How I Built an Open-World Engine for the N64

Incredible work on Junk Runner 64! Your approach to overcoming the N64's Z-buffer limitations using that two-pass rendering technique is truly impressive; it's a real masterclass in optimization. Seeing the potential, I'd love to try something similar, so I wanted to ask if you think it's feasible to adapt your engine to use the new 12MB Expansion Pak sold by Vintex64. Pushing the console to its absolute limit of 16MB of RDRAM, do you see any practical limitations, or could that extra memory headroom, in theory, bring benefits like higher-fidelity textures, improved audio sampling, and a higher density of active actors on screen? Thanks for sharing your explainer videos!

Do you guys need someone to make you a decent walk/run cycle?

Seeing that in a video is already impressive. But actually putting it on a SummerCart64 and playing it on real N64 hardware is jaw dropping! Thanks for providing a PAL version, too!

You can add all the geometry you want to that environmental test map but the moment you start adding in more complexity you're going to have to scale or cull that world down by a lot. The systems severe limitations will eventually add up and only abnormally gifted developers will craft a story and utilise every last available resource.

This game looks beautiful. If it existed during the N64 era it would have been literally game changing.

You kind of created a PS1 game without the Z-Buffer on the N64.

Talented man

Now we need a Breath Of The Wild demake for the N64.

Mind-blowingly phenomenal tech 😮 Makes me wonder two things:

1) How different that the period N64 games might have been, had we known these things at the time

2) If/how these techniques could be applied to other hardware at around that time (PlayStation, Saturn, 3DO, Dreamcast, PS2, GameCube, Xbox)

I now feel like hardware from that time has just been silently waiting to be unlocked -- having had its power tapped, but never fully. Like how it might have gone 60mph at the time, but now it can go 80mph. Very exciting 😁

LOD on another level

When I first saw Mario 64, I became a fan of the console because it showcased 3D worlds. Seeing your game "Junk Runner 64" amazed me; I'm really looking forward to playing it. I'll try to buy an original console and run the ROM. I hope the game is a huge success, and I'll be following your work closely. Thank you so much for your effort, and best of luck with your new projects.

This looks so awesome. Are you going to make more games like this? I find games with an older aesthetic fascinating. What frustrates me is a lot of Indie devs try to do this on modern engines but it still looks off. But yours looks legitimate like it's from the 90s. I love it! Please make more!

Can't you just use a reverse depth buffer to fix the distribution issue like many modern games?

I would absolutely love to run this amazing project on my physical N64, please consider me for the giveaway

I wish for a original new N64 with a bit better specs but still in this old graphics design. With catridges that can hold up to 6,4 GB.
So that all the old games work on that too.
And i would like the developers to make their games as extendet versions again, with all that stuff they had to cut because of the hardware or because of the short time they sometimes had for development.

It was so much fun to explore these worlds and see how far we can go or what is possible. Even in racing games we tried to get off the course or find some hidden shortcuts.
Better times!

It really makes me wonder: If developers were given today’s hardware 25 years ago, and had all of this time to develop and optimize for it. How much further ahead would games be? I wonder if the same kind of overhead is still possible to unlock.

Hello, I want to create my game for n64, too. Gonna check your repo! and I would love a catridge of your amazing game!! 😭

Ok, so... maybe we'll finally get something like the cancelled Need for Speed 64?

I can't get this to run

I've been writing shaders by hand in assembly and managed to get an HDR Pipeline working. Would you be able to do this on the N64?

Old style optimisations are what made games so good in the past, this is genius.

What a legend

You’re a wizard.

Having some trouble running junkrunner64-v3.1-ntsc z64 on a ED 64 Plus. Loads into start menu and after hit start I get a blank screen with two lines of dialog continues to be blank afterward. Tried it without the 4MB jumper and with the 4mb Jumper same thing

On N64 hardware, for these type of large spaces.. Would there be any benefit to precomputing visibility so it's just a lookup? I guess it'd kill memory?

it looks really pretty, but I wish it actually worked on any emulator, since everything Ive tried just crashes before the game starts.

"This game, your not ready for it"

This is so freaking cool! This brings out the kid in me. N64 was my first real console. When the game appeared I immediately went back in time. That distinct 3D look that came from N64 hardware and games of that time. This is just so damn impressive!! I have a couple questions:

1. I am new here so if you explained this elsewhere I am sorry. Do you use an SGI Indy workstation for any part of the development?
2. I know this is all running on real hardware, so we know it's possible on a technical level, BUT would something like this have been possible for a dev house in the 90s to actually figure out if they had enough time? It just blows my mind what you have accomplished here lol

what about reverse z?

Woah I'm so excited to see where this goes!

a god among gamers

Played the game and beat it. It's a nice tech demo, and even has a cute little story. But its also a very bland environment. After watching the video and knowing how much effort went into it, I feel bad for saying it. But everything is brown/yellow. Its dull to look at. Maybe you could do something similar to spyro with this idea. So different planets/worlds you can visit with different objectives. Would be an awesome use of this idea.

I just found out about your channel, and the first thing I thought was that you are related to the guy who came up with Lambert's law, haha. Given your knowledge xD

Its empty ....

making god tier games and optimizing them for older consoles to think outside of the box is a legendary thing and i want to see more of it since we're seeing retro carts coming out

Nice

Z-Fighting..... you mean Z-Fighters, the Dragon Ball Z game?

You’d think Nintendo’s R&D department would be publishing content like this so more developers would build cooler games for their systems. But no.

So friggin cool!

I would love a cartridge of this!

Pretty intense stare there buddy

One more comment for the algorithm, just ordered you cart and made a donation! Thank you James! I'm a day 1 buyer for your new long term game!

Crazy eyes

Looks amazing i have a few questions, if I wanted to play this i would have to download the link somehow transfer the data to a blank cartridge and then is playable. Is that right. I would also love if you started to sell these i am subscribing 😊