MiSTer FPGA board

[bobrocks95]

Whether it's games on a list or games on a shelf I get choice paralysis either way. But I've had a small panic attack at a buffet before so maybe I'm not the best person to comment on it anyways.

Clearly the real solution is to eliminate most games from existence. No one will have to choose again.

[fernan1234]

100% for sure we will all get a day when all choices end and it'll be nice in its own way

It's also fun to talk about our preferences and priorities, as well as the tradeoffs that come along with them, and what we would like to see in the MiSTer platform. That all said, the vision and current direction of the platform is clear, and it can also change over time. At some point analogue video output for CRTs was not part of the vision at all, eventually it was supported as a bonus feature and technically it still is. The vast majority of MiSTer users hook it up exclusively to flat panels, while I'm in the minority that uses it only on a CRT. The lead project dev is still not a fan, and yet MiSTer cores now officially support even composite and S-video output.

Those changes happened because the project is open source and people started developing add-on boards and custom cores that eventually can become officially supported. The same could happen with cart and CD drive adapters, but as of today that seems more distant as it's much more of a niche preference than something like analogue video options. So, don't hold your breath for it, and IMO don't let it stop you from taking advantage of all the great things that the platform already offers.

[ZellSF]

Reviving this to mention that the N64 core is already very usable, lots of games working. Seems for now that there really aren't a lot of compromises required.

Edit: oh and the Saturn core is now available in stable. Doesn't mean it's 100% finished though.

[Bassa-Bassa]

By any chance have you checked if the N64 240p games are displayed at 320x240 instead of the original (and ugly) 640x240? I wonder if the author is aware of the original hardware issue involved there.

[ZellSF]

I haven't, but I'm guessing you're thinking about the horizontal bilinear stretch. That, and other graphic features (antialiasing, texture filtering) are optional. You can have your sharp PSX look or authentic N64 blurry mess. I'm probably mostly going with the latter.

I'm also pretty sure the developer of the core is much much more aware of literally every single aspect of the hardware than any of us.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Yeah, the stretch and the blur as it kind of destroys 2D graphics at least:

viewtopic.php?p=1178326#p1178326

My concern was not if the author knows the hardware well enough, but if he perceived the feature as a hardware's fault which would be nice to solve at least optionally as it seems he does, or if his goal was to just mimic the original hardware as accurately as possible in every regard.

[ZellSF]

N64 core is progressing at lightning speed. All games boot now, and most seem to be playable.

[fernan1234]

Robert Peip is a monster, we're so lucky.

[EMPTYDISCO]

Hey hey, new to the forum, hello everyone.

I was wondering if anyone can speak to their experience of using a good freesync monitor/tv (possibly in conjunction with OLED panels)
with a Mister yet now that it is capable. Input lag, response times, how close are we getting to not needing CRTs for the TECHNICAL side of things?
(the experience and aesthetic side is timeless and worth preserving I know, so I'm not throwing out the baby with bath water)

[ZellSF]

MiSTer is lag free if you use the right video mode and SNAC controllers. Though I would take the few MS of input lag to use USB controllers.

A good monitor is also so low lag you're not going to notice.

For most people input lag hasn't been the biggest reason to stick with CRTs for a while.

[evil_ash_xero]

How good is the N64 core? I remember reading that Saturn/PSX was the agreed upon "hard line".

Do all the games work, and are as accurate as the other cores? I know it's probably still be worked on, but in general?

I'm thinking about getting a N64 controller, but I'd like to know if this thing is on it's way to 99 percent accuracy.

[ZellSF]

It's not even in stable yet. I tried a few games and outside of F-Zero X having some geometry issues they all worked well. I would expect it to be indistinguishable from a N64 in a pretty short amount of time, as long as FGPAZumSpass doesn't get hit by a bus.

I tried testing Wonder Project J2, which was interesting, I always thought the analog output of my N64 was bad because that game had solid color backgrounds and there was so much noise on those. Turns out that's the N64 dithering, which you can turn off with the MiSTer.

Also tried the Saturn core and discovered I don't have good enough RAM to run that properly. Who knows if that will get worked around in the future, but for now the Saturn core is really picky about RAM. That said all the games I tried still ran well outside of sound issues.

[tomwhite2004]

Do all the games work, and are as accurate as the other cores? I know it's probably still be worked on, but in general?

I'm thinking about getting a N64 controller, but I'd like to know if this thing is on it's way to 99 percent accuracy.

All games boot but not everytthing is playable yet, LOD isn't in place yet either. As far as the consoles go I think only the decapped MegaDrive and NeoGeo cores can be called 99% accurate, nothing else is to that standard and like the PS1 core this won't be to that level either. The dev showed a video on Discord of 1080 running a bit faster than real hardware but clsoer than Ares managed, but it's still not released so there is time for that to improve.

[evil_ash_xero]

Ah OK. Thanks for the responses.

[ZellSF]

Yeah there's always two kinds of accuracy. Making all games run exactly as they do on a N64, and making the underlying code that does so be an exact replica of the N64.

The first we'll probably get 99% accuracy soon. The second seems a goal more suited for software emulation.