This tool replaces Super Mario 64 levels with external Wavefront .OBJ 3D models and also lets you control many aspects of the game. It works with the "Super Mario 64 (U)" ROM, and coupled with Toad's Tool 64 should enable you to create a full hack of Mario 64 with minimal technical knowledge. Here is a list of the currently supported features: - Replace any of the original levels - Select Object Banks available in the level - Choose “weather” effects (lava, snow, etc) - Set global terrain type (slide, sand, snow) - Use Custom Background image - Set Fog effects - Set Camera Presets - Map textures to specific collision types - Set multiple Water/Toxic Haze/Mist boxes (still a big buggy) - Alpha support - Change hard-coded star positions (Bosses) - Change hard-coded trajectories (Moving Platforms, Koopa-the-Quick, etc) - Change act selector settings - Custom Music tools: insertion, extraction, changing instruments sets - Numerous other tweaks - 3D Preview - User-friendly interface Download Video Tutorial (expanding + patching the ROM) Download Mario 64 Texture Pack (with most textures from Mario 64) The information contained on this page will help you getting better results out of it, please take the time to read everything carefully if you are serious about hacking the game. You can seek further help on the Justus League SM64 Hacking Forum (be sure to read the forum info and post on the proper threads). Getting Started (preparing your ROM) Before using the importer, you'll need to to do some changes to your ROM so it can be properly used by the importer. Just follow these three steps: 1) Extend a Mario 64 ROM with VL-Tone's Mario 64 ROM Extender. 2) Drag-and drop the extended ROM into "rom_expand.exe". 3) Apply the obj_import6.ppf patch into the "expanded" ROM using PPF-o-Matic. There's a video tutorial showing this process step-by-step. To run the importer, the .NET Framework 3.5 is required (but most likely it's already installed on your computer so you won't have to worry about it). To make sure textures will work, also download the Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package (x86). If you are using a 64-bit Windows, those are because an external utility (ImageMagick) is used to support a wide range of texture formats. Important: to open the ROM in Toad's Tool 64, first open a regular extended ROM (not the one you just modified), go into the Preferences menu and toggle the "Skip Checksum Check" checkbox. This only has to be done once. Setting up your emulator In order to play your hacked ROM, you may need to change some settings in your emulator, especially if you are using Project 64. That's because, unlike the original Mario 64 ROM, the imported levels use extended memory for more flexibility. Other emulators such as MupenPlus, 1964 and SixtyForce (MAC) should work without any special setting. So, In Project 64, you'll have to change the "Default Memory Size" to 8MB. To do this, click on Modelling guidelines and limitations Among the Mario 64 hacking community, Google SketchUp seems to be the most widely used 3D modeller, closely followed by Blender (both are freeware). In my opinion, SketchUp's ease of use is unmatched and may be the best choice for newbies on 3D modelling. In either case, you'll need to export your model to the Wavefront .OBJ file. The free version of SketchUp doesn't support exporting to this format, so you'll need this Obj Exporter Plugin. Even if you are using the "Pro" version of SketchUp, I highly recommend this plug-in over the native exporter. Some limitations you'll have to keep in mind: - Keep it very low-polygon, just like the original Mario 64 levels. Use simpler shapes, like hexagons over spheres. Mario 64 collision system was not designed to work with detailed models. - Texture mapping has very limited precision in the N64. If your texture repeats more than 32 times in a single polygon (easy to happen when using 32x32 textures), you can either adjust the texture scaling so it gets stretched or subdivide the faces. On the other end, if your texture require very detailed mapping, such as spheres or other hi-poly objects, results will very poor. If any of those scenarios happen, you'll get a "textures coordinates out of range" error. -External textures in a wide variety of formats are accepted, however due to the very limited N64 texture cache the maximum texture size is 64x32 pixels. If your texture exceeds the texture cache size (such as, 64x64), it will be automatically resized so that it can work properly. For best results, the recommended texture sizes are 32x32, 32x64 or 64x32. - Your .obj file should only contain triangles. Usually the .obj exporter already does that for you, but if only half of the faces are shown when you import the model. In SketchUp, you'll need a "triangulation" plug-in, and in Blender make sure you check the "triangulation" option when exporting the .obj file. -The maximum number of triangles a model can contain is 6500, if your model exceeds that it won't be imported. - The level playing field is limited. The X and Z axis range is from -8192 to +8192 (internal game scaling), but the Y axis can be used more freely. Documentation The level importer interface is separated into tabs, each covering specific aspects of the level that will be imported as well as additional settings. There also five main buttons in the interface: Load Settings: This will load previously saved settings. Save Settings: This will save all the current settings in the "Import Settings", "Level Settings", "Objects Banks" and "Water Boxes" tabs. Import Level: Imports the level currently loaded into the selected ROM. When you import (and re-import) a level object lists aren't lost (even if you change the 3D model) so you can work incrementally on your level. Revert Levels: Use this to switch back to the original levels in the game. About: shows information about the program. 