Difference between revisions of "Mupen64Plus"

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(Muppen update 2.5 released)
(Recommended Setups)
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**Video: Glide64mk2
 
**Video: Glide64mk2
 
**RSP: cxd4-ssse3
 
**RSP: cxd4-ssse3
**Glide64mk2 is just Glide64 with additional tweaks and enhancements for use with Mupen64Plus. The cxd4 plugin is a port of BatCat's RSP plugin for Project64. This appears to be the best combination for use with most games, though toasters may have performance issues. If the mk2 variant is too slow, try regular Glide64.
+
**Glide64mk2 is just Glide64 with additional tweaks and enhancements for use with Mupen64Plus. The cxd4 plugin is a port of BatCat's RSP plugin for Project64. You will need to enable "DisplayListToGraphicsPlugin" in the cxd4-ssse3 settings for this to work. This appears to be the best combination for use with most games, though toasters may have performance issues. If the mk2 variant is too slow, try regular Glide64.
 
*'''Best Performance and Graphics'''
 
*'''Best Performance and Graphics'''
 
**Video: Rice
 
**Video: Rice

Revision as of 00:43, 11 July 2015

Mupen64plus-r1.pnd.png
Current version: 2.5
Active: Yes
OS: Multi-platform
Authors: Mupen team
Official website: Google Code
Source code: GitHub

Mupen64Plus is an open source, cross-platform plugin-based Nintendo 64 emulator which is capable of playing many games. It is an update to Mupen64. Its developers elected to move away from Zilmar's plugin spec and developed their own set of plugins. Plugins from other N64 emulators will not work in it. It also has RetroArch/Libretro port under active development.[1]

Downloads

  • Latest release
  • Windows builds - Frequent Windows builds of Mupen64Plus, bundled with every plugin. It is recommended to use the i686-pc-mingw32 build if on 32-bit Windows, or x86_64-w64-mingw32 if on 64-bit. Just go to the "Downloads" tab and click "Download Repository," and it will let you download both builds in a zip file.
  • Mupen64Plus AE - Beta port of Mupen64Plus to Android. There's a free version and a 99¢ donation version. The only difference is the icon.
  • OS X SVN Builds

Review

Mupen64Plus lacks a GUI, so it may be difficult to use without using a front-end.

Unlike every other N64 emulator, Mupen64Plus uses its own plugin spec, so it is not compatible with any plugins except those specifically ported to its spec.

The N64 emulation scene is a mess. Checking this site and using the appropriate emulator/plugin per game is recommended.

Frontends

  • M64Py is highly recommended for a Mupen64Plus frontend. Not only does it come with everything set up, but it also comes with every plugin developed for the emulator. This is great, since it's very hard to find some of the plugins without compiling them from the source code. Sadly it's not perfect, since the input config utility doesn't work with some gamepads.

Using Mupen64Plus

Windows:

First create this directory: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mupen64Plus (<username> is whatever your PC name is). Copy all the .ini and .cfg files into this folder and create a folder in there called "save". To play games, drag and drop your ROM into mupen64plus.exe.
You can change the plugins simply by editing the mupen64plus.cfg file.
To change settings open mupen64plus.cfg, or the plugin's .cfg/.ini file in notepad++.

Note: For the absolute fastest way to setup and use M64P: unzip ALL files into 'C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mupen64Plus', create a save folder and then make .n64/.z64/.v64 file extensions to open with mupen64plus.exe by default. Then just click on your N64 ROMs to play.

Recommended Setups

Mupen64Plus has its own set of plugins which are incompatible with plugins used in other emulators. Here is an overview of recommended setups.

  • Commonly Used
    • Video: Glide64mk2
    • RSP: cxd4-ssse3
    • Glide64mk2 is just Glide64 with additional tweaks and enhancements for use with Mupen64Plus. The cxd4 plugin is a port of BatCat's RSP plugin for Project64. You will need to enable "DisplayListToGraphicsPlugin" in the cxd4-ssse3 settings for this to work. This appears to be the best combination for use with most games, though toasters may have performance issues. If the mk2 variant is too slow, try regular Glide64.
  • Best Performance and Graphics
    • Video: Rice
    • RSP: rsp-hle
    • These are Mupen64Plus's default plugins. Rice's Video is a plugin used on other N64 emulators, most known for its support for hi-res texture packs, now enhanced for Mupen64plus. It also has support for bilinear, trilinear, and anisotropic filtering, texture scaling, and up to 16x MSAA. It is not quite up to Glide64's level, but it does well enough for many games and is quite fast. The default RSP plugin appears to be just an enhanced port of vanilla Mupen64's RSP. Use this combination if you have a lower end PC and can't handle the Commonly Used setup.
  • Accuracy/Rogue Squadron
    • Video: z64
    • RSP: cxd4-ssse3
    • z64 is a port of z64gl, a low-level emulation video plugin for N64 emulators. It comes with its own accompanying z64 RSP, but cxd4 (a port of BatCat's RSP Interpreter plugin) appears to be more accurate and very well optimized. This setup is capable of playing difficult games like Rogue Squadron with very few graphical glitches, and faster than on Project64 to boot.