Getting the best N64 experience on a Pi 4

shavecat

Zering

@shavecat Thanks.
The sound still crackles despite a little bit of an improvement, but the change hasn't affected the speed in the least, so I'm putting that down as half a win. ^^
If anybody else has more suggestions I'm all ears!

PS. Has anybody managed to run Bangaii-O? It runs worse than any other game on my end.
Admittedly it works great on lr-flycast but I'd like to try the N64 version.

AdamBeGood

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

@shavecat Thanks.
The sound still crackles despite a little bit of an improvement, but the change hasn't affected the speed in the least, so I'm putting that down as half a win. ^^
If anybody else has more suggestions I'm all ears!

PS. Has anybody managed to run Bangaii-O? It runs worse than any other game on my end.
Admittedly it works great on lr-flycast but I'd like to try the N64 version.

Stand down, @quicksilver !

The setting was RESAMPLE="trivial", that was the sound setting I changed.

I've only briefly tried Bangaii-O but it seemed okay, not sure what emulator I used though, I'd have to check.

Zering

@AdamBeGood Is that still in retroarch.cfg?

AdamBeGood

@Zering Nope mupen64plus.cfg, you are using the non Libretro core aren't you?

Zering

@AdamBeGood Of course.
The only game I'm using the libretro for is Ogre Battle 64, as I can't get past the first few minutes of the game in standalone mupen64.

EDIT : It worked! Thank you @AdamBeGood
Now I can finally enjoy this Treasure masterpiece <3

EDIT 2 : Can this 'trick' be applied to other systems that suffer from poor sound? I'm thinking of the Jaguar and the 3DO for example.

AdamBeGood

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

@AdamBeGood Of course.
The only game I'm using the libretro for is Ogre Battle 64, as I can't get past the first few minutes of the game in standalone mupen64.

EDIT : It worked! Thank you @AdamBeGood
Now I can finally enjoy this Treasure masterpiece <3

EDIT 2 : Can this 'trick' be applied to other systems that suffer from poor sound? I'm thinking of the Jaguar and the 3DO for example.

On Edit 2 - not that I'm aware, I think it is specific to this emulator and system unfortunately. It should be the default on the core, I think.

Zering

@AdamBeGood I agree, I find bad sound to be more of a deal breaker than slow gameplay.
Shame about the other cares, while playing AvP on lr-virtual-jaguar I couldn't help but think it would be well served by a fix like that.

roslof

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

Would anybody have any suggestions on how to stop the sound from scratching and screeching in mupen64plus-GlideN64?
I'm attempting to play Sin and Punishment (great game), it runs full speed but the sound is an absolute mess. I've tested most of the N64 library and it seems to be one of the few games that is still affected in my experience.

Thanks guys.

I know I'm late to the party here, but this runs really well with lr-mupen64plus. Seems to run perfectly.

If you couldn't find "Sin and Punishment" on my compatibility chart, it's because I used the optimized name "Tsumi to Batsu". I've since added the subtitle if people begin to search for the American name.

Zering

Just glancing over the list, and I just wanted to add that Conker runs fine for me on a stock Rpi4 with regular Glide.
However I'm surprised by some of your findings, ie. Mischief on Glide-Hires. It runs poorly on regular Glide, even after the invasion, and the gameplay is very sluggish. I'll check tonight on Hires but I'm finding it difficult to understand how it could run better on higher resolutions than on standard. If anybody could explain that that'd be grand.

roslof

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

@shavecat Thanks.
The sound still crackles despite a little bit of an improvement, but the change hasn't affected the speed in the least, so I'm putting that down as half a win. ^^
If anybody else has more suggestions I'm all ears!

PS. Has anybody managed to run Bangaii-O? It runs worse than any other game on my end.
Admittedly it works great on lr-flycast but I'd like to try the N64 version.

Still catching up...

This game is listed on the compatibility list (as Bakuretsu Muteki Bangai-O). It's noted that this game starts off rough with the lr-mupen64plus emulator, but eventually recovers to full-speed. So if you don't mind being a smidge patient, the game will eventually play as expected.

Also, if you note any discrepancies between your reality and the list, please let me know, as I always want to keep it up to date.

