Fan-made software gives N64 games a considerable visual overhaul

We don’t often talk about emulation or topics related to emulation here on GoNintendo, but every once in awhile, something pops up that’s just too interesting to ignore. Today happens to be one of those situations.

The video above shows off a series of N64 games running alongside the RT64, a fan-made emulator plugin. This plugin takes N64 games and adds in features like ray tracing, object motion blur, widescreen, DLSS and 60+ FPS. As you can tell, this custom plugin is working wonders for N64 games visually.

Dariosamo, the person behind this plugin, has shared that any games showcased above are using RT64, but it’s very much a manual process. Dariosamo is going in create lighting for these titles, and simply using the plugin with N64 games won’t give them a bunch of visual bells and whistles. The results you see in the video above show off what Dariosamo has put together personally.

The most interesting thing about RT64 is that it interpolates the rendering commands sent by an N64 game without actually modifying the game at all. That’s how it acts as a plugin, and the visual features implemented are done with standard copies of the games shown. This even lets games run at 60fps when they were nowhere near that number in their original release.