Relaxed Muscle
Member
3 years after Mario Kart 64, not Diddy Kong Racing.
-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Looking back I think PS1's graphics aged better than N64's (used to think opposite)
- Thread starter enigmatic_alex44
- Start date
3 years after Mario Kart 64, not Diddy Kong Racing.
Deadpool_X
Banned
OP should've compared Final Fantasy Tactics to Ogre Battle 64
Portugeezer
Member
3D games still look better for the most part on the N64.
That is really impressive. Rare was better at squeezing good visuals out of the N64 than Nintendo themselves at the time. See also > Banjo and Donkey Kong 64 which used the RAM pack, I remember my copy coming with it so I believe it was required for DK64
Now Rare is a shell of their former selves
Trivia:
DK64 did not require the expansion pak. The entire game runs fine without it (although it won't run unless it detects it plugged in)
The only reason that it came with an expansion pak is because there was a nasty RAM related bug that caused the game to randomly crash. The only solution was to increase the amount of RAM, which prevented the crashes. Rare were unable to fix the issue. As such, Nintendo were forced to include the expansion pak with the game.
Tom Nook Sawyer
Member
Haha, whoops--that was one low resolution shot. Anyways, point still stands
enigmatic_alex44
Whenever a game uses "middleware," I expect mediocrity. Just see how poor TLOU looks.
I played both back in the day and still have my copy of Tactics. Tactics was and still is a stunner, Ogre Battle was a blurry mess. No way can you say OB64 > FFT visually.
Quadraphonic
Member
That is really impressive. Rare was better at squeezing good visuals out of the N64 than Nintendo themselves at the time. See also > Banjo and Donkey Kong 64 which used the RAM pack, I remember my copy coming with it so I believe it was required for DK64
Now Rare is a shell of their former selves
Rare sacrificed framerate for visuals. Shit like Jet Force Gemini is an unplayable mess.
drotahorror
Banned
Were there any 2D games on 64? I'd say PS1 2D games look better than any PS1 3D game. Not sure about the n64 but I might would say the same.
Prove it. Not saying you're wrong, but if you want people to believe you...
Rats Off To Ya
Banned
I agree for the most part, but the 64 definitely has a couple of outliers. Conker is without a doubt the best looking game of that generation. It's miles ahead of anything else.
Relaxed Muscle
Member
OoT wasn't a stunner until the 3DS? The hell?
(and yes, I realize this shot's pre-rendered, but the whole game looked great for its time and the scope)
I think even going yo the realm of pre-rendered graphics, it looks worse tha most ps games that used pre-rendered bg. But I guess is normal, it wasn't really the focus of the game.
The graphics difference between Crash and DKR is minimal lol.
That is really impressive. Rare was better at squeezing good visuals out of the N64 than Nintendo themselves at the time. See also > Banjo and Donkey Kong 64 which used the RAM pack, I remember my copy coming with it so I believe it was required for DK64
Now Rare is a shell of their former selves
DK64 is more impressive considering it actually didn't need the RAM pack; the only reason it was required was because it happened to fix a bug in the game that Rare couldn't fix in time for release.
Comparing graphics by using pre-rendered stuff always seemed stupid to me; all it is displaying a .jpeg or .avi equivalent on screen and pretending it's a technical marvel. That's why a lot of big "graphical marvel" games on PS1 always seemed really unimpressive to me, the console was barely doing anything.
Shadow Hog
Member
What you're thinking of is perspective correction. Bilinear filtering is a way to make textures not-pixellated.
Tom Nook Sawyer
Member
Only in some cases. Banjo-Kazooie ran fine and is one of the system's best games
enigmatic_alex44
Whenever a game uses "middleware," I expect mediocrity. Just see how poor TLOU looks.
Oh? Never knew this, wow. Mind = blown.
Basically the first form of the "day one patch" haha
Relaxed Muscle
Member
I didn't say the difference was big, just that Crash looked better.IMO
FFT isn't crystal clear either though. It comes down to art style preference.
entremet
Member
FFT was sprite based mostly.
2D games on N64 looked like poop.
NobleGundam
Banned
This is gold
Relaxed Muscle
Member
Well, weren't ogre battle units pre-rendered sprites? at the end of the day is the same
Exactly. If we're comparing visual style, emulator shots are fine. But if we're going to compare visual technology, we need a better standard of comparison than screenshots from emulators.
Heh yeah it worked out fine for me though
I got DK64, Majoras Mask and The World is Not Enough for Christmas 2000. Expansion pak proved to be very, very useful.
