I do think there are a few things that make the N64 kinda "special" for going back and squeezing more performance out of it. The 3D hardware is remarkably modern in some ways, but there are a couple very thorny resource limitations that you have to work within, and the system complexity is higher than you would probably like.
The main resource limitations you deal with are the main RAM banwidth and the TMEM size. The complexity comes from the division of work between the CPU and a coprocessor called the RSP, which is basically a stripped-down MIPS CPU core that has a SIMD unit and some scratch RAM. You can come up with cool ways to use the RSP, but if you eat up more of the main RAM bandwidth, you'll hurt performance.
The demo here is focused on working around the TMEM size limitation, but it looks like it also reduces the RAM bandwidth use by drawing in Z order rather than using the Z buffer... which is an overall solid approach for improving graphics performance on the N64.
The PS3 has some striking similarities to the N64, in that both consoles have coprocessors with SIMD units that operate on scratch RAM. Both consoles have a reputation for being difficult to program for. The PS3 takes things a bit farther in that the Cell SPEs can only access main memory through DMA. I can only imagine how hard it was to effectively use the SPEs.
The main resource limitations you deal with are the main RAM banwidth and the TMEM size. The complexity comes from the division of work between the CPU and a coprocessor called the RSP, which is basically a stripped-down MIPS CPU core that has a SIMD unit and some scratch RAM. You can come up with cool ways to use the RSP, but if you eat up more of the main RAM bandwidth, you'll hurt performance.
The demo here is focused on working around the TMEM size limitation, but it looks like it also reduces the RAM bandwidth use by drawing in Z order rather than using the Z buffer... which is an overall solid approach for improving graphics performance on the N64.
The PS3 has some striking similarities to the N64, in that both consoles have coprocessors with SIMD units that operate on scratch RAM. Both consoles have a reputation for being difficult to program for. The PS3 takes things a bit farther in that the Cell SPEs can only access main memory through DMA. I can only imagine how hard it was to effectively use the SPEs.