Inputting High-res textures into the rom

[Vanit]

Useful, but impossible (hi-res wise), as already discussed.

 

[cloudscapes]

Because for some odd reason it doesn't work on my computer, I'm stuck in the first part of the tutorial, when I try to load the rom in the Sprite Viewer, it doesn't load it and and a message is displayed : "Not enough memory for the file". Which is impossible because I have 512 Mb of memory and the rom is only 32... That's why I would like to know if someone else could try it.

That's because as other have mentioned, there are too many reasons why it can't work. The hardware isn't designed to load higher-res textures, and (normal) emulators basically emulate the hardware. You need a modified emu that expects custom textures for it to work so that it can alocate more memory to the emulation. Even if you have 512mb or 51200tb of RAM, the emulator will still only emulate the 8mb N64 hardware, unless the emulator expects custom content.

The "Not enough memory for the file" error you got is proof of this. You have a ton of RAM on your computer, but a normal emulator pretends to have 8mb.

Legal repercussions are also an issue. While ROM editing is not new, editing copyrighted game content (and thus removing the originals) rather than appending TO it is illegal, while simpel emulation is still just grey-area.

 

[AleX_XelA]

Thanks for your answers, I still think it's too bad that you can't replace the textures in the rom, it would really be helpful for the people that are under other OSes, and even if it was possible, the legal issues make it impossible so...

 

[Traveler]

With permission of a moderator or administrator. `May this thread be revived for a limited amount of days unless several users has interest in it then the limit is therefore lifted?


If my request is allowed: my following question: 'Has it been done? Modifying a n64 rom in ways of expanding the size, replacing the files or data, and completely making the changes permanent?'

 

[Fanatic 64]

With permission of a moderator or administrator. `May this thread be revived for a limited amount of days unless several users has interest in it then the limit is therefore lifted?


If my request is allowed: my following question: 'Has it been done? Modifying a n64 rom in ways of expanding the size, replacing the files or data, and completely making the changes permanent?'

No offense, but you must be living in a cave.


The first SM64 full modification.


A recent SM64 hack.

http://qubedstudios.rustedlogic.net/ToadsTool64.htm

A basic set of tools for expanding and modifying the ROM.

http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=viewforum&f=64

A forum with many information about SM64 hacking.

Currently, it is possible to modify SM64 in a lot of ways, expanding/decompressing the ROM, changing textures, maps, behaviors and much more, and of course directly to the ROM (not loaded separately by the emulator like hires textures).

 

[Traveler]

No offense, but you must be living in a cave.

Currently, it is possible to modify SM64 in a lot of ways, expanding/decompressing the ROM, changing textures, maps, behaviors and much more, and of course directly to the ROM (not loaded separately by the emulator like hires textures).

Well you narrowed it down didn't ya? Is Mario the only game you can do that to?

And yeah soo what I get away from vid game news for a while, besides it helps with peep like you to get me caught up with the newest mod developments anyways.:chinese:

 

[Fanatic 64]

Well you narrowed it down didn't ya? Is Mario the only game you can do that to?

And yeah soo what I get away from vid game news for a while, besides it helps with peep like you to get me caught up with the newest mod developments anyways.:chinese:

Well, the possibility of hacking is mostly game-dependant. Each game is it own world, and it takes an specialiced community and years of research for a hacking environment to form for a specific game.

Currently, the only other N64 game that I know with a somewhat mature hacking scene is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (and to some extent Majora's Mask), for which I currently know 2 semi-complete modifications: Zelda's Birthday and Nightmare Mod, and a third currently in development, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time URA EXPANSION, which is profiled to be the first true revamp of Zelda 64 (it is based on MM, and it actually features a lot of custom objects, levels, and code) (trough please don't get your hype up, the project is currently suspended indefinitely, due to personal problems of the author).

 

[Traveler]

That makes sense. Since the sample of the 1st rom mod (sm64) you gave, I've tried it out and it works nearly perfect on the Wii64. It gave me an idea of four tools to mod a rom:

a rom extender
a patcher
a PPF. file maker
and the program to decode it.

Personally, I only want to do two things:

Remake Harvest 64 (just add some small maps and reuse some rare characters) not to increase the size as a big difference.

And permanent change the OoT and Majora's Mask's textures for the wii (I bought from the virtual console on the wii).

*By the way thanks for your information, it really helped me get caught up~:chinese:

 

[Fanatic 64]

That makes sense. Since the sample of the 1st rom mod (sm64) you gave, I've tried it out and it works nearly perfect on the Wii64. It gave me an idea of four tools to mod a rom:

a rom extender
a patcher
a PPF. file maker
and the program to decode it.

Personally, I only want to do two things:

Remake Harvest 64 (just add some small maps and reuse some rare characters) not to increase the size as a big difference.

And permanent change the OoT and Majora's Mask's textures for the wii (I bought from the virtual console on the wii).

