According to http://www.jabosoft.com/?articleid=115 a patch has been released for Project 64 that fiixes lots of graphical glitches on N64 games, such as the skies in Goldeneye, and the lots of fixes in Perfect Dark, such as "Scanners (IR, X-Ray, Night Vision, Horizon), Slayer and CamSpy work."
[the following list of improvements is copied and pasted from a different forum]
Audio Plugin:
tarzan and hydro thunder to have audio now due to buffering changes
Input Plugin:
configuration dialog gamepad polling stops at first hit now properly
ported the polling order from 1.7 which should be more reliable
uses system keyboard names now
updated layout to be more like 1.7 changes
D3D8 Plugin:
bugfix: fixed a problem where the plugin could crash if it ran out of video memory
bugfix: fixed microcodes for blast corps, body harvest, ODT, and asteroids
1080: fixed europe region effects
40winks: fixed strange texturing issue
bangoi: sprite edges should look correct
banjotooie: fixed puzzle rendering and other regions
cruisin usa: brake lights work
dragonsword: menu text drawing and scaling fixed
drmario: fixed background in versus mode
fzero: fixed potential triangle overflow issue
goldeneye: fixed calculations of sky triangles
legoracer: fixed players going out of sight
mkart: fixed whomps in bowser castle
mkart: racetrack frame buffer support
oot: end of game subscreen issues
paperboy: fixed map drawing in game
pdark: fixed scanners
tarzan: fixed butterfly and health meter
vigilante8: fixed some textures
zeldamm: fixed day transition borders and lens of truth in snow areas
It would be great if this was complied into Surreal 64, for us loyal XBox fans.
Full Version: Project 64 (windows) Now Does Goldeneye Skies Correctly!
This won't happen as Jabo's plugins are not open source (they have never been and most certainly never will).
Asking (or begging) him to release the source code is pointless.
Asking (or begging) him to release the source code is pointless.
We tried it. Other's tried it. Jabo and Zilmar won't release more source code. As a matter of fact we make their FAQ for nagging the developers for "needing the source to port PJ64 to Xbox." So yeah, don't ask...
They didn't get what they wanted out of the 1.4 source release, i believe they only released it because they went on a bit of a hiatus. Azimer's PJ64 AudioFix, Surreal64, Project64k, and the development leading into version 1.5 came about from the source release, so I don't quite understand their position.
Looking at Jabo's OMG I Wish This Was On Xbox Direct3D8 Video Plugin aside from PJ64, I don't think it will ever be open. Not how Jabo operates if you check out some emutalk.net interviews.
They didn't get what they wanted out of the 1.4 source release, i believe they only released it because they went on a bit of a hiatus. Azimer's PJ64 AudioFix, Surreal64, Project64k, and the development leading into version 1.5 came about from the source release, so I don't quite understand their position.
Looking at Jabo's OMG I Wish This Was On Xbox Direct3D8 Video Plugin aside from PJ64, I don't think it will ever be open. Not how Jabo operates if you check out some emutalk.net interviews.
sounds like he's a bitch. a real hater. afraid of someone making his work better.
Not at all. Zilmar has told me that one of the top reasons they don't want to release more source code as it wouldn't necessarily benefit N64 emulation. The emulation techniques behind PJ64 haven't changed much, and he can be of better assistance by teaching people about the system so they can advance their own projects. The Mupen64Plus team have very good things to say about him and so does the rest of the emulation64 community.
Jabo likes to do things on his own. At least he has given years so that PJ64 users can see things they otherwise wouldn't with other plugins. It's a shame he is stepping away from Project64. High level RDP (graphics) emulation is extremely difficult as any progress requires a great deal of reversing. With Rice and Jabo out of the picture, I don't think we will see too much else progressing on HLE graphics. It might be another few years before your PC can run a complete LLE RDP emulator at full speed.
I don't know what Jabo's departure means for Project64 as a whole, but I have been told that most 1.7 beta progress has been from Jabo's work on the video plugin. Go figure...
Jabo likes to do things on his own. At least he has given years so that PJ64 users can see things they otherwise wouldn't with other plugins. It's a shame he is stepping away from Project64. High level RDP (graphics) emulation is extremely difficult as any progress requires a great deal of reversing. With Rice and Jabo out of the picture, I don't think we will see too much else progressing on HLE graphics. It might be another few years before your PC can run a complete LLE RDP emulator at full speed.
I don't know what Jabo's departure means for Project64 as a whole, but I have been told that most 1.7 beta progress has been from Jabo's work on the video plugin. Go figure...
How exactly is N64 emulation on the PC now? Can you emulate the games exactly, or are there still audio/graphical/timing flaws and crashes?
Granted I never went too deeply into it (as whenever I've tried PC based N64 emulation it's always been unreliable, and sometimes needed more CPU/GFX power than I had at the time), but I could never get used to having to setup and use different plugins. None of the other emulators (ZX Spectrum/SNES/Atari ST/MAME/etc) needed the user to mess about with plugins, so I could never see why N64 emulators needed this. Why do N64 emulators need them, instead of having all the code already built in?
