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User:Tenry

2021-11-16T21:55:43Z

Tenry: Created page with "I grew up with Nintendo 64 where I love a lot of games from. I also played a few games on the SNES, GameBoy (Color), GameCube and Nintendo DS. I'm a hobby (game) programmer,..."

I grew up with Nintendo 64 where I love a lot of games from. I also played a few games on the SNES, GameBoy (Color), GameCube and Nintendo DS.

I'm a hobby (game) programmer, so I have good experience regarding (PC) game development. I also have some experience with video game development using inofficial devkits (devkitpro), most notable for the Nintendo DS. Hence I have quite a good understanding about how the graphics and sounds work on that handheld console.

My most favorite games of all time are ''Donkey Kong Country 2'' (SNES) and ''Banjo-Kazooie'' (N64).

Nintendo 64

2021-11-16T21:52:48Z

Tenry:

The '''Nintendo 64''' was a console made by Nintendo in 1996/1997. An add-on for the console known as the 64DD was released in 1999 - however, it was a commercial failure and its release was limited solely to the Japanese market.

==Suggested Emulators==

In terms of overall emulation of the N64, the quality is subpar, but improved compared to earliest years of emulating the Nintendo 64. The main problem with N64 emulation is the use of plugins and that most emulators tend to use, by default, outdated and inaccurate ones. For example, ''Top Gear Rally'' was having sound issues until recently. Other games are still problematic such as ''Donkey Kong 64'', ''Body Harvest'', ''Pokemon Snap'' and ''Rogue Squadron''. The ones that don't use plugins such as Cen64 and MAME are not at a stage of being useable due to the difficulties and the high requirements needed for accurate emulation.

There are two recommended plugins in the mean time: Angrylion RDP and GlideN64 (not to be confused with the old Glide64). The former is close to accurate graphically and even works on problematic games but requires a powerful computer to run the games and may not even run them at full speed on any computer in a couple of cases. The latter is not as accurate and still requires a fairly powerful computer but does run faster and some problematic games can be played using this. GlideN64 might not work if your computer has integrated Intel graphics, however.

See [https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Nintendo_64_emulators emulation.gametechwiki.com] for a detailed overview of various emulators and their pros and cons.

===Project 64===

Project 64 is the most known N64 emulator that also has some 64DD emulation as well. It can also be used to sprite/texture rip via a plug in.

===mupen64Plus===

mupen64Plus is a well known N64 emulator with compatibility for Linux. While the emulator is commandline, there is a package available called m64p which has the emulator, a GUI, and the settings for GlideN64 all set up- making it as close to plug and play as it can.

===Dolphin===

Dolphin is a Gamecube/Wii emulator that can emulate the N64 emulation used on the Virtual Console. If you do not want to mess with plugins and want to play some of the more well known Nintendo games, it is an option.

==Ripping models and textures==

How to rip models and textures from N64 games is described in [[Ripping Models]] and [[Ripping Textures]].

{{Consoles}}
[[Category:Consoles]]

Nintendo 64

2021-11-16T21:50:40Z

Tenry: /* Suggested Emulators */

Texture Basics

2021-11-16T21:45:02Z

Tenry: Created page with "A texture is very similar to a Sprite Basics. It's a two dimensional image of pixels, most commonly an image of RGB(A) pixels like on any digital image or photo. Unlike sp..."

A texture is very similar to a [[Sprite Basics]]. It's a two dimensional image of pixels, most commonly an image of RGB(A) pixels like on any digital image or photo. Unlike sprites, textures are used to give 3D geometry colors, fake depth (normal), fake shadows (ambient occlusion) and more.

On modern games (started around 2000) games started to use not only color information (RGBA) on textures but also additional information for rendering additional effects, such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_mapping normal maps] to fake additional geometry that's technically not there on the model. Each of these maps (color, normal and more) are usually found as separated images, for example ''color.png'' and ''normal.png''.

Usually a texture's width and height is an exponent of 2 (commonly 16, 32 or 64 for early 3D games) and are often in square format (e.g. 32x32 pixels).

== Maps ==

As mentioned above, modern games often have several textures (maps) for a material. This is a non-exhaustive overview of common maps and possible names:

; Diffuse: This is the '''color''' of the material. Early games, such as for the Nintendo 64, only had color maps.
; Albedo: Very similar to diffuse, but with all the shadows and highlights removed
; Ambient Occlusion (AO): ?
; Normal or Bump: For small to medium size ''bumps'' (fake geometry)
; Displacement: Textures for actually deforming the mesh
; Reflection or Specularity: This is only used in non-[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physically_based_rendering PBR] (physically based rendering) specular workflows. It states where the reflection should and should not appear. For PBR workflows, prefer a Gloss/Roughness map.
; Gloss or Roughness: This is used in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physically_based_rendering PBR] shaders. It controls the sharpness of the reflections and should be plugged into a Gloss or Roughness input. The terms Gloss and Roughness are interchangeable - they are simply inverts of each other.

