The Nintendo 64 enthusiast scene is one of the most interesting (to us, anyway) in retro circles, as fans find ways to improve the classic system. The focus, often, is on visual quality - mods and tricks that can help the early 3D graphics shine.
Back in October last year we shared a video by My Life in Gaming that showed off the Ultra HDMI mod, which can sharpen the image through the improved connection. For eager N64 players, however, there are always tricks to be discovered to improve the old system further.
A very simple one for turning off anti-aliasing has been discovered, in essence removing the blurry look common across the system's games. It's as simple as using a GameShark cheat cart and inputting values, though results have positives and negatives.
My Life in Gaming breaks it all down in the video below.
Comments 25
Sheesh, is this a slow news week or what?
@Mega_Yarn_Poochy: yeah, let's prepare ourselves for months of "news" like this, until NX is revealed...
I've seen the no AA hacks a while back. They don't benefit every game, some, like GE 007 suit AA to perfection. On the other hand World Driver Championship looks astonishing with AA off, I can only assume Boss used an overly aggressive version of it. I personally believe the lack of RGB and the final blur pass Nintendo had applied to the N64's output is the biggest issue. I have a Spook S Video cable which was the top rated N64 cable back in the day and it delivers a vibrant, sharp 240p image, despite the blur pass doing its best.
I really want the Ultra HDMI mod at some stage though, particularly for the VI Deblur feature. I'm happy to wait until it drops in price and becomes more available.
I can't believe that the creepy guy is still in the videos face front. Someone should explain the rules of media presence to these guys.
His voice is also kind of annoying, but his creepy stalker face is the worst. It completely distracts me to the point that I cannot enjoy the video, as far as one can enjoy an uninteresting video as this one...
I don't see why you'd want to turn off the anti-aliasing when it's main purpose is to smooth the jaggy edges on polygons at the low-res SD standard.
All the blurry textures in N64 games (the worst offender with bad looking N64 titles) are not because of the anti-aliasing so much as terribly low-res and low-colour textures in the first place, so turning the anti-aliasing off isn't really going to help make the majority of N64 games look particularly cleaner; it's just going to make the polygon edges look more visibly jaggy.
The Star Fox comparison image at timestamp 2:12 shows exactly what I'm talking about (the aliased version simply looks worse):
https://youtu.be/QDiHgKil8AQ?t=132
I guess it will make the N64 titles look more like PlayStation games (but still with terribly low-res textures), if that's your thing. But this isn't like the old 2D pixel-based games, where getting to see the individual pixels perfectly can often make those games look way better that they used to (certainly compared to how many people originally saw those games on terrible composite connections).
The ultra-HDMI removing the secondary blur effect seems to be much more beneficial than the GameShark's version of removing the primary anti-aliasing entirely.
Still, I suppose it's nice to have options.
Hmm, some of those games look better with AA on.
Have to say I prefer all the other modes to the N64 original in all the games in this video (and others). I really hate filters, anti-aliasing and the like and always turn them off in emulators etc. I prefer crisp and pixelated to fuzzy and smooth. This goes for all classic systems, not just the N64. The only filter I ever use is scanlines if it's a good implementation.
Yeah, I dunno why you would want to remove AA. That final blur is another matter though. yuck!
I'm confused, why would anyone want to disable AA? Why would you prefer graphics that look more edged than they need to be? Is this some kind of sick retro trend?
I mean, come on! Look at this comparison in the video, obviously the left image looks way better than the right one!
https://youtu.be/QDiHgKil8AQ?t=133
If anything, there should be a mod to enforce a higher grade of Anti-Aliasing. Just look how wonderful Ocarina of Time looks in an emulator, with FullHD and Anti-Aliasing. Looks even better with HD textures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vks-WN_F4ME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4-3M2fPkYI
Why would anyone not want Anti-Aliasing enabled?! I don't get it.
@Mega_Yarn_Poochy Nothing wrong with this article. It's fantastic news if you care about playing N64 games with the best video quality.
Great! I always disliked the n64 resolution over PSX. Now if we can just fix that controller.
@liveswired I'm definitely interested in getting the UltraHDMI mod. N64 has benefitted the most from the jump to HDMI, followed by the NES (mostly because of lack of native RBG and S-Video.
Are you thinking of picking up the AVS next month?
@Spideron AA can be good when it's just used to enhance edges in modern games. I agree, though. The original output is the most fugly in all games represented.
The second pass fix of the UltraHDMI is more helpful by far, and many of the games look better with a little AA on the 3D graphics themselves (some of the effects clearly had blurring in mind when they were created).
Intresting but at the same time,.. hard to spot the diffrence, i like the hdmi de_blur best. But it's not a big diffrence.
Or, you could just emulate it... You know, like everyone else does.
@InternetBowser Now I have to go and watch it again to see what you mean: I didn't even notice it because of the creepmeister...
@Dakt: yes, Nintendo has given no news, and Nintendo Life is trying to generate clicks with cheap news nobody really cares about. That's what we're saying.
@shani
Of course AA looks good in HD. The problem is the low resolution of N64 games combined with poor AA makes an N64 on a modern screen look like someone smeared vasoline all over it. The N64 is simply not powerful enough for HD graphics or good AA. Computer comparisons aren't equal.
@Dakt 3 pretty good games just came out like a couple weeks ago; Star Fox Zero, Star Fox Guard, and Mini Mario and Friends: Amiibo Challenge, so I'm not sure what it is that people would be waiting for, not to mention that there's always more amazing content in Mario Maker.
games look better with the 64's AA.
Majora's Mask looked stunning with AA. Without it, it looked cheaper than Ocarina of Time.
Oh my god, WHO CARES?!
Saw the 'my life in gaming' vid the other day. I personally would like to see more articles like this on Nintendo life. What a great idea and you haven't got to break the bank to be able to try it!
They are really trying to convince me that the Ultra HDMI mod is a good sell. At about 3:36 he shows comparisons to Regular, Gameshark AA and HDMI, and right away the gameshark trick looks better to me, and he is just sucking up to the HDMI mod like it is God.
I prefer the smooth look.
In fact i prefer playing older games on a CRT.
I can't stand the blocky jagged look...
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