1. Import Stettings Level to replace Any level in the game be replaced, however you may have problems replacing the following levels: "Castle Grounds", "Inside Castle" and "Picture at The End". If you want to replace the Castle Grounds, it's recommended to go to the ROM settings tab and apply the "Skip Peach intro" and "Skip Lakitu bridge sequence" patches. If you want to avoid any complications, you can use the "Set Start Level" in the ROM Settings to change the initial level and disable its act selector. At the bottom of the list you'll see a level called "First Screen". This was intended to replace the logo in the first screen, however it doesn't work properly yet. Scaling Value The scaling value will differ widely depending on how your .obj is laid out and the measurement unit used. If your scaling is too big, the program will warn you and you should try using a smaller value. If the scale is too small, the importer won't warn you however you may end up in an empty level surrounded only by the background image. Floats are supported: for instance, if you want to scale down your objet to 70%, use a value of 0.7. Offset model position Once imported, your model gets automatically centered around the (0,0,0) coordinate so it can best use the limited playing field of a Mario 64 level. If for any reason you don't want this, you can use this option to compensate it. Enable death floor Toggling this will create a "death at the bottom" floor at the specified height covering all the level. There's another useful side effect in using that option: Mario is now free to walk in the entire playing area. If you don't use it, your 3D model will determine the level boundaries (this is best understood by experimenting importing the same level with and without this option). Don't use textures from material file External textures from your material file won't be imported. This feature can be used if you run into #texture problems when opening your level in TT64. Toggle it, do the necessary edits in TT64 and them re-import the level with the correct textures. Vertically flip textures This will correct the problem of textures looking up-side down. 2. Level Settings Terrain Type Sets the global terrain type, which affects not only the collision but also which particles Mario produces (sand, snow, grass, etc). I'm not sure what's the difference between the first two settings "Normal" and "Normal (?)", if you notice any striking difference please contact me and describe it. Environment effect Additional effects. The "Lava" setting only produces lava bubbles on parts of the terrain assigned the Lava collision type. I'm not sure what's the effect of the two "Water-related" settings, I named them this way because they are only used on water levels. Camera Preset Changes the basic camera preset used. Custom Background You can use any image file as background, however it will be automatically resized to 256x256 (a grid of 8x8 32x32 textures). Fog Enables fog in the entire level. Adding fog to specific groups or materials isn't possible yet. Set Mario Initial Position This option was designed with a specific purpose: to replace Mario's initial position on levels such as the Castle Grounds or Inside Castle. Usually the object "Warp: Mario Start" is used to set Mario's position, however some levels hard-code them in the level script, overriding that Warp Object. When entering any level through the Level Select menu, warps are ignored and the position set by this method is used instead, so it may be a good idea to specify it in all levels. 3. Object Banks Select the object banks which will be available in the level. Objects from Bank 0x0E (level specific objects) will all be described as "Unknown" in Toad's Tool 64. 4. Water Boxes Water box positioning requires a pair of coordinates. Open your level in TT64 and use the "Top View" camera mode to place two opposing points of a rectangle, as in this diagram: (Point 1) x-------------- | | | | |-------------x (Point 2) Remember to keep them at ground level, otherwise perspective will trick you. While multiple water boxes are supported, this feature is still experimental. 5. Collision This interface lets you assign collision types to materials (textures). The first collision type, "Normal", is very flexible and should be your primary choice most of the time. Not all Collision Type descriptions may be right. 6. ROM Settings Hardcoded camera settings These settings lets you enable/disable some level-specific Lakitu camera settings, such as specific positions and turns. The effect will vary greatly depending on the level. The "Inside Castle" and "Castle Grounds" are full of hard-coded positions, so this option will have major effect on those levels camera. Other levels, on other hand, may simply have a static camera when disabling it. Be sure to experiment the interaction of this option with camera presets in order the find the most suitable camera for your custom level. Set Act Selector Set act selector settings for specific levels. Enabling act selectors on levels that originally didn't have them (such as the Peach Slide) may crash the game because of the missing text data. Set Pause Menu Warp Sets the destination level and Warp ID of the "Exit Level" function in the pause menu. The destination Warp ID must probably use the same behavior as the original Inside Castle warp (this needs to be tested). 7. Misc Settings Trajectories To change the paths of Moving Platforms, Koopa-the-Quick and other objects, you'll need to make a simple text file with the coordinates. Each line should contain a X,Y,Z coordinate separated by commas (,). For instance: 1532, 397, -2432 1748, 397, -2173 1335, 364, -1839 Trajectory files can contain a maximum of 240 coordinates, but keep in that mind that they don't have to be that detailed. Most objects in the game use from 10 to 30 coordinates. Item Box contents This feature lets you change the Item box contents. Here is the format (everything in hexadecimal): [entry number], [behavior param], [model ID], [behavior]. Each value is separated in a comma. Each line is one entry. Included with the importer, there is a file named ItemBoxDefaultContents.txt, which you'll modify to add new items: 00, 0000, 87, 13003DB8 01, 0000, 86, 13003DD8 02, 0000, 88, 13003E1C 03, 0000, BE, 13001F3C 04, 0000, 74, 130009A4 05, 0000, 00, 13000964 06, 0000, 00, 13000984 07, 0000, D4, 13003FDC 08, 0000, 7A, 130007F8 09, 0000, D4, 13004010 0A, 0001, 7A, 130007F8 0B, 0002, 7A, 130007F8 0C, 0003, 7A, 130007F8 0D, 0004, 7A, 130007F8 0E, 0005, 7A, 130007F8 After this, include a new entry: 0F, 0000, 7A, 1300472C This entry tells that, if the Item Box parameter (set in Toad's Tool) is 0x0F, an object with behavior 0x1300472C (a Goomba), with model ID 0x7A (actually, this is the Star model ID) and behavior parameter 0x0000 will be created. Use this document for reference on Behaviors: http://homepage.mac.com/qubedstudios/SM64Behaviors.txt |
