Conker's Total War
- Thread starter Katfish
- Start date
All of Katfish's entire post shows a complete lack of understanding of the N64 system works (and differences to PC architecture) and emulation in general, and to me appears arrogant and disrespectful to current plugin authors work simply because of the selfish want of one part of one game to work with no evidence that he even tried Glide64 which works fine with the rocket launcher. It's even posted this in the wrong forum.
Us moderators see this kind of stuff all the time, get tired of it, and so some of us may come off in a bad light to someone who is not a regular. I would correct more of the misunderstandings but they have been pointed out already.
Us moderators see this kind of stuff all the time, get tired of it, and so some of us may come off in a bad light to someone who is not a regular. I would correct more of the misunderstandings but they have been pointed out already.
Trotterwatch
New member
Confirmed - there is only one Mezkal - fortunately 
Trotterwatch said:Confirmed - there is only one Mezkal - fortunately
such great news trotter, thank you!
As to Katfish: If you want to be an arrogant little shit you better know what you are talking about.. It is extraordinarily clear that you haven't got the faintest clue. Which is why you garnered the reaction that you did, hopefully you will find the humility to match your knowledge and intellect.
mezkal
Man on a mission
Katfish,
Let me pose a question to you. What makes you think that the programmers have come up short in any way shape or form?
Answer that and then I'll decide for myself whether you are actually serious about this. I'm being very clear here. This is totally for myself. You can choose to ignore or insult me directly. However, should you actually see tha validity of my question, please answer it.
Cheers,
mezkal
Let me pose a question to you. What makes you think that the programmers have come up short in any way shape or form?
Answer that and then I'll decide for myself whether you are actually serious about this. I'm being very clear here. This is totally for myself. You can choose to ignore or insult me directly. However, should you actually see tha validity of my question, please answer it.
Cheers,
mezkal
PsyMan
Just Another Wacko ;)
No one says that you are not welcome here, but insulting other people who made the emulation of N64 possible, saying that you can make some games run better while you don't seem to know much about how N64 works and talking about things that you don't know what they really are (ROMs) is not a good start. Claiming that you know something that you don't and asking for help on things that have to do with it will only make everyone else who has some experience with these things to laugh at you. It would be better to ask for some info about what a ROM is and why some games are slow or have GFX errors or whatever instead of saying "oh this game doesn't run well, the emu sux, the plugins sux, the authors sux etc."Katfish said:
I believe that a good start would be to find and read some documents in order to learn how N64 works and after that (when you'll know about the things you're talking about) come here again (while having a better attitude) and talk about the same things or whatever else you want.
- Thread Starter
- #31
Conker Total War
First of all, I want to thank Psyman for that last post – it was one of only a few that didn’t resort to ridicule or name calling, and showed some compassion.
Just for background, I like to say that I do have some computer experience, though not as extensive as some of you and your colleagues.
I successfully reversed engineered, then designed, etched and built a memory card for the Roland TR-707 drum machine.
I wrote a music sequencing program in Assembly on a Commodore 128. I then tried to do the same on an IBM PC, but found the INTEL instruction set too confusing, so I didn’t pursue it any further.
I got some experience with UNIX systems at one of my jobs.
I have some experience with DOS.
With some help, I put together a PC using a Celeron uP and some hand-picked peripherals. It’s still in use now as part of a home network I setup for four computers.
I also would like to say that if there is something I want to accomplish, then any lack of knowledge or expertise won’t stop me – the same approach I was using with my first post in this forum.
It was never my intention to insult anyone. My first post (upon re-reading) sure came off as cocky, but then that’s just the confidence I had in myself to accomplish this. I regret that this was taken wrong.
At the same time, there were those in your forum that I felt attacked me pretty hard – when that happens, what am I to do but fight back? Looking back, my approach didn’t help – and then the whole situation turned quite ugly.
I’ve visited this forum numerous times before I joined in, looking for answers to emulation problems that other lay persons and I have had. When I first tried one of these emulators (I believe it was Mario64 on the Nemu64), it was on that Celeron System, which wouldn’t work because it was too slow. So I set it aside.
I then got an eMachine. Yeah, it’s not the best system around, but it was fast enough. After that, it was a long, frustrating process of plugging in this and cursing that until I was able to get it working. Installing an Nvidia card helped.
But something still wasn’t right. By now, you’re all aware of those issues I’ve mentioned before. I should also say that I’ve already played Conker and Donkey Kong on the N64 system, so I could see the differences. The graphics are a lot better on my PC, and for my own twisted amusement I’ll remove the fps limit on the PJ64 and play Total War at high speed.
I can accept the problems that the N64 and the emulators share - like the game slowing down. In fact, I was thinking how great it would be that with computers as fast as what we have now, why couldn’t these games run without bogging down?
