Best Nintendo 64 Emulator

[Bigapps1206]

Hi,

Sorry i know this is a really noob question! I am new to N64 emulation and was wondering on some other opinions on what emulator to use. I've been toying around with Project 64, most games work well enough for me (not too bothered about upscaling etc) but there's too many that I'm struggling to get playable. (most recent example being Pokemon stadium, I'm getting a tonne of graphical glitches in menus and also flickering in the borders whilst in a battle) I've seen online that there maybe an option to change the graphics plugins possible, any guidance on that would be appreciated.

 

A bit of background info is that i have been trying to avoid retro arch as previous experience for me has been rough (prior to using launch/bigbox) but if that is the going consensus on the most reliable emulator I'm happy to give it another shot.

 

Not sure if necessary but PC specs are as follows: I7-4770, GTX 780 3GB, 16GB RAM, All games and emulators on a 4TB external drive.

 

Cheers ! 

Edited September 5, 2020 by Bigapps1206

[Lordmonkus]

The Mupen64-Plus core in Retroarch is the best currently. If you need speed you can use the GLideN64 plugin but if you want more accuracy you can use the AngryLion plugin, both plugins are options in the core options menu for it making it easy to switch back and forth.

[Bigapps1206]

I'm after accuracy so I'll try the angrylion plug in. 

Looks like I'll have to get to grips with retro arch again. Out of interest would you say there are any other retro arch cord that are superior to any of the stand alone emulator offerings ? Only interested as pretty earlier on I said I would try to avoid retro arch ( I can't stand the interface) but I'm willing to put in the extra effort if it means a better experience in the long run. 

I'll try to remember to let you know how I get on 

[ItchyRobot]

1 hour ago, Lordmonkus said:

The Mupen64-Plus core in Retroarch is the best currently. If you need speed you can use the GLideN64 plugin but if you want more accuracy you can use the AngryLion plugin, both plugins are options in the core options menu for it making it easy to switch back and forth.

I use the mupen64_plus_next core. It allows me to upscale the graphics and get some amazing results.

[Lordmonkus]

44 minutes ago, Bigapps1206 said:

Out of interest would you say there are any other retro arch cord that are superior to any of the stand alone emulator offerings ?

Absolutely.

GenesisGX, any of the Beetle cores which are just Mednafen renamed, any of the SNES versions (Snes9x, Higan, BSnes and Mesen S), Mesen) and Flycast for Dreamcast.

IMO Retroarchs universal shader and audio driver make it superior than the stand alones, on top of that you have Retroarchs input latency reduction features like frame delay and even run ahead if you want to dive into that.

The only emulators I don't use Retroarch in place of their stand stand alone conterparts would be Mame, Dolphin and PPSSPP. I still prefer the stand alones for those.

[Bigapps1206]

Thanks thats interesting I wasn't aware of the shaders and latency reduction things. So far I'm pretty happy with the standalone emulators such as PCSX2, dolphin, redream and s9nes. But I'm finding ePCSXe a bit lack luster so maybe I'll toy around with retro arch for that. 

[Bigapps1206]

Hey guys just wanted to let you know that I've managed to get my settings right for retro arch. Seems to be doing a better job (less graphical glitches) 

Thank you for the help, really appreciate it!

[Lordmonkus]

No problem, the AngryLion plugin should work out of the box with no extra settings and all the hard to emulate games ie: Resident Evil 2 and the like run great. You can upscale the resolution but no texture pack enhancements for it.

The GLideN64 plugin will let you do resolution and texture replacements and will play most games without issues but may run into some issues on certain games.

[Bigapps1206]

Yeah I went for an increase in resolution and some light anti aliasing. So I can finally see the walls coming towards me in pod racing ?

I'm really not fussed for high Res textures right now . But If that changes I'll be sure to come back and read your comments. Youve been amazing 

[Lordmonkus]

The texture pack stuff can be hit and miss but there are some amazing ones out there.

[bujinkanrn]

Out of interest, are the RA cores able to run Battle for Naboo or Rogue Squadron?  IIRC, those have been two of the most difficult games to emulate.

