Will this ever happen?

[eternalcold]

Will it ever be possible to export, (yes i know you already can) and then actually import, or load other models? I mean it would be amazingly awesome, to actually change the models in the game.can you imagine a gmaecube quality Zelda, or Mario? Please tell me this will be a thing of the near future, if not already done.

[Kerber2k]

Its entirely possiable, but dont hold your breath you wont see it anytime soon.

[The Dave]

I don't think we'll ever see it.

[frizzelneck]

if it did happen you have to get some excellent designers. you know

[eternalcold]

Alright, i also have another question. Would it be possible to decompile the rom, and then make an application that runs it like a computer game? What i mean is, in a computer game, all the modes are in one section, the system files are in another, etc. But, could we turn an N64 game into a PC game? or is that just out of our league?

[Vanit]

Uhhh... I suppose it would be. But you'd have to figure it out for each rom, additionally you would have to recode part of it so it refers to files and not pointers.

I think it would be organised something like this (basing off official ports from console > PC)

Scene file (contains all the event data)
Reference Vocab File (items, spells, menu (maybe), etc)
Models
World data
Textures/Sprites
Sound
Main exe to put it all together (this part you'd have to code yourself)

Its entirely possible, but why bother? Take note this is not a conversion procedure, its all manual and individual.

[Mouser X]

The reason there are N64 emulators is because N64 code (MIPS 4300(i?) as I recall) is not compatible to the x86 processors. Meaning, no, you can't run N64 games on a PC, unless you either emulate it, or completely rewrite the software running the game. Chances are that writing the emulator is actually easier in the long run...

Think of it like English vs. Japanese. x86 CPUs speak, and read English, and don't know any other language. N64 games are written in Japanese. It's completely foreign to the x86 CPU. That's what the N64 emulators do (well, basically). They translate the Japanese code into something that the x86 CPUs can read and understand.

Does that answer that question? Does that explain how the question you asked is a very unfeasable and unreasonable idea?

Of course, your question was sort of a two parter. You also (sort of) asked if you could "decompile" the ROM. I think what you mean, in this instance, is to extract all of the data contained in the ROM into a file tree system, similar to a PC's file organization system. For that, I'd say that yes, you could do that. However, chances are that the tool made to do this would be game specific, and would require alteration everytime you added a game into the "compatible games" list. Basically, from what I understand, most ROMs don't really have a set file system. So, you'd have to recreate, and decipher each file system as it was given to you.

Of course, I could be mistaken. But, for USFs (Ultra 64 Sound Format), most of them (if not all of them) are in "miniusf" form because it wasn't worth the effort to decipher the file system so that each indivdual sound file could be removed from the ROM. Instead, HCS found a way to catalouge what parts of the ROM were in use while the music/sounds were being played. Then, the USF creation tools basically trim off all of the other unused/unecessary data (or, it's the oppasite. Where it catalouges the areas of the ROM used, and copies those areas to a new file, which essentially is the same as cropping out the uneeded data).

Hopefully this explains why it would be difficult to do what you've asked is possible to be done. Mouser X over and out.

[eternalcold]

Thankyou Mouserx for going beyond the call of duty and explaining to me. I previously understood the reasoning behind the emulator, but the reason i wanted to know this, is because i was thinking about re-creating zelda ocarina of time, to be gamecube/'better quality well, me and a couple of really good coding/modeling friends. But, it seems to be much more work then we previously thought. Thank you for crushing my hopes and dreams ( im joking )...for real though, thank you for explaining

[Kerber2k]

Zelda would be the hardest to re-create, and with your case you might as well just re-create from scratch. I can def see how some N64 games could be re-created from orignal rom content using model export tools. Although all the games that come to mind are mostly FPS, and would require somone to re-do them on a older engine with new effects a example would be using Quake to re-create Turok or Goldeneye, and just well add new effects to the engine like blooms, specular and bump maps or somthing. Somthing like Zelda would require alot of cut-scene scripting and could well become more troublesome than its worth. I think its possiable that Nintendo will re-do OoT anyhow its just a matter of time.

[skyman8081]

Replacing the models in Zelda OoT wouldn't be so simple. IIRC the N64 could only have so many polys per mesh, so the bipeds in OoT were composed of several models put together.

It can be done, but it is a pipe dream at best.