The GLideN64 N64 Emulator Graphics Plugin

GLideN64 is an open source next gen graphics plugin for many of the most popular N64 emulators available. Gliden64 is developed by one of the original co-creators of the original Glide64 plugin. The new Gliden64 plugin launched an Indiegogo campaign that went on to raise thousands of dollars from 165 backers.

Along with the GLideN64 graphics plugin, we also recently wrote this guide on how to install NRage on Project64 as well, allowing you to change your input settings.

Let’s get into the GLideN64 guide!

Glide64 vs GLideN64

Originally created back in 2001, GLideN64 was initially designed to be used solely on 3dfx graphics hardware through its proprietary graphics API, Glide3X. However, as time went on, the plugin gained support for OpenGL and became available to all PC users.

GLideN64 quickly gained a lot of popularity due to its high compatibility and impressive support of high-resolution textures for most games. While the final official version of GLideN64 was released back in 2012, because of its open-source nature, the project is still very much alive and kicking. It’s often included as a primary or secondary graphics plugin in many of the best N64 emulators, so if you’re familiar with N64 emulation, you’ve likely heard of Glide64.

While the emulation level achieved by GLideN64 is quite impressive, it’s still far from complete due to some fundamental limitations of its architecture. That’s why in 2013, the developer begain working on a new graphics plugin project called GLideN64. The goal of this experimental project was to convert Glide64 features using the power of modern OpenGL and support features that were previously impossible to emulate and ultimately create a newly fixed and improved plugin feature set.

The GLideN64 and Glide64 video plugin are very different in terms of source code, but the newer version and new features of the plugin are not made entirely from scratch either. Instead, it uses an old open source OpenGL graphics plugin named “glN64” as the basis for the new plugin. It was named “GLideN64” to emphasize its origin and to highlight it as the spiritual successor to the previous Glide64 plugin.

If you’d like to read more about GLideN64 and the different versions, you can check out the developer’s blog dedicated to the project here. You’ll find all kinds of technical details as well as screenshots and videos made using the new plugin.

The one drawback of GLideN64 is that these gorgeous high-resolution graphics can be quite demanding on your CPU. It’s for this reason that GLideN64 is meant for higher end computers and devices so you should expect that going in. If your device is not up to spec, you can expect your experience to not be so great and your game speed to be slow.

How to Install GLideN64 – Project64

Installing GLideN64 for the Project64 emulator couldn’t be easier. The most recent version of Project64 now comes pre-packaged with GLideN64 by default. You simply need to download and install the latest version of Project64 from their public release page here.

At the time of writing this, the most recently available version of Project64 is v3.0.1. Project64’s Github official repository mentions that the minimum requirements for running GLideN64 are OpenGL 3.3 and that Intel integrated graphics can have issues that are not present with Nvidia and AMD GPU’s even when the requirements are met.

Install GLideN64 on an Older Version of Project 64

If for whatever reason you don’t want to use the most recent version of Project64 and you still want to try and enable the GLideN64 graphics plugin, you can try the following steps:

1. Install GlideN64 from the Github repository here
2. Open the GLideN64 ZIP files, head to bin > Muper64Plus_x64 and find a file called mupen64plus-video-GLideN64.dll
3. Extract/copy the file to the Project64 emulator folder in Plugin > GFX
4. Open up Project64 and go to Options > Settings
5. In the Settings window, click Plugins
6. Under Video (graphics plugin) click the drop down and choose Glide64 for PJ64 and click OK
7. Then go to Options > Configure Graphics Plugin
8. If you want your graphics to look sharper, you can increase the resolution of Project64 in window and full screen modes and you for sharper textures, you can check Anisotrophic filtering
9. You can also check off Show advanced emulation options and Show texture enhancement options and then click OK to tinker a bit more with the options if you wish, but do keep in mind that these extra options can hog your CPU resources, so test and see what is supported for your environment

How To Use GLideN64 With Project64

If you’re looking to install GLideN64 for Mupen64Plus, your best bet is to download and use an awesome package configuration that is already built for you called Simple64 which is a frontend graphical user interface containing the GlideN64 plugin.

Simple64 was previously known and referred to as m64p and is used by many. You can grab the latest version of Simple64 from the official Github repository here.

To install Simple64 and access GLideN64 for Mupen64Plus on Windows, you can:

1. Download this simple64-win64*.zip file and unzip it somewhere in your home directory.
2. After downloading the files and extracting them, you can then run the file named simple64-gui.
3. All of the video plugin settings can be found under Settings > Core and Video Settings > ParaLLeEl Video.

How toUse GLideN64 With RetroArch

You can install GLideN64 on RetroArch by using the latest Mupen64Plus core called Nintendo – Nintendo 64 (Mupen64Plus-Next).

Installing this N64 emulation core will allow you to use GLidenN64 on RetroArch. Fortunately installing GLideN64 on RetroArch is a breeze, which is much appreciated!

How to Use GLideN64 Textures

Let’s say you’re trying to load up a texture pack, for example an OOT texture pack. Information on setting this up can be a bit hard to find. You’ll want to do the following:

1. Put the .htc config file in Plugin\GFX\cache
2. Make sure that it is in the lower case cache
3. Check to use full transparencies and save enhanced texture cache to harddisk
4. Now go under a cache folder where GLideN64.dll is located
5. The texture pack path folder is set as Plugin\GFX\hires_texture
6. The final path of your .htc file will be something like the following – Project64\Plugin\GFX\cache\THE LEGEND OF ZELDA_HIRESTEXTURES.htc

How to Upscale Games With GLideN64 Settings

You can achieve a fully upscaled 1080p 16:9 widescreen N64 emulation game experience by simply tweaking a few of the features in GLideN64 settings:

1. Open up the video/graphics settings in either Project64 or Mupen64Plus
2. In the Video Settings tab:
   • Change full screen resolution to 1920 x 1080 (this equal a 16:9 aspect ratio)
   • Change the aspect ratio settings to Try to adjust game to fit
   • Check off Overscan and set the NTSC and PAL settings to 5 in all of the 4 boxes
   • Choose Fast approximate anti-aliasing (FXAA)
3. In the Emulation Tab
   • Choose Multiple of N64 resolution and update the value to 8x
   • Change Background rendering more (HLE) to One piece

And just like magic, all of your best roms will now be in a fully upscaled 16:9 aspect ratio. Nintendo 64 retro gaming has never looked this good!