[Bigapps1206]

Hi. I'll give rouge squadron a go for you later this evening. If I have the rom for the Naboo one I'll try that as well. 

[Headrush69]

56 minutes ago, bujinkanrn said:

Out of interest, are the RA cores able to run Battle for Naboo or Rogue Squadron?  IIRC, those have been two of the most difficult games to emulate.

Having never played either on a real N64, they both seem to run using either Mupen64-Plus or Parallel N64 without any apparent graphic issues on my i3-7100 based setup.

Obviously just a quick play of first level. The only minor issue I noticed was some sound crackling during initial cut scenes. (That could be my emulator settings or cpu power level, I don't know.) The Parallel-N64 was better in this regard. Game play sounds seemed OK. 

So no apparent game breaking issues, but best bet is to just fire it up and try on your system. Have fun.  

[bujinkanrn]

2 hours ago, Headrush69 said:

Having never played either on a real N64, they both seem to run using either Mupen64-Plus or Parallel N64 without any apparent graphic issues on my i3-7100 based setup.

Obviously just a quick play of first level. The only minor issue I noticed was some sound crackling during initial cut scenes. (That could be my emulator settings or cpu power level, I don't know.) The Parallel-N64 was better in this regard. Game play sounds seemed OK. 

So no apparent game breaking issues, but best bet is to just fire it up and try on your system. Have fun.  

Wow, thanks for the info!  A few years back, neither of these games was truly playable.  It sounds like N64 emulation has moved ahead quite nicely.

[bujinkanrn]

2 hours ago, Bigapps1206 said:

Hi. I'll give rouge squadron a go for you later this evening. If I have the rom for the Naboo one I'll try that as well. 

Thanks!  I could only get in-game w/ RS on an old build of Mupen64 several years back.  Though I it was pretty unplayable, at least it loaded, unlike Bfn.

[Bigapps1206]

So just tried them out. On the mupen core in retro arch . (Unskippable rolling title cards are really annoying !) I have only started these up for the first time so I haven't fiddled with settings this is pretty much out of the box. But do keep in mind I'm running an older i7 and a gtx 780 (3gb)

Rouge squadron seems to run fine with no upscaling or anything adjusted. No glitches in sound or graphics anything like that really

 

Battle for Naboo. The game is slow on start up with alot of crackling audio. But as soon as I try to play a level it black screens and retro arch becomes not responsive and I have to close it. That might just be a back rom mind. 

[Headrush69]

1 hour ago, Bigapps1206 said:

Battle for Naboo. The game is slow on start up with alot of crackling audio. But as soon as I try to play a level it black screens and retro arch becomes not responsive and I have to close it. That might just be a back rom mind. 

Try the parallel-n64 core for that one.

I didn't realize I had an override set to use that core. (I use Mupen64-Plus mostly).

I've read that adjusting the RDP and RSP plugins can make Mupen64-Plus work as well, but no time to test to make sure. Stinks waiting through those cut scenes over and over.

[Lordmonkus]

10 minutes ago, Headrush69 said:

Try the parallel-n64 core for that one.

There is no need for this core anymore at the moment.

Use the Mupen core with either the GLideN64 plugin or the AngryLion plugin. The AngryLion plugin is what gave the Parallel core it's accuracy.

[Headrush69]

51 minutes ago, Lordmonkus said:

There is no need for this core anymore at the moment.

Use the Mupen core with either the GLideN64 plugin or the AngryLion plugin. The AngryLion plugin is what gave the Parallel core it's accuracy.

Both those RDP plugins lock up Retroarch once real game play starts.  (For this game for me.)

Edit: Both parallel plugin options set to the same values, but for whatever reason only works when using parallel-n64 core, not parallel plugin within Mupen64-Plus.

Edited September 12, 2020 by Headrush69

[Lordmonkus]

Well I can't comment on what settings you would need for that specific game, i'm just saying that the Parallel core for now is redundant and pointless. You would be better off asking about the specific game and settings over on the Retroarch forums.