Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Yes, I know that GameCube and Wii are similar and this is why dolphin emulates both of them, and I also know that it CAN run n64 games but trought the Wii emulation so it's not the best.
I ask this because now n64 emulators are very VERY bad, Project64 is windows-only, it is plugin based which is bad because there aren't a lot of plugins and they are usually bad, also it switched recently to open-source but it didn't help because no one and I mean NO ONE as contributed to the project if not in minor ways. Then there's Mupen64plus that is better because it is a long time that it is open-source and the code is cleaner, BUT if you want to play rom hacks you can't, because most of them are done with Project64. There isn't competition like 0. Both emulators take long time to improve and n64 emulatrion really sucks now. But if there was a n64 emulator made by the Dolphin Team only with half of the quality of Dolphin i'm sure it will be far better than both Project64 and Mupen64plus. If you also add mac and linux support it would be great and it would allow for some people to play older games. And imagine netplay! I know that it can be done with some plugin with Project64 and in some versions of Mupen64plus but it is tricky. I hope that something like this would exist.

N64 games are played on GameCube and Wii through software emulation. The N64 is a completely different animal than GC/Wii. Completely different processor, completely different GPU, completely different memory, etc.

By itself, neither the GameCube nor the Wii can play N64 games; N64 games on those platforms are bundled with a purpose built emulator optimized for those specific games.

For the Dolphin team to write a N64 emulator would require starting from scratch to emulate all the components of that system, and no code could be reused between the two cores.

If you want an emulation GUI that can instantly switch between N64 and GameCube/Wii then get RetroArch and the necessary cores.

Dolphin is a GameCube and Wii emulator and will remain such for the foreseeable future. The only other systems that would theoretically be added are ones directly related to those two systems (Triforce if the stars ever align, and maybe the Game Boy through the Game Boy Player for completeness sake). N64 isn't anywhere on the radar and likely never will be.

If you're waiting for N64 emulation to be improved, hold out a little longer until Near (bsnes/Higan author, the person who basically perfected SNES emulation) finishes work on Ares' N64 core. It's literally being worked on every day. There's also Dillon's WIP N64 emulator, which is also being worked on constantly. Both emudevs actually actively share info too, so we have 2 potentially amazing N64 emulators being built right now. No plugins, no hacks, no nonsense. It'll be a breath of fresh air once they're released.

But nevertheless, it's not a role for Dolphin to play. Any of the contributors to the project are free to help out with other emulators as they please, but Dolphin itself isn't going to switch focus.

Also, n64 emulation is already pretty good. Most of the problems were in the graphics emulation. GlideN64 is significantly more accurate than any HLE plugin before it and has tons of enhancements. Angrylion-RDP is extremely accurate, but CPU requirements and no HD output prevented broad appeal. ParaLLEl is more recent, but is practically GPU angrylion and allows HD resolutions.

(05-18-2021, 03:34 PM)Craftyawesome Wrote: [ -> ]Also, n64 emulation is already pretty good. Most of the problems were in the graphics emulation. GlideN64 is significantly more accurate than any HLE plugin before it and has tons of enhancements. Angrylion-RDP is extremely accurate, but CPU requirements and no HD output prevented broad appeal. ParaLLEl is more recent, but is practically GPU angrylion and allows HD resolutions.

Yeah, now that we have ParaLLEl and a multithreaded Angrylion RDP plugin, most of the N64's longstanding emulation issues are essentially resolved.  Things like Rouge Squadron now play fine, and games that are notorious for graphical issues (Body Harvest, Jet Force Gemini, etc.) are playable without issue at acceptable FPS (>60 @ 2x resolution, which considering the old Angrylion RDP ran at like 50 FPS I'll take).

Let me be clear: N64 emulation was pretty bad for literally DECADES, but we're pretty much at the point where developments over the past year have largely resolved most of the outstanding issues.