable or disable this option?

dankcushions

@akamming said in Getting the best N64 experience on a Pi 4:

@Brunnis said in Getting the best N64 experience on a Pi 4:

In the meantime, you could test changing RetroArch’s audio driver to ’tinyalsa’. Notice any less stuttering? I’ve made some tests with this and have noticed improvements. It’s something I’d like to look into some more, but unfortunately rarely have much spare time these day.

A nice… i'll give it a try…

Something else: I noticed on my rpi4b in SW episode I racer i noticed the racer, pod and character grahpics are not always OK. Same behaviour in mupen64plus (also if a change the the video plugin: same behaviour on all plugins) and lr-mupen64plus and lr-mupen64plus next.

Since i als have a dell laptop with debian on it i did a little test by installation retropie. On that laptop all is fine. both mupen64plus and lr-mupen64plus next show correctly.

I searched on the internet and it looks exactly like this issue. this issue refers to a 'depth hack' option.. but i can't find it … does any now how i can enable or disable this option?

idk what that option is but AFAIK this can't be done on a raspberry pi because the GPU doesn't have the necessary GL extension: https://github.com/gonetz/GLideN64/issues/2176

quicksilver

@dankcushions Haha I thought that sounded familiar :)

akamming

@dankcushions said in Getting the best N64 experience on a Pi 4:

idk what that option is but AFAIK this can't be done on a raspberry pi because the GPU doesn't have the necessary GL extension: https://github.com/gonetz/GLideN64/issues/2176

aha tx .. that's a clear anwser, unfortunately not what i'd hoped… fortunately i just found out the same game is also available for dreamcast and that one works fine within retropie (btw only if i use redream. in lr-flycast the game freezes the start screen.), so i can still play it on my self built arcade ;-)