If you turn Native texture LOD OFF some effects will break. For instance, the pictures in Mario 64 that fade from Princess Peach to Bowser as you go closer will not work.
The RDRAM buffer is used in a small number of games. In Mario Kart 64, it's used for the big screen over the tunnel in the first course to display animations on it. In the early years of N64 emulation it was an unemulated N64 feature, and it would just be a blank, black screen, and then when it was finally emulated, it was very CPU intensive, not suitable for people running lower end CPUs, which is obviously not a problem in 2024.
Very nice video. Maybe 2 additional things that might be check too, since some guys use emulators on smaller SBC and not on powerful PC: Maybe also say if the option needs much performance and/or if it uses more cores. (So interesting would be running it on a slow(er) 4 core SBC and check if the speed changes much and also see the CPU usage (if it is only around 25%, then it is using only single core on a 4 core SBC). If it is using 75% of the CPU then only 3 cores are used. This is intresting, since most SBC have 2, 4 or 8 CPUs and I guess/bet that most emulators use only around 1 to max 4 cores. So i guess having more then 5 cores won't increase the speed.)
I se your point. Unfortunately I can only test the hardware I own. Generally with these guides I give a little advise when it comes to performance but unless I can test on other hardware I can't really give advise on different hardware.
do you know how to remove lines that cut through textures (example: such as the background for the floating mario head screen), just curious if there is a fix for this
Thank you! This tutorial is also largely applicable to simple64, which I ended up using as my preferred N64 emulator. GlideN64 had too many moving parts. 😅 N64 came with Rambus DRAM (RDRAM), which is a type of SDRAM. simple64 defined the option as "Enable superscaling of readbacks when upsampling". Sounds like additional processing when reading image data from memory.
Thanks again Kat! Yeah it looks like it is for AA after reading some more about it, but can't find a definitive answer as to how it enhances the image! Which for me is infuriating.
No. As @Imgema mentioned, use Retroarch with the Mupen64-Next core and set the plugins to use to Parallel RDP. FYI on arm macs there is no dynamic compiler yet, just the cached interpreter. I don't use my M2 as my main emulation computer, but even so it played Mario KArt 64 upscaled 4x just fine with the interpreter.
Is it also doable with retro arch, using the paraLLel core? If done that way, can retorarch setup per game profiles? Your work is amazing by the way! Thanks
No, do not use the Parallel core, it's very old and obsolete. Use the newer Mupen64+Next core and that one has the Parallel RDP plugin as well, all more recent versions.
If you turn Native texture LOD OFF some effects will break. For instance, the pictures in Mario 64 that fade from Princess Peach to Bowser as you go closer will not work.
Thanks for the input, I'll pin this.
Thank you so much for this! Finally my emulated N64 games look as though they're running on original hardware. Pure bliss :D
The RDRAM buffer is used in a small number of games. In Mario Kart 64, it's used for the big screen over the tunnel in the first course to display animations on it. In the early years of N64 emulation it was an unemulated N64 feature, and it would just be a blank, black screen, and then when it was finally emulated, it was very CPU intensive, not suitable for people running lower end CPUs, which is obviously not a problem in 2024.
Awesome! Thanks so much. Will pin this
Great Guide, as always. Thanks......
thanks to his solution to make accurate n64 emulation finally attainable for the mainstream!
awesome video, thanks a lot
Very nice video. Maybe 2 additional things that might be check too, since some guys use emulators on smaller SBC and not on powerful PC: Maybe also say if the option needs much performance and/or if it uses more cores. (So interesting would be running it on a slow(er) 4 core SBC and check if the speed changes much and also see the CPU usage (if it is only around 25%, then it is using only single core on a 4 core SBC). If it is using 75% of the CPU then only 3 cores are used. This is intresting, since most SBC have 2, 4 or 8 CPUs and I guess/bet that most emulators use only around 1 to max 4 cores. So i guess having more then 5 cores won't increase the speed.)
I se your point. Unfortunately I can only test the hardware I own. Generally with these guides I give a little advise when it comes to performance but unless I can test on other hardware I can't really give advise on different hardware.
How do you prevent the repeat images going back into the corner as transparent screens getting smaller and smaller on into the horizon.
do you know how to remove lines that cut through textures (example: such as the background for the floating mario head screen), just curious if there is a fix for this
Can you do a guide for Simple64?
Thank you! This tutorial is also largely applicable to simple64, which I ended up using as my preferred N64 emulator. GlideN64 had too many moving parts. 😅
N64 came with Rambus DRAM (RDRAM), which is a type of SDRAM. simple64 defined the option as "Enable superscaling of readbacks when upsampling".
Sounds like additional processing when reading image data from memory.
Thanks again Kat! Yeah it looks like it is for AA after reading some more about it, but can't find a definitive answer as to how it enhances the image! Which for me is infuriating.
Is this only for windows ? What’s the best emu to use for n64 on Mac (that has upscaling)
No. As @Imgema mentioned, use Retroarch with the Mupen64-Next core and set the plugins to use to Parallel RDP. FYI on arm macs there is no dynamic compiler yet, just the cached interpreter. I don't use my M2 as my main emulation computer, but even so it played Mario KArt 64 upscaled 4x just fine with the interpreter.
Is it also doable with retro arch, using the paraLLel core? If done that way, can retorarch setup per game profiles?
Your work is amazing by the way! Thanks
@@sjzafrani yes you can do this in RA. I'm gonna be making the same graphics guides for the cores at some point
@@warpedpolygon you’re a legend!
No, do not use the Parallel core, it's very old and obsolete. Use the newer Mupen64+Next core and that one has the Parallel RDP plugin as well, all more recent versions.