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Mupen64Plus is an open source, cross-platform plugin-based Nintendo 64 emulator which is capable of playing many games. It is an update to Mupen64. Its developers elected to move away from Zilmar's plugin spec and developed their own set of plugins. Plugins from other N64 emulators will not work in it. It also has RetroArch/Libretro port under active development.[1] 

Downloads[]

  • Latest release
  • Windows builds - Frequent Windows builds of Mupen64Plus, bundled with every plugin. Only the i686-pc and i686-w64 versions appear to work, however. There seems to be little difference in performance between these two, though i686-pc comes bundled with an updated wxMupen64Plus frontend.
  • Mupen64Plus AE - Beta port of Mupen64Plus to Android.
  • OS X SVN Builds

Review[]

Mupen64Plus lacks a GUI, so it may be difficult to use without using a front-end.

Unlike every other N64 emulator, Mupen64Plus uses its own plugin spec, so it is not compatible with any plugins except those specifically ported to its spec.

The N64 emulation scene is a mess. Checking this site and using the appropriate emulator/plugin per game is recommended.

Frontends[]

Using Mupen64Plus[]

Windows:

First create this directory: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mupen64Plus (<username> is whatever your PC name is). Copy all the .ini and .cfg files into this folder and create a folder in there called "save". To play games, drag and drop your ROM into mupen64plus.exe.
You can change the plugins simply by editing the mupen64plus.cfg file.
To change settings open mupen64plus.cfg, or the plugin's .cfg/.ini file in notepad++.

Note: For the absolute fastest way to setup and use M64P: unzip ALL files into 'C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mupen64Plus', create a save folder and then make .n64/.z64/.v64 file extensions to open with mupen64plus.exe by default. Then just click on your N64 ROMs to play.

Recommended Setups[]

  • General Use
    • Video: Glide64 or Glide64mk2
    • RSP: cxd4-hlevideo
    • Glide64mk2 is an enhanced version of the Glide64 plugin, exclusive to Mupen64Plus. The hlevideo variant of the cxd4 RSP is a port of FatCat's MLE RSP plugin for Project64. This appears to be the best combination for use with most games, though toasters may have performance issues. If the mk2 variant is too slow, try regular Glide64 instead.
  • Best Performance and Graphics
    • Video: Rice
    • RSP: rsp-hle
    • These are Mupen64Plus's default plugins. Rice's Video is a plugin used also with other N64 emulators, most known for its support for hi-res texture packs, now enhanced for Mupen64plus and it also has support for Bilinear ,Trilinear and Anisotropic Filtering, texture scaling and up to 16x MSAA. There are many versions and forks of this plugin but generally its less accurate than Glide64 and may have graphical glitches on some games, but it does well enough for most others and is quite fast. The default RSP plugin appears to be a slightly touched up port of vanilla Mupen64's RSP. Use this combination if you want best graphics or have a lower end PC and can't handle the General Use setup.
  • Accuracy/Rogue Squadron
    • Video: z64
    • RSP: cxd4
    • z64 is a port of z64gl, a low-level emulation video plugin for N64 emulators. It comes with its own accompanying z64 RSP, but cxd4 (a port of FatCat's RSP Interpreter plugin) appears to be more accurate and optimized. This setup is capable of playing difficult games like Rogue Squadron with very few graphical glitches, and faster than on Project64 to boot, though you will likely need a very good PC to run this at full speed.
    • HatCat's Pixel-Accurate N64 plugin(Only available with RetroArch version of Mupen64Plus)- Based on Angrylion's RDP code and the MAME/MESS RDP renders pixel-perfect native resolution N64 graphics. It's even more accurate and slower than Shunyuan's SoftGraphic HLE plugin.
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