it's awesome working with you because i have a lot of ideas when reworking these levels and 99% of the time you're able (and willing) to implement them, it really makes the visuals and the gameplay one coherent package. also, placeness is a word i'd have come up with if i was parodying you
Love what I'm seeing in this and other videos, I think you and kaze make a great team and I'm super exctatic about seeing what you will produce in the future
I can tell you're proud of this work. It's really gratifying to see appreciation for the N64. Of course your videos are amazing and therapeutic to programmers.
@@lysenthe Reading Michael Abrash's writing on code optimization was somehow extremely cathartic to me. It was like having someone show me how to truly play with my toys. I get to watch someone else do cool stuff with it instead of have to learn the hard way. Code optimization is fun.
@@mariotheundying The ds has a hard limit on poligon count, so it's much less capable, so the next console someone should try to optimize I guess it would be gamecube era consoles or the orginal PSP and 3DS
@@mariotheundyingThe DS was designed to be easy to develop for. Very straightforward with proper GDKs delivered so games could be optimised quickly and effectively.
Thanks for tuning in to the "list of chores" we're inundated with by games... As long as a game "feels fun to move through", then it'll be so engaging, and rewarding to have story-driven places to explore
@@zephyr1181 I think it depends on how you value the things presented to you in the game. You and me would agree, but what if cared heavily about the completionist aspect? Then the long list of often meaningless moons (You hit ground pound on a rock!) in oddyssey would be bothersome; and even as a player who enjoys it for what it is, it kinda sours the fantasy a little thinking that, well, instead of the fluff their could've been something meaningful there. In 64, I think that it's interesting that every star has a thematic goal. I think it could just be a response to changing markets. Consider how isolated Americans are privately; going very few places, even those who travel do it ritualistically, rather than as a life style. Yet BOTW and other open or exploration heavy games demand live as an adventurer, for that there always has to be something to explore hence task list gameplay. Just my speculation. In a linear adventure, you get that feeling of going on one grand adventure. Rather than being overwhelmed with a list of tasks, you essentially live a story. I think both approaches have value, but with "play time = value" being so heavily pushed by marketing, I definitely think the companies have a preference for making less games, less often, and having you play for longer. It's interesting how minecraft fits in. Minecraft doesn't drop a list of tasks at you as it's core gameplay. It's actually like a linear adventure, except that the game world is so open that there's a ton that you could *want* to do outside the core adventure it presents. it's one of the many traits that make Minecraft so interesting and exceptional as a game.
It's why Mario 64 will always be my favorite collectathon on a conceptual level, even if more newer and shinier games have been released. Mario's moveset was designed first and then levels and goals were built around them, with the mentality that you can collect whichever one's you want, however way you want to (which is where challenge runs and whatever insane tricks come in). Stars are just there for progression tracking while coins are breadcrumbs that double as recovering HP with an optional bonus reward if you explore and collect 100 coins. Nothing else to collect so you're free to explore for fun, for 100 coins, for alternate routes, etc. Additionally, you're only gated with 1 star -> 8 stars -> 30 stars -> 50 stars -> 70/120 stars to merely finish the game, but you have so many options that literally the only thing that stays the same for every player is that you're required to go to Bob-Omb Battlefield, but you don't have to defeat King Bob-omb, you can get 100 coins, 8 Red coins, long jump across to the floating island or free the chain chomp. From there you can go to Whomp's fortress or the slide -> cool cool mountain, jolly roger bay, secret aquarium, etc. So many routes you can take.
Here's a suggestion for making the underwater structures more desolate: add the sound of groaning metal inside the structures (kinda like a ship groaning out at sea), along with muffled sounds of water bubbling to sell the underwater 🫧 soundscape. Maybe whale calls? Additionally, a semi flooded hallway/room with flickering lights would give it a more used feeling to the place. Put some white light sources inside the textures of the dome glass to give visual interest to the domes(no need to add lighting effects in the map, just white pixels on the textures), and draw the eye to the domes while on the outside of them. Keep up the good work by the way! It's looking great!
If you're looking for set pieces to put in this level coral is always a common go to. You could also put shipwrecks and broken submarines. For the interior of the bubbledomes, you could put statues to give a look at the type of species who may have once populated them (Underwater koopa society???).
@@KazeN64 since you mentioned the idea of further decorating all alone bubbledome one thing you could do is some unfinished monument with tools scattered nearby, like the people living there just left in a haste or just gave up on building because of some cataclysm, there are precedents for that on real life abandoned cities!
@@KazeN64 Bleached (dead) coral might work. Besides that, maybe just more rocks, sand, and other inorganic features just to fill space might look nice. Depending on the timeline for when the domes were built and by whom, maybe unfinished pieces of domes, submarines, and machinery that have been abandoned long before completion.
