Lordmonkus

Some of the N64 texture pack makers are supporting and moving over to the Wii VC versions of N64 games. Supposedly the emulation quality is better and texturing is easier.

Ok, im not going to argue this because there is no argument. If you only plan on running games that fall into Snes9x compatibility list then yeah Snes9x is fine, garbage was a poor choice of words. But all I was saying was if you wanted true 100% compatibility and high quality emulation for every game you can throw at it then BSnes / Higan is the emulator to use and for that you need a 3GHz CPU. Building something with a 3GHz+ cpu is not expensive any more. Snes9x is a fine emulator but it is not 100%.

Depends on which emulator you are running. If you are running like Snes9x then yeah but if you want full 100% compatibility and accurate emulation you will need to be running Higan or BSnes Accuracy cores from Retroarch and those need 3GHz CPUs. But I am fully aware you can run garbage SNES emulators on lower CPUs. My laptop with a 1.5 GHz runs SNES9X fine.

For proper full SNES emulation you will need at least a 3GHz cpu and maybe slightly more for Saturn though I am not sure. Plus if you plan on using shaders a semi decent GPU would be nice to have.

All I can say is look into what is actually packaged in the CHDs and see what is in it that isn't available in normal Mame and what the actual differences. Now to be fair I haven't really looked into what is all into it, the size just turned me away instantly.

I never bothered with the CHDs the size of the collection and my internet being what it is I never felt it was worth the time and drive space just to have some special audio and video. I'm not a collector of everything though I have a pretty good collection there are some things I just don't care to go out of my way to collect.

If you grabbed a full mame rom set it should contain all the bios in it. If you are using the Mame bezels yeah they should work, though don't yell at me if they don't since I don't use bezels myself.

A lot more games. Normally a small jump in mame and rom set version isn't much if any at all outside a couple of really obscure and bad games but in the case of going from 122 to 173 there will be quite a lot of games with better rom dumps for Mame.

I like it and I am not a video kind of guy but just my initial thoughts of it and what I would like to see is if you shifted the video to the right eliminating the right bezel and having some sort of generic wider bezel on the left hand side that doesn't interfere with the system logos.

No.

Ok good, glad you got it sorted.

I don't know why you don't have anything after [Video General] though. I have installed and setup Mupen a couple of times to make sure I had my tutorial done right and each time when it generated the cfg file it had all the settings there. Here is my cfg attached, you may be able to just drop it into your "C:\Users\user name\AppData\Roaming\Mupen64Plus" folder and have it just work. I don't believe there is any hard paths in it that need to be adjusted mupen64plus.cfg

Oh wow, do yourself a huge favour and go download and install Notepad++ right now. It will make your life so much easier to edit text files like cfg and ini files. https://notepad-plus-plus.org/ Have you loaded a game at all either by dragging and dropping a rom on to the exe or through Launchbox ?

It should be in the [Video-General] section, below the controller settings but above the video plugin settings. [Video-General] # Use fullscreen mode if True, or windowed mode if False Fullscreen = True # Width of output window or fullscreen width ScreenWidth = 1600 # Height of output window or fullscreen height ScreenHeight = 1200 # If true, activate the SDL_GL_SWAP_CONTROL attribute VerticalSync = False # Rotate screen contents: 0=0 degree, 1=90 degree, 2 = 180 degree, 3=270 degree Rotate = 0 That's what I have in mine but im using a 1440 monitor.

I'd have to play through all of the opening intro and get into actual gameplay to give an honest and fair opinion since it's not fair to judge based off non gameplay. But having said that judging just off thefirst few minutes of the intro scene I would say PJ64 is the better emu play to play Conker. Retroarch Mupen64 core has bad grphic glitches right off the start, Mupen64plus stand alone has overscan pixels which are just annoying but major graphic glitches like when Conker is wasted looking up at the sign it really bugs out. PJ64 seems to be mostly glitch free with only the spotlight at the very opening looking a bit off and that is it. I would have to plug in my N64 and load up Conker to really compare accuracy. I will do some further testing into the actual gameplay and report back on it.

