Homebrew Question Best way to experience n64 on switch through emulation

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Opia

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Hi all!
I've been using mupen-n64-next on switch and the performance is great! The one thing I've noticed is that when upscaling and using the 16:9 adjusted setting and 60fps the games often don't feel quite right.
Using the Super Mario 64 port seems a better experience (I know this is a port not being emulated) and I was just gonna ask what settings people use to get the best experience from n64 emulation while retaining the original feel of the hardware! I'd rather use 16:9 as it fills the screen but I am open to any suggestions as Ocarina of time especially just didn't feel quite right
 
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HappehLemons

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It's sadly just wont ever feel "quite right". N64 is hard to emulate for the switch and chugs on lots of games.

Adding extras like 16:9 and 60fps modes on these games makes them much harder to run, when the switch just barely is able to run them in their original states.

With that said - Lakka is an option because it uses all of the switches resources to just run RA so you'll undoubtedly get better performance, but you lose a lot of system features.
No more sleep mode, docked mode, wireless joycons with no option to reboot to payload.
 

Opia

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Thanks for the reply! Yeah I have considered Lakka before. Maybe its time to try it out!
 
D

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Thanks for the reply! Yeah I have considered Lakka before. Maybe its time to try it out!

don't listen to that guy. Just gotta OC and play with some settings. He just doesn't know how to do that and suggested lakka which is ok but in some cases plays n64 worse than horizon and you can't dock it.
 

HappehLemons

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don't listen to that guy. Just gotta OC and play with some settings. He just doesn't know how to do that and suggested lakka which is ok but in some cases plays n64 worse than horizon and you can't dock it.

You're 100% wrong.

And blindly saying "Overclock and play with the settings" isn't helpful at all. You're basically saying you have no idea if he can solve issue or now and to just waste time when I know for a fact Lakka has major performance gains over Horizon.

I'd suggest you go look at the ticket section on m4xw's github and you'll see I've reported plenty of confirmed issues version of Mupen64Plus-Next on various operation systems. I know the core very well.

Please link me your github profile so I can see all of the testing you've done and bug you've reported to Mupen64Plus-Next.

I have a feeling you haven't even used the most recent version of Lakka from last month.
 
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You're 100% wrong.

And blindly saying "Overclock and play with the settings" isn't helpful at all. You're basically saying you have no idea if he can solve issue or now and to just waste time when I know for a fact Lakka has major performance gains over Horizon.

I'd suggest you go look at the ticket section on m4xw's github and you'll see I've reported plenty of confirmed issues version of Mupen64Plus-Next on various operation systems. I know the core very well.

Please link me your github profile so I can see all of the testing you've done and bug you've reported to Mupen64Plus-Next.

I have a feeling you haven't even used the most recent version of Lakka from last month.

Actually I have a youtube channel with hundreds of hours of footage...

Basically gotta play with options cause not each game uses the same options...

Also n64 on android is better than lakka cause you can dock it. Basically you just met someone who knows more than you. You are welcome!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzPmgEh1LSc80cRfNPL5GLg?view_as=subscriber

as for using lakka gosh i like docked and portable mode but this video where i show ps2 booting shows that yes i recently use it so uh you are wrong...



sometimes performance is better sure but since you can't dock it is it really? hard to say. smaller screen less demands. That would be a case by case def not better overall
 
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HappehLemons

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Actually I have a youtube channel with hundreds of hours of footage...

Basically gotta play with options cause not each game uses the same options...

Also n64 on android is better than lakka cause you can dock it. Basically you just met someone who knows more than you. You are welcome!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzPmgEh1LSc80cRfNPL5GLg?view_as=subscriber

You're still wrong.

1) Android doesn't even support analog control yet for public release, so suggesting someone use this for N64 is just ignorant.

2) Android still can't run games fullspeed that Lakka can.

3) I posted that you can't used Docked for Lakka as a drawback. That doesn't mean it RUNS BETTER.

Just because you have a YouTube channel showing you know how to record videos doesn't prove anything.

Here - I'll show you exactly why you don't know what you're talking about.

Post a video of 007 running on the first level without any stuttering. You can mess with any settings & overclock. I'll wait. Happy to post a video of it running in Lakka with no stuttering or issues.
 
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You're still wrong.

1) Android doesn't even support analog control yet for public release, so suggesting someone use this for N64 is just ignorant.

2) Android still can't run games fullspeed that Lakka can.

3) I posted that you can't used Docked for Lakka as a drawback. That doesn't mean it RUNS BETTER.

Just because you have a YouTube channel showing you know how to record videos doesn't prove anything.

Here - I'll show you exactly why you don't know what you're talking about.

Post a video of 007 running on the first level without any stuttering. You can mess with any settings & overclock. I'll wait. Happy to post a video of it running in Lakka with no stuttering or issues.

well look you just want to argue. I am trying to give the good advice. N64 works great on horizon. Even has rumble and can use hd packs. Picking the one or two games that don't work well is not the point. Also analog works great in android on a pro controller (or ps3 btw) so you just don't know everything tis all. Added to ignored.
 

