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[Kamran]

Hello everyone,

I was very pleased when I first saw this N64 retexturing board. I always used to think about high-res textures for some great N64 games (especially after taking part in various other PC games retexturing projects). But since there is no source code for N64 game engines, adding support for advanced and modern graphics rendering techniques isn't easy. But thanks to Rice (and all others who were involved), we can now "trick" the N64 game into using custom high-res textures.

I downloaded and tried all textures and packs submitted by other memebers of this board and I can say that the progress is amazing. I am now tempted to enter this retexturing world and contribute whatever I can. Since I don't have a lot of time at my disposal, I would generally release a few texture fixes. But my aim is certainly not to discredit anyone's hard work here. I have and will learn a great deal about many new things from other members here and I hope the same goes for everyone else.

I will start off with one single texture. But first, a few important notes that might come in handy:

- MOST IMPORTANT point is to try to keep the texture faithful to the original N64 version. This can be actually easier than it sounds. Just resize the original N64 texture to the desirable final texture size (2X, 4X, etc.) and paste it as a transparent layer or object in your paint program. Now work on the new texture as a guideline (as you add detail gradually) and remove the original N64 texture layer when work's over. And don't hesitate to add many layers while working. Some of my textures (512x512) can have over 50 layers per texture!

- Fine details (like symbols and characters) can be done in a vector program quite easily. Also helps to work on a large sized texture if needed (since vectors are represented by mathematical shapes rather than pixels and can be resized without loss in detail).

- Start off with a large texture in the first place (if possible). For example, if I have to do a 512x512 texture then I normally start with a 1024x1024. This way, all the time that I spend on the texture doesn't go wasted if I need a 1024x1024 version someday.

- For testing tiling textures (e.g mostly used on walls and floor), the simplest (and quickest) tool sometimes is your Windows desktop! Save the texture as a BMP file ( I always use the filname "Tile") in the Windows folder. Right click on the desktop, click Properties, click on Background (or Desktop) tab, click on your texture and select Tile from the Position drop down menu. Click Apply to test your texture. I have seen a few Super Mario 64 redesigned textures that don't tile properly. Perhaps this can help.

- Save your work in progress in an uncompressed (also sometimes known as "lossless") format. Includes TIFF, BMP, PNG, PCX and TGA. Many amateur designers use the JPEG format to save their work (probably due to the popularity of the said format). I know I used to do it.

- Save often! There is nothing worse than having to do everything all over again because your PC / paint program froze on you and you didn't save the document. Also, saves can help to backtrack in the time of need. Multiple saves per file is even better. Keep an extra copy of in important project file just in case the original file gets corrupted / deleted for some reason.


There, that should do it.

My first texture is going to be the shifting Boswer puzzle in the 'Lethal Lava Land'. It was entirely done from scratch and I tried to keep it as close to the original as possible. Just try it and I'm sure you'll like it. I wish there was support for "8X" sized textures as the Bowser picture is vector and can theoratically go up to as big as I want! I tried using different effects on the texture (for example a bumped stony look or a shaded / shiny Bowser pic) but I guess that would take away originality.

In the end, I would like to thank Nintendo for making such splendid games, members of this forum for some beautiful textures and Rice (and Co.) who made it all possible. Oh, and almost forgot to mention Cloudscapes' awesome texture pack. Most textures look very close to the original and that's the best part about it all! Also, kuddos to other texture / icon / power bar designs. They simply rock!

I will continue to post more textures in this very thread.

[pilm]

Wow :blink:

From scratch ? It's amazing, man !
Wonderfull !

[loopsider]

very nice!

[Clements]

Very nice indeed. The quality difference is massive when you look at the difference side by side.

[fivefeet8]

Nice..!!!! Very Nice.. I wish someone would start on Star Fox 64 though. ;) My limited graphic artist experience limits me from doing anything with it. Plus the game freaken dumps 10000 textures.

[ryanraab]

Kamran and cloud should team up. :)

What do you think Kamran and cloud?

[Kamran]

He he, I have only posted 1 texture yet man! I'm too slow. Cloudscapes is a far experienced designer / artist in my opinion.

But I would love to team up with Cloudscapes though.

[Martin]

Looks very nice, keep it up. :)

[Kamran]

A little teaser.

I still have to finish the 3 remaining colors (which I will do tomorrow). For now, a few screenshots are all I got.

Bye!

