how bad a limitation was the 4k texture cache in N64 ?

[Crazyace]

The lynx was like that as well - the rom was a file system almost, just accessed in sequence.

 

[fearsomepirate]

I really have to wonder why that cache was designed so foolishly. Was it because SGI's engineers were too used to thinking in terms of offline rendering rather than real-time?

 

[archie4oz]

I'm not so sure "foolishly" is quite the right adjective to use. Also I wouldn't say offline mentality had anything to do with it (after all their workstation hardware was all about real-time visualization).

I'd say it was mainly about cost and manufacturing capability...

 

[ERP]

I'm not so sure "foolishly" is quite the right adjective to use. Also I wouldn't say offline mentality had anything to do with it (after all their workstation hardware was all about real-time visualization).

I'd say it was mainly about cost and manufacturing capability...

I agree, it wasn't all that unusual as a paradigm back then. The 3DO M2 used the same mechanism allbeit with a considerably larger "cache".