N96 SOFTWARE STANDARD · VERSION 1.0

The rules
behind the feeling.

Technical and artistic restrictions for making games as if N96 had actually existed.

FRAME / 01640 × 36016:9 · 60+ FPS
01VIDEO

One frame.
One language.

Games render internally at 640 × 360, regardless of display resolution. Higher resolutions upscale the framebuffer rather than increasing the rendering detail.

Native output is 16:9. The minimum target is 60 FPS, with no maximum. Physics, input, animation and gameplay must remain independent from rendering framerate.

640 × 360Internal resolution
16:9Aspect ratio
60 FPSMinimum target
∞Maximum framerate
02GEOMETRY / DISTANCE

Shape before
detail.

Models are designed directly around their budget. Silhouette always takes priority over geometric detail.

Small environmental details should become textures, vertex colors, decals, sprites or simple planes. Large landmarks may remain visible to support navigation and composition.

TRIANGLE BUDGETS

500–800 player characters
200–600 standard enemies
Up to 1,000 bosses
20–300 props

RENDERING ZONES

0–25 m full detail
25–50 m normal rendering
50–75 m heavy fog
75 m standard limit
100 m simple landmarks

FOG

Start around 35–50 m.
End at 75 m.
Color belongs to the environment.

03TEXTURES / MATERIALS

Small canvas.
Strong choices.

Textures are designed for low-resolution rendering, not created at modern fidelity and degraded afterward.

Prefer reusable textures, tiled textures, atlases and palettes. Bilinear filtering is standard; nearest-neighbor is an artistic choice.

16²Preferred
32²Preferred
64²Standard maximum
128²Exceptional only

TEXTURE × VERTEX COLOR × LIGHTING

04RENDERING / LIGHTING

Simple by
design.

Materials should remain readable and direct. Lighting supports the asset; it does not compensate for weak design.

Use one primary directional light, simple ambient lighting and a small number of meaningful local lights. Transparency is fully allowed for water, smoke, fire, vegetation, glass, UI, sprites and decals.

+ ALLOWED

Bilinear or nearest-neighbor filtering
Vertex colors · Alpha cutouts
Simple emission · Animated textures
Subtle vertex snapping · Texture warping
Blob shadows · Baked shadows · Sprite particles

— OUTSIDE THE STANDARD

PBR · Detailed normal maps · Parallax · Displacement
Anisotropic or temporal filtering · AI upscaling
SSAO · SSR · Motion blur · Depth of field
Volumetric lighting · Ray tracing · Modern GI

05MODERN CONVENIENCE
ANIMATION

Strong poses, readable silhouettes and small skeletons. Visual animation may update at 12–20 FPS while gameplay remains smooth.

AUDIO

Short effects, compressed samples, loops, tracker-style music and modern output quality.

INPUT

Keyboard, mouse, modern controllers, analog sticks, triggers, vibration, gyroscope and touch.

06N96 COMPATIBLE

The badge
means something.

A game may identify itself as N96 Compatible when it follows the core restrictions.

  1. 01Internal rendering resolution is 640 × 360.
  2. 02Native aspect ratio is 16:9.
  3. 03The game targets at least 60 FPS.
  4. 04Maximum framerate is unrestricted.
  5. 05Most textures are 64 × 64 or smaller.
  6. 06128 × 128 textures are exceptional.
  7. 07Main characters stay around 1,000 triangles or fewer.
  8. 08Standard rendering distance does not exceed 75 units.
  9. 09Large landmarks may exceptionally render up to 100 units.
  10. 10Fog accompanies the limited rendering distance.
  11. 11Materials use a simple non-PBR pipeline.
  12. 12Lighting complexity is intentionally limited.
  13. 13Heavy modern post-processing is avoided.
  14. 14Transparency is fully supported.
  15. 15Modern input and controller support are allowed.
  16. 16Assets are designed around the limitations, not degraded from modern fidelity.

How would I solve this if the game actually had to run within these limitations?

Build for N96 ↗Return to N96 ↗