[krhyluv]

these look awesome. someone should put together all the diff authors efforts, clean it up and make it a texture pak or something like that. I'm sure this is where this is all going eventually, but I'm impatient to see more cooperation among contributors, and less duplicates.

rhY

[Federelli]

Kamran, you should try to fix Nintendo's errors ;). See how the bowser texture is not tiling properly, you can fix that in no time :).

[Kamran]

Kamran, you should try to fix Nintendo's errors ;). See how the bowser texture is not tiling properly, you can fix that in no time :).


Yeah, I noticed that too. The texture itself has no problems however. It's made up of 4x4 128 pixel square tiles. I think that tiling problem maybe game related (it probably depends on the texture coordinates on the individual puzzle block). But then, I could be wrong. I'll try to check it out on an original N64. I tried various other video plugins in 1964 and ALL of them produce the same artifact.

[Stezo2k]

wow, just when i thought retexturing for mario 64 was settling down, nice job there, looking great

[cloudscapes]

The problem with the tiling is overlapping geometry. The puzzle pieces actually overlap each-other a few inchies causing the visual problem. It's not something that can be fixed in just the texture unless drasticaly shrinking it (the drawing, not the whole imagie) and leaving a border all around it, however this has the potential to create more artifacts.

Great textures Kamran! Puts my bowzer puzzle textures to shame!

[Doomulation]

- For testing tiling textures (e.g mostly used on walls and floor), the simplest (and quickest) tool sometimes is your Windows desktop! Save the texture as a BMP file ( I always use the filname "Tile") in the Windows folder. Right click on the desktop, click Properties, click on Background (or Desktop) tab, click on your texture and select Tile from the Position drop down menu. Click Apply to test your texture. I have seen a few Super Mario 64 redesigned textures that don't tile properly. Perhaps this can help.

- Save your work in progress in an uncompressed (also sometimes known as "lossless") format. Includes TIFF, BMP, PNG, PCX and TGA. Many amateur designers use the JPEG format to save their work (probably due to the popularity of the said format). I know I used to do it.
Quick notes:
BMP is very big, so ehhh.... I'd always use png, since this is a common format that is lossless. And from windows 98 and up, the os supports any files that ie supports (ie, jpg, gif and png). So, you can use those files as background, not just bmp (although windows WILL save a bmp version of it after loading it. Gah, stupid windows!).

Mmmmm, that puzzle looked very nice with your new texture! Great work!

[Kamran]

Okay, all the Switch Blocks done. Phew, finally found some time!

[_pm_]

Very impressive!! Keep up the good work :happy:

[Federelli]

Check out how the blocks aren't aligned properly as well, where there's a border. Also fixable.

Great textures :D.

[Weatherton]

What happened to that SM64 retexturing topic where the guy had retextured the inside of the first room of the castle with bump-mapped like textures and had made the trees outside look cel-shaded? I thought that looked fantastic and now I can't find it :(

[Kamran]

A few more texture updates below (after a LONG time). I had actually been very busy with work in another city. Anyway, on to the textures. Another update (hopefully bigger) will follow in 1-2 days.

- First is the ocean sand texture for the coast. It was done entirely by hand and took me almost 5-6 hours.

- Second is actually a set of 3 textures for the rocky underwater environments in the ocean.

[Mojo Man!!!]

Wow, you got skills and you keep 'the essence of mario'!

[_pm_]

Looking awesome!!!! :bouncy:
Especially the underwater textures, you improved the texture quality a lot, while preserving the original style. Excellent work, keep it up! :bouncy:

[porjay]

please OH PLEASE keep doing this!! :cool:

[bagmcmuffin]

Holy snappin' crap those textures are unreal! Two thumbs up very high on this my man. I hope you keep this up because I'm awestruck with the clarity and qualtiy of these textures.

[Mojo Man!!!]

I'd like to see what you could do with 8x or 16x texture support. :whistling Oh well. Anyways keep it up great work! :bouncy:

[Amon_Knives]

hmmm, KMan is getting some competition. Good work Kamran!!

[fivefeet8]

Those are nice. Very nice indeed.

[EmuFan]

Excelent work!

[Vorpal86]

A little teaser.

I still have to finish the 3 remaining colors (which I will do tomorrow). For now, a few screenshots are all I got.

Bye!

Yo, Kamron, that looks like something I did a good while back. Check Below:

http://vorpal86.snesorama.us/tempstuff/01_RedBox2.png

And

http://vorpal86.snesorama.us/tempstuff/02_Green2.png

There is more of cource.. I do like that Bowser though! Good job.