TunaKetchup

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Best hope is for Nintendo to release N64 games with their own custom settings and emulation

Similar to what we saw on Wii

Or you can use retroarch which isn't perfect but is certainly playable.
 

HappehLemons

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well look you just want to argue. I am trying to give the good advice. N64 works great on horizon. Even has rumble and can use hd packs. Picking the one or two games that don't work well is not the point. Also analog works great in android on a pro controller (or ps3 btw) so you just don't know everything tis all. Added to ignored.

Yup, knew you wouldn't deliver any actual evidence that the performance is better. Thanks for the laggy PS2 video and useless posts!
 
D

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Yup, knew you wouldn't deliver any actual evidence that the performance is better. Thanks for the laggy PS2 video and useless posts!

dude i linked to my whole channel cause i would be here all day. Also you assumed I had no recently tried lakka and I have. Very toxic person begone.
 

HappehLemons

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dude i linked to my whole channel cause i would be here all day. Also you assumed I had no recently tried lakka and I have. Very toxic person begone.


While it's good advice to try to overclock your Switch OP as that's the easiest way to get some extra performance out of your Switch, I'm assuming you've tried it. If you haven't go ahead and give that a go in Retroarch.

If that doesn't get you where you hoped you would in terms of performance please don't waste your time installing switchroot just to play N64 on your switch if you are trying to get the best performance you can.

As it stands now, Android on switch isn't a very good solution because of it's instability, and lack of analog support for JoyCons and a couple other annoying bugs. When the Pie update rolls out for switchroot a lot these issues (At very least the analog issues) should be fixed, but it's unclear if there's going to be a performance gain or not.

I stand by the most recent version of Lakka being the best way to get the most performance out of your switch for N64 if you can't get enough speed from RA on Horizon.

While seanp2500 hasn't giving you any actual information on why Lakka is worse other then him not liking that it doesn't support docked mode and referring to old builds having issues that have mostly been resolved now:

I have tried Switchroot, Lakka and Horizon. When it comes to keeping a solid FPS on games when adding things like higher resolution, expanding aspect ratios and upping framerate you're going to get the most mileage from Lakka. But it is a pain if you can't get over it's lack of basic features as I listed in my original post.
 

Billy Acuña

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@HappehLemons fix your shit already

As for the OP, make sure you have lastest Mupen64Plus Next (2.1), set threaded renderer ON, turn off dram options, turn ON inaccurate blending mode and then you should easily go for 720p for all of the games (with a very few exceptions), and as @seanp2500 pointed out, always use max clocks for mupen, also if you want to go with the original N64 look instead of HD then set native res factor to 1x and enable dithering.
 
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m4xw

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when the switch just barely is able to run them in their original states.
Barely isn't correct, in fact SM64 runs with interpreter even.
The issue starts with higher resolutions being used usually, lakka is actually a tad slower than mupen on HOS (as long its not a chad driver case like for KI Gold)
 

Bst22322

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Please keep the discussion going. I've always wanted to try some 007 GoldenEye multiplayer on switch while docked. Is this a pipe dream?
 

m4xw

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Please keep the discussion going. I've always wanted to try some 007 GoldenEye multiplayer on switch while docked. Is this a pipe dream?
Getting pretty close these days, fullspeed at native res (removing further artifical lag would need game patches) but I dunno about multiplayer.
Essentialy it works better than hw with right settings rn.
 

HappehLemons

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Barely isn't correct, in fact SM64 runs with interpreter even.
The issue starts with higher resolutions being used usually, lakka is actually a tad slower than mupen on HOS (as long its not a chad driver case like for KI Gold)


Maybe this isn't a great benchmark, but I normally use the first level of 007 to check speed.

On HOS, the first level runs really awful on HOS on Max Overclock with constant stuttering (Extremely noticeable when entering the tunnel on the first level), while on Lakka it seems to run almost perfect with the GPU clock at 600+ Mhz.

For some reason, I don't seem to get anything that I'd consider full speed running at native res. Happy to post examples if it helps.

Is this not a good representation of which build handles better when it comes to more demanding games that have FPS drops?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Do what I wrote in my previous post plus set native res factor to 1x

I don't get great performance with this. I'll post a video to show the kind of lag I get and show I'm using these exact settings.
 
Last edited by HappehLemons,

LeyendaV

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Thanks for the reply! Yeah I have considered Lakka before. Maybe its time to try it out!
Don't use Lakka. It has been more than a year since the last update. It lacks a ton of features and the overall performance is way worse than if you use only RetroArch.
Download RA, all the required components and keep everything updated, that's the best you can do to emulate nowdays (aside some stand-alone emulators).
 
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HappehLemons

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Do what I wrote in my previous post plus set native res factor to 1x



Here's a clip using the exact setting you listed. See the :25 for major slowdown. I don't get ANY slowdown in 007 with Lakka.

This is using Mupen 2.1 with threaded rendering as well, the results are similar with it turned off though.

This isn't a settings issue, this is just how 007 has always run in Horizon OS. I think a lot of people just look past this kind of stuff for some reason. Lakka doesn't get any kind of slowdown like this and I don't even have to change the settings.
 
Last edited by HappehLemons,

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