God, I haven't really delved too deeply into N64 emulation other than to play some Zelda and Mario with texture packs but what a pile of shit N64 emulation is on the whole. Each emulator plays certain games better than others but no one single emulator is best overall. They all have their really shitty flaws. Project 64: Great for texture pack support and speed is good but their nag screen and shitty devs make it hard to like Retroarch Mupen64: You get the nice features RA brings like shaders and stuff but it's so slow and games like Conker have bad graphic glitches. Mupen64plus: Has some texture support but no overscan cropping so you have to look at awful pixels on the sides that should be hidden. Mario Golf has major graphics issues like fairways are black. Retroarch Mupen64 Vulkan I won't judge because it is too new and early in development so it's not fair to judge it all yet. Basically you need to have all 3 emulators installed and pick which one is used on a game by game basis. Honestly at this point in time if I had to pick just one I would say use Project64 but get it setup and use it through a frontend like Launchbox and never touch it's UI.Games I have been testing are Banjo Kazooie, Beetle Adventure, Conker, Mario Golf, San Francisco Rush and Mario64. That is just a short list of games and each one responds differently to each emulator, I don't even want to get into the rest of the library to test.

Ahh. I never tested that since I have a habit of uncompressing all my roms.

You are talking about RA and it's ui and playlists and how it handles them. For those types of issues you are better off asking on the Retroarch forums. I'm not sure why you really care so much about those playlists when using Launchbox. The whole point of Launchbox is to avoid the RA ui outside of its setup and settings tweaking. But from some stuff I have read from time to time on the RA forums is that Retroarchs playlist generator requires certain specific rom files matching up with some database, they recommend the "No-Intro" rom sets. It could just be possible that the rom you got doesn't match up with their internal list. Here is a response on a thread I found over on their forums in response to a similar issue someone else had. They even link a tool to help generate playlist files if you really want to have that. "If it's not scanning something it means either 1. there is no database for that system yet or 2. the files you're scanning do not match the system database. Most systems use a no-intro database so you want your roms to be no-intro too. Unfortunately this excludes any roms that have hacks on them. Since you're on Windows I recommend just using this utility here for playlist generation." Try importing your game that RA isn't recognizing and loading them through Launchbox.

I tried to do that because I would rather have it in the same folder as well but for whatever reason Mupen just didn't like that at all. It is possible I missed a setting tucked away in the config file to allow it to be in the folder with the exe.

You have 2 different versions of BSnes being loaded. In the screen shot with the box art and the controls option it is version 0.94. In the one without the boxart and no controls its version 0.83. You probably have your Launchbox setup to load a different core that you have downloaded in your cores folder. Here's mine. Edit your Retroarch Associated Platforms list to load the proper core. I'm just using the mercury core at the moment but you can use the normal bsnes accuracy core.

My opinion on N64 emulation as a whole is this. Right now for simple out of the box use with now frills, no muss, no fuss Retroatch and the basic Mupen64 core is extremely good and for the most part handles everything very well. It also gives the option to bump up resolution along with the other Retroarch benefits like shaders and such. If you have Retroarch installed and working and just want simple N64 emulation it is the way to go but you do not get texture support, maybe one day. If full blown texture support is what you want then Project64 is the only way to go. It handles all the different formats, loose, htc and dat packages. Like I said in the boring section above once you get the 2.3 version of PJ64 setup and loading games through Launchbox bypassing the PJ64 UI then the nag screen is no longer an issue. I agree fully with Austin in not promoting PJ64 because of their shady shit but calling it ransomware in his latest video is a little harsh. Ransomware hijacks your entire system and locks you out unless you pay. The ad-ware shit from previous versions while it is scummy can be avoided with careful reading of the installer or looking around for an ad-ware free version. The future of the Vulkan Mupen64 core in Retroarch may prove to be the best emulator in the end taking advantage of GPUs power to more accurately emulate the N64 but as of right now it still isn't better than PJ64 or the base Mupen64 RA core. If you want the best possible N64 emulation right now and some limited texture pack support and don't mind getting your hands dirty with some manual config editing then the stand alone version of Mupen64plus is the best way to go. It is the only N64 emulator that can play Beetle Adventure Racing without major bugs and slowdown. That isn't say it is perfect because it isn't there are some small minor graphical bugs I have found in the first track but the game is extremely playable. All the other choices (PJ64 and both RA cores) have major graphical issues and slowdown. I will still be using PJ64 for both Zelda games because Djipis texture packs are just that amazing and shouldn't be missed out on. For Mario64 I will probably play around some more with the stand alone Mupen64plus to do further testing. For everything else I don't know yet if I will use RA Mupen or stand alone, I need to do more play testing to decide.

