Why didn't the N64 have a sound chip? The SNES had one.
>>3244840
You tell us, OP. What is wrong with N64 music? Because I certainly don't have a problem with it.
>What's Wrong With Music On the N64?
As far as I know, nothing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvbQcO1yA64
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxafn1dF-cE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyqbCDSB26U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYOE3742PP0
Don't have any complaints.
>>3244843
Most N64 games do sound a bit generic.
Many melodies from the N64 are not as recognizable as in the 16-bit days
>>3244850
Well then that's the fault of a game's composer, not the system's hardware or lack thereof.
>>3244850
If you're OP, you're talking about music composition, and has nothing to do with the N64 having or not a soundchip.
Anyway, there's many recognizable melodies from N64 games, you may need to play more games, although it is true that starting from 5th gen, games started to have more richier sound capabilities (especially consoles with CD), so music started having more ambient on atmospheric soundtracks, compared to the old classic leitmotif-based soundtracks from older consoles which only had a couple audio channels.
But still, that's a very broad (and wrong) statement you're doing there.
>>3244840
The N64 didn't have a sound chip because Nintendo invested all of manufacturing budget into the cost of the GPU.
Fortunately the N64's GPU has a powerful T&L unit which can also be configured via audio microcode to process music and sound effects. An advantage of using microcode is the N64 can process codecs that the PS1 and Saturn sound chips can't handle like MP3 and more sophisticated HRTF surround. The biggest impediment was cartridge space.
However, the N64 being considered as not having good music seems to come from people's lack of knowledge of what was in the library. It had plenty of good tunes even outside the usual Mario and Zelda.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTnip0-Zt4E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7azlVRKe08
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJedMdqTEyo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tCpGyaG0Q8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewFnCWyXyEk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuJMPywfhJw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuQSKUTe89g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdw5VeDj8ik
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y0RwyI8j8k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvHrea_qQuA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aWyb1S0f7I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YRGbfufHG8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTGRQY33QYE
Now tell me if this isn't some good shit
>>3245008
Someone other than me postedCV64's opening?Anon, you're OK in my book.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DIh9262nVCc
N64 had good music
>>3245008
It also had plenty of good fucking games, and probably the fewest number of untranslated, non-shit Japanese games for any successful JP console ever.
There's one translation and one menu hack. There's only about a dozen more that need translation at most. That's fucking INSANE.
forgot to post this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isjbaebcOQU
>>3246445
This fucking song.
I know it's not 64, but jesus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYE86wylPeY
>inb4 a n64 vs sega saturn music threads now
>>3246457
That's not even comparable because the Saturn and PS1 use a CD format and literally any type of music can be played on them.
tetrisphere has the best ost on n64
https://youtube.com/watch?v=qutUyQqhjdM
Comfiest soundtrack known to man.
>>3248552
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80r7m05iQSY&
I wonder how much better graphics n64 games could have if it actually had a dedicated sound chip
>>3249979
The same ways the PS1 would have better visuals if it had a chip handling backgrounds a la the Saturn:Not that much.
>>3249979
Probably not much because the console was not T&L limited (which is what drives the sound processing) but fill limited.
The N64 did in fact have a sound chip, or, rather, a separate chip that could be programmed as far as being able to decompress MP3 files and enable Dolby Pro Logic processing. Some developers didn't know about it though because 64 devkits were so poorly written. A Rare developer for Conker's Bad Fur Day had to translate Japanese text to write in a specific microcode to use it apparently.
>>3249979
More CPU power= more drawcalls.
N64 games had shitty render distance but the console was a CPU powerhouse. Physics, lighting and complex animations were more commonplace in N64 games than PS1 games.
>>3250062
It's not a separate chip, it's part of the GPU.
Pic is a die scan of the N64's GPU. The half labeled RSP is the T&L half which also processes sound. It's also the microcode programmable half.
The other half labeled RDP is the graphics fill half which is what actually draws the screen. Almost all of the time RDP would be the slower half, the weak link, since it has to do fuckloads of RMW (read modify write) operations for the z-buffer to work.
>>3250067
>N64 games had shitty render distance
What? N64 games usually have much longer draw distance than their 5th generation contemporaries on other consoles.
>the console was a CPU powerhouse
Not really. The MIPS R4300i is better than what's inside the PS1 and Saturn but even for that time it was nothing more than like a highly souped up 486. The real powerhouse was RSP.
>Physics, lighting and complex animations were more commonplace in N64 games than PS1 games.
These are the kinds of things that would be processed on RSP.
>>3244850
conker´s bad fur day - rock solid
now please shut your mouth before memeing.
>>3250067
>N64 games had shitty render distance
>>3244840
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AortGYe1sTI&list=PLC675B851A38C9C2F
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ShzyggtsCs&list=PL8D1E4637261C45EF
>>3252227
>Someone generalizes a whole 300 game library, based on 99% of the games!
>I know! My counter-argument is based around the remaining 1%! That'll prove him wrong
>>3252397
>>3252409
fuck, didn't see file name, although 16:9 should have given it away. here.
>>3252397
Draw distance was an issue with most early 3D games, not just N64.
Some developers worked around the limitations better than others, but the issue was there on N64, PS1, Saturn and PC.
