n64

Experimental low-level N64 emulator written in C and a bit of C++.

Still under heavy development and not ready for prime time. Compatibility is not high and performance is not great (yet.)

The goals of this project are to create a low-level emulator with good compatibility, while learning a lot along the way.

Download

As the emulator is still in heavy development, there are no stable releases. The files linked below are built automatically every time code is pushed to this repository.

There may be problems. Feel free to open an issue if you find one!

You'll need a fast CPU and a modern GPU that supports Vulkan 1.1.

• Latest Linux version
• Latest Windows version

Links

• TODO List
• Compatibility List
• My Test Suite
• My Documentation

Goals

• Reasonably accurate low-level emulation
• Decent performance. Because this is a low-level emulator, it will never be as fast as high-level emulators.
• Reasonable amount of automated testing

Features

• Keyboard and gamepad support
• GDB stub for debugging

Limitations & TODOs

• Only Linux and Windows are currently supported. MacOS support is not currently possible, since parallel-rdp does not support it.
• The dynamic recompiler currently only supports x86_64. aarch64 support is planned in the (distant) future.
• Only little-endian host platforms are planned to be supported.
• Only gcc and clang will be supported. I unapologetically use extensions like case ranges and binary literals.
• Only software that uses NTSC video modes is currently supported. PAL games will work, but will run at an incorrect framerate. This is planned to be fixed.

Building

For Linux:

1. Install dependencies: SDL2, Vulkan, and optionally Capstone
2. Run the following commands:

mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
make

For Windows:

1. Install dependencies: Visual Studio 2019 with the clang workload, vcpkg, CMake.
2. Run the following commands, replacing the vcpkg path with where you installed it:

vcpkg install sdl2[vulkan]:x64-windows
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -T clangcl -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=C:\vcpkg\scripts\buildsystems\vcpkg.cmake ..
cmake --build . --config Release

Running

Run with no parameters to use the default settings and load your ROM using the GUI, or run with options:

./n64 [OPTION]... [FILE]
n64, a dgb n64 emulator

  -v, --verbose             enables verbose output, repeat up to 4 times for more verbosity
  -h, --help                Display this help message
  -i, --interpreter         Force the use of the interpreter
  -r, --rdp                 Load RDP plugin (Mupen64Plus compatible) - note: disables UI and requires ROM to be passed on the command line!
  -m, --movie               Load movie (Mupen64Plus .m64 format)
  -p, --pif                 Load PIF ROM

https://github.com/Dillonb/n64

Progress

CPU

An interpreter and a basic dynamic recompiler are available, able to be switched at launch time with a command line flag.

The dynamic recompiler currently only supports x86_64.

RSP

Reasonably complete, enough for most games to run.

Hardware-verified over the EverDrive 64's USB port using rsp-recorder.

Still greatly in need of optimization.

RDP

Very early stage. parallel-rdp by Themaister is integrated to provide RDP functionality in the meantime.

Credits

• Stephen Lane-Walsh for cflags, gdbstub, and moral support
• @wheremyfoodat for his help with x86 assembly and moral support
• Giovanni Bajo for his automated RSP tests
• Peter Lemon for his tests, and permission to use his ASM code and font as a template for my own tests

Libraries Used

• DynASM as the emitter for the dynamic recompiler
• SDL2 for graphics, audio, and input
• Capstone as a MIPS disassembler for debugging
• parallel-rdp as the RDP until I write my own
• Dear Imgui for the GUI