macN64
[Old] N64 Pro: New Years Revolution promotional Tape (Part 1 of 2)
updated
I remember importing and exporting this video a lot during the editing, so it's been compressed to hell and back. Windows XP Movie Maker quality at it's finest.
71519 bonus points to anyone who can guess the source of the sound effect used for the critic's shriek.
These sticks use the same connector as official OEM sticks, so you can just drop them into an original official controller too, which is really nice.
This 8BitDo stick looks and feels nice (it has a Gamecube style rubber finish). At first glance, things were looking pretty promising, but problems started to emerge as I went through different tests.
This stick isn't horrible to use, and would be fine for casual Banjo, Zelda, Paper Mario, maybe even SM64. It's certainly comfortable. However, in my experience at least, when things start to get a bit heated and quick movements are required, you just can't rely on this stick to pick up your movements correctly.
00:00 Homebrew Controller tests
03:24 SM64 (tiptoe)
04:15 Goldeneye (aiming)
07:59 Zelda (spin attack)
08:54 Mario Party (rotation)
09:45 Pokemon Stadium (Ekan's Hoop Hurl)
11:19 Wave Race 64 (barrel roll)
12:54 Body Harvest (steering)
15:18 Mario Kart 64 (drifting)
I couldn't run vanilla Smash NTSC or Smash Remix NTSC in PAL mode on my Everdrive, it would just boot to a black screen, so I had to use NTSC mode instead. I'm thinking there might be more region blocking stuff going on in Smash compared to Ocarina of Time, with it being a later release.
I couldn't run vanilla Smash NTSC or Smash Remix NTSC in PAL mode on my Everdrive, it would just boot to a black screen, so I had to use NTSC mode instead. I'm thinking there might be more region blocking stuff going on in Smash compared to Ocarina of Time, with it being a later release.
Why this conversion test? Well, I'm used to playing the Zelda games at the slower PAL speed. It feels weird when I play Zelda hacks based on the US version, as they play more quickly than I'm used to - the change in speed is distracting. My hope is to be able to convert Ocarina of Times hacks (and maybe hacks of other games too) to play at the slower PAL speeds I'm more used to, with hopefully minimal drawbacks.
So, in this video I'm trying to see how closely the Paladin conversion matches authentic PAL, and it's not too far off! It seems there's some slight discrepancies (the running animation and possibly also climbing speed), but it's a pretty close match. You do get borders at the top and bottom of the screen, but N64 fans from PAL regions will be well used to that already.
You can find more info about PALadin here:
http://micro-64.com/database/howtos-paladin.shtml
Music used in the video:
soundcloud.com/mcbedtime/zelda-twilight-princess-hyrule
Why this conversion test? Well, I'm used to playing the Zelda games at the slower PAL speed. It feels weird when I play Zelda hacks based on the US version, as they play more quickly than I'm used to - the change in speed is distracting. My hope is to be able to convert Ocarina of Times hacks (and maybe hacks of other games too) to play at the slower PAL speeds I'm more used to, with hopefully minimal drawbacks.
The main purpose of this video is to compare the sound, specifically the synchronization of the music in the Hyrule field opening scene. It seems to be a more or less perfect match, in that respect, to the PAL original, which is awesome!
You can find more info about PALadin here:
http://micro-64.com/database/howtos-paladin.shtml
mega.nz/file/aDxXWBxS#oc0ALvevkXIqlo2NqjTMUBIHBZH6eDd_FnX7xB9rStM
Plunger64 v2.0 7z download:
mega.nz/file/3Hhk0BoK#A7985js4JCuh_ncQ7uox7XJQ_vMDU-ZQDqFSYcO_yGU
Plunger64 forum thread:
krikzz.com/forum/index.php?topic=12416.0
Plunger64 main folder (for previous versions etc):
mega.nz/folder/LbpQzQLT#Mg-_0zopqst1BYWRT2vYrg
bps patches download:
mega.nz/folder/LTgSiJIJ#GTFuVZxXP_eo0YX6EnY4Vg
I was curious to see if there was much difference when the tool is used at the end of the fixing process as opposed to the beginning. Going by this test footage, the performance does look to be a bit better when it's used right at the end. I feel like my previous test video about this may have sold this tool short, sorry about that!
You can find the tool here:
hack64.net/Thread-SM64-Fast3D-Anti-Aliasing-Reducer
One of Kaze's recent videos got me thinking about playing MP3s on N64, and I was reminded of Namp64.
Namp64, by Obsidian, is an mp3 player for your N64, from 1999. I had tried to use Namp64 in the past and hadn't been able to get it working. I've been playing around with it again however, and I think I've mostly got the hang of using it now. Although it's quite a basic player, it lets you add MP3 and MP2 files into an N64 rom and play them back on console.
