Getting the best N64 experience on a Pi 4

roslof

@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.

Zering

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?

roslof

@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.

Zering

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.

Yobiwan

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.

roslof

@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?

Yobiwan

@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.

retropieuser555

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.

dankcushions

@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.

Vasslepulver

Is there a list of which Nintendo 64 games are fully playable on the Raspberry Pi 4 without any overclocking ? :)

Zering

@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.

roslof

@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.

Vasslepulver

@Zering Where can I find the list ? :)

Zering

@Vasslepulver roslof posted it a while ago on this thread.

Here is the link :

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Rq4shU1RUSdcc7cTVWeORMD-mcO6BwXwQ7TGw8f5_zw/edit#gid=1983504515

Vasslepulver

@Zering Thank you so much! 😊

StuA1975

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.

Zering

@StuA1975 Have you tried lr-parallel-n64?

AdamBeGood

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

@StuA1975 Have you tried lr-parallel-n64?

That's what I use, but the snow still looks messed up. It runs really well though.

Evert

Hi all, I finally got myself a Pi4 and started playing around with N64 emulation. I have a Pi3B with N64 games, but decided that the Pi4 deserves a fresh start.

A few issues that I have as I am playing with it:

I cannot get the Hi Res Texture Packs to work for lr-mupen64plus-next. I have placed the .htc files in the following folder, but no change
/home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/Mupen64plus/cache/
I went into the retroarch setting and turned all the hi res texture pack options on, but I still cannot see any difference. On the Pi3 (with rice) it makes a huge difference. Any ideas anyone?
I have read that the default resolution for mupen64plus-gles2rice has been set at 640 instead of 320. Someone else somewhere posted that this can be changed in the mupen64plus.cfg file in the configs/n64 folder, but I cannot see any resolution settings in that file when I edit it.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

George Spiggott

Anyone else noticed a slight boost in performance on Mupen64plus-next since the 4.7 update yesterday? SOTE no longer slows down on explosions with screen res at 320x240 and MSAA set to 2.