Zering

@roslof It doesn't start off rough on my end, it starts off unplayable ^^ But I might try it, especially since I haven't actually tried to run it off the libretro core.
I'd add a couple of things to the list : Conker runs completely fine on a stock Rpi 4 with regular Glide, although rice is a mess.
On the other hand, I've had very little luck with Mischief Makers, but your list says it's fine on Glide-Hires. It was terrible on standard Glide, is it actually possible that the Hires plug-in works better for certain games? If anybody could explain that, that'd be grand.

Edit : Ogre Battle crashes every single time on Glide after you're done answering the guy's questions at the academy. The camera pans out and fades, and then it crashes.

Edit 2 : It's beautiful how much of this list is green now, the RPi3 compatibility chart was like a graveyard ^^

Edit 3 : Doom 64's intro runs full speed in Glide.

roslof

@Zering it probably comes down to what we're using as default options.
The list assumes a primarily NTSC set, so Framebuffer Emulation isn't necessary as often. Framebuffer Emulation severely impacts performance on lr-mupen64next, and, as I understand, this is a temporary problem that will likely get remedied in a future update.

So for me, I keep Framebuffer Emulation Off for many of these NTSC games, and if needed, I sometimes need to use the stand-alone mupen64plus builds.

Zering

@roslof My roms are primarily NTSC, however I'm using a PAL screen, would that affect performance?

roslof

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

Edit : Ogre Battle crashes every single time on Glide after you're done answering the guy's questions at the academy. The camera pans out and fades, and then it crashes.

Definitely not a problem with my settings. I'll share them shortly.

Edit 2 : It's beautiful how much of this list is green now, the RPi3 compatibility chart was like a graveyard ^^

Right? Not too bad, but most UI still seems to struggle and there are graphic anomalies here and there... Overall, better over the last year as the software continues to improve.

Edit 3 : Doom 64's intro runs full speed in Glide.
Yes, but it was correctly called out that gameplay is too dark for Glide. No way to increase gamma at a per-game level with GLide. Comes down to preference, but I do enjoy using libretro for this one with a shader that allows gamma/brightness/contract control.

Zering

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

Definitely not a problem with my settings. I'll share them shortly.

It's not with mine either, I just thought I'd point that out. Ogre Battle was notoriously faulty on the Pi 3 as I recall.

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

Right? Not too bad, but most UI still seems to struggle and there are graphic anomalies here and there... Overall, better over the last year as the software continues to improve.'

It's leaps and bounds ahead of the Pi 3. When I bought a Pi 4 I expected a jump in performance but I certainly did not expect to play games that did not even play past the logos (Conker, Banjo-Tooie) at full speed on a stock rig. Not to mention 2D Saturn games at full speed, etc...

It's incredible work.

roslof

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

@roslof My roms are primarily NTSC, however I'm using a PAL screen, would that affect performance?

I never used a PAL monitor before, but you have me wondering about how an NTSC game may run on a PAL monitor. If it's a CRT, I would suspect animations would look off. If it's modern, could I handle 30/60 FPS displays? If not, wondering if V-Sync would be a problem.

roslof

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

Roslof:
Definitely not a problem with my settings. I'll share them shortly.

Zering:
It's not with mine either, I just thought I'd point that out. Ogre Battle was notoriously faulty on the Pi 3 as I recall.

Oh, sorry, I meant that the Ogre Battle doesn't crash with my default settings. I can make it past the questions without the crash you described. I'm working to export my settings to the compatibility chart. Will just be a bit.

Zering

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

Oh, sorry, I meant that the Ogre Battle doesn't crash with my default settings. I can make it past the questions without the crash you described. I'm working to export my settings to the compatibility chart. Will just be a bit.

Then I'd be very interested in your settings. My overclock is close to yours according to your chart, but I don't think that factors into whether or not the game crashes.
I can play it on lr-mupen64 with no problem, however as I play with a Dragonrise N64 pad my controls are tailored for the stand-alone version of the emulator, and they get a bit screwy on libretro, so Glide would be ideal.

Edit : How do I modify the setting for Framebuffer emulation in Glide?

roslof

I exposed all of my default test settings for N64 emulators. Same Google Sheet as the compatibility list, but separate tab/sheet.

These worked well for me for a primarily NTSC ROMset. Your settings may vary. It doesn't mean one is right and one is wrong... It means that this was the baseline for my testing, and overrides listed in the compatibility sheet override (or enforce changes) based on the exposed list.

Hope this helps folks.
Cheers,
Ros