How about a way to have one video output per player – and be rid of that split screen? I know it’s possible. All that’s needed is someone to make it happen.
But those other damned issues.
I’ve read the suggestions, and I’ve tried them. So far, nothing’s worked. I’ve seen other people (including those that said the emulators suck) bring up similar issues. Clements suggests using Glide64 to fix that rocket launcher problem. I tried that – in PJ64, and it wouldn’t load when I first started it. I also read that it only supports Voodoo cards – which I don’t have. Trotterwatch says the ROM is the cartridge. Others have told me this – and I take that to mean that they are the same. Still – those issues.
Can you appreciate how confusing and frustrating it is for people like me – who just want to play the game? No wonder we question the performance of these emulators. After trying this and that, where is the answer?
It’s not like any of us mean any disrespect toward the programmers (at least those of us who ask questions as opposed to those who simply trash the emulators). I’ve read about the N64 system – about the MIPS processor, the RAMBUS memory and the clocks that run them; I read about those bits of software Nintendo has in their games to discourage copies; and how difficult it is to open these buggers. To me, Nintendo has their information locked up as tight as Fort Knox, so I can greatly appreciate the work that those programmers did when they released their emulators.
I have this theory. Every PC I’ve worked with has different little quirks. A problem on one will not necessarily be another, and the same goes for different operating systems. I’ve noticed that Microsoft deals with this a lot.
Maybe there’s nothing to it – I don’t know. I only know from what I’ve experienced. I do know that a PC is a complex little beast – with a lot of variables that can contribute to it’s problems. So far, I see this in the whole emulation operation:
1) The system required to run it (as recommended by the N64 Support Centre).
2) The type of sound and video cards used.
3) Which emulator is used.
4) Which audio, graphic and input plugins are used in each emulator.
5) Any compatibility issues between all of the above.
There might be more, but I think these are the main components. Because of this, there can be a whole lot of things that can go wrong which can range between having a minimal effect on the game being played, to crashing the computer altogether.
Well, I think I’ve taken up enough of your time – thanks for reading this. I hope that what I’ve written here can help foster a better understanding and communication between those that know this subject and those that know less or none at all (including yours truly).
Sincerely,
Katfish
First of all, I want to thank Psyman for that last post – it was one of only a few that didn’t resort to ridicule or name calling, and showed some compassion.
Just for background, I like to say that I do have some computer experience, though not as extensive as some of you and your colleagues.
I successfully reversed engineered, then designed, etched and built a memory card for the Roland TR-707 drum machine.
I wrote a music sequencing program in Assembly on a Commodore 128. I then tried to do the same on an IBM PC, but found the INTEL instruction set too confusing, so I didn’t pursue it any further.
I got some experience with UNIX systems at one of my jobs.
I have some experience with DOS.
With some help, I put together a PC using a Celeron uP and some hand-picked peripherals. It’s still in use now as part of a home network I setup for four computers.
I also would like to say that if there is something I want to accomplish, then any lack of knowledge or expertise won’t stop me – the same approach I was using with my first post in this forum.
It was never my intention to insult anyone. My first post (upon re-reading) sure came off as cocky, but then that’s just the confidence I had in myself to accomplish this. I regret that this was taken wrong.
At the same time, there were those in your forum that I felt attacked me pretty hard – when that happens, what am I to do but fight back? Looking back, my approach didn’t help – and then the whole situation turned quite ugly.
I’ve visited this forum numerous times before I joined in, looking for answers to emulation problems that other lay persons and I have had. When I first tried one of these emulators (I believe it was Mario64 on the Nemu64), it was on that Celeron System, which wouldn’t work because it was too slow. So I set it aside.
I then got an eMachine. Yeah, it’s not the best system around, but it was fast enough. After that, it was a long, frustrating process of plugging in this and cursing that until I was able to get it working. Installing an Nvidia card helped.
But something still wasn’t right. By now, you’re all aware of those issues I’ve mentioned before. I should also say that I’ve already played Conker and Donkey Kong on the N64 system, so I could see the differences. The graphics are a lot better on my PC, and for my own twisted amusement I’ll remove the fps limit on the PJ64 and play Total War at high speed.
I can accept the problems that the N64 and the emulators share - like the game slowing down. In fact, I was thinking how great it would be that with computers as fast as what we have now, why couldn’t these games run without bogging down?
How about a way to have one video output per player – and be rid of that split screen? I know it’s possible. All that’s needed is someone to make it happen.
But those other damned issues.
