Mupen 0.4 + Linux issues

[robbinshomer]

Hacktarux-

I want to first commend you on such an excellent N64 emulator....First real, working, awesome 64 emulator I've ever seen (and Linux compatible! :) )

But.....I have one slight issue with the Linux version......I'm having trouble with ROM maps. When I start a rom, usually I get everything loaded up just fine, but the maps/ground do not draw in a few games (Mario, Goldeneye, to name a few) Is there any way to fix this problem? Thanks!

-Homer Robbins

[robbinshomer]

Tried a few of the different video plugins....I was originally using the Glide64 plugin, which didn't draw all of the maps properly....gIN64 does quite well - all the maps and scenery is drawn perfectly, but it is incredibly slow (less than 10fps in almost every game), rendering gameplay impossible....the rice plugin crashes the whole program, so I haven't been able to get it to work

Any suggestions? I don't think the hardware is behind this, but I don't know..........

Hardware FYI -
1.3 ghz Pentium M
384 mb RAM
64 mb Radeon Mobility 9000
SuSE 9.1

[Hacktarux]

Well, at least you know where the problem is.... There's not much that you can do with the available plugins... except maybe posting some screenshots so that we understand exactly what's the problem with glide64 and who knows maybe it can be fixed ;)

[robbinshomer]

Well, let's see what images we got here.......

Image 1
http://www.geocities.com/thewldisntenough/snapshot1.png

Image was taken using the Glide plugin while playing Mario 64...Note the lack of icons for the files and for the bottom buttons......

Image 2
http://www.geocities.com/thewldisntenough/snapshot6.png

Now, the same image with the gIN64 plugin....Boxes are now there

Image 3
http://www.geocities.com/thewldisntenough/snapshot2.png

Gameplay....Mario's shadows as well as the shadows on the trees look more like black bars than shadows

Image 4
http://www.geocities.com/thewldisntenough/snapshot7.png

Much better....The ground looks a lot better, the shadows are perfect.... Note the frame count at the top though....9.20 fps...Hardly playable

Image 5
http://www.geocities.com/thewldisntenough/snapshot3.png

Best example I have of the problems with the Glide plugin...If you can find the ground or how to get around in the sea of grey, let me know :plain:

Image 6
http://www.geocities.com/thewldisntenough/snapshot8.png

Beautiful shot here....Things look much better....Watch out for the Bomb-omb, Mario! Still unplayable though (although you can't see the fps here....Around 10)

Image 7
http://www.geocities.com/thewldisntenough/snapshot5.png

Another look while playing Goldeneye....Same as the Mario shot....Can't really see where to go

Image 8 (Final Image)
http://www.geocities.com/thewldisntenough/snapshot10.png

Much better than the above shot....Scenery and everything else is visible, but gameplay is hard.....

I hope all the screenshots help....I noticed two things that you might want to watch for....

1.) Mupen64 doesn't release system memory....For some reason, I noticed that after I ran the program and exited, it still ate some memory, and I had to kill the process manually with KDE system guard....Don't know if that is relevant, but I figured it would be something that might be useful................

2.) There is a setting with the gIN64 plugin that allows for a larger image buffer.....I turned it up, and it seemed to help, but after a time, it seemed to be useless...

Thanks a lot for all your help

-Homer Robbins

[Hacktarux]

interesting... are u using a 32 bits resolution ?

[robbinshomer]

No....I was using 16 bits.........Should I push up the resolution?

[Hacktarux]

yes, i'd like to know the results you get. I think you don't have enough depth precision with 16 bits, it can be solved with 32 bits.

[ciruZ]

Well, there shouldn't be such a big difference in the FPS between glN64 and Glide64? Glide64 is better, yes. But not soooo much faster! ;)

[robbinshomer]

Sorry it took awhile to respond......I've moved since my last post, and I've been busy getting things moved back and forth.........

Anywho, the problem (which is going to sound rather stupid) was my ATI Radeon 9000 (Mobility M9) was not properly configured with the drivers. Properly configured drivers = better OpenGL support = Excellent FPS/Maps/Mupen 64.....A n00b mistake I should have followed up on............Thanks for all the help though

-Homer Robbins