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VI/s, game speed, and FPS?

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archagon

New member
I'm having performance issues in some games, but I'm not sure if they're caused by my computer. Glide64 says that the VI/s is always 60fps and that the % speed is always 100, but the FPS fluctuates a lot. Is there any way to tell whether a game is performing as it would on an actual N64?

Also, does anyone know why I can see the seams between rectangular texture blocks in certain games? I had the same problem in the Metal Gear Solid PC port until I switched to software rendering.
 
Agozer

Agozer

16-bit Corpse | Moderator
The seams are a result of Direct3D or OpenGL acceleration. I don't remember the technical explanation, but it's quite common. It often happens with games that originally use some form of software rendering, but are then "forced" through Direct3D or OpenGL acceleration (i.e. emulators).

I'd say that if the game's internal FPS fluctuates, yet the VI/s are steady, the game runs as it is supposed to run on the real hardware. The developers might have coded the game in such a way that it automatically adjusts its own framerate based on what's going on in the scene, or then the developers simply didn't optimize the game engine enough to maintain a constant FPS value.

It really shouldn't matter to you if your computer is strong enough to push constant 60 VI/s for NTSC or 50 VI/s for PAL.
 
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A

archagon

New member
Are there any plans for a software rendering plugin?

Agozer said:
I'd say that if the game's internal FPS fluctuates, yet the VI/s are steady, the game runs as it is supposed to run on the real hardware. The developers might have coded the game in such a way that it automatically adjusts its own framerate based on what's going on in the scene, or then the developers simply didn't optimize the game engine enough to maintain a constant FPS value.
Click to expand...

I thought so too, but I remember seeing the FPS drop whenever I minimized the window, which indicates to me that it's not the actual N64 FPS. Also, Goldeneye is really laggy in some parts.
 
Agozer

Agozer

16-bit Corpse | Moderator
Well, changing the render device in Jabo's Direc3D6 plugin to render via RGB Emulation instead of Direct3D HAL is is more or less ythe same as rendering in software. There is also a plugin called Z64 which is purely a software rendering plugin, but I don't know how advanced that is.

Though it is worth noting that using pure software rendering in N64 emulation can have a terrible impact on performance.

archagon said:
I thought so too, but I remember seeing the FPS drop whenever I minimized the window, which indicates to me that it's not the actual N64 FPS. Also, Goldeneye is really laggy in some parts.
Click to expand...
I believe this has more to do with how Direct3D applications handle window manipulation "on-the-fly". It's not at all uncommon for Direct3D applications to momentarily slow down or do something else unexpected when you fiddle with the window while the application is running.
 
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jmf145

jmf145

New member
Jabo's Direct3d6 1.5.2 has RGB emulation but it is really slow.
BTW, I though we could delete posts.
 
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Agozer

Agozer

16-bit Corpse | Moderator
There is nothing wrong with how the fence looks. Again, it's the work of Direct3D applied to 2D sprites. About the "seams", I agree that it looks a bit out of place. I mean many people get those but your seems to stick out. It might have to do with your video and and its drivers.
 
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A

archagon

New member
I should note that the polygon seams only happen on the Whomp's Fortress stage, so far. Tried it on my laptop -- same problem. However, I've seen YouTube videos of the level with no seams, so what's going on?
 
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archagon

New member
Update, if anyone cares: I checked the VC version and it has the same artifacts, so I guess they're supposed to be there.
 
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