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Danny

Programmer | Moderator
^^ What he said :)

Thanks for all your hard work over the years on N64 emulation Azimer, you rule :D
 

mudlord

Banned
Rice did pop around some time ago though...
He helped me out with some things, but I haven't seen him since...
 

MasterPhW

Master of the Emulation Flame
Btw: just a little suggestion and not much work either: the website of Apollo, it really needs an overhaul, because it has its classic values, but now in 2008 it would be great to see it updated...
Just a suggestion! :)
It's really nice to have you back Azi!
 
OP
Azimer

Azimer

Emulator Developer
Moderator
Btw: just a little suggestion and not much work either: the website of Apollo, it really needs an overhaul, because it has its classic values, but now in 2008 it would be great to see it updated...
Just a suggestion! :)
It's really nice to have you back Azi!

The site as a whole needs an overhaul. I will consider this more in the future. For now, everything I will need to post will be done here.

I also lost the login information for the main site. :(
 

Cyberman

Moderator
Moderator
The site as a whole needs an overhaul. I will consider this more in the future. For now, everything I will need to post will be done here.

I also lost the login information for the main site. :(
Ouch. Well you could ask an Administrator to reset the passwords (They are still breathing here).

As for me my latest project will be error correction fun I think. I am not so much a sadist that I LIKE calculating Reed Solomon matrices but it has peeked my interest due to projects at work.

As I have learned the hard way it's best to start old stuff small again. Since I myself have forgot half of what I did in the past (sad I know).

Cyb
 
OP
Azimer

Azimer

Emulator Developer
Moderator
Azimer, did you check this out?

http://www.emutalk.net/showthread.php?t=40311

Hacking N64 roms so that the frame limited 20/30fps games (mario, zelda, etc) run at 60fps on an overclocked N64 might be something you could get interested in... ;)

Check out Goldeneye at 60fps to see how much better it can be.

From my understanding, this isn't exactly hacking roms. You are only adding more cycles between each timed exception. It doesn't suprised me that it helps GoldenEye in the slow spots, but I don't believe it'd do much good for Mario64 as its true framerate is tied directly to the retrace counter.
 
OP
Azimer

Azimer

Emulator Developer
Moderator
Ouch. Well you could ask an Administrator to reset the passwords (They are still breathing here).

It really isn't a big deal. I don't do emulation for fancy websites, people's commentary on forums, or even a sense of accomplishment. I enjoy seeing how things work and if other people get to benefit from it, great.
 

PistolGrip

New member
From my understanding, this isn't exactly hacking roms. You are only adding more cycles between each timed exception. It doesn't suprised me that it helps GoldenEye in the slow spots, but I don't believe it'd do much good for Mario64 as its true framerate is tied directly to the retrace counter.

No, GoldenEye/Perfect Dark do not need hacking as their timing works independently of the frame rate and they try and draw as many frames as they can, kinda like most PC games. Most of GoldenEye is a "low spot" it rarely achieves over 20fps on the real N64, and very often drops to 10-15fps. You'd have to play it at a constant 60fps to really see the difference as words don't do it justice.

The games I am saying need hacking are the Mario64 type ones, which draw over multiple frames (2 in Mario64's case, 3 in Zelda's). You would change the code so that they do it all in one frame instead, and adjust any game based timing which maybe relied on a constant "30fps".

Even in those games there is benefits to running them UNMODIFIED on an overclocked N64, San Francisco Rush which is limited to 30fps often drops below 30fps when playing split screen for example. I'm sure even Zelda drops below it's low 20fps time to time on a normal N64, which it wouldn't on an overclocked one.
 

DanielKO

New member
The people who were interested in emulation grew up and got jobs?

Not trying to spoil Azimer's nostalgic rant, but this had to be said. It's no surprising when the community is a ghetto; eventually the superstars will lose interest, change priorities, be hit by a bus, etc; and Darwin will find its course.
 
OP
Azimer

Azimer

Emulator Developer
Moderator
Not trying to spoil Azimer's nostalgic rant, but this had to be said. It's no surprising when the community is a ghetto; eventually the superstars will lose interest, change priorities, be hit by a bus, etc; and Darwin will find its course.

Rant? I take exception to that word choice! What I am more surprised about is the lack of new blood in the community. It seems everyone dropped off N64 in favor of Gamecube. N64 emulation has a lot of work left.
 

angrylion

New member
You were asking what is Z64 and who is Ziggy. So here's the link http://www.emutalk.net/showthread.php?t=40640.
Ziggy emulated RDP and RSP at a low level. He made especially nice progress with RDP, so his implementation is still more accurate and feature-rich than what's in MAME. In terms of compatibility, Z64 is comparable to major HLE plugins.
I think the emu scene will gradually move on to LLE.
 

X-Fi6

New member
You were asking what is Z64 and who is Ziggy. So here's the link http://www.emutalk.net/showthread.php?t=40640.
Ziggy emulated RDP and RSP at a low level. He made especially nice progress with RDP, so his implementation is still more accurate and feature-rich than what's in MAME. In terms of compatibility, Z64 is comparable to major HLE plugins.
I think the emu scene will gradually move on to LLE.
I disagree--Azimer's HLE Audio is the same, if not better, than other LLE plugins I've tried (like Jabo's etc).

I've never had any problems with it... So while in the future, graphics may be LLE, I still think HLE will be popular.
 
OP
Azimer

Azimer

Emulator Developer
Moderator
I disagree--Azimer's HLE Audio is the same, if not better, than other LLE plugins I've tried (like Jabo's etc).

I've never had any problems with it... So while in the future, graphics may be LLE, I still think HLE will be popular.

I know a few major issues with my plugin at the moment.

1. It takes some opimization shortcuts that are not possible with LLE. As such, you lose accuracy as can be seen in Golden Eye 007 (Is fixed for the next release).

2. MusyX is still unemulated because it is a very demanding microcode. In some games that are not quite emulated well yet, the RSP recompiler takes up a good 30-40% of available CPU time for the emulator to do audio. This is one area I am currently focusing on but it's a lot of guess-work and reversing RSP.

3. My plugin need a lot more optimization before it's truly faster than the recompiled RSP. I am still waiting for my plugin to be 99% compatible with LLE before I do this. I am hoping that will be 1.0.. we are one what? .56?

In general LLE will overcome an HLE technique. The draw of HLE for me is that it brings a different challenge. Rather than emulate a system... I am emulating a system and making it faster and possibly enhanced through HLE. Though HLE, I can do something similar to texture packs by having audio sample replacement. Not really something that interests me but it was an easy example that is impossible using a *pure* LLE approach.
 

bjz

New member
I'm here sometimes, I never say anything though. I like to be mysterious and unknown like a ninja. Besides TF2 has been taking a chunk of my time. :apollo:
 

FlotsamX

New member
P64 is still a WIP... but after that, after all is accounted for, after the major problems in the games have been fixed, of COURSE we are going to focus on the Gamecube. That, or the N64DD. >.>
 

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