@@KazeN64 a sunken and rusted up submarine could make for a litte more creepy vibe. Like iirc in banjo kazooie there is this metal shark that has these rusted metal textures, they hit that vibe so well
some suggestion to make the place look more desolated is by adding like dust or dirt or whatever makes it look like the environment is very dirty, it could be a separated texture object that is placed on top of the buildings
I think you should let the mood setting scene play each time, but add a skip button. In some other games I like to watch the intro scenes upon entering a level multiple times in a play through, and if there is a skip button it doesn't become annoying for people who don't want to. I also think some victorian style street lamps could look nice in the walkways between the domes.
if this is possible on N64, just imagine what the mighty Kaze Emanuar could achieve on a gamecube... Really loving those updates on the progress, great job !
Stop ...a 93.75 MHz processor with a stupidly slow rambus, 8 MB RAM, and a wonky GPU system is the only way we are containing his power and keeping him from taking over the world 😥
This is amazing and almost unreal. I can't wait to immerse myself and fall in love with Mario 64 all over again. You're the GOAT Kaze, Merry Christmas to you and your family.
@@the1ucidone Oh, sorry, I meant the 1993 "live action" movie, btw, not the latest animation. Lots of people disliked the 1993 movie (to put it mildly). But a younger me loved the movie, back in the 90s. lol I think the performances by Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper made up for a lot of it. Plus the score by Alan Silvestri. It has some fun moments. I've seen it easily 8-9 times. I've not seen the new one yet. I've heard it's pretty good.
In Blue Planet II, They showed pools of super dense salty water on the deep ocean floor, maybe you could implement something like "deadly water pools" or something like that
bro, i get this is a nice improvement over the original mario 64. but are you seriously saying this passes as a gamecube game? what the fuck have you been smoking? probably too young to even lived in the 128bit era, you think all polygon looking games are gamecube games. as even 128bit era you consider "ancient and boomer"
Generally when i am drawing a scene and want a place to feel abandoned, i like leaving things left in progress: meal half finished, laundry left out to dry, toys left out messily, a car on a jack, tire on the side, vines growing over it. Another thing is to leave little utilities running, the kinds of things people would forget to turn off if they suddenly left. Street lamp still on cycle, air-conditioner still buzzing, crosswalks still signaling, fridges left slightly open and on. That sort of thing makes an environment feel unconfortable. Defo, moderation is key. Minutes of time to separate these kinds of moments makes them feel more special. My work is different then yours (mine is about canvas real estate and pages of separation) so take what I say with that in mind. Love your work! I dropped programming to follow a different path, but I still appreciate the care you put in to your work, and that mind for micro-optimization is one that's sadly becoming rarer. Keep up the great work!
It's insane to me not only how much this game has changed since you started, but how much YOU'VE changed and improved in regards to level design, creativity, and so much more. I absolutely adore the star select screen, as well, it's such a little touch but adds so much to the interconnectivity of the world. Huge shoutouts to Biobak, Badub, and everyone else working on this game to make it the best it can be. It's crazy to see how far romhacking has come, best of luck Kaze!
Incredible work! There’s nothing about coding that I love more than optimization because I grew up thinking that 2+2 took a computer several milliseconds, and this scratches that itch like sandpaper. About the desolate vibe, I’m not sure how feasible it would be, but my favorite games as a kid had interactive environmental effects that left a semi-permanent impact but didn’t serve any gameplay purpose apart from making the world feel real. It could be something simple like the algae/seaweed/barnacles blowing up into particles and disappearing when Mario punches them (sound design is key here), clouds of sand when you agitate some surfaces or interact with level elements, clearing out paths when you walk through areas lightly dusted with sand. These changes can persist until the player leaves the level. It serves a dual purpose: (a) it shows the player where they have and haven’t been, causing a very satisfying feeling when they’re lost and they finally find a new bunch of seaweed (think ore in Minecraft caves), and (b) makes the player feel like they’re having a real impact in the world, as though they could clean up the entire level if they wanted to. It would go a long way to achieving that “what if i were here?” feeling.
Those all sound feasible in theory, but I don't know much about the N64 so it may have some restrictions. Especially with the clearing a path through the dust part, that may not be possible.
4:20 Yes I have ideas. Have more things that are “broken”, like the bridges with crack splitting it into two, and even get the domes inside to have collapsed platforms and broken. The place looks much “too clean” to feel desolate. Also have the lights flicker on or off, or even have the lights turn off completely until you have to fix the circuitry. It will actually feel abandoned if everything doesn’t work. A secret village would be a decent idea. Not sure how it would work though. Lastly, an underwater shell makes zero sense. Why not an oxygen mask and flippers? Come on.
Woah i love the world design here, it's just so mysterious and fantastical, it really gives the ''placeness'' vibe you are talking about, how the containers you go inside are multi colored, or how the entire city underneath is giant and bleak of colors, somehow it really stucks to the mind and doesn't run away from the m64 style, there's a lot to explore further.
I think you are doing a good job with the visuals. I like your emphasis on CLARITY and hierarchies of importance where it is needed. The bright colors of the domes make them stand out and they are color coded so it is easy to keep track of which you have been in and which you haven't. Also the way the canopy with the star was lit up with a yellow glow to contrast against the cool grey blues helps guide the player toward that. Keep that design philosophy up
I've never really played any rom hacks before, but I'll definitely play this. The amount of effort you're putting in to perfecting it is amazing. Also I'm noticing mario stretch and squish when falling and landing, is that new?
