#1

Is there a way to turn off texture filtering in Nintendo 64 games? I really dislike it. The only method I’ve found is with a few N64 games that can be played on the Wii. If the Dolphin emulator can do it, why isn’t there any N64 emulator that allows this? Thank you ^^

#2

Parallel-N64 with the old glide64 plugin allows you to do this.

#3

Yes, I’ve seen it. But since it’s an old version, the emulation is very poor. I don’t know why they don’t include this option in the updated versions of the plugins.

#4

Unfortunately there isn’t an option for this in any recent version of GlideN64 or Parallel-RDP.

The only thing you can do is disable the VI filters in Parallel-RDP, which will make the image slightly sharper (with some dithering) but the textures themselves will still have the 3-point filtering.

It’s kinda odd how this feature doesn’t exist in the software emulation scene (at least on the emulators/plugins that matter) but the Mister FPGA core has it.

Having said that, i don’t think this is something you want when you fully play a game. It’s fun to experiment with but in the vast majority of games some textures are made with this filtering in mind. So while you do get the “Playstation look” for the most part, you will still see textures that are completely wrong, like the skybox in Mario 64 for instance.

#5

Well, right now I’m playing the PC port of Super Mario 64 without texture filtering, and it looks incredible. I still think that 90s games look much better without texture filtering. With such low-detailed textures, they appear too blurry when the filter is applied, too much. It’s not just happening with N64 games, even Half-Life looks much better without texture filtering

#6

I agree. The majority of early 3D games, even on PC, look much better when they are not filtered. I always preferred Quake 1 and 2 than their GL versions, for instance.

All these textures were made without filtering in mind, that’s mostly why. The N64 is a bit different though. Some/most of the textures in N64 exclusive games are made with this filtering in mind, so the filter acts like the final layer to see what’s the artist intended. Some textures in Super Mario are supposed to be filtered in order for them to look correct:

Super Mario 64 (USA)-240204-162044
Super Mario 64 (USA)-240204-162044800×600 229 KB

Otherwise you end up with this:

Super Mario 64 (USA)-240204-162003
Super Mario 64 (USA)-240204-162003800×600 174 KB

No matter how much sharper the image looks without filtering, the textures are not supposed to look this blocky.

The issue with a graphics plugin that’s so old and inaccurate is that the filtering also filters stuff that it shouldn’t, like the 2D UI elements. Thankfully, an accurate plugin like Parallel RDP doesn’t have this issue.

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#7

Yes, you’re right that N64 games are designed with texture filtering in mind. I’ve tried the RMG emulator with the Parallel plugin, and the results are really good.

However, I’d like to have the option to disable the filter in the games I choose. I think it’s something that wouldn’t be too hard to implement, and others would appreciate it as well.

By the way, sorry for my poor English. It’s not very good, but I hope you understand what I’m saying. And thanks for responding ^^

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