One of the many great things about Surreal is how it's plug-in files are invisible to the user, so we don't have to mess about to get the games working. It is a pity that (from what you say) Surreal won't benefit from this updated plugin, but it's mostly cosmetic fixes anyway, so it's not a major problem.
To be honest, much as I love the N64 (my favourite system) I've never been too interested in emulating it, as the N64 is built like a tank, has near instant loading (thanks to cartridges), I have all of the games I want for it, and I prefer using a console to a PC anyway. But there are things you can only get from N64 emulation, and they're why I'd love to have a good emulator. Things such as online Perfect Dark and Goldeneye, being able to play NTSC and JAP games (there are a few non-PAL games I've always wanted, such as Indiana Jones, and Sin and Punishment), and most of all being able to run modified roms, such as Goldeneye and Perfect Dark with the altered multiplayer (and single player) levels from
http://www.shootersforever.com/forums_message_boards/
and
http://www.goldeneyevault.com/
and I'm hoping that we'll be able to play them on Surreal. If not, I'll try again with PC based emulation, but it would be fantastic if it could be made to work on the XBox, as I much prefer playing on consoles than my PC.
Granted I never went too deeply into it (as whenever I've tried PC based N64 emulation it's always been unreliable, and sometimes needed more CPU/GFX power than I had at the time), but I could never get used to having to setup and use different plugins. None of the other emulators (ZX Spectrum/SNES/Atari ST/MAME/etc) needed the user to mess about with plugins, so I could never see why N64 emulators needed this. Why do N64 emulators need them, instead of having all the code already built in?
One of the many great things about Surreal is how it's plug-in files are invisible to the user, so we don't have to mess about to get the games working. It is a pity that (from what you say) Surreal won't benefit from this updated plugin, but it's mostly cosmetic fixes anyway, so it's not a major problem.
To be honest, much as I love the N64 (my favourite system) I've never been too interested in emulating it, as the N64 is built like a tank, has near instant loading (thanks to cartridges), I have all of the games I want for it, and I prefer using a console to a PC anyway. But there are things you can only get from N64 emulation, and they're why I'd love to have a good emulator. Things such as online Perfect Dark and Goldeneye, being able to play NTSC and JAP games (there are a few non-PAL games I've always wanted, such as Indiana Jones, and Sin and Punishment), and most of all being able to run modified roms, such as Goldeneye and Perfect Dark with the altered multiplayer (and single player) levels from
http://www.shootersforever.com/forums_message_boards/
and
http://www.goldeneyevault.com/
and I'm hoping that we'll be able to play them on Surreal. If not, I'll try again with PC based emulation, but it would be fantastic if it could be made to work on the XBox, as I much prefer playing on consoles than my PC.
The N64 emulation on the PC is fairly good, but there are still graphics glitches and lock ups. The entire console uses obscure hardware, and not much information is available on the inner workings. There were some developer manuals that were leaked, but those only show a very high level function of the system.
Since it would be very difficult for one standalone application to emulate the N64 reliably, Zilmar devised a plugin specification that would allow an audio plugin to process audio lists, a video plugin to process display lists, and an RSP plugin to cover other features of the RSP. The core would be maintained in the .exe and the plugins would be .dll's respectfully.
Xbox cannot use .dll's natively, so Surreal requires the plugin to be rebuilt as a static library, then linked with the binary upon compilation. When we were splitting the plugin combinations up to cut memory costs of bundled plugins, we had an obscenely high .xbe count. I think we were over 50 at one point. The biggest drawback is the CPU. We would really need an ultra efficient dynarec to play GoldenEye and Perfect Dark at smiling speeds. The scanners in Perfect Dark would need Jabo's or Glide64. And Glide64 requires a Glide3 wrapper. There's a closed source DirectX9 wrapper and an open source OpenGL wrapper. So there are a couple brick walls...
Back to PC side...
1964 has some new overclocking settings where you can play GoldenEye and Perfect Dark at 60 fps. Mupen64/Plus have been getting lots of attention as of late with PPC based consoles, better dynarecs, and about every new reversal of the N64 gets implemented. Daedalus has been in the middle of a backport of all of the progress made on the PSP. Hacktarux is working on a cycle accurate emulator, "a BSNES approach to N64." It may not be playing games full speed for awhile, but it sure will make it easier for future HLE developments and it is a step in the right direction.
Since it would be very difficult for one standalone application to emulate the N64 reliably, Zilmar devised a plugin specification that would allow an audio plugin to process audio lists, a video plugin to process display lists, and an RSP plugin to cover other features of the RSP. The core would be maintained in the .exe and the plugins would be .dll's respectfully.
