Support NeoGAF

[Bullet Club]

Parallel N64 with Parallel RSP dynarec release – fast and accurate N64 emulation is now here!

Hot on the heels of our Beetle PSX dynarec public beta release, here comes another bombshell, this time targeting that other big 5th generation console, the Nintendo 64.

ParaLLel N64 is back with a vengeance, and this time Parallel RSP coupled with Angrylion Plus RDP is the enabling technology for a big performance jump in low-level accurate N64 emulation.

Parallel RSP

We have released today a new version of Parallel N64 for Windows and Linux that adds back the Parallel RSP dynarec. This together with multithreaded Angrylion makes Parallel N64 the fastest LLE N64 emulator by far.

We have also added missing bits and pieces to Parallel RSP that allows for several games to work, such as World Driver Championship, Stunt Racer 64, and Gauntlet Legends. On top of that, we also optimized some parts in Angrylion RDP Plus which resulted in greatly enhanced core/thread utilization on a 16-core Ryzen CPU. It should also similarly scale well downwards.

Just to illustrate how dramatic of a difference all these performance-focused enhancements make: on an underpowered 2012 Core i5 laptop, the following games are capable of being played at fullspeed: Resident Evil 2, Mario Kart 64, 1080 Snowboarding, Doom 64, Quake 64, Mischief Makers, Bakuretsu Muteki Bangaioh, Bust-A Move 2 Arcade Edition, Kirby 64 – The Crystal Shards, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Forsaken 64, Harvest Moon 64.

A 2012 Core i5 desktop CPU like the Core i5 3570k should be more than capable enough of playing the vast majority of N64 games at fullspeed with Angrylion+Parallel RSP, with only rare exceptions like Star Wars Episode 1 Racer being too much for it.

Dramatically lowering the performance ceiling like this has vast implications for the viability of low-level accurate N64 emulation, and opens the door for more people to enjoy bug-free N64 emulation, previously the preserve of only the most overpowered PCs.

Right now, only Linux and Windows are able to enjoy the benefits of Parallel RSP due to the LLVM dependency. This might solve itself later on, though.

How to get it

On Windows: Just downloaded the latest Parallel N64 core from RetroArch’s Online Updater menu. You can either download it from Core Updater, or you can select ‘Update Installed Cores’ if you already had a prior version of Parallel N64 installed.

On Linux: Download the latest Parallel N64 core from RetroArch’s Online Updater menu. You can either download it from Core Updater, or you can select ‘Update Installed Cores’ if you already had a prior version of Parallel N64 installed.

Source: Libretro

More info at the source.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Feels like we've been waiting a decade for decent N64 emulation. I remember it struggling on the PSP and on PC, but that was partially due to compatibility/config issues that hadn't been figured out yet.

 

[sol_bad]

So is it better than Project 64 or is it ... just as good as Project 64?
^_^

 

[ThatGamingDude]

Feels like we've been waiting a decade for decent N64 emulation. I remember it struggling on the PSP and on PC, but that was partially due to compatibility/config issues that hadn't been figured out yet.

There was a HUGE push for N64 emulation on RetroArch because of there being a port on the Switch

I wanna say dynarec using the mupen64plus core is being used on all versions of RetroArch now

So is it better than Project 64 or is it ... just as good as Project 64?
^_^

Uhhh...more accurate and more efficient; in terms of emulation that's typically seen as better, but up for debate to purists

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

That's pretty sweet ThatGamingDude

Last time I gave N64 emulation a try there was a list of games that weren't even compatible / playable (sound issues, texture problems, won't boot past the main screen at all, etc).

 

[sol_bad]

Guess I'll download it and check it oooouuuuut.

 

[RobotXTaisen]

Awesome!

 

[Fake]

Gonna check. Thx.

 

[Birdo]

I swear I was playing accurate and fast N64 emulators in the late 90's :/ (While I still owned an N64)

 

[theclaw135]

Agonizing years of juggling plugins. Beautify these games, break those games.
All the while rarely looking one bit like the real thing. Perhaps rightfully so, but most emulators don't bother to meticulously copy N64's blurry visuals.

 

[ExpandKong]

Will investigate

 

[wvnative]

Will this come to android eventually?

 

[Bullet Club]

 

[Trimesh]

I swear I was playing accurate and fast N64 emulators in the late 90's :/ (While I still owned an N64)

Those old emulators were never terribly accurate, although they were generally good enough to be playable. The N64 hardware runs off microcode and the emulation approach back then was to figure out which ucode was being loaded and then emulate the RCP/RSP at a high level. This worked pretty well for the early games because they were all using the original Nintendo supplied ucode, but became increasingly problematic with the newer ones because the developers started tweaking the ucode for better performance and the emulator had to be reprogrammed to handle this as a special case.

With a low-level emulator like the one that's being discussed here this isn't an issue anymore - it emulates both the code on the r4k and the ucode that's loaded into the RCP/RSP, so it's able to run any game no matter what ucode it has.

 

[nkarafo]

So is it better than Project 64 or is it ... just as good as Project 64?
^_^

Depends on what you mean by "better".

Compatibility has been very high for both Project 64 and Mupen the last few years. Paired with GlideN64 you should be able to play every single N64 game with no problems for 95% of them. I'm not sure if this new version of ParaLLel is as compatible but it's far more accurate.

It uses the Angrylion pixel perfect graphics plugin, which means you are going to get the same exact graphics as the real N64, down to the VI blurry filters for better or worse. So don't expect upscaled, clean graphics like GlideN64 or other plugins allow you to have. Though you can disable the filters for a bit more clean, dithered look. Also, even though the dynarec is much faster than before, it's still much slower than any HLE emulator like PJ64 or Mupen.