People have been releasing albums intended to be played on old game consoles for some time now: retrorgb.com/?s=remute
However, I'm not aware of anyone having yet released an album on an N64 cart. Every now and again I'll come across a comment from someone expressing interest in the idea (such as in the comments of Kaze's video).
To me, Namp64 seems to be an 'off the shelf' solution to make such a thing possible - easy, even. Of course, this would be a pretty rough and ready way of going about it, and the album would need to be pretty short.
It's tricky getting Namp64 to play MP3s, so I instead converted my audio into MP2 files in Audacity first. Namp64 seems to handle MP2s way more reliably than MP3s. Namp64 gives you about 30MB of space to play with before it starts cutting off the audio at the end, which is quite constraining. I get about 17 minutes of mp2 audio saved at 128kbps before I reach the limit. Also, don't forget to byteswap the rom before you start adding your music, that's where I had been going wrong previously.
So yeah, I think Namp64 is pretty cool. You can get it from here: nesworld.com/article.php?system=n64&data=n64homebrew
If you want to play this particular 'mixtape' I made on your own N64, you can download the rom from here: mega.nz/file/OKwEjJSS#zm-udvlDoLVZQsv3gJup2S3jpFmqcgKyTGT8AiqoLrc
And yes, I know the 64drive has a built-in MP3 player. But playing music from an actual rom (which could be put on a physical cartridge) is just cool, you know?
Edit 27/12/2021:
Well, what do you know? Now there is an album coming out on N64 next year: retrorgb.com/remute-launches-n64-album-interview.html
The highlight of this tape is probably the N64 version of Looney Tunes Space Race, which never released for the console.
Hopefully the video quality is a little better this time? If nothing else, you can at least see the video here in it's entirety, instead of being split in two parts as before.
mega.nz/file/6eInQa5K#_SJYT2IVrdyxMY9r6EXJFtwndYksj4JTXLdaO9QpPq8
Plunger64 main folder (for previous versions etc):
mega.nz/folder/LbpQzQLT#Mg-_0zopqst1BYWRT2vYrg
Plunger64 forum thread:
krikzz.com/forum/index.php?topic=10248.0
Retro-Hax's video on Plunger64:
youtube.com/watch?v=1K-CtCY2tUg
bps patches download:
mega.nz/folder/LTgSiJIJ#GTFuVZxXP_eo0YX6EnY4Vg
mega.nz/folder/LTgSiJIJ#GTFuVZxXP_eo0YX6EnY4Vg
Anyway, got a bit of spare time this afternoon and feel like torturing myself, so I'm going to try and make some progress in Super Mario 64 Chaos Edition, by Kaze. This is also a bit of a stress test on the new streaming setup. I'm going to be doing a lot of resets here, and my capture card would previously freakout whenever the signal changed. Hoping for no audio drops this time!
00:00:00 Waiting for Stream to Start
00:04:12 Stream Begins
00:06:41 Trying to beat Bowser in the Dark World
00:41:15 Bowser Time
00:44:10 Get Key!
00:46:05 Secret Slide - first star
00:55:55 Hazy Maze Cave
01:03:23 Highlight of the stream
01:06:12 Draining the Moat
01:10:05 Secret Slide - second star
01:16:35 Lucky Star from Hazy Maze Cave
01:19:41 Another Lucky Star
01:23:55 Mario gets creepy
01:35:46 Wrapping Up
This is basically just filler, an old bit of footage I had laying around, I'd estimate from about 2017. I think I was playing a PAL rom on an NTSC console here or something like that, and my DVD recorder REALLY didn't like it.
I'm currently making some changes to my recording setup, hence the filler. My setup was giving me a lot of audio problems and was pretty unstable overall. *coughDinosaurPlanetcough* I'll hopefully be back up and running soon.
This stream was originally titled: Live Stream 20-02-2021 - "Dino World" NDPE
See below for the original description of this stream.
-------
I'm starting this off as something of a stealth stream. I'm trying out a certain "Dino World" that's just been released today.
There's going to be quite a lot of attention on this subject right now. I search on Youtube and see videos about this which are getting 500 views within an hour of being uploaded.
I'm still pretty new to live streaming and I don't want too many eyeballs on me here, at least right now. So I'm going to avoid using the "DP" name for the time being. I might rename the video later on.
-------
00:00:00 Waiting for Stream to Start
00:05:18 Stream Begins (File Select)
00:07:41 Game Begins
00:12:55 First Crash
00:13:33 Game Begins again (no audio)
01:19:58 Softlock
01:21:03 Reset (audio's back)
01:22:36 Second Crash and wrapping up
01:25:06 Stream Ends
With any luck, I might finish the game in this stream.
00:00:00 Waiting for Stream to Start
00:01:06 Stream Begins
00:03:23 Mainland
00:20:36 Gunboat
00:31:58 Ending
00:32:59 Credits
00:34:24 Chatting with the developers
00:44:31 Good Ending
00:45:29 Wrapping Up
Finishing up the plot of the actual movie, and making a start on the last few levels.