I’ve read the suggestions, and I’ve tried them. So far, nothing’s worked. I’ve seen other people (including those that said the emulators suck) bring up similar issues. Clements suggests using Glide64 to fix that rocket launcher problem. I tried that – in PJ64, and it wouldn’t load when I first started it. I also read that it only supports Voodoo cards – which I don’t have. Trotterwatch says the ROM is the cartridge. Others have told me this – and I take that to mean that they are the same. Still – those issues.
Can you appreciate how confusing and frustrating it is for people like me – who just want to play the game? No wonder we question the performance of these emulators. After trying this and that, where is the answer?
It’s not like any of us mean any disrespect toward the programmers (at least those of us who ask questions as opposed to those who simply trash the emulators). I’ve read about the N64 system – about the MIPS processor, the RAMBUS memory and the clocks that run them; I read about those bits of software Nintendo has in their games to discourage copies; and how difficult it is to open these buggers. To me, Nintendo has their information locked up as tight as Fort Knox, so I can greatly appreciate the work that those programmers did when they released their emulators.
I have this theory. Every PC I’ve worked with has different little quirks. A problem on one will not necessarily be another, and the same goes for different operating systems. I’ve noticed that Microsoft deals with this a lot.
Maybe there’s nothing to it – I don’t know. I only know from what I’ve experienced. I do know that a PC is a complex little beast – with a lot of variables that can contribute to it’s problems. So far, I see this in the whole emulation operation:
1) The system required to run it (as recommended by the N64 Support Centre).
2) The type of sound and video cards used.
3) Which emulator is used.
4) Which audio, graphic and input plugins are used in each emulator.
5) Any compatibility issues between all of the above.
There might be more, but I think these are the main components. Because of this, there can be a whole lot of things that can go wrong which can range between having a minimal effect on the game being played, to crashing the computer altogether.
Well, I think I’ve taken up enough of your time – thanks for reading this. I hope that what I’ve written here can help foster a better understanding and communication between those that know this subject and those that know less or none at all (including yours truly).
Sincerely,
Katfish
The problem with the Rocket launcher is not too difficult to fathom. The Rocket launcher uses the framebuffer. For an N64 console, this isn't a really taxing task due to it's architecture - the way it is designed. PC architecture is completely different, and framebuffer is incredibly slow. This explains the slowdown. For a more detailed explanation, use the search. Saying "surely my PC can cope" is really a bit ignorant, I'm sorry. How do you explain slowdown with some of Pete's plugins with battle swirls with the Final Fantasy games on top of the range comps? It's the framebuffer causing problems again, this time with the PSX (an even weaker system than N64).
Conker's Bad Fur Day was a game released late in the N64's life, and is a game made by Rare. This means they used the full extent of the N64's hardware capabilities. It's games like this that truely define an excellent graphics plugin. The requirements for this game, especially in the multiplayer are relatively high, higher than your PC can cope it seems. Don't complain about the performance unless you have hardware to back yourself up with and meet the games requirements. Using 1964 is enough to speed the game up, PJ64 is the slower emulator.
For a very long time, Jabo's was the only plugin to work with this game. Then Rice added support not too long ago in comparison, and Glide64 followed. Direct64 works with the game now too and is the most recent plugin to add support for it. This means this game is only recently supported by most plugins, thus the problems. This is NO perfect plugin for this game. Some plugins can do certain things in this game better than others.
Jabo's framebuffer is pretty basic and misses effects out, some because they were extremely difficult to get right, and another because graphics cards could not cope with speed hit. When other plugins came up with their own framebuffers, more effects were emulated. The rocket launcher has only just been emulated.
And how do you explain the following screenshot when I don't own (and never have owned) a Voodoo card? Read the boards before ranting, as it explains the reaction you got.
Conker's Bad Fur Day was a game released late in the N64's life, and is a game made by Rare. This means they used the full extent of the N64's hardware capabilities. It's games like this that truely define an excellent graphics plugin. The requirements for this game, especially in the multiplayer are relatively high, higher than your PC can cope it seems. Don't complain about the performance unless you have hardware to back yourself up with and meet the games requirements. Using 1964 is enough to speed the game up, PJ64 is the slower emulator.
For a very long time, Jabo's was the only plugin to work with this game. Then Rice added support not too long ago in comparison, and Glide64 followed. Direct64 works with the game now too and is the most recent plugin to add support for it. This means this game is only recently supported by most plugins, thus the problems. This is NO perfect plugin for this game. Some plugins can do certain things in this game better than others.
Jabo's framebuffer is pretty basic and misses effects out, some because they were extremely difficult to get right, and another because graphics cards could not cope with speed hit. When other plugins came up with their own framebuffers, more effects were emulated. The rocket launcher has only just been emulated.
And how do you explain the following screenshot when I don't own (and never have owned) a Voodoo card? Read the boards before ranting, as it explains the reaction you got.