This is great. The amount of time and dedication you have towards this game and its engine is astonishing. Badub has also done great work on the soundtrack; where can I listen to the track you can hear throughout the video? It's super good!
Keep up the awesome work, Kaze. You're carrying the whole SM64 community with your contributions and hacks! Looking forward to playing the final build of this game!
He said in a video that he probably will, or he'll at least make the source code public so that anyone can look at it and isolate just the optimizations.
The emulator footage really showcases the fact that if it wasnt for the lower resolution that this version of the game has more in common with early gamecube or ps2 games than most n64 ones in terms of graphical fidelity, i dont really have the words to describe how impressed i am with this. It would actually be so cool to see something like this for every game and console generation just to see how things could have been pushed but this kind of talent understanding and dedication is rare so it may be a long time or may never come who knows. All i can say is i appreciate your content immensely for doing something that truly only you have done, you're a legend in my eyes.
I really like that there is a footage logo. But why isn't it in the side borders, but obscures some contents? The low resolution shows that the texture cache had the correct size. All those 4kB-are-not-enough morons show HD captures from an emulator.
I know you're more of a Mario 64 guy, but I watch these videos and always wonder how much juice you could squeeze out of the Ocarina of Time engine. That game ran at like 17fps in some parts on the EU version.
It's not the same as native N64 optimisation, but the Ship of Harkinian PC port of Zelda: OOT was phenomenal. Most fun I've had playing that game since it came out all those years ago.
The jank 17.3 or whatever the PAL version runs at is just how the game is, not "in some parts". That is because the game's base framerate is 60 and it gets divided by 3 for gameplay, which is 20. PAL obviously changes this to 50, which divides pretty awkwardly. A fix should be possible. The game is as poorly optimized as any other early 3D game, so a solid 30 FPS should be easily possible to facilitate. Then we just change the divider value to 2 rather than 3 and we have clean results in both NTSC and PAL since it will divide to whole numbers in both(30 and 25 respectively). Of course, then you gotta change all the framerate dependant code and animations to work with 30(and don't miss some things like OOT3D did), but that's rather obvious. Bonus points if you actually re-value the game to run properly in PAL rather than slower like usual, but the PAL speed is part of the retrogame charme at this point, lmao.
This reminds me of the water level from Vexx (The Below). Looks great! Also appreciated the mention of "placeness", which I feel is an underappreciated aspect in many 3D games.
Kaze will always be the example for what a romhacker should be instead of 'haha funni meme hack lolxd' anyone can spew stuff they read on a wiki, but it takes true intellect to be able to explain what he did to the engine and make it make sense. And what you say about the thought process on making courses, I am hyped for release.
This looks like a retro-style indie game with a modern engine! Or perhaps an early gamecube game emulated with a modern resolution (well, except the n64 footage, that's obviously at a lower resolution). It's seriously impressive. How do you even find the time and energy to do this on top of a full-time job?
Guy with a German accent modifying a Japanese game with an Italian main character in with a great result. Folks, they lied to us, the Axis powers are still alive an kickin butt
Dude, the music in the level is genuinely DREAMLIKE, you HAVE to release that. I really hope this hack has more atmospheric areas like this, undersea levels like this are some of my favorite themes in games, along with space levels, dream levels and futuristic city levels. Fingers crossed for a couple of those.
I love your work so much, everytime a pleasure watching the new improvements you've come up with and I'm happily waiting to load whatever you release onto my everdrive to enjoy on my N64
My immediate thought of "cool things to add to the area" is a broken dome filled with water, the "abandoned" atmosphere often works to the desolate energy
This is phenomenal. So thankful that you and so many others have contributed so much to the SM64 modding community over the years. Keep up the great work!
I love this so much! Oh, my gosh! Just the update videos alone are a sight. Appreciate it. As for music ideas, if you were to listen to the Pokemon ORAS OST for the Meteor Falls, you may be able to get some good inspiration for a deep atmospheric setting. The music itself usually fills be with mystery and dread at the same time. Another good underwater soundtrack could be Atlantis from the Banjo-Tooie game. It sounds a bit more goofy and cheerful, not fitting for a liminal space, but it's a pretty good underwater OST.
Great video! A fun spooky thing for underwater is sunken manmade objects that wouldn't normally be in the water at all, like a car or a bike or even a shopping cart. things that show evidence of pollution or decay can evoke that feeling of unease, especially in an unfamiliar biome
While watching this, I notice that the Nintendo 64 is capable of a LOT of things if the Code is written properly. You've done an amazing job building the showcased levels and I'm looking forward in seeing more from you!
This is awesome! It's unbelievable how you've managed to pull off these advances from Super Mario 64! The overall environment of the level reminds me of Klonoa, and I really like that!
I cannot wait for another demo and the eventual release. It will be worth every agonizing second of waiting! The way you talk about designing this game makes me so happy because even as someone with very small experience making a game it's so clear for someone to know what makes a good game. Simply paying attention and having passion gives you a pathway to follow that leads to ideas exploding from your head. You should be proud, and everyone else helping out should be as well. You're all making something that would've never been made back when the N64 was still on the market.