== See also ==

* [https://help.poliigon.com/en/articles/1712652-what-are-the-different-texture-maps-for What are different texture maps for?] on poliigon.com

Ripping Models

2021-11-16T21:28:16Z

Tenry:

{{WIP}}
Here is where guides for ripping models from games go. Currently very lackluster and needs improvement.

== General Guidance ==

=== Tools ===
<hr>

==== DirectX ====

==== OpenGL ====
<hr>

== Nintendo 64 ==

You can extract 3D models (as they are currently visible in-game) using '''Project64''' and the '''TR64 OpenGL plugin'''. The mentioned plugin is not bundled with Project64, but you can download it on [https://www.zophar.net/utilities/n64gpuplugins/tr64-opengl-plugin.html zophar.net]. This plugin (v0.8.8) does not seem to be compatible with Project64 2, so you should grab a legacy Project64 version (verified with 1.7.0.50). Extract the plugin in your Project64's installation folder under ''Plugin\GFX\TR64_ogl.dll''. If you start Project64 now, you should be able to select that plugin under Options -> Settings -> Plugins -> Video (graphics) plugin.

Now you can start a game. Depending on the game you might have to change the "uCode" configuration under Options -> Configure Graphics Plugin -> Select uCode. Just try everything out until the game starts.

Note that this graphics plugin is not particular good regarding rendering, so you will encounter many visual glitches on the screen. But as long as you can somewhat play the game and you have 3D models, we are good to go!

Go to any level where you want to dump the models from. Now open the Graphics Plugin configuration again, put a check mark under "Enable VRML Output" and continue the game as short as possible (like just a few frames or 1; you might want pause and unpause the emulator for this), so the plugin will receive new geometry information from the game. Now you can disable the option again and you will find the currently rendered 3D world (including all characters, HUD etc.) exported to a file. this file should be located in your Project64's installation folder, such as "SNOWBOARD KIDS.wrl".

Now you can inspect the WRL ("X3D Extensible 3D") file in any 3D program of your choice, such as [https://www.blender.org/ Blender], that supports WRL. You will probably have to remove stuff like HUD or skyboxes from the model, separate character models from world models etc.

Please note that models are dumped as they are currently rendered. As for animated characters, for example, the exact current pose is being exported. You won't have the default "idle" / "T" pose, no bones, no animation information etc. Also the textures might be missing on the export.

=== Known issues ===

For some games you are lucky and the static exported world looks fine in your 3D program. In many cases however, the 3D world is distorted / stretched in some way and is varying depending on the camera's position when you dumped the scene.

== Guides for specific games ==

[[Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core]]

[[Source Engine games]]

[[Sonic Adventure series]]

[[Sonic Heroes & Shadow the Hedgehog]]

{{WikiMainTopNav}}

[[Category:The Resource Basics]]

Ripping Textures

2021-11-16T21:02:51Z

Tenry: Created page with "There are various techniques how to rip textures from games. Depending on the game and console, you might be able to extract the textures from the ROM file. Some emulators hav..."

There are various techniques how to rip textures from games. Depending on the game and console, you might be able to extract the textures from the ROM file. Some emulators have support for dumping textures.

== Nintendo 64 Texture Dumping ==

Some N64 emulators and graphics plugin allows dumping of currently used textures.

=== Rice ===

The ''Rice'' video plugin is available for BizHawk and other emulators. In the ''Rice'' settings under '''Texture Enhancement''', enable '''Dump Textures to Files'''. Now play the game while the plugin is continously dumping the textures. You might want to visit a specific level first before enabling the option if you're only interested in the textures of that specific area.

In BizHawk on Windows, the dumped textures should be found in '''%AppData%\Mupen64Plus\texture_dump\''<game title>''''' (''%AppData%'' points to ''AppData\Roaming'' in your home folder). Various sub-folders with various file formats (BMP, PNG) are created. Now you can search for the textures you are interested in.

Note that many textures, that you might recognize as a single texture, may actually be several texture files, such as a half, third or quarter of the whole image. N64 developers used that "trick" due to to strict size limitations of a single texture. Also, some textures may have a different color than you see in-game. That means, the models are colored and get multiplied by the texture color. For example, the grass and dirt in a game might be the very same texture, just either tinted green or brown.

[[Category:The Resource Basics]]