New N64 Emulator plugin adds ray tracing, widescreen, 60 frames per second (and more) to classics like Zelda & Paper Mario

to remember Absolutely amazing show From Super Mario 64 With ray tracing? Well, the same person is now working on a new project that can develop N64 emulation. Modder-turned-software developer Dario has just revealed “RT64” (the trace path behind the sm64rt project) being turned into a plugin for the Nintendo 64 emulator.

It started its life “a month ago” as a way to improve the “computer port backend” and has evolved into a “general simulation solution” that can be applied to a much larger library of N64 games. It can add ray tracing lighting, object motion blur, widescreen, DLSS and improve frame rate – in excess of 60 frames per second.

Of course, it’s still in its early stages which means it still has a long way to go. It also remains a ‘Mission Impossible’ to make it compatible with it All N64, highlighting titles is a manual process. In time, a whitelist of compatible games will be provided, so users know what the games are doing and not work with the plugin.

Below is only a small selection of games that currently support RT64. As you can see, there are games like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of TimeAnd the Kirby 64: Crystal Shardsand the original Mario paper Game. until the kids on ice The series is getting some love.

Dario reiterates how it won’t be rolling out “anytime soon” as there are still hundreds of issues to solve and features to add. The game library as mentioned is “very limited”.

One of the “interesting side effects” of this project was “looking for a way to satisfy the fragmentation commands sent from an N64 game without actually modifying the game at all” – meaning that games without 60fps patches on the N64 can now run at higher frame rates higher, without the need for unique corrections.

Here are some more screenshots – Show series like Goemon and Rocket: a robot on wheels:

What do you think of this early look? Leave your thoughts below.