Reply 20 of 89, by swaaye
Sounds like this person is quite versed on the hardware. I am certainly grateful for everything those MESS folks do.
Sounds like this person is quite versed on the hardware. I am certainly grateful for everything those MESS folks do.
So how far has MESS progressed in terms of emulating the N64 hardware? Is it capable of running any games with a suitably beefy hardware setup?
wrote:So how far has MESS progressed in terms of emulating the N64 hardware? Is it capable of running any games with a suitably beefy hardware setup?
Not sure on how beefy a machine is needed (these videos are sped up), but here are videos of it running games: ...
Mario 64 almost a year ago
Mario 64
Smash Bros.
Mario Kart
wrote:So how far has MESS progressed in terms of emulating the N64 hardware? Is it capable of running any games with a suitably beefy hardware setup?
No.
Generally speaking, if it only uses 2D graphics, it should run very well and be playable framerates and come close to, if not, "full speed".
If it uses 3D graphics, it will crawl at 33-50% speeds on current hardware.
And there's still some graphic bugs and so on.
Here's some recent bench tests, running the first 90 seconds of games without input - not much, but best I can do short-term:
System 1: mess64 -bench 90
n64 sm64u : Average speed: 57.28% (89 seconds)
Mario's head spinning around, not really indicative of in-game work.
System 1 specs: C2D Wolfdale e8400 @ 3.6Ghz.
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System 2: mess64 -bench 90
n64 sm64u: Average speed: Super Mario 64: 47% (90 seconds)
Again: Mario's head spinning around, not really indicative of in-game work.
n64: 1080 Snowboarding: Average speed: 42% (89 seconds)
n64: Automobili Lamborghini: Average speed: 41% (90 seconds)
n64: Doom64: Average speed: 34% (90 seconds)
n64: Hydro Thunder: Average speed: 57% (89 seconds)
(mostly due to the 2d logos at the start causing the game to run at 100%, average more like 47%)
n64: Densha de Go! 64 (Japanese Train Simulator): Average speed: 52% (89 seconds)
(again due to 2d logos, average more like 45%)
System 2 specs: AMD Phenom II x6 3.3Ghz:
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System 3: mess64 -bench 90
n64 sm64u: Average speed: 70.15% (89 seconds)
Again: Mario's head spinning around, not really indicative of in-game work.
System 3 specs: Core I7 2600k @4.4GHz
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Thanks to: John_IV (System 1), MikeAbson (System 2), Reznor007 (System 3)
"I see a little silhouette-o of a man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you
do the Fandango!" - Queen
Stiletto
Looks like MESS has competition:
http://www.emutalk.net/threads/54131-Announce … pment-underway/
https://github.com/tj90241/cen64
Already this can play light games like Namco Museum, and it might be booting Super Mario 64 soon. I'm very excited for this project, although I doubt I'll be able to run it full-speed when it is finished.
Surely considering how demanding BSNES is, a truly cycle-accurate N64 emulator will be unplayably slow?
I think its criminal that the best output available for the N64 was composite video, not even s-video, thats what really puts me off the old console.
wrote:I think its criminal that the best output available for the N64 was composite video, not even s-video, thats what really puts me off the old console.
Nearly all N64s have S-video, Ninty just didn't sell a cable. Depending on the region, you could use a SNES or Gamecube S-Video cable, but Nintendo liked to dick around with adding or removing coupling caps, pull-up resistors, and so forth.
All N64s can be modded to output SCART RGB. Some with just some wires, others with a replacement video DAC.
VogonsDrivers.com | Link | News Thread
I use my N64 over SVideo on my Panasonic CRT. Works great.
To the OP, I agree, N64 emulation has never been perfect, but I understand the difficulty of emulating this system properly. This is why I mostly have given up on emulation these days and keep all my old consoles plugged into a CRT.
To satiate my nostalgia, it takes the real thing.
wrote:wrote:I think its criminal that the best output available for the N64 was composite video, not even s-video, thats what really puts me off the old console.
Nearly all N64s have S-video, Ninty just didn't sell a cable. Depending on the region, you could use a SNES or Gamecube S-Video cable, but Nintendo liked to dick around with adding or removing coupling caps, pull-up resistors, and so forth.
All N64s can be modded to output SCART RGB. Some with just some wires, others with a replacement video DAC.
I have a third party cable from the mid 2000s with plugs for the PS2/PSone, original Xbox, and SNES/N64/Gamecube, and it works awesomely for S-video output on the N64. 😁 I haven't actually used it with my N64 in ages since one of my former friends borrowed my controllers and never gave them back, 🤣 but I do remember it working well.
Heads up. New Project64 releases. April saw the release of version 2.0 and May version 2.1.
Anyone tried these out? Are they a big improvement compared to 1.6?
No. I remember reading that they plan to fix the desynches while playing online. This is about the only thing I care for with emulators, so I hope they did that 😀
Lately I've been using PistolGrip's 1964 build to play Perfect Dark, and it's awesome. 😁 It sets things up for not only accurate graphics emulation and widescreen support, but it also adds WASD +mouselook controls, so it plays just like a PC fps.
The only major downsides are that it can be quite CPU intensive at times, especially when it tries to simultaneously render uncloaking effects, motion blur, or the Farsight's aiming system, as well, the framerate sometimes switches between 30fps and 60fps, which can really mess with the gameplay flow. I say this is a small cost to pay to play one of my favorite games of all time in glorious high resolution with awesome controls though. 😁
i agree. I wish golden eye worked well with emu - its terrible. Mario kart runs almost flawlessly in project 64 1.6 which is good. P64 2.x?? Wow. I havent checked for a while. Off topic but I am truely dissapointed with sega saturn emu.
Did you use SSF?
i tried ssf but it seemed to struggle. I would love to get the shining series working on PC.
SSF Work very well, thought there is still alot of unspported game for it. Mortal Kombat II and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 work well, so do Panzer Dragoon. Doom for the Saturn do not work thought
http://www.youtube.com/user/SuperDave341?feature=mhee
My Youtube Channel for PC/DOS Gameplays, Mortal Kombat and Glitch Related Video
i recall my favourites having very little or no support in SSF. Nights. Shining the holy arc, Shining force scenario 1,2,3 and premium disk - must be difficult to emu those titles
Maybe you're not using the latest version or the Saturn Bios with it? Many emu sites tend to hoard only old ones.
wrote:i recall my favourites having very little or no support in SSF. Nights. Shining the holy arc, Shining force scenario 1,2,3 and premium disk - must be difficult to emu those titles
Ah no, pretty sure most of these work just fine on SSF. It may need some tweaking and a relatively fast PC, although I was playing most of these on my Core2Duo E6550 years ago.
What's your PC specs?