138
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Note ==The Plugin Specs==To understand the current plugin situation, and why there are several competing emulators that these all appear to use the same plugins will NOT work on [[Mupen64Plus]], As such, it has its own but said pluginsare not compatible across emulators, and recommendations can be found at its own section on this pagea bit of history is in order.
==Emulators==Historically, the majority of N64 emulators all shared the same plugin spec (known as the zilmar spec, after the creator of Project64, the first emulator to use it), and could therefore all use the same plugins, meaning you could take a plugin DLL file, use it on one emulator, then take that DLL and use it on another, and it would also work there. Of these, the big three emulators were Project64, 1964 and Mupen64. Each had advantages and disadvantages, and some games worked well in one only to not work in another, even when using the same plugin configuration. This necessitated having all of these emulators and sometimes even older or modified versions of them, along with a great many plugins, to be able to play most of the N64 library with the least amount of issues possible - though admittedly a good amount of games (particularly the most popular ones) were playable with just the best few of them. To illustrate the point, [http://bhemuhelp.unaux.com/n64mgcl/N64ConfigList.html here] is a site that, as late as 2012, was dedicated to documenting the exact emulator, plugin and settings combination necessary to get each and every game to at least a playable state, if at all possible.
[https://www.pj64-emu.com/nightly-builds Project64 2.4] - The most recent version of [[Project64]]However, as time went on, things began to change, now public and open sourceslowly at first. After years of dormancy1964's development eventually ceased, development has rapidly picked up and most of it completely fell off the issues with earlier releases have been fixedradar. Some users (particularly those using Windows 10) have reported problems Mupen64 was forked into Mupen64Plus and developed its own plugin spec that was incompatible with BSODsthe older zilmar spec, though recent development versions have fixed them. The user interface is quite a bit nicer and easier making it unable to use, and switching between RSP existing plugins is far easier than in 1.6. It also fixed a number of games that unless they were completely broken in 1specifically ported to it.6, such This left only Project64 as Kirby 64. For general use, it is now considered the best only relevant and most compatible N64 active emulatorstill using the zilmar spec. GLideN64 at For some time, then, this time provides left the fledgling Mupen64Plus missing out on most accurate high level graphics emulation. For hard to emulate games like Pokémon Snapcutting-edge plugin development, angrylion-rdp will provide the needed accuracy at the cost of higher performance requirementsas most people were still using Project64.
[httpA semblance of parity began to come about as a result of several major developments://www.pj64-emu.com/downloads/project64/binaries/ Project64 1.6] - The older but more stable version. The interface is slightly clunkierfirst, Mupen64Plus itself was forked by the libretro team, which made many improvements to the core emulator, and switching between RSP integrated its plugins is a pain (into the core itself. Second, gonetz, the desired RSP developer of Glide64, unveiled his newest plugin must be named rsp, GLideN64, which would officially support both the zilmar and Mupen64Plus specs from the beginning.dll for Third, the Angrylion plugin, which is the emulator to see it most accurate and compatible (and use itslowest). It plugin there is still a good emulator , began to be ported both for general usewith standard Mupen64Plus and the libretro fork. Finally, Themaister, one of the creators of libretro and RetroArch, began developing a unique plugin initially exclusive to libretro known as it has good compatibility with ParaLLEl-RDP, essentially Angrylion running on the GPU through Vulkan compute shaders, enabling near-perfect N64 graphics emulation at actually playable speeds. Add to this the fact that most PCs and many mobile devices are now more than capable enough of running the most advanced plugins, and the popular gamesplugin situation, once considered a labyrinth, has been greatly simplified to just needing a few for the vast majority of use cases.
[http://1964js.com/ 1964] - An open source emulator and long-time competitor to Project64. Some of its iterations (such as [[1964]] Ultrafast) have the ability to overclock the N64's CPU, which results in smoother framerate on games All that have a lot of slowdownssaid, such as Perfect Dark and Conker's Bad Fur Day. The last stable version released by the original team was 1.1, who then went on to remake it as a web emulator written in JavaScript, though some community members kept it going up to version [https://code.google.com/p/emu-1964/ 1.2 r146], with mixed results. It issue is generally recommended to stick that there are now three plugin standards to version 1.1 except on certain special cases. Overall, it is the least compatible of the big three emulators, only being used account for a handful of games or if using very weak hardware.:
[http://mupen64.emulation64.com/ Mupen64] The zilmar spec - An open source, multiplatform N64 emulator. Even though its last update Utilized by its original author was in 2005, it is possibly even more compatible than Project64 1.6, particularly with more obscure or less discussed titles, though it has incompatibilities of its own. Its modern, currently active successor is [[Mupen64Plus]], which improves upon the original's compatibility but chose to depart from Zilmar's plugin spec, rendering and most other legacy emulators; only Project64 still uses it incompatible with the plugins discussed in this page. It is also less accessible than its forebearer, owing to its lack of a native GUItoday.
[http://wwwThe Mupen64Plus spec - Utilized by Mupen64Plus and most of its forks.mediafire.com/ The libretro spec - Not really a spec per se, as the plugins are integrated directly into the core, so there's no DLL files to download/57bgvkraykpylsw/N64_Emulator_Packor add.rar This pack] has these four emulators As of right now, a few older and special or modified versions, and more obscure and largely irrelevant emulators added only for specific fringe cases, as well as every plugin discussed in this page and morenot all plugins are readily available on all three.
Initial revamp of this massively outdated and outmoded page
{{Outdated}}
The N64 emulation scene has had previously been described as a broken mess, the very definition of plugin hell. With recent developments in the scene, however, the situation has markedly improved, and it is no longer considered necessary to have multiple emulators and plugins on hand to get most games to work. This page is an attempt to make sense of will outline the madness best plugins currently available for the benefit of both the casual and enthusiast looking to get their N64 emulation fix.
==Video==