***Boring stuff first, skip this to get to the actual guide*** I wanted to make this guide because this is an emulator no one talks about, well no one around here it seems. Project 64 as an emulator isn't bad but the devs are shady with previous releases being packaged with ad-ware and now with 2.3 using the PJ64 UI you get a stupid nag screen which according to @SIMPLY AUSTINpeople are reporting it doesn't go away after a while. Now I have been using 2.3 through Launchbox bypassing the UI and I do not see the nag screen unless I need to load it up manually to tweak some stuff. I have also noticed that while Project 64 and the Mupen64 core in Retroarch are decent enough emulators neither of them can play one of my favourite N64 titles, Beetle Adventure Racing very well. Even the Vulkan powered Retroarch Mupen core does not run this game well. The stand alone Mupen64plus does run this game extremely well and it even has some texture pack support. Anyways, enough of my rambling lets get started. Step 1 Go to the Mupen64plus homepage http://mupen64plus.org/ or as of the time of this guide go straight to the 2.5 release page https://github.com/mupen64plus/mupen64plus-core/releases/tag/2.5. You will want to get the mupen64plus-bundle-win32-2.5.zip or if you are running on lower end hardware get the dynarec version. Edit: This version here has been released since this thread was posted, it has a simple but functional UI for easy setup and works great with Launchbox. https://m64p.github.io/ Step 2 Make a folder where you want this emulator to be and extract the contents of the download file into it. Step 3 In Launchbox add the mupen64plus-ui-console.exe as a new emulator and set it to be associated with your Nintendo 64 platform. Step 4 Launch a game either through Launchbox using this emulator or drag and drop a rom file on the exe file. This will generate a Mupen64plus folder and files in "C:\Users\user name\AppData\Roaming\". Step 5 Go to "C:\Users\user name\AppData\Roaming\Mupen64Plus" and find the mupen64plus.cfg, open this file in your favourite text editor and edit the lines as you see fit but here are some immediate recommendations to look for: # Draw on-screen display if True, otherwise don't draw OSD OnScreenDisplay = True Set this to False # Use Pure Interpreter if 0, Cached Interpreter if 1, or Dynamic Recompiler if 2 or more R4300Emulator = 2 Try this at 0 for better quality, more accurate emulation but may be slow on your system # Use fullscreen mode if True, or windowed mode if False Fullscreen = False Set this to True # Width of output window or fullscreen width ScreenWidth = 640 # Height of output window or fullscreen height ScreenHeight = 480 Set the width and height according to your monitor. On a 1080 display set to 1280 and 1024 if you want to maintain a 4:3 aspect ratio. # Use Mipmapping? 0=no, 1=nearest, 2=bilinear, 3=trilinear Mipmapping = 1 Set this to 3 if you use more graphical enhancement settings # Primary texture enhancement filter (0=None, 1=2X, 2=2XSAI, 3=HQ2X, 4=LQ2X, 5=HQ4X, 6=Sharpen, 7=Sharpen More, 8=External, 9=Mirrored) TextureEnhancement = 0 Set this to personal preference, I don't use any of them. # Enable/Disable MultiSampling (0=off, 2,4,8,16=quality) MultiSampling = 0 This is your Anti Aliasing to smooth out the edges of polygons. I set mine to 8 but 2, 4 or 16 is fine. # Enable/Disable Anisotropic Filtering for Mipmapping (0=no filtering, 2-16=quality). This is uneffective if Mipmapping is 0. If the given value is to high to be supported by your graphic card, the value will be the highest value your graphic card can support. Better result with Trilinear filtering AnisotropicFiltering = 0 Set this to 16 along with Mipmapping 3 above. # Enable hi-resolution texture file loading LoadHiResTextures = False If you plan on using High Resolution texture packs set this to true Now you are done and your games should load and play through Launchbox and look as good as they can without the use of texture packs. If you wish to use texture packs you will need to enable it with the last setting above by setting it to True. You will need to go to your "C:\Users\user name\AppData\Roaming\Mupen64Plus" folder and create a folder called "hires_texture". In this folder you will place your texture pack folders and files. The folders have to be named correctly like "super mario 64". I was only able to get loose file texture packs to work, .htc and .dat format packs I could not figure out how to get to work. If anyone has information on how to get these to work I would love to hear it. I know .htc is a GlideN64 plugin format and I tried using that plugin and different folder structures but I had no luck. From what I have read the Android version does support these formats but I do not know if the Windows version code is as up to date with that support or not. Like I said if anyone has any information on getting .htc and .dat format packs working please let me know.