....WOW. It's been a while since I've checked in and holy moly. You're hitting it out of the park mate. Thank you for your contribution to the N64 scene
I'm so glad you're still working on this, because it's looking better and better with every video you post! And thank you for respecting everyone's time by keeping the amount of busywork to a minimum. (Busywork are tasks designed to keep someone busy, but have no real value, like a fetch quest chain or an escort side mission. Y'know, _chores_.)
To make your deep sea level feel more desolate, how about a smattering of algae, plants, and barnacles on the outsides of those buildings? Similar to what you'd find on a shipwreck. You can make it light or transparent enough to still see the color of the building (and see through the windows from the inside), but that bit of age would go a long way. A few deep sea creatures mozying through (anglerfish, sloan's viperfish, dumbo octopus) would be interesting too, creatures like that make you feel more separate from humanity. The game looks amazing, by the way!
Loving this series so far. Community made projects are awesome in that they don't have to hit strict deadlines and release unfinished buggy trash as a result, so things can get polished to a mirror shine
I didn't even think about how all this is going towards a full game lol, I followed just for the technical stuff because it's really fun to learn about quirks of a particular system and hyperoptimizing for it :p
Thank you so much for sharing. I watched an analysis of a very old game called Elite by Alexander-the-ok which was also very fascinating. I really like hearing about the functionality, development and enhancement of older games.
You asked for suggestions for the atmosphere, so I was thinking all the rest of the time watching the video and I just saw everything I had in mind showing up, like the eel outside the glass, deep water creatures are scary and its inclusion there is great.
I REALLY really like the way that Mario stretches when you're descending in a jump. I think it'd be very satisfying if when he hit the ground he squished a little as well.
I totally get what you mean by "placeness". You want the level to feel like a particular location or environment, rather than just a collection of puzzles, platforms, and enemies. Like a level being a volcano, or a giant tree, or a factory. This is something that most Nintendo games do pretty well, and I think the Mario 64 engine is a great platform for that. I have the same design philosophy in my Grimrock II dungeon I'm making. This project is very cool and impressive, and I'm excited to see how it turns out.
it's awesome working with you because i have a lot of ideas when reworking these levels and 99% of the time you're able (and willing) to implement them, it really makes the visuals and the gameplay one coherent package. also, placeness is a word i'd have come up with if i was parodying you
JE SUIS MORT T'ES PARTOUT MEME DANS LA VF DE ISEK MERCI POUR TOUT TON TRAVAIL ENCORE !!
Love what I'm seeing in this and other videos, I think you and kaze make a great team and I'm super exctatic about seeing what you will produce in the future
Being able and willing is tight!
Very very glad that you have been hired, kaze is a genius for engine development, but his graphics were... Odd to say the least
YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE madman WITH SM64
I can tell you're proud of this work. It's really gratifying to see appreciation for the N64. Of course your videos are amazing and therapeutic to programmers.
It’s clear you appreciate the original Mario 64, too; the amount of love and care you have put into understanding and building on it is impressive.
YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE madman WITH SM64
idk about therapeutic when he does black magic in front of everyone with code
@@lysenthe Reading Michael Abrash's writing on code optimization was somehow extremely cathartic to me. It was like having someone show me how to truly play with my toys. I get to watch someone else do cool stuff with it instead of have to learn the hard way. Code optimization is fun.
I love your work because the N64 always felt limited by it’s time, but you’ve proved that with fantastic optimization you can remove a lot of those
time = money
I wonder how much the ds can be optimized tbh
@@mariotheundying The ds has a hard limit on poligon count, so it's much less capable, so the next console someone should try to optimize I guess it would be gamecube era consoles or the orginal PSP and 3DS
a hard limit? how does that work?@@xdanic3
@@mariotheundyingThe DS was designed to be easy to develop for. Very straightforward with proper GDKs delivered so games could be optimised quickly and effectively.
Better engine, Better graphics, Better pizza, Papa Johnathans.
WAPAPAPAPA JOHNS???
YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE madman WITH SM64
@@repentofyoursinsandbelieve629bot
Thanks for tuning in to the "list of chores" we're inundated with by games... As long as a game "feels fun to move through", then it'll be so engaging, and rewarding to have story-driven places to explore
Mario 64 and Odyssey feel more like playgrounds designed to be explored, you don't need to be told what to do, love that feeling
Agree.
@@zephyr1181 I think it depends on how you value the things presented to you in the game. You and me would agree, but what if cared heavily about the completionist aspect? Then the long list of often meaningless moons (You hit ground pound on a rock!) in oddyssey would be bothersome; and even as a player who enjoys it for what it is, it kinda sours the fantasy a little thinking that, well, instead of the fluff their could've been something meaningful there.
In 64, I think that it's interesting that every star has a thematic goal. I think it could just be a response to changing markets. Consider how isolated Americans are privately; going very few places, even those who travel do it ritualistically, rather than as a life style. Yet BOTW and other open or exploration heavy games demand live as an adventurer, for that there always has to be something to explore hence task list gameplay. Just my speculation.
