Topic: Nintendo 64 Mapping Workshop

[Trop]

Hey I more or less finished my Castlevania 64 project.  I got 95 enemies in all, check it out:
http://www.vgmapper.com/SysN64/C/CastlevaniaLegacyofDarkness.html

[Mikemc]

Fantastic! Those would be great for an Rpg Maker game

[alucard]

these look awesome

[Trop]

Thanks.  I know I missed a few enemies, but I didn't think I'd be able to get nearly as many as I did in the first place.

[alucard]

Thanks.  I know I missed a few enemies, but I didn't think I'd be able to get nearly as many as I did in the first place.

Were you also going to map the Castlevania 64 games?  No one has done that yet.

[Trop]

Uh.. heh.  That's not really something I can do.  You get a lot of area in a CV64 rip, almost the whole area you're in.  But there are light and texture problems that are out of my league.  Of course I could make crappy 3D maps and reduce them to line maps.

[alucard]

I really didnt get that far in either of the N64 Castlevania games as I did not like them, but I am not surprised that they would be difficult to map since its a 3D game, and I remember them looking like crap anyway.

[osrevad]

I wish that I was brave enough to get involved with 3D mapping. Remember when I made that lame attempt at mapping Ocarina of Time with some flying cheat? Good times.

On a more serious note, I had a thought:

2D games are perfect for mapping because the map itself will be 2D in the end, meaning that if you are careful, then no information will be lost, with the possible exception of animated stuff (water, lava, etc.).

The purpose of this thread is start mapping 3D games. Here's my question: Why don't we explore the possibility of making the maps themselves 3D  . Imagine connecting distinct 3D rooms together in some rendering software (or something) to create maps of the game. Then, somehow, a visitor to vgmaps.com would be able to explore the maps by moving a camera around in 3D.

What is this you say? 3D on the site itself? It's certainly possible to have 3D on a webpage using flash or java. At minecraft.net you can play a 3D game with graphics better than the N64, with nothing but java.

Obviously, nobody wants to program a 3D java viewer from scratch, but I'm sure there must be something that is already out there that might suit our needs. So basically, all we need to be able to do is two things:

1. A 3D java/flash viewer, if such a thing exists.
2. The ability to export the 3D game data into a format compatible with the java/flash viewer.

Piece of cake 

I am by no means an experienced programmer, but I know that some of you are. What thoughts do you have on whether something like this is possible? Does anyone think this would be cool or useful?

[Trop]

Already exists.  It's call Cosmo player, it's a Firefox plugin, and it sucks.

[Peardian]

It's an interesting idea, but a major issue is standards and support. There are different model formats, which different programs can and can't read, and which support different properties. Not to mention, some of the tricks the N64 pulls off are impossible to pull off on standard shared formats without completely retooling the models. If I exported one of my maps into 3D and loaded it into the viewer, you'd get messed tiling textures and missing transparency. RMMH is experimenting with this realm with their MMX maps, but there's still issues with things like the exported FBX lacking alpha for the textures and having wonky scales. I recommend against exploring into actual 3D maps, at least for a while. For the time being, we can still rely on good ol' labeled renders.


I would also like to mention that I've finally finished the first Ocarina of Time map! Because both topdown and side views are invaluable in the information they bring, but very hard to mesh together, every map will have two versions, one for each. The game's mini-map will also be included as a separate map for people with slow connections. The next map will be the game's first dungeon, which I look forward to. I hope this gives you ideas on ways to present your maps!

[Revned]

Wow, that looks really great. I really like the untextured versions of the rooms -- I think they really help to convey the layouts of the rooms. Good job!

[Trop]

BTW osrevad, your flying trick isn't useless.  It gave me the idea I used to make all my Aidyn Chronicles maps.

[dbarrier54]

Hi, Jonathan Leung

Will you please Make sure there is no missing sprites
on all level maps of these Nintendo 64 game Maps
when they are finished

Check all Super Mario 64 Level Maps (No Missing Sprites)
Check all Mario Kart 64 Level Maps (No Missing Sprites)
Check all Diddy Kong Level Racing Maps (No Missing Sprites Easy or Silver Coin Challenges etc.)
Check all Yoshi's Story Level Maps (No Missing Sprites)
Check all Mario Party Level Maps (No Missing Sprites)
Check all Donkey Kong 64 Level Maps (No Missing Sprites)
Check all Mario Party 2 Level Maps (No Missing Sprites)
Check all Paper Mario Level Maps (No Missing Sprites)
Check all Mario Party 3 Level Maps (No Missing Sprites)

because they are for my player's guides

[Trop]

When you say players guide what exactly are you making?

[Revned]

Oh god