***Boring stuff first, skip this to get to the actual guide*** I wanted to make this guide because this is an emulator no one talks about, well no one around here it seems. Project 64 as an emulator isn't bad but the devs are shady with previous releases being packaged with ad-ware and now with 2.3 using the PJ64 UI you get a stupid nag screen which according to @SIMPLY AUSTINpeople are reporting it doesn't go away after a while. Now I have been using 2.3 through Launchbox bypassing the UI and I do not see the nag screen unless I need to load it up manually to tweak some stuff. I have also noticed that while Project 64 and the Mupen64 core in Retroarch are decent enough emulators neither of them can play one of my favourite N64 titles, Beetle Adventure Racing very well. Even the Vulkan powered Retroarch Mupen core does not run this game well. The stand alone Mupen64plus does run this game extremely well and it even has some texture pack support. Anyways, enough of my rambling lets get started. This guide is only intended for people wanting to set it up and use this emulator on it's own. This setup will not work through Launchbox. For whatever reason after I set it all up this way and setup Mupen64plus as an emulator in Launchbox and pointed it at the mupen64plus-ui-console.exe it does not load with all the tweaks made using the UI. If someone has figured it out and can tell me what I did wrong I will make the appropriate edits. I will make a second Launchbox specific guide and it will be much shorter. Step 1 Go to the Mupen64plus homepage http://mupen64plus.org/ or as of the time of this guide go straight to the 2.5 release page https://github.com/mupen64plus/mupen64plus-core/releases/tag/2.5. You will want to get the mupen64plus-bundle-win32-2.5.zip or if you are running on lower end hardware get the dynarec version. Step 2 Because Mupen64plus is a command line you will probably want some sort of GUI to go with it. You don't need to have this but it makes setting it up and tweaking easier. There are several available but the one I like is mupen64plus-qt which is available here http://www.emutalk.net/threads/54976-Mupen64Plus-Qt or https://github.com/dh4/mupen64plus-qt/releases get the file mupen64plus-qt_win1.9.zip or newer if at the time of reading this there is a newer version. Step 3 Create a folder where ever you plan on keeping this emulator on your hard drive and extract the contents of both of these zip files. You should now have a bunch of files like the pic below Step 4 Run the mupen64plus-qt.exe and the first thing you should do is go to the settings tab at the top and then configure. The first tab you will see is Paths, you can leave everything as it is if you like. But at the bottom of this tab you can set your path to your roms directory. Step 5 Go to the Graphics tab and this is where you will turn on Fullscreen and set your Resolution. Set your resolution to match your monitors resolution to match your monitors if you want but if you use a 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ration monitor the game will be stretched. If you prefer a more natural 4:3 ratio set your resolution to something like 1280x1024 on a 1080 display or 1600x1200 on a 1440 display The rest of the tabs are all optional and up to you to learn about them all and tinker with. Click the Ok button and it will take a second to generate. Step 7 You can now do some further custom settings by getting into the mupen64plus.cfg file which will either be located in "C:\Users\user name\AppData\Roaming\Mupen64Plus". You can either edit the file with your favourite txt editor or click Settings > Edit mupen64plus.cfg in the GUI. A couple of settings I recommend are: Mipmapping = 3 MultiSampling = 4 (8 or 16 works too) AnisotropicFiltering = 16 You should now have the basics up and running to use Mupen64plus in a stand alone manner.

Yeah Kurozumi looks amazing no question about it but it doesn't work with vertical games. So in the end you got 4 options. 1. Use Kurozumi for horizontal games and find a shader for vertical games and set up each vertical game to use a custom shader which is time consuming. 2. Find a Retroarch shader that works for vertical and horizontal games. 3. Use MameUI and using the vertical and horizontal filters bulk edit each section to use lottes and lottes-vertical. 4. Use HLSL.

There's a bunch of different Doom source ports out there that's for sure and Zandronum is very good as well.