In a linear adventure, you get that feeling of going on one grand adventure. Rather than being overwhelmed with a list of tasks, you essentially live a story. I think both approaches have value, but with "play time = value" being so heavily pushed by marketing, I definitely think the companies have a preference for making less games, less often, and having you play for longer.
It's interesting how minecraft fits in. Minecraft doesn't drop a list of tasks at you as it's core gameplay. It's actually like a linear adventure, except that the game world is so open that there's a ton that you could *want* to do outside the core adventure it presents. it's one of the many traits that make Minecraft so interesting and exceptional as a game.
It's why Mario 64 will always be my favorite collectathon on a conceptual level, even if more newer and shinier games have been released.
Mario's moveset was designed first and then levels and goals were built around them, with the mentality that you can collect whichever one's you want, however way you want to (which is where challenge runs and whatever insane tricks come in).
Stars are just there for progression tracking while coins are breadcrumbs that double as recovering HP with an optional bonus reward if you explore and collect 100 coins. Nothing else to collect so you're free to explore for fun, for 100 coins, for alternate routes, etc.
Additionally, you're only gated with 1 star -> 8 stars -> 30 stars -> 50 stars -> 70/120 stars to merely finish the game, but you have so many options that literally the only thing that stays the same for every player is that you're required to go to Bob-Omb Battlefield, but you don't have to defeat King Bob-omb, you can get 100 coins, 8 Red coins, long jump across to the floating island or free the chain chomp. From there you can go to Whomp's fortress or the slide -> cool cool mountain, jolly roger bay, secret aquarium, etc. So many routes you can take.
YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE madman WITH SM64
Here's a suggestion for making the underwater structures more desolate: add the sound of groaning metal inside the structures (kinda like a ship groaning out at sea), along with muffled sounds of water bubbling to sell the underwater 🫧 soundscape. Maybe whale calls? Additionally, a semi flooded hallway/room with flickering lights would give it a more used feeling to the place.
Put some white light sources inside the textures of the dome glass to give visual interest to the domes(no need to add lighting effects in the map, just white pixels on the textures), and draw the eye to the domes while on the outside of them.
Keep up the good work by the way! It's looking great!
If you're looking for set pieces to put in this level coral is always a common go to. You could also put shipwrecks and broken submarines. For the interior of the bubbledomes, you could put statues to give a look at the type of species who may have once populated them (Underwater koopa society???).
I was thinking dry bones (wet bones?) Walking around outside, could explain where the shells are coming from
i don't want this area to seem populated so dry bones would ruin the vibe for me. shipwreck pieces could work though!
@@KazeN64 since you mentioned the idea of further decorating all alone bubbledome one thing you could do is some unfinished monument with tools scattered nearby, like the people living there just left in a haste or just gave up on building because of some cataclysm, there are precedents for that on real life abandoned cities!
@@KazeN64 Bleached (dead) coral might work. Besides that, maybe just more rocks, sand, and other inorganic features just to fill space might look nice. Depending on the timeline for when the domes were built and by whom, maybe unfinished pieces of domes, submarines, and machinery that have been abandoned long before completion.
@@KazeN64 a sunken and rusted up submarine could make for a litte more creepy vibe. Like iirc in banjo kazooie there is this metal shark that has these rusted metal textures, they hit that vibe so well
Man this looks absolutely amazing. The fact it runs on a real N64 is mind-blowing. Can't wait to play it.
YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE madman WITH SM64
expansion pack, though
Can we expect to play someday? If yes, when?
some suggestion to make the place look more desolated is by adding like dust or dirt or whatever makes it look like the environment is very dirty, it could be a separated texture object that is placed on top of the buildings
also god rays to show dust in the air, some sort of transparent polygon that moves as you move
YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE madman WITH SM64
I think you should let the mood setting scene play each time, but add a skip button. In some other games I like to watch the intro scenes upon entering a level multiple times in a play through, and if there is a skip button it doesn't become annoying for people who don't want to.
I also think some victorian style street lamps could look nice in the walkways between the domes.
He mentioned it only plays once, so you won't see it multiple times in a playthrough. Making it skippable would still be pretty nice tho.
YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE madman WITH SM64
if this is possible on N64, just imagine what the mighty Kaze Emanuar could achieve on a gamecube... Really loving those updates on the progress, great job !
Or the WII given how similar the two consoles are spec wise
Stop ...a 93.75 MHz processor with a stupidly slow rambus, 8 MB RAM, and a wonky GPU system is the only way we are containing his power and keeping him from taking over the world 😥
hopefully he'll make smt like that one day
He finally made the N64 achieve what what thought possible with the ultra64 sgi graphics demos.
@@climatechangeisrealyoubast3231 What is "SMT"?
HOW are you not going insane doing these deep dives like this? Nintendo needs to hire you my dude! Love your in depth vids on this.
heh... deep dives
YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE madman WITH SM64
This is amazing and almost unreal. I can't wait to immerse myself and fall in love with Mario 64 all over again. You're the GOAT Kaze, Merry Christmas to you and your family.
You know "Almost Unreal" was the song at the end of the Mario Bros movie? hehe
@@electronash Oh dude I never saw it. Was it good? Should I watch it?