00:00:00 Waiting for Stream to Start
00:02:43 Stream Begins
00:03:53 Station
00:10:44 Train Car
00:26:20 Train Roof
00:31:40 Ending?
00:35:16 Subpen
00:51:38 Brief Intermission
00:53:00 More Subpen
00:57:21 Tunnel
01:05:35 Wrapping Up
0xD48B7: 5C
Without this, the game crashes after the Mario head screen. You'll also need to fix the checksum after doing this.
Many, many mishaps await...
00:00:00 Waiting for Stream to Start
00:02:30 Stream Begins
00:04:26 Interrogation
00:22:30 Rooftop
00:52:56 GameFAQs Intermission
00:55:43 More Rooftop
01:04:10 Terminal Room
01:10:21 Rooftop Escape
01:36:04 Wrapping up
Mission Impossible (N64)
00:00:00 Starting up
00:02:46 Ice Hit
00:13:36 Technical Difficulties
00:22:42 Embassy Function and Warehouse
00:43:06 HQ and Hallway
00:57:30 Sewer Level!!
01:03:57 Escape and Fire Alarm
01:20:29 Wrap up
Here's the release video for more info:
youtube.com/watch?v=GouldrsfvmI
I've tried to make this exaggerated cinematic tweak easier to live with. The viewport height has been reduced a little, I find this helps it feel less claustrophobic. The HUD elements have also been moved so that they're now visible on screen. I've attempted to combine the Mario lives counter and the camera icon, as screen space is now at a premium. For this reason, the health meter has also been moved to the corner, out of the way. The health meter would really get in the way otherwise, when trying to line up and judge a triple jump.
It's maybe a little bit slower than just the cinematic tweak on it's own, based on this test, but I think it's worth the trade off. There really is very little in it between the two of them.
This change does seem to reduce slowdown in normal gameplay, but the somersault test at the end appears to show it running more slowly than the fullscreen counterpart. It's not as clear cut as I would like, sadly.
Also, for some reason, the change causes the game to freeze when a timer starts counting down, which isn't great. So, no Koopa race this time.
Consider this video a bonus, it was quickly - and poorly - put together. The purpose was to look at the lag reduction techniques covered so far and see how effective they are when combined. For comparison, there's also footage Kaze's version of Star Road and a version of Star Road that only has the f3dfix optimisations applied.
Please bear in mind the frame skipping patch I used probably isn't ready for general use. When I was recording this footage, the game crashed several times during the screen transitions. You can see in this footage the transitions at the start and end of the level are often a bit unstable.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how this looks so far - it was my hope to get things running at a speed somewhere close to Kaze's version of Star Road.
On the right, I've applied Davideesk's frame skipping patch (with a slight change, see below): pastebin.com/Lpk61Kx7
As usual, on the left, there's been no attempt at optimisation.
--
As Davideesk says in the code, this should be considered a "beta patch" for now.
When it works, the patch is just awesome - there are some small (negligible) graphical glitches. However, I find that roms I've applied this to often crash during screen transitions (e.g. starting a level, entering a door or warp pipe, or exiting a level after collecting a star). The patch is probably still a bit too unstable to use to actually play through a hack from start to finish (and I wouldn't rule out the possibility of me making a mistake when applying the patch). But oh man, when the patch is working, it's sweeeeet.
---
Out of the box, the code is designed to be used on vanilla SM64. As it notes, "for custom ROM hacks you will need to find some empty space somewhere".
Before applying the code, I changed:
.defineLabel customCodeRomOffset, 0x7F0000
.defineLabel customCodeRomOffsetEnd, 0x7F1000
to be this instead:
.defineLabel customCodeRomOffset, 0x11F0000
.defineLabel customCodeRomOffsetEnd, 0x11F1000
Some years back, Davideesk shared some code for manually changing the draw distance in game with the d-pad: smwc.me/1388211.
This code was designed to work with most rom hacks that had been released up until that point, and used the range of 0x11F0000-0x11F1000. I've basically just copied 2016 Davideesk and used same rom area here for the frame skipping code instead.
So yeah, Davideesk is pretty awesome! :)
Original Description:
This video is long overdue. Here, I'm trying out Davideesk's Fast 3D Anti Aliasing Reducer tool on SM74. You can find the tool here:
hack64.net/Thread-SM64-Fast3D-Anti-Aliasing-Reducer
hack64.net/wiki/doku.php?id=super_mario_64:geometry_layout_commands#set_screen_render_area
You're looking for commands which look like this:
08 00 00 0A 00 A0 00 78 00 A0 00 78
The 78 right at the end is the screen height and the last A0 is the screen width. So to halve the screen height and width as I have done, you would replace all 08 00 00 0A 00 A0 00 78 00 A0 00 78 with 08 00 00 0A 00 A0 00 78 00 50 00 3C.
