Getting the best N64 experience on a Pi 4
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That makes sense. I think, at this point, the N64 catalogue runs well enough on lr-mupen64plus and Glide that I can depend on both of those to match different needs and different games, so I don't think I'll be modifying roms individually, I'll wait for a fix instead instead. In the meantime, just knowing about the effect of FBE has had a huge influence on my Pi's capability to emulate the N64, and the results are excellent. Goldeneye is almost as I remember it, and now that I can play all the games Rare released on the system I'm a happy man! ^^
Thanks for all your help and suggestions!
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i didn't even previously know about the PAL thing. FBE is such a fundamental part of n64 emulation that i can't entertain turning it off, under any circumstances. so many games have issues without it - maybe not obvious, but at some point it's likely things won't work right.
it's like using lr-mupen64plus, or gles2rice/gles2n64, etc. those are abandoned, broken and inaccurate cores/plugins, so even if they give good performance for some games, on some hardware... eh, i just forget about those. i would sooner just stick to gliden64 standalone and work within its capabilities, or help optimize it.
each to their own :) but the documentation should generally be aimed at most-compatibility, especially when n64 emulation is under such heavy development. what is slow today may be fast tomorrow, but no-one is going to touch those other emulators again.
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@dankcushions Hey you do you, you guys are doing awesome work ^^
For what it's worth in my experience Gliden64 is far more reliable, so I'd be happy to stick to that if it came to it. -
@Zering said in Getting the best N64 experience on a Pi 4:
-Jet Force Gemini : Speed outside of gameplay is on par with Glide. I have not tested the intro but the menu etc run full speed for me. More surprisingly, the game runs VERY FAST in lr-mupen64plus (it ran slow in Glide), unfortunately the video has a strobe effect of sorts, it blinks to black every couple of frames. If you have any ideas on how to sort that, then JFG could well be playable on my end. It runs fine on next and does not have the glitch, however I have spotted some minor slowdown in and out of gameplay. (But I'm just glad I can finally replay this freaking game!)
Stoked for you, @Zering Seriously, it does feel good when this stuff works well.
Ironically, the flicker you mentioned is fixed when Framebuffer Emulation is True. :) But then you get the performance hit.
Not sure why the stand-alone GLideN64 is slow for you. Feels pretty good for me (even with hires). Not perfect, but certainly playable. No issues keeping Framebuffer Emulation on there, either.
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Ironically, the flicker you mentioned is fixed when Framebuffer Emulation is True. :) But then you get the performance hit.
Not only did restoring FBE not alter the flicker in the least, it also did not affect performance at all on my end. Curious.
Have you got any ideas what could cause this little controls conundrum I'm having with the lr cores?
Edit : Your overclock is a touch higher than mine, perhaps that's why performance in Gliden is better for you?
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@Zering I'm right with you. lr-mupen64plus handles Framebuffer Emulation better than lr-mupen64plus-next currently. This is what I believe will eventually be enhanced.
Edit : Your overclock is a touch higher than mine, perhaps that's why performance in Gliden is better for you?
I don't believe so. Is there a particular part of the game that runs slowly for you? I don't play each game for too long during the test (too many games). After the intro, I make it past the colorful gremlin-looking guy near the lagoon, enter the tunnel and can run around the world without much of an issue.
Also, you must restart either of the lr- cores in order for Framebuffer changes to take effect. I saw the flicker you mentioned. Enabled FB Emu, restarted and the flicker went away. Performance slightly degraded.
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The whole game is significantly slower on Gliden than on lr-mupen64plus, as soon as I get off the shuttle the framerate dips, not in an abrupt sort of way. It's still smooth, but in contrast to the cinematics you can tell about half the frames have been lost along the way. In lr-mupen64plus it's silky smooth ; except for the flickering.
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Is there a way to lock aspect ratio to 4/3 and video mode to 640*480 @ 60Hz with rice plugin ? Everytime I connect the Pi4 to another monitor, I have to set video mode again and check TV options in order to force 4/3 aspect ratio. I would like to avoid runcommand configuration.
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@Yobiwan said in Getting the best N64 experience on a Pi 4:
Is there a way to lock aspect ratio to 4/3 and video mode to 640*480 @ 60Hz with rice plugin ? Everytime I connect the Pi4 to another monitor, I have to set video mode again and check TV options in order to force 4/3 aspect ratio. I would like to avoid runcommand configuration.
I have never found a way to do this, unfortunately. It doesn't mean it's not possible, but it might be. Are you aware if there is a runcommand command-line option w/Rice?
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@roslof I don't know but it could be possible I think. I don't have enough knowledge to do it by myself for now.
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Hey, can we get @roslof's spreadsheet added into the documentation for N64 in the Docs please?
As I feel a lot of the info on there is based around the pi3, which is fine and we should keep that information too. But as more and more new users buy a pi4 instead of a pi3 they might be put off trying the n64 based on the Docs when really the pi4 does have some significant improvements over the pi3. But the Docs page at the moment don't seem to reflect that.
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@retropieuser555 as discussed before, the docs should always reflect most compatibility, and especially now they're no-longer a quick-to-edit wiki, we don't really want such bleeding edge info. the current n64 "optimization" page is IMO an example of how the docs can lose their way when they are filled with overly specific, anecdotal information.
i think this kind of info is too granular for the docs, but perfect for the forum.
that said, the n64 docs pages do need some changes. i'll see if i can get to it.
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Is there a list of which Nintendo 64 games are fully playable on the Raspberry Pi 4 without any overclocking ? :)
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@Vasslepulver I may be wrong but I don't think overclocking plays a massive part in N64 performance. Roslof's compatibility list should give you a very good idea of what you can expect from each game with which emulator.
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@Zering said in Getting the best N64 experience on a Pi 4:
@Vasslepulver I may be wrong but I don't think overclocking plays a massive part in N64 performance. Roslof's compatibility list should give you a very good idea of what you can expect from each game with which emulator.
That's correct. The O.C. information describes the test unit and not a requirement. Comments about performance relate to the test unit, so while mileage may vary, the emulator recommendations aren't likely to change.
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@Zering Where can I find the list ? :)
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@Vasslepulver roslof posted it a while ago on this thread.
Here is the link :
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@Zering Thank you so much! 😊
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For Goldeneye on the 4GB Pi4, I find that no matter what settings I try there is always a compromise.
Personally I think the best combination of settings for overall graphics/display and speed/play-ability is when using gles rice video at 832 x 624 resolution. The compromise is that the textures for the sky don't display as the right colours. On the indoor levels this isn't a problem obviously but I either need to put up with it on the outdoor levels like Dam & Surface etc.
Or I can use Glide64 and get the right colours but take a big hit on the quality of the graphics/display.
The only other option seems to be the standard mupen64 plus plugin correct colours, decent graphics with the game running at about 70% speed, which isn't an option at all.
If anyone has any better settings I'd be interested to try them as I've spent a long time trying to improve on mine with no luck so far. Maybe a better plugin/driver/update in the future might fix this. -
@StuA1975 Have you tried lr-parallel-n64?
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