The Entire N64 Library Now Has Rollback Netcode
The party one, the smash one, the golf one - even Chameleon Twist!
Just yesterday, a huge accomplishment was released to the entire N64 netplay community. RMG-K, the newer fork of Rosalie’s Mupen GUI now support rollback netcode across the entire emulator! This means that no matter what ROM you’re playing, you’ll be able to experience its split screen with anyone else around the world in virtually a lagless manner.
The project’s github can be found here: https://github.com/Jay-Day/RMG-K
Believe it or not, it appears the developer/composer NyxTheShield was at the heart of this project. They’re no stranger to programming endevours, having made what was basically Project M for Smash 4. While I’m certainly most interested in this project for its ability to bring a Slippi-like experience to Smash 64, everyone who plays any 64 game is going to benefit from this project as the rollback code really does, by some miracle, support the entire N64 library! I believe HLE might be the source of making this possible but don’t quote me on that.
Top level Smash 64 player Maafia released a video shortly after the projects release talking about everything this update brings with it—I’ll link it down below, highly recommend watching it. Besides the lag reduction, another big feature is fixing desync issues. The Kaillera-based netplay seemed to not address in-game RNG elements and would cause frequent desync. I guess the Gekkonet code goes out of its way to fix this!
At the time of writing, rollback only works on direct connect sessions, meaning there isn’t any matchmaking just yet—meaning you’ll need to send your friends a code to join your game. However, a revision to the matchmaking interface has made it so you can broadcast an ‘open game’ to anyone to anyone using the service, so like what Melee had back in the Anther’s Ladder days. Every client will also have a customizable player ID code—just like Slippi has. You can even ‘favorite’ player you come across so if they’re broadcasting their game, they’ll appear at the top of the list! It’s oldschool, yes. But it’s a HUGE leap compared to what we had before!
If you’d like to learn more about the history of rollback netcode plus how it works, I’ve written a piece here!