Obscure audio codec is a perfect fit for the N64

(phoboslab.org)

108 points by frostbyte74 hours ago

3 comments

midnightclubbed1 hour ago
This codec would have been great 27 years ago! I suspect it wouldn't have gotten past the patent lawyers in 1999 though. It seems cute today but the entire codec space was a patent minefield, the N64 mp3 decoder was implemented twice (once based on the reference codec, once clean) with Nintendo/Rare then paying RAD game tools to license their decoder... of which none of their code was used but they had a license from the mp3 patent holder (Fraunhofer) which then shielded Nintendo from lawsuits. Fraunhofer wanted something like $250k to license directly which wasn't going to fly.I'll also note the frame rate issues in Conker were mainly down to raw RDP fillrate issues, which was for sure the weakest part of the N64 hardware, it could draw beautiful triangles (for the time) but oh so so slowly. There was a decent amount of speech during gameplay using the RSP mp3 codec. The cartridge size was still an issue, 64Mb got a good amount of mono speech but was still very much at a premium.
- xxpor1 hour ago
 >It seems cute todayMaybe in audio, but video still seems like an absolute nightmare. Look at the absolute silliness with like having to pay $.99 to play h265 video in Windows.
 - jcalvinowens23 minutes ago
 AV1 is royalty free and better!Real example, I recorded the world series using an ATSC antenna, and I re-encoded a 90 second sample using a bunch of different settings on a 32-thread znver5:<pre><code> # Codec Flags Size Speed - ----- ----- ---- ----- Original (Raw ATSC mpeg2video) 77MB (100%) N/A 1 libx265 -preset veryslow -crf 24 37MB (48%) 0.245x 2 libsvtav1 -preset 3 -crf 44 36MB (25%) 1.87x 3 libsvtav1 -preset 1 -crf 35 19MB (25%) 0.556x </code></pre> (NB: The same CRF results in a higher quality video at slower presets, this was for archival so we're using the some of the slowest presets).(1) and (2) are completely indistinguishable from the original unless I go frame by frame looking for transient motion artifacts. (3) is only distinguishable in one shot where a dark background was washed out. Not only does AV1 produce results just as good as H265, it encodes quite a bit faster for the same size/quality.That said, I've watched so much h264-encoded video over the past decade I think I've been trained to perceive the subtle visual "snow noise" as a sign of a high quality video: I find how AV1 blends backgrounds more visually objectionable than the dithering in H265, even though I think it's objectively higher fidelity. Similar to how I find high frame rate video "fake" after having watched NTSC TV for the first half of my life.These were the CRFs necessary to get the same visual quality with H265 at faster presets and the resulting sizes:<pre><code> hevc-slower-24 37MB (used above) hevc-slow-21 56MB hevc-medium-20 57MB hevc-faster-19 52MB hevc-veryfast-18 60MB</code></pre>
 - alala-lala-lon1 hour ago
 [dead]
pona-a1 hour ago
Beautiful! I long wanted to write my own audio codec, this might be a nice challenge.
pferdone1 hour ago
Sorry but what? Half-Life on an N64?? it looks incredible!
- everdrive1 hour ago
 There's an explosion of N64 ports lately, with a huge mix of new libraries (libdragon) pure fan passion, and LLM assistance.Some I'm tracking:- Duke Nukem 3D (ie, the fully-functional PC version) <a href="https://github.com/BigChat88/N64DukeNukem3DPort" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/BigChat88/N64DukeNukem3DPort</a>- Portal 64 Still alive <a href="https://github.com/mwpenny/portal64-still-alive" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/mwpenny/portal64-still-alive</a>- Resident Evil 64 (ie, not RE2, but the first one) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xRiwy8Z6S0" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xRiwy8Z6S0</a>- Silent Hill (still an early WIP) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7fM06jmHso" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7fM06jmHso</a>I haven't personally tested, but these look interesting:- Simpsons Arcade <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH9JYQVzKDE" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH9JYQVzKDE</a>- X-men Arcade <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah3nB8MP4CM" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah3nB8MP4CM</a>- TMNT Arcade Collection <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiR5-ZpLtyI" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiR5-ZpLtyI</a>At this point, they're coming out faster than I can play them. I'm in the middle of the 2nd Episode of Duke 3D right now and it's quite nice. The original 64 version was always fun, but mid-level saves are really a game changer.
 - haunter1 hour ago
 > There's an explosion of N64 ports latelyThere's an explosion of ALL ports lately. It's crazy.Ocarina of Time only got released today officially but it's already playable on ARM Macs. It's not even a port per se but executing the Switch ARM code natively. And of course it's also playable on emulators regardless of the platform