An unofficial version of Super Mario 64 for PC with RayTracing support using DirectX 12 has been released. We will give you the details here.
It all started with a video “Unreal” offered by YouTuber, which was uploaded this week. It’s strange to see a native portable version of Super Mario 64 on PC without using an emulator. Not only that, but the famous Nintendo video game would also support DirectX 12, i.e. the use of ray tracing. We’ll tell you all about it below.
Super Mario 64 with raytracing: teenagers’ dream
Super Mario 64 is a video game that everyone will remember because it marked an era in the platform and adventure genre. It was released for Nintendo 64 in 1996 and was the first game in the saga to feature 3D graphics.
It could only be played on Nintendo emulators and video consoles, but an unofficial version was released on PC. It was reproduced by Unreal, a YouTuber who uploaded a video showing it to us.
It is sort of a portable version of Super Mario 64 in a native way, without using an emulator to play it. It also supports the DirectX 12 API, which is compatible with RTGI Global Lighting, i.e. raytracing. In the following video, you can see how Unreal experiments with RTGI, MXAO, reflection effects, or ADF work.
The results speak for themselves: We have a video game with improved lighting and enhanced effects. It’s true that the graphics engine is still the same, so the change is not brutal. This isn’t a “Black Mesa” from Nintendo, but a portable game that can be played at 4K. In fact, Unreal mentions that it played with an i7-7700K and a GTX 1080 at 550 fps. However, this caused some glitches, so it is recommended to play at 30 fps.