Support NeoGAF

[soundwave05]

I've really noticed that N64 games clean up reeeeeeal nice when played on a PC.

My friend has this great new Sony LCD monitor for his PC, and he fired up Mario 64 on it, and holy crap, while the geometrey isn't so hot (still decent though), the game looks so fantastic.

Really, I think it looks considerably better than Mario Sunshine overall visually.

Is this just the case with N64 games or do emulated PSOne games on the PC also show such a dramatic improvement?

I know the increased resolution helps, but some of the difference in many of these games (like GoldenEye) are night and day. You have to wonder how crappy the developers felt when they probably developed these games on SGI workstations looking that good (or better) and had to squeeze them down to the N64.

 

[ourumov]

1. N64 crappy resolution 256*224.
2. N64 crappy output (most people used a composite which agravates it).
3. N64 crappy framerate (many times improved on emus).


Then it's just about the game...Mario 64 for instance looks much better since many things weren't textured but just shaded.

 

[Doom_Bringer]

PSX games look really awesome too!

 

[joshschw]

you can anti alias them, and in Mario 64's case he may have been using a high res texture pack. like this: http://home.comcast.net/~joshschw/mariorice.jpg

 

[soundwave05]

Is this sorta what you can expect from HDTV gaming becoming standard?

In many ways actually the look of N64 games, but running off an high quality LCD monitor with high end anti-aliasing is more eye pleasing to me than a lot of current generation games.

I know that may sound crazy, but I maybe resolution/anti-aliasing really is holding things back with consoles.

 

[MegaByte]

Yeah, PS1 games look SIGNIFICANTLY better emulated since with the CD medium, most companies didn't bother to compress their textures (see FF9). This is in contrast to N64 games, which look muddy everywhere (see OoT).

 

[Father_Brain]

1. N64 crappy resolution 256*224.
2. N64 crappy output (most people used a composite which agravates it).
3. N64 crappy framerate (many times improved on emus).


Then it's just about the game...Mario 64 for instance looks much better since many things weren't textured but just shaded.

I thought there weren't any emulators that could boost the framerate above the actual N64...

Anyway, are there any N64 emulators that support using the mouse to emulate the control stick?

 

[ourumov]

Well dunno if it's the case but Mystical Ninja starring Goemon runs a lot smoother on the emu than on the N64...(no framedrops)

There is another thing that's the hacked roms that some people uses...Actually I believe there is a PD one which boosts significally the horrible framerate.

 

[heidern]

First main reason the emulated games look better is the higher resolution. I mean look at N64 games like Turok 2 and how they lacked the typical blurriness. This is also accentuated by superior filtering techniques to I suppose, but the resolution is the main thing.

Secondly emulators can't boost the framerate. Well they can, but everything goes out of sync, eg the sound also speeds up. What they do offer is to get the software to the full potential, a totally consistent frame rate. So you can get Goldeneye at a rock solid 30 fps.

Thirdly, there are quite a few emulators. Each better for a different set of games. I used 1964 0.9.9 for Goldeneye(this was a year back). I'm on a duron 750 with 128MB RAM and Geforce 2, a real dinosaur. However the game runs nice high res and a pretty consistant 30fps.

This emulator also rocks for input. You have one pc dual analogue pad(wireless Firestorm in my case). You go to input settings and assign controller one as usual(Firestorm 1 analogue stick, dpad and buttons). Then you go to controller 2, but assign the analogue stick to the Firestorm 2nd analogue stick. You then assign the trigger to the L button of the one Firestorm pad. Go to Goldeneye in game start-menu and go to controller settings. Use 2.2 and hey presto you have a fully dual analogue game.

On the other hand if you are a pc gamer and prefer a mouse that can be done too. Again go to input settings. Click on up, and instead of pressing up on the stick, just move drag the mouse up. Repeat for left right and down. It may not be responsive but persist and you'll get it. Also, deselect the "Real N64 range". I just did this now and had full mouselook. You can optimise it by messing with the dead zone, and also going to devices and messing with the mouse sensitivity(0-1000%) to get the perfect settings.

So um, there's my guide to N64 emulation. I'm no way an expert in the field, and hardly used it, but its really cool seeing unblurry N64 games.

 

[teh_pwn]

I wouldn't bother unless things have changed in a year. Only Zelda and Mario and a few others work completely with minor glitches (that don't affect gameplay).

Playstation emus have gotten better but you still have to mess with settings all the time for each game.

 

[dark10x]

Then it's just about the game...Mario 64 for instance looks much better since many things weren't textured but just shaded.

That's not true. Everything was textured in Mario 64 but most of the textures were very simple and rarely tried to display any detail. They embraced blurry textures to great effect as opposed to fighting the hardware limitations like many other games. The worst textures on N64 were those that attempted to display a lot of detail without the resolution needed.

N64 emulation is still kinda "meh". Many games works very well, but I actually find that the high-resolution can be a bad thing. The games were never intended to be displayed in high-res and end up appearing a bit too simplistic. A nice blur filter would help out quite a bit. I use the strongest OGL2 filter with ePSXe, for example, and it looks beautiful.

PSX emulation is approaching perfection. MOST games work almost flawlessly and appear quite enhanced.

 

[ourumov]

I didn't say Mario 64 was flat/gouraud shaded but that many elements weren't textured. And I think that's true...Of course there are textures !