For anyone interested, I (think?) I managed to successfully apply Kaze's skinned Mario model to SM74, using the tweak PyroJay4 made for the SM64 Rom Manager. All I had to change was the first of the two addresses, from 823B70 to 823B64.
Rom Manager: hack64.net/Thread-SM64-ROM-Manager-Info-Download
For low poly Mario, I made these changes:
12A738: 7F FE 7F FF
12A750: 7F FE 7F FF
12A768: 80 00 7F FF
Sorry about the sort of 'black flickering' at the end of the video, I think my cables were coming a little loose when I hit record.
Making the changes below in a hex editor should remove all fog from your hack. Make sure to use f3dfix after doing this to fix up the display lists, otherwise your textures will be messed up.
Replace all BA 00 14 02 00 10 00 00 with BA 00 14 02 00 00 00 00Replace all B9 00 03 1D C8 11 20 78 with B9 00 03 1D 00 44 30 78Replace all B9 00 03 1D C8 11 30 78 with B9 00 03 1D 00 44 30 78Replace all B7 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 with B6 00 00 00 00 01 00 00
github.com/aglab2/f3dfix/releases
smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=87072
tcrf.net/Super_Mario_64_(Nintendo_64)/Debug_Content#Debug_Resource_Meter
github.com/aglab2/f3dfix/releases
smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=87072
http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=78265&page=4&pid=1380491#p1380491
Replace With: 15 04 00 00 0E
Find All: FC 12 7F FF FF FF F8 38
Replace With: FC 12 18 24 FF 33 FF FF
Levels that flickered between black and white will now show textures, but foggy levels that already displayed textures will now be black and blue.
Well, I got it wrong. As you can see here, a texture is spread right across the surface, with no repeats, and the glitching still occurs. It looks more like the glitching happens when the surface is just really big.
Sorry for any confusion.
I said that this glitching happens when a texture repeats too many times, but I was wrong. For more information, see this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kux8bRvJtEw
Original Description:
This is what happens when a single texture repeats too many times on a surface.
It looks like the glitching occurs when the water box is too big (I guess?).
----------
Here are my tidied up notes:
waterbox6 = water texture scale=1, texture looks more stretched
waterbox7 = water texture scale=32(max), small texture many repeats.
waterbox9 = new model, big plane below to enlarge the level boundary, x(-7000) y(-7000), x(7000) y(7000), texture scale 32
When you spawn in level (up high), and hold R to hold the camera in place, the water contorts as you walk around.
waterbox10= same as before, but texture scale 2, also contorts when camera held up high.
So, water warping not texture related as I had thought.
waterbox11= 4 water boxes, various heights, all texture scale 16
No warping, by the looks of things.
Waterbox 12 = 4 boxes of same height
Waterbox 13 = 4 boxes of same height, low texture scale
Once again, this was done in Level Importer 1.9S. Hacks made with some of the earlier level importers don't seem to display alpha textures correctly on console, but whatever caused that issue has seemingly been fixed in later versions.
// *** N64 Compatible Quick Start for Jedi's SM64 Editor ***
// *********************************************************
// (To be used with CajeASM by Tarek701)
// (Copy this text, paste and save in notepad, then use it as the ASM file)
// Super Mario 64 Editor (Unity) Output Settings:
// - Start Game in Current Level (Requires skipping Peach and Lakitu)
// - Skip Title Screen
// - Skip File Select Screen
// Then apply this ASM file in CajeASM. It does the following:
// - Fixes "Start Game in Current Level" by skipping Peach and Lakitu
// - Skips the Mario Head Screen at the beginning of the game (N64 Compatible)
// - Skips Level Intro Text
// Peach Skip
.org 0x6BD4
ADDIU R0, R0, $0009
// Lakitu Skip
.org 0x6D90
ADDIU S0, R0, $0000
// Skips Mario Head Screen at beginning of the game (but not after a Game Over)
.org 0x9114B8
TGEI T0, 0x0000
BNEZ R0, 0x00911CF0
// Level Intro Text Skips
.org 0x4B7C
ADDIU R0, R0, $4B3D
.org 0x4924
BEQ R0, R0, $00004940
Now, with all that being said, on to this video!
-=-
Here, I'm trying out Jedi's Editor on N64. I've moved four trees, banished some goombas to the back of the level, and dragged down the base of the floating island (you can't do that in Toad's Tool 64). No N64 fix required, it just works (providing you don't tick the "Skip Mario mini-game" box on output).
http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=79199
http://origami64.net/showthread.php?tid=164
269F68: 05 08 00 00 14 00 02 0C
269FF4: 05 08 00 00 14 00 02 0C


