TRWinGL beta preview

Stian: F|RES and Icepir8, the authors of TRWinGL, gave us the current beta version of their Nintendo64 emulator so we could do a preview of it. TRWinGL was originally based on the True Reality version for UNIX authored by Niki Waibel. So on to the facts....The last version of TRWinGL had bugs and errors that where so essential that they had to totally rewrite the entire core. They have now come a long way and graphics along with compatiblity is improving very well. Another thing to metion is a new and handy GUI. Check out a shot of the new GUI here. As you can see on all of the screenshots, TRWinGL has advanced pretty much since the last release. The beta version that i have tested is much more compatible with commercial games than the last official version released. It is also a bit faster.

Martin: What really amazes me is how well the preview is running, even though the core was entirely rewritten, as Stian said. Also, I like the new GUI, but that is not your main interest when you read this report, am I right? OK, so how much better is this version than the official version that is out? Well, I can't say if it is faster or not, but it seems like the graphics are looking a bit smoother, and with less errors and graphic glitches. Another great step forward is that the number of games being emulated have increased. There are probably many more games running that we have not tested yet, because of a couple of reasons. 1. We have not tried every game there is (duh!) 2. The dynarec is used, but the interpreter is too slow which means that if just the interpreter could be fixed up, it would be faster. 3. It has just been rewritten entirely.

All I can say is that the current beta seems very promising, and continues to impress me as it is one of the top N64 emulators we've seen so far. Great job by the TR team and best of wishes with the project.

UPDATE: I tried out the beta with some more games, and took some screenshots for you as well. Some of the games I tried had incredible FPS, especially for the intros. Not all of them run the actual game, but still shows up the title screen. It is still progress, isn't it? =) To the screenshots:

Starfox shot 1
Starfox shot 2
Famista64 shot 1
Famista64 shot 2
Famista64 shot 3
Mario Kart 64 shot 1
Mario Kart 64 shot 2
Quest 64 shot 1
Quest 64 shot 2
Rampage World Tour shot 1
Rampage World Tour shot 2

Click to enlarge
Glover is a new game that runs with TRWinGL. The game displays good graphics but runs pretty slow.

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International Superstar Soccer 98 is one of the new games that runs in TRWinGL. This is one of the games where i achieved the highest FPS, sometimes 45+ FPS.

Click enlarge
Virtual Pool is another new game that displays graphics in TRWinGL.

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Super Mario 64 is better than ever and has only small graphical errors. The only downside is low FPS.

More screenshots

ISS98 shot 2
ISS98 shot 3
ISS98 shot 4
Super Mario 64 shot 2
Super Mario 64 shot 3
Super Mario 64 shot 4
F1 Pole Position shot 1
Milo`s Astrolane shot 1
Milo`s Astrolane shot 2
Wayne Gretzky`s 3D Hockey shot 1
Waverace 64 shot 1

For downloads and more information check out the TRWinGL homepage