*By the way thanks for your information, it really helped me get caught up~:chinese:

Well, a more accurate list of tools would be:
A ROM expander/decompressor (trough this does not apply for Zelda 64, since everybody uses the Debug ROM, because it is already decompressed).
The actual editing tools (like a model/level importer, a texture importer, a music importer, a code/hex editor, and so on).
And if you want to distribute it (without doing copyright infringement), then you make it into a patch with PPF Studio or other similar patching tool.
There is nothing like a ROM decoder.

And about your requests:
As far as I know, nobody has done any hacking of Harvest Moon 64 at all (which means there doesn't exist any decompressing/editing tools for it).
And... you want to insert high resolution textures into the OoT/MM ROM? I'll assume you didn't read this thread at all and just revived it because of the title, but it is not possible to add high resolution textures directly into the ROM, because:
1. Even 1 or 2 high resolution textures can easily outweigh the entire ROM, which in Zelda's case is 32 MB (or 64 MB if you decompress it, which is already the largest possible size for a N64 ROM, and besides I remember Wii64/the Virtual Console is not capable of loading ROMs over 32 MB, which means even the stock decompressed Zelda ROM would not be able to load), and;
2. The Zelda engine would not be able to render such huge textures (in fact, the N64 cannot render any texture above 4 KB, and this is a hardware limitation) (video plugins have their own way to display high resolution textures, but that cannot be done with the textures inserted directly into the ROM).
And also, with the Wii's extremely limited RAM (24 MB), it is already a technical feat to be able to emulate 32 MB ROMs + 8MB of RDRAM + whatever it takes to run the emulation, so to use texture packs that are around 400 MB, go figure out...

In a nutshell:
You pretty much can't hack Harvest Moon 64 unless you're very well versed on this (which I think pretty much you aren't at all).
And you can say bye-bye to high resolution textures on the Wii (you should use a PC emulator if you want to experience the full N64 emulation experience ).

And sorry if I offended you while pointing out something, anyway, have a nice day.

 

[Traveler]

Even 1 or 2 high resolution textures can easily outweigh the entire ROM, which in Zelda's case is 32 MB (or 64 MB if you decompress it, which is already the largest possible size for a N64 ROM, and besides I remember Wii64/the Virtual Console is not capable of loading ROMs over 32 MB.

But I'd just proven that wrong, I've been playing Super Mario Star Road Deluxe (size 48MB) on the Wii64 just fine, with an exception of some audio problems. The game plays good.

Alright so it all comes down to RAM memory, if that's the case couldn't I just have someone solder a specialized chip containing more RAM into the Wii's hard drive?

And yes I've read this whole forum, its all coming back to "Impossible!-Impossible!" please break the record~ If you blokes keep singing that, then how the hell did someone make the emulators or decompressor and rom modifying programs? I doubt that "impossible" was in their vocabulary.

 

[Fanatic 64]

But I'd just proven that wrong, I've been playing Super Mario Star Road Deluxe (size 48MB) on the Wii64 just fine, with an exception of some audio problems. The game plays good.

Alright so it all comes down to RAM memory, if that's the case couldn't I just have someone solder a specialized chip containing more RAM into the Wii's hard drive?

And yes I've read this whole forum, its all coming back to "Impossible!-Impossible!" please break the record~ If you blokes keep singing that, then how the hell did someone make the emulators or decompressor and rom modifying programs? I doubt that "impossible" was in their vocabulary.

1. If you expand the Wii's RAM, you would have to modify the BIOS and Wii64 to recognize and handle the extended memory (and the BIOS part would not be easy nor legal).
2. RAM isn't contained in the hard disk.

And for all the time and money it would take you to make all that modding to the Wii, why don't just play on your PC? There are excellent N64 emulators for PC out there (many way better than Wii64), and even a decent 2005 computer can run them with texture packs and all fancy stuff.

There is an important difference between "we don't know how to do that" and "technical aspects prevent to do that". In a certain way, it IS possible to add high resolution textures directly to N64 games, but that would require heavy modification of the ROM and the emulator (and the Wii, for that matter), for which you have to be very well versed in coding and reverse engineering and general computational stuff to do, which as far as I've seen, you're not.

 

[Traveler]

1. If you expand the Wii's RAM, you would have to modify the BIOS and Wii64 to recognize and handle the extended memory (and the BIOS part would not be easy nor legal).

Yes, I see your arguement. Perhaps we're too focus on n64roms. alright-alright. Let me ask you a question then, what is the size of a wii or gcn rom? They get pretty big you know, and yet they still play?

So then its all about decoding and then converting n64 rom to wii format.

Besides the Wiisx plays over 100mb sized ps roms. Why is RAM memory really that important? When these large size games can be played?

*By the way any modification to any nintendo product without permission is `illegal. They've also stated it to me in an email. Having even game roms that you 'did not purchase legally distributed by Nintendo' on computer or other devices is way of theft and piracy.