@@the1ucidone
Oh, sorry, I meant the 1993 "live action" movie, btw, not the latest animation.
Lots of people disliked the 1993 movie (to put it mildly).
But a younger me loved the movie, back in the 90s. lol
I think the performances by Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper made up for a lot of it. Plus the score by Alan Silvestri.
It has some fun moments. I've seen it easily 8-9 times.
I've not seen the new one yet. I've heard it's pretty good.
YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE madman WITH SM64
In Blue Planet II, They showed pools of super dense salty water on the deep ocean floor, maybe you could implement something like "deadly water pools" or something like that
One of my favorite things in the ocean!
This looks so good that it could pass as an early Gamecube game, it's insane that you managed to make this out of a 25+ years old game.
bro, i get this is a nice improvement over the original mario 64. but are you seriously saying this passes as a gamecube game? what the fuck have you been smoking? probably too young to even lived in the 128bit era, you think all polygon looking games are gamecube games. as even 128bit era you consider "ancient and boomer"
May be the emulator footage, but not the real N64 footage. It still looks like a low res N64 game on real hardware.
@@jsr734 Put on a CRT TV and it will look better than any emulator
More like Dreamcast.
@@jsr734 It's still so much better in looks than most consoles at the time.
Generally when i am drawing a scene and want a place to feel abandoned, i like leaving things left in progress: meal half finished, laundry left out to dry, toys left out messily, a car on a jack, tire on the side, vines growing over it. Another thing is to leave little utilities running, the kinds of things people would forget to turn off if they suddenly left. Street lamp still on cycle, air-conditioner still buzzing, crosswalks still signaling, fridges left slightly open and on. That sort of thing makes an environment feel unconfortable. Defo, moderation is key. Minutes of time to separate these kinds of moments makes them feel more special. My work is different then yours (mine is about canvas real estate and pages of separation) so take what I say with that in mind.
Love your work! I dropped programming to follow a different path, but I still appreciate the care you put in to your work, and that mind for micro-optimization is one that's sadly becoming rarer. Keep up the great work!
It's insane to me not only how much this game has changed since you started, but how much YOU'VE changed and improved in regards to level design, creativity, and so much more. I absolutely adore the star select screen, as well, it's such a little touch but adds so much to the interconnectivity of the world. Huge shoutouts to Biobak, Badub, and everyone else working on this game to make it the best it can be. It's crazy to see how far romhacking has come, best of luck Kaze!
Incredible work! There’s nothing about coding that I love more than optimization because I grew up thinking that 2+2 took a computer several milliseconds, and this scratches that itch like sandpaper.
About the desolate vibe, I’m not sure how feasible it would be, but my favorite games as a kid had interactive environmental effects that left a semi-permanent impact but didn’t serve any gameplay purpose apart from making the world feel real. It could be something simple like the algae/seaweed/barnacles blowing up into particles and disappearing when Mario punches them (sound design is key here), clouds of sand when you agitate some surfaces or interact with level elements, clearing out paths when you walk through areas lightly dusted with sand. These changes can persist until the player leaves the level. It serves a dual purpose: (a) it shows the player where they have and haven’t been, causing a very satisfying feeling when they’re lost and they finally find a new bunch of seaweed (think ore in Minecraft caves), and (b) makes the player feel like they’re having a real impact in the world, as though they could clean up the entire level if they wanted to. It would go a long way to achieving that “what if i were here?” feeling.
Those all sound feasible in theory, but I don't know much about the N64 so it may have some restrictions. Especially with the clearing a path through the dust part, that may not be possible.
4:20 Yes I have ideas. Have more things that are “broken”, like the bridges with crack splitting it into two, and even get the domes inside to have collapsed platforms and broken. The place looks much “too clean” to feel desolate.
Also have the lights flicker on or off, or even have the lights turn off completely until you have to fix the circuitry. It will actually feel abandoned if everything doesn’t work.
A secret village would be a decent idea. Not sure how it would work though.
Lastly, an underwater shell makes zero sense. Why not an oxygen mask and flippers? Come on.
I love that you gave so many shout outs to those who have helped it; getting good folks involved definitely has increased the quality. Stellar team!
thank you for everything you do for the community, you’re the best man!
0:59 - Kaze was probably reading this whilst saving a gazillionth of a microsecond by saving 1 instruction loading the game.
Woah i love the world design here, it's just so mysterious and fantastical, it really gives the ''placeness'' vibe you are talking about, how the containers you go inside are multi colored, or how the entire city underneath is giant and bleak of colors, somehow it really stucks to the mind and doesn't run away from the m64 style, there's a lot to explore further.
Man, I love the added squash and stretch on Mario when he's jumping.
Wow, this is fantastic. I can imagine how beautiful would be to see the Zelda games with this work of art
This looks like an early Dreamcast game. Pretty impressive!
note that what he's showing here is on an emulator on PC, not how the game looks on a real Nintendo 64
And i mean the last part of the video is emulator footage not real hardware. The real hardware footage doesn´t look like a Dreamcast game at all.
