As I explained in the
previous article, low level emulation (LLE) is not magic wand which makes the emulation perfect. But it the only way to run games, which are not supported by HLE. And if you already have HLE plugin, you are one step from having LLE support as well. LLE plugin does emulation of RDP. HLE plugin does emulation of RDP plus high level emulation of RSP commands. That is, HLE plugin is LLE plugin + HLE RSP. Of course, practical implementation of LLE mode in HLE plugin has nuances, but in general the situation is like that.
Now to the news: since that week GLideN64 supports low level emulation. Of course, graphics glitches caused by difference between N64 graphics hardware and PC graphics cards are not gone. LLE by itself cannot ensure pixel-accurate emulation. But if you want to see for example Star Wars - Rogue Squadron in high-resolution with advanced texture filtering, GLideN64 will help you.
Few screen shots from previously unsupported games:
The secret way to get a beta build
right now is
here. The project needs your help!
If you don't mind me asking, how does GLideN64 in LLE mode compare to Ziggy's LLE plugin, speedwise?
ReplyDeleteA bit slower. Ziggy's plugin is somehow optimized, my plugin has no optimization for low-level polygons yet.
DeleteThanks for the response. :) Do you think your plugin will possibly surpass Ziggy's performance at any point in the future?
DeleteRegardless, even if it doesn't, bless you for adding LLE, and thank you very much for working on GLideN64.
Hardly. Even if I implement good optimization, my shaders are much more complicated and thus more slow. Besides, performance in LLE mode depends mostly on RSP plugin performance.
ReplyDeleteSo, what are the requirements for this? Does it make use of multiple cores or is it a case of needing a single core overclocked to its limits?
ReplyDeleteI never tried to write RSP plugin and unsure where the bottleneck is.
DeleteOh yeah, you explained it above, that LLE depends on RSP performance, but i missed it somehow, sorry.
DeleteGonetz, thank you for implementing LLE graphics! If you have the spare time, optimizing the LLE code would definitely be worth it.
ReplyDeleteAs for how much the RSP affects performance, it depends on the speed of the graphic plugin and the game you're playing. The main bottleneck in the current RSPs available for Mupen64Plus is the simple fact that they are interpreters.
Something to consider, is releasing the zilmar spec compatible version of your plugin sooner, so that people can test games like World Championship Driver and Stunt Racer 64 in LLE. Gauntlet Legends would be nice to test as well, if that can boot.
As I remember, WDC and Stunt Racer 64 require support of special synchronization functions from RSP side, and this support is not provided for zilmar spec. I failed to boot Gauntlet Legends as well, thus no screens from this game.
DeleteWhile it is true that the synchronization support is not exactly provided for in zilmar spec, Project 2.1 itself has support for that. So you would be able to test games like WDC on Project64 2.1.
DeleteDidn't know about it. Thanks! WDC really works and reveal numbers of issues in my LLE mode.
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