 

[Phase]

But will this fix all the messed up Vigilante 8 roms I try to get working???

 

[Sp3eD]

Is a pi3b going to be able to run this. That’s all I really care about at this point.

 

[JSoup]

Feels like we've been waiting a decade for decent N64 emulation.

We've been waiting two decades, actually. Project 64 was first released in 2001, with the work into developing it starting years prior.

 

[dave_d]

Oh so Indiana Jones might actually work on this thing?

 

[Stuart360]

Never really had a problem with the games i tried in Project 64. The only real problems i found was a bit of crackling in the audio. Being able to play at much higher resolutions is a must as well. If this only runs at N64 blurvision levels, its pointless imo.

 

[nkarafo]

But will this fix all the messed up Vigilante 8 roms I try to get working???

Vigilante 8 works fine on this, as it does with any emulator using a recent version of GlideN64

Oh so Indiana Jones might actually work on this thing?

AFAIK, Indiana Jones works fine on recent versions of GlideN64. Not sure if it works here but i tested other Factor 5 games and they all work fine.

Never really had a problem with the games i tried in Project 64. The only real problems i found was a bit of crackling in the audio. Being able to play at much higher resolutions is a must as well. If this only runs at N64 blurvision levels, its pointless imo.

Avoid PJ64 IMO. While it's perfectly good and highly compatible, the default settings are sometimes messed up. And you also need a decent audio plugin (not the default) with the right settings to avoid crackling without sacrificing frame rate. Azimer's latest code should be the one but again, you need to test the other audio settings the core has like "sync with audio" and "fixed audio timing" and see what works best with each game, i thing the later causes frametime issues.

Mupen is better in that it doesn't need an audio plugin and it's as good as PJ64 with the best audio solution, or better. Audio crackling is far less common here. So the only thing you have to keep in mind here is the graphics.

Best bet would be the m64p fork of Mupen, if you can find a recent version. It's the closest you can get to a plug-and-play standalone N64 emulator, without messing with settings.

RetroArch with Mupen64plus-next is probably even better.

 

[Nikana]

The only game I remember having issues with is Pokemon Snap.

 

[lock2k]

Can you play this on a Pi 3?

 

[nkarafo]

Can you play this on a Pi 3?

Pi 3 can't even handle HLE N64 emulators properly.

 

[lock2k]

Pi 3 can't even handle HLE N64 emulators properly.

OK, just wondering.

 

[nkarafo]

OK, just wondering.

Oh, ok. Just keep in mind that even the Pi 4 reaches it's limits when using a decent HLE N64 emulator. For something like ParaLLEl+Angrylion (even the Dynarec build) you will probably need the future performance of a Pi 6 or better.

 

[Spukc]

maybe if it get optimized more it will run on a pi4 ?
the pi 4 runs diablo 2 without issues

 

[nkarafo]

maybe if it get optimized more it will run on a pi4 ?
the pi 4 runs diablo 2 without issues

Highly doubt it. LLE N64 emulation, in any form, is far and beyond Pi4's capabilities. I bet LLE emulation of any system in general is too much. That Pi6 prediction of mine was too generous now that i think of it.

Diablo 2 runs fine on my late 90's Pentium 3 450mhz PC. But i don't imagine i can run any decent modern emulator today with that CPU... Let alone ParaLLel.

 

[Spukc]

Highly doubt it. LLE N64 emulation, in any form, is far and beyond Pi4's capabilities. I bet LLE emulation of any system in general is too much. That Pi6 prediction of mine was too generous now that i think of it.

Diablo 2 runs fine on my late 90's Pentium 3 450mhz PC. But i don't imagine i can run any decent modern emulator today with that CPU... Let alone ParaLLel.

What about an 8th gen intel NUC i5 4cores then?
that runs forza horizon 4 at stable 30fps @720p

 

[nkarafo]

What about an 8th gen intel NUC i5 4cores then?
that runs forza horizon 4 at stable 30fps @720p

My latest hardware is my current 4th gen i5 4670 desktop that runs ParaLLel+dynarec just fine, though some games bring it to it's limits.

That rig also runs Forza at 60fps/1080p. Though we are getting into Graphics Cards territory here. Emulation is (mostly) about CPU. At least in case of this particular emulator which is 100% CPU dependent.

 

[Spukc]

My latest hardware is my current 4th gen i5 4670 desktop that runs ParaLLel+dynarec just fine, though some games bring it to it's limits.

That rig also runs Forza at 60fps/1080p. Though we are getting into Graphics Cards territory here. Emulation is (mostly) about CPU. At least in case of this particular emulator which is 100% CPU dependent.

great well another fine emulator to add to the NUC then thanks.

 

[nkarafo]

great well another fine emulator to add to the NUC then thanks.

Hope it works for you, not sure how good these NUC CPUs are. I'm curious to know if you can test it.

 

[synchronicity]

Agonizing years of juggling plugins. Beautify these games, break those games.
All the while rarely looking one bit like the real thing. Perhaps rightfully so, but most emulators don't bother to meticulously copy N64's blurry visuals.

I appreciate accurate emulation for sure, but in the case of N64 I don't mind a little fudging. It's still the worst console of all in terms of graphical appearances for me. Some great games, mind you, but visually I don't mind any assistance it can get.

 

[theclaw135]

I appreciate accurate emulation for sure, but in the case of N64 I don't mind a little fudging. It's still the worst console of all in terms of graphical appearances for me. Some great games, mind you, but visually I don't mind any assistance it can get.

It'd be nice to have more filtering options that improve 2D elements. Where's the likes of xbrz and hq4x?

 

[Spukc]

Hope it works for you, not sure how good these NUC CPUs are. I'm curious to know if you can test it.

They are really good. after the 8th gen esp with that Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655