@@jsr734 I could be wrong but I think they're talking more about the level of detail and quality of the lighting than they are the resolution
Except for the real N64's blurryness/low resolution, definitely.
@@sh-creative it´s evident. The low resolution and the low poly characters.
i've followed your project since day one, its so awesome!, keep it going!
Absolutely beautiful. You and your collaborators are just so talented. Bravo!
Kaze you are one of the best things to happen to the Super Mario 64 fan base, we love seeing your work.
Kaze hiring an artist and composer is basically an entire game studio in itself
I think you are doing a good job with the visuals. I like your emphasis on CLARITY and hierarchies of importance where it is needed. The bright colors of the domes make them stand out and they are color coded so it is easy to keep track of which you have been in and which you haven't. Also the way the canopy with the star was lit up with a yellow glow to contrast against the cool grey blues helps guide the player toward that. Keep that design philosophy up
It's a small detail, but i really liked the drip into the pool creating a ripple effect. Keep up, Kaze! Ty so much!
I've never really played any rom hacks before, but I'll definitely play this. The amount of effort you're putting in to perfecting it is amazing. Also I'm noticing mario stretch and squish when falling and landing, is that new?
Yeah, it is
This is great. The amount of time and dedication you have towards this game and its engine is astonishing. Badub has also done great work on the soundtrack; where can I listen to the track you can hear throughout the video? It's super good!
hes uploading songs regularly to the soundcloud! soundcloud.com/user-746537853
@@KazeN64how is his music converted into something the console understands, and what software does he use to write for it?
Amazing. I know how much work went into this and it's crazy. Your amazing. Keep going
Thank you for sharing your journey! It's been a wild ride!
Keep up the awesome work, Kaze. You're carrying the whole SM64 community with your contributions and hacks! Looking forward to playing the final build of this game!
*Looking forward to playing
@@alvallac2171 Srry, english's not my main language
you better have a deadman switch that releases everything in case you get hit by a bus (driven by a nintendo employee)
Great work!! This is awesome. This is inspiring me to keep working on my game
Keep going, I love seeing these progress videos of your Super Mario 64 optimizations.
Will you make an optimized ROM of the vanilla after everything is finished?
He said in a video that he probably will, or he'll at least make the source code public so that anyone can look at it and isolate just the optimizations.
The emulator footage really showcases the fact that if it wasnt for the lower resolution that this version of the game has more in common with early gamecube or ps2 games than most n64 ones in terms of graphical fidelity, i dont really have the words to describe how impressed i am with this.
It would actually be so cool to see something like this for every game and console generation just to see how things could have been pushed but this kind of talent understanding and dedication is rare so it may be a long time or may never come who knows. All i can say is i appreciate your content immensely for doing something that truly only you have done, you're a legend in my eyes.
I really like that there is a footage logo. But why isn't it in the side borders, but obscures some contents? The low resolution shows that the texture cache had the correct size. All those 4kB-are-not-enough morons show HD captures from an emulator.
AND A FULL TIME JOB?!? Dang dude thats intense, keep up the good work
your levels are ludicrous! Can't believe this is sm64 i used to play. So creative, so beautiful!
Can you run the vanilla SM64 at 120fps with the n64? Jokes aside, this is impressive stuff.
the n64 has a hard limit of 60fps hardware-wise unfortunately
I know you're more of a Mario 64 guy, but I watch these videos and always wonder how much juice you could squeeze out of the Ocarina of Time engine.
That game ran at like 17fps in some parts on the EU version.
He made The Missing Link, a popular OoT romhack. Framerate is still low 20s but it's a lot of fun
It's not the same as native N64 optimisation, but the Ship of Harkinian PC port of Zelda: OOT was phenomenal. Most fun I've had playing that game since it came out all those years ago.
The jank 17.3 or whatever the PAL version runs at is just how the game is, not "in some parts". That is because the game's base framerate is 60 and it gets divided by 3 for gameplay, which is 20. PAL obviously changes this to 50, which divides pretty awkwardly.
A fix should be possible. The game is as poorly optimized as any other early 3D game, so a solid 30 FPS should be easily possible to facilitate. Then we just change the divider value to 2 rather than 3 and we have clean results in both NTSC and PAL since it will divide to whole numbers in both(30 and 25 respectively).
Of course, then you gotta change all the framerate dependant code and animations to work with 30(and don't miss some things like OOT3D did), but that's rather obvious. Bonus points if you actually re-value the game to run properly in PAL rather than slower like usual, but the PAL speed is part of the retrogame charme at this point, lmao.
The development of this project has been amazing to follow, I'm always eager to see more!
This reminds me of the water level from Vexx (The Below). Looks great!
Also appreciated the mention of "placeness", which I feel is an underappreciated aspect in many 3D games.
Kaze will always be the example for what a romhacker should be instead of 'haha funni meme hack lolxd' anyone can spew stuff they read on a wiki, but it takes true intellect to be able to explain what he did to the engine and make it make sense. And what you say about the thought process on making courses, I am hyped for release.
This looks like a retro-style indie game with a modern engine! Or perhaps an early gamecube game emulated with a modern resolution (well, except the n64 footage, that's obviously at a lower resolution). It's seriously impressive.