Than he simply should not compare. What's that logic? "Hey, I want to prove a point that a large JRPG from SquareSoft looking better than... yes, what? To hell, here take this, Quest 64!"
By that you could prove your point the PS1 having more/better RPGs but not "how well visuals aged".
I think the PS1 have SLIGHTLY better overall visuals because of polygons and texture resolution but the "texture/geometry wandering" is kind weird and looks more of a patchwork like the smooth visuals of the N64. So it's hard to tell and from a aesthetical point of view many games a beautiful no matter what age or console. And I don't think it's about graphics fidelity nowadays when you starting a retro sessions.
And BTW it would be totally awesome if there were real non-emulated screenshots in this thread.
Deadpool_X
Banned
I wasn't saying that either looked better than the other. I was just saying that. If OP was looking to compare apples to apples, he could've done a much better job than comparing FF VIII and Quest 64.
Screenshots from emulators are fine if they are set to run the games at native resolution.
If you took screenshots from retroarch for example, those would be fine. PS1 renders at native res, and N64 can be set to its native 320p. At that point there is visually very little difference to images of the games taken from real hardware.
El-Pistolero
Member
That Victorian fog that plagued the entirety of the N64 games catalog is still horrible to look back at...
m_shortpants
Member
Expansion pack Perfect Dark was incredible for the time. Not sure there was anything like on that on PlayStation.
fuzzyreactor
Banned
I agree. N64 was Vaseline city
Awful comparisons in the OP, but regardless I agree with the topic overall. N64's texture smearing is something I simply can't deal with. At all.
Plus, regardless is we're talking graphics or sound, any N64 game picked will still never be Wipeout 3.. and that's all that matters really.
Because someone else will respond with a gif/video of it actually moving.
Plus, regardless is we're talking graphics or sound, any N64 game picked will still never be Wipeout 3.. and that's all that matters really.
Because someone else will respond with a gif/video of it actually moving.
Pocky4Th3Win
Member
Doom on N64 looked great but I personally think most of the games on N64 ended up looking like a blurry mess. I rather have raw textures than the over filtering that went on with the N64.
off the top of my head, these games had no such issue:
Mario 64
Ocarina of Time
Majoras Mask
Donkey Kong 64
F Zero X
Banjo Tooie
Banjo Kazooie
Conker's bad fur day
Indiana Jones
The World is Not Enough
Perfect Dark
GoldenEye (apart from Surface and Jungle)
Mario Kart
Diddy Kong Racing
Etc
I mean, it was an issue with a good amount of cheap third party titles and Turok, but very nearly none of the top titles on the console are affected by fog at all.
Pocky4Th3Win
Member
Agreed, seeing games run in their console resolutions makes a world of a difference in this discussion. Although I'm not sure if any N64 emulator is currently accurate enough to replicate how games look on a real N64. Does any emulator properly emulate that trademark Vaseline-smear? (Full scene anti-aliasing doesn't count, the N64 didn't do that IIRC)
Nikodemos
Member
It wasn't over filtering, but rather low texture cache due to a dumbass design decision.
But the biggest difference between PSX and N64 was audio. Cartridges simply couldn't hold proper uncompressed music.
Walter Matthau
Member
Wave Race 64 (released 1996):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwxK62sEdRQ
Jet Moto 3 (released 1999):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZiN1YuB6Q0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwxK62sEdRQ
Jet Moto 3 (released 1999):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZiN1YuB6Q0
Oh, yeah the green fog that suddenly fills the room after you blow up some gas tanks unless my memory fails me?
I somehow don't think that counts
I may be wrong. But even so, there's barely any fog there.
Thread is a total mess.
Who said he had to make comparisons between RPGs in the first place, especially if all he had to go on was a misleading comparison between a low budget first wave title and one of the biggest budgeted third wave ones?
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
N64 visuals are IMO really harmed by the jelly smear effect. PS1 textures, while simplistic, could at least give an impression of grit and detail. Light and shadow could be simulated well in better PS1 texture art.
From a modern perspective one can appreciate good PS1 art as expert use of limited pixels, creating its own aesthetic. In fact people have asked for "retro" games made in a 32-bit, PS1 style. By comparison even most better N64 games look blurry and flat.
From a modern perspective one can appreciate good PS1 art as expert use of limited pixels, creating its own aesthetic. In fact people have asked for "retro" games made in a 32-bit, PS1 style. By comparison even most better N64 games look blurry and flat.