Some questions

[plzdontbugme]

1. Overall, what is considered the best graphics plug in out there (in terms of performance, compatibility, quality, accuracy)? Glide 64 (newest), Rice (newest), Jabo's Direct3D 1.5.2/1.6/1.7+, or something else?
2. Is there any way I can play Mario Tennis with the trails being displayed behind charged shots? If so what emulator and plugins do I need?
3. Is Good Name a ROM database just like Rom DataBase, GameFAQ, and Good64? If so, is the newest Rom DataBase better than the newest Good Name and the other mentioned databses?
4. Does the Service Pack for Project 64 1.5 improve 1.6/1.7, too, or is it redundant?
5. Are the old Project 64 versions any good? What about the old plugins?

 

[Powerlord]

1. Each seems to emulate things that the others miss... somewhere around emutalk there's a list of what graphics plugins emulate which games the best. I don't know where it is right at the moment though... a shame, since I wanted to look up something on it.

2. No idea.

3. No idea what Good Name is. However, it sounds an awful lot like GoodN64 from the name alone.

4. The service pack is only for 1.5. Don't use it with 1.6 or 1.7, although you should probably install the RDB update for 1.6. I would link to it on the PJ64 site, but that link is currently broken on the new site.

5. Each new version fixes bugs, so it is generally a good idea to use the latest stable version. That's 1.6 as of this writing.

 

[Agozer]

3. GoodNames refers to DAT files (such as GoodSNES, Good NES, GoodN64, etc. that are used with rom managers to scan your roms for different dumps. They have very little to do with Project64's RDB and GameFAQ.

4. Old plugins are only good when your hardware can't handle the newer plugins. In some cases though, older plugins might be better with some games than newer ones.

 

[plzdontbugme]

Follow up

1. Wow, that's awesome. If you find it, please post the URL here. It would be nice if there would be one plug-in that takes the advantages of all of them.
2. Now with dual/quad-core and unified shaders, we can only hope if the application is optimized for it.
3. GoodName, GoodN64 == scans roms for quality and functionality and displays information in the rom list
Rom DataBase, GameFAQ == gives information about possible issues and sometimes how to fix them in a seperate help-interface

Is this true?

 

[Agozer]

1. http://bmgcl.emuxhaven.net/n64mgcl/N64ConfigList.htm
3. GoodN64 really doesn't have much to do with Project64's Rom Browser. The RDB is what contains game specific settings for each game, the CRCs for known good dumps for each game as well as any addition info you might see in PJ64's Rom Browser.

GoodNames DAT files are merely for rom scanners (Such as RomCenter, GoodTools and it's "spinoffs", etc) to identify rom images and that way tell the user if the rom they have is good, bad, overdumped, etc. etc.

GameFAQ is simply a help file that lists problems with games. It doesn't have anythig to do with Project64's Rom Browser.

 

[plzdontbugme]

GoodNames DAT files are merely for rom scanners (Such as RomCenter, GoodTools and it's "spinoffs", etc) to identify rom images and that way tell the user if the rom they have is good, bad, overdumped, etc. etc.

So it basically interprets the tags from the rom filenames?

Thanks for that URL

 

[Agozer]

So it basically interprets the tags from the rom filenames?

Thanks for that URL

No. Filenames are the worst identifiers, since filenames can be practically anything (hell, I can rename my good Super Mario 64 rom to "lol.n64" and a bad dump to lol2.z64; a scanners that checks filenames gets nowhere). DAT files simply contain information about all the known rom images dumps that are floating on the Internet. A rom scanner tool simply compares the data it finds in your rom file to the contents of the DAT file or it's internal database (like NSRT) and gives its "verdict" based on the results. CRC is usually the most effective identification method, although that can be faked too. MD5 and an SHA1 hashes are more effective but I don't know how many rom scanners use those.

The tags are usually added by the rom scanner in accordance with the Good Tools naming scheme.