Xbox cannot use .dll's natively, so Surreal requires the plugin to be rebuilt as a static library, then linked with the binary upon compilation. When we were splitting the plugin combinations up to cut memory costs of bundled plugins, we had an obscenely high .xbe count. I think we were over 50 at one point. The biggest drawback is the CPU. We would really need an ultra efficient dynarec to play GoldenEye and Perfect Dark at smiling speeds. The scanners in Perfect Dark would need Jabo's or Glide64. And Glide64 requires a Glide3 wrapper. There's a closed source DirectX9 wrapper and an open source OpenGL wrapper. So there are a couple brick walls...
Back to PC side...
1964 has some new overclocking settings where you can play GoldenEye and Perfect Dark at 60 fps. Mupen64/Plus have been getting lots of attention as of late with PPC based consoles, better dynarecs, and about every new reversal of the N64 gets implemented. Daedalus has been in the middle of a backport of all of the progress made on the PSP. Hacktarux is working on a cycle accurate emulator, "a BSNES approach to N64." It may not be playing games full speed for awhile, but it sure will make it easier for future HLE developments and it is a step in the right direction.
Weinerschnitzel, that was very informative, thanks. I'm especially interested to learn of Hacktarux's new totally accurate emulator (never heard of it before, but google pointed me towards
http://www.emutalk.net/archive/index.php/t-52511.html
although of course the technical details of the N64 are beyond me). Hopefully in time to come we'll be able to emulate the N64 as accurately as we can now emulate the 8 bit machines, and play the games with full speed (and even with better speed than on the original hardware, as in the 60fps hacks for Goldeneye and Perfect Dark that you mention). Probably the PC's we'll need to do this on will be much more powerful than the ones we have today, but the rate they improve in power it's not too disheartening. Sadly it doesn't look like there'll be another console as homebrew and PC code friendly as the XBox 1, a real shame, I hate the way consoles (and hand-helds) are locked against homebrew.
By the way, I was amazed at there being around fifty different resulting combinations of Surreal exectutables too! I know you've done a fantastic job with the emulator (the whole package), but I have little idea of how much time and effort you and your team had to put in to get it to work so well. It is appreciated, people like you have made the XBox a lot more enjoyable than it already was, and we are grateful.
I just wish console manufacturers would recognise that there is a legitimate use for 'open' consoles - not every mod chip is used for piracy of commercial games, despite what the companies' spokesmen like to say.
http://www.emutalk.net/archive/index.php/t-52511.html
although of course the technical details of the N64 are beyond me). Hopefully in time to come we'll be able to emulate the N64 as accurately as we can now emulate the 8 bit machines, and play the games with full speed (and even with better speed than on the original hardware, as in the 60fps hacks for Goldeneye and Perfect Dark that you mention). Probably the PC's we'll need to do this on will be much more powerful than the ones we have today, but the rate they improve in power it's not too disheartening. Sadly it doesn't look like there'll be another console as homebrew and PC code friendly as the XBox 1, a real shame, I hate the way consoles (and hand-helds) are locked against homebrew.
By the way, I was amazed at there being around fifty different resulting combinations of Surreal exectutables too! I know you've done a fantastic job with the emulator (the whole package), but I have little idea of how much time and effort you and your team had to put in to get it to work so well. It is appreciated, people like you have made the XBox a lot more enjoyable than it already was, and we are grateful.
I just wish console manufacturers would recognise that there is a legitimate use for 'open' consoles - not every mod chip is used for piracy of commercial games, despite what the companies' spokesmen like to say.
This is how PJ64 is doing nowadays (well...according to their 1.7 beta 23 build and from what I have played):
007 The World Is Not Enough:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGLMmyyesB8
Banjo Kazooie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vukb0S35rus
Donkey Kong 64:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu1eSgayENg
Doom 64:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awtSmElE5yU
Mario Kart 64:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdAwoKpxGkk
Mario Tennis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPl2kUfc8O0
Perfect Dark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrKEhGg5S2A
Pokemon Snap:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXKEmXOkkQA
Road Rash 64:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEG1Mowp8t4
Rugrats in Paris:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLa6ClkYoHU
Superman 64:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUMEpnqZ7jc
Turok Dinosaur Hunter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlXLdPyBXv0
These are the few games I have recorded. Too bad it's not working like this on the Xbox yet.
007 The World Is Not Enough:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGLMmyyesB8
Banjo Kazooie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vukb0S35rus
Donkey Kong 64:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu1eSgayENg
Doom 64:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awtSmElE5yU
Mario Kart 64:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdAwoKpxGkk
Mario Tennis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPl2kUfc8O0
Perfect Dark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrKEhGg5S2A
Pokemon Snap:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXKEmXOkkQA
Road Rash 64:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEG1Mowp8t4
Rugrats in Paris:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLa6ClkYoHU
Superman 64:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUMEpnqZ7jc
Turok Dinosaur Hunter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlXLdPyBXv0
These are the few games I have recorded. Too bad it's not working like this on the Xbox yet.
Gah, open source stuff is such a cool concept, why can't everyone see this? Sigh.
-YRUSirius
-YRUSirius
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