GLideN64 Public Release 4.0

N64模擬器插件 GLideN64 發布新版，更新如下 :

Hello,

Today is time to set new Release tag to master branch.
Previous Release 3.0 was a revolutionary one because of massive changes in plugin's architecture and new possibilities opened by these changes. This release is rather evolutionary. It continues tendencies started in the previous version. Of course, new features had been developed too. Lets see:

Solution for HLE problems

The main theme of the new release is solution of HLE-related problems. It started with long long awaited HLE implementation of BOSS ZSort microcode made by Gilles Siberlin.

Then olivieryuyu and me completed our "Mission Impossible 2" : HLE implementation of microcodes for "Indiana Jones" and "Battle for Naboo".That was a huge and incredibly hard work. Successful completion of that task ultimately closed "HLE not supported" issue. All N64 games now can be run in HLE mode. olivieryuyu wrote an article about this microcode: "The masterpiece graphic microcode behind the Nintendo 64 version of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine and Star Wars Episode I: Battle for Naboo". I highly recommend to read it.

Next step was to fix issues caused by incomplete or incorrect implementation of some HLE commands, which caused HLE-only glitches. We started with re-implementation of S2DEX microcode, which is designed to draw such 2D objects as sprites and backgrounds. olivieryuyu decoded that huge and tangled microcode and we made new HLE implementation of it, trying to reproduce original algorithms as close as possible. That work took us circa six month.

We also fixed several small HLE issues, where glitch was caused by an issue in some command. Such fixes also required microcode analysis. Thanks to olivieryuyu's efforts we fixed:

missing transition effect in Dark Rift menu

Coin Block Blitz mini game in Mario Party

Conker's Bad Fur Day lighting fix

Missing graphics in Sim City 64

Regressions fixes.

The second big topic of this new release is fixing of regressions.

Unfortunately, each big release is brings not only new features and fixes, but also new bugs. Complete testing is very hard and tedious process. Fortunately, users are founding and reporting us about issues. One of my goals for this release was to fix all known regressions. I combed project's bug tracker for such bugs. To my surprise, many reported issues were actually old and very old regressions. I even found regressions, which were made before the very first public release. I fixed all these issues and I hope that this release will not bring many new ones.

New features.

1. As you know, GLideN64 has special mode for precise emulation of N64 depth compare. This mode helps to fix many minor and some major issues with depth compare, but it has some limitations:

serious performance drop in some games

incompatibility with Multi-Sample Anti Aliasing (MSAA)

Logan McNaughton aka loganmc10 found OpenGL extensions, which helped us to weaken the performance issue greatly. Now you can use N64 depth compare freely if your hardware supports required extensions. This mode is still incompatible with MSAA, but now we have a solution. I implemented Fast Approximate Anti Aliasing (FXAA) , which you can enable along with N64 depth compare.

2. Ultimate solution for "remove these darn annoying black boarders" issue: Overscan feature. Now you may crop output image as much as you want.

3. User profiles. You may create profiles with different settings and switch between them. For example, you may create a profile with 2D fixes enabled to play 2D games, or create a profile with N64 depth compare + FXAA enabled.

New supported games

I already mentioned implementation of new microcodes, which finally made it possible to run any game with HLE. However, there are still games, which can't run properly because they do something weird what GLideN64 does not expect and can't emulate yet. Example of such game is Super Bowling 64. The way that game programmed makes it hard to emulate on PC hardware. Finally I found a way how it can be done. That fix then helped me to solve split screen issue in NASCAR 2000. Another example of hard to emulate issue is multiplayer mode in GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark with 3 or 4 players. It was fixed too.

Other

It is impossible to list all solved issues. We closed more than 175 issues during this release cycle .
You may read my change-logs on Patreon for details.

Acknowledgements:

Thanks to all backers of "Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine" crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. We hardly would take that task without your support.

Thanks to all my patrons on www.patreon.com/Gliden64 I very appreciate your support.
Thanks to all users of https://github.com/gonetz/GLideN64. Your bug reports and feedback greatly help us to improve quality of the program.

Very special thanks to olivieryuyu, the author of incredible microcode decoding works.

http://gliden64.blogspot.com/