How do you even find the time and energy to do this on top of a full-time job?
This is absolutely nuts from an engineering, historical, and plain crazy standpoint! Awesome work, and what an amazing homage to the legendary 64!!
This is some amazing work, I look forward to trying it out.
Guy with a German accent modifying a Japanese game with an Italian main character in with a great result.
Folks, they lied to us, the Axis powers are still alive an kickin butt
Dude, the music in the level is genuinely DREAMLIKE, you HAVE to release that. I really hope this hack has more atmospheric areas like this, undersea levels like this are some of my favorite themes in games, along with space levels, dream levels and futuristic city levels. Fingers crossed for a couple of those.
the squash and stretch is amazing (and of course everything else), I love this!
I love your work so much, everytime a pleasure watching the new improvements you've come up with and I'm happily waiting to load whatever you release onto my everdrive to enjoy on my N64
It always amaze me how much you manage to squeeze out of this N64!
Thank you for your amazing work!
My immediate thought of "cool things to add to the area" is a broken dome filled with water, the "abandoned" atmosphere often works to the desolate energy
What a spectacle! I'm so impressed with how this has come out!
This is phenomenal. So thankful that you and so many others have contributed so much to the SM64 modding community over the years. Keep up the great work!
Your work on this game is super inspiring! Thanks for sharing!
Been following you for a while now, and I am always amazed at the performance you manage to squeeze out of the hardware!
Can't wait to play this, looks amazing! And you're a wizard Kaze!
Great stuff! I've been following development for a couple years and I'm always floored with what I see.
I love this so much! Oh, my gosh! Just the update videos alone are a sight. Appreciate it.
As for music ideas, if you were to listen to the Pokemon ORAS OST for the Meteor Falls, you may be able to get some good inspiration for a deep atmospheric setting. The music itself usually fills be with mystery and dread at the same time.
Another good underwater soundtrack could be Atlantis from the Banjo-Tooie game. It sounds a bit more goofy and cheerful, not fitting for a liminal space, but it's a pretty good underwater OST.
You really do some pioneer work. I love it
Great video! A fun spooky thing for underwater is sunken manmade objects that wouldn't normally be in the water at all, like a car or a bike or even a shopping cart. things that show evidence of pollution or decay can evoke that feeling of unease, especially in an unfamiliar biome
While watching this, I notice that the Nintendo 64 is capable of a LOT of things if the Code is written properly. You've done an amazing job building the showcased levels and I'm looking forward in seeing more from you!
Amazing job bro i love what you are doing so much keep it up
I have never seen an N64 game with such sharp textures or runs so smoothly. Fantastic work!
This is awesome! It's unbelievable how you've managed to pull off these advances from Super Mario 64!
The overall environment of the level reminds me of Klonoa, and I really like that!
I cannot wait for another demo and the eventual release. It will be worth every agonizing second of waiting! The way you talk about designing this game makes me so happy because even as someone with very small experience making a game it's so clear for someone to know what makes a good game. Simply paying attention and having passion gives you a pathway to follow that leads to ideas exploding from your head. You should be proud, and everyone else helping out should be as well. You're all making something that would've never been made back when the N64 was still on the market.
god, i am so excited to see how this turns out!!! you are doing so much better now than your earlier hacks imho
you're a legend. an inspiration. like, MAN. this is all so cool.
*Really* impressive, keep up the great work!
The color choice for the deep sea area is great. Good job on making places.
this is so seriously impressive, insane job!
The level structure, level intro and the star goal strongly reminds me of Super Mario Sunshine. This looks absolutely amazing
....WOW. It's been a while since I've checked in and holy moly. You're hitting it out of the park mate. Thank you for your contribution to the N64 scene
Really excited to play this one day, this is a real labor of love and it shows.
Awesome that very talented people come together to create something incredible
Breathtaking work as per usual. Preservation, restoration and modification is the way forward!
I'm so glad you're still working on this, because it's looking better and better with every video you post! And thank you for respecting everyone's time by keeping the amount of busywork to a minimum.
(Busywork are tasks designed to keep someone busy, but have no real value, like a fetch quest chain or an escort side mission. Y'know, _chores_.)
Thank you for keeping my childhood alive
This looks so cool. I think the Aquatic Ambience theme from DKC in the SM64 soundfont would be absolutely perfect for this world.
To make your deep sea level feel more desolate, how about a smattering of algae, plants, and barnacles on the outsides of those buildings? Similar to what you'd find on a shipwreck. You can make it light or transparent enough to still see the color of the building (and see through the windows from the inside), but that bit of age would go a long way. A few deep sea creatures mozying through (anglerfish, sloan's viperfish, dumbo octopus) would be interesting too, creatures like that make you feel more separate from humanity.
The game looks amazing, by the way!
Loving this series so far. Community made projects are awesome in that they don't have to hit strict deadlines and release unfinished buggy trash as a result, so things can get polished to a mirror shine
I didn't even think about how all this is going towards a full game lol, I followed just for the technical stuff because it's really fun to learn about quirks of a particular system and hyperoptimizing for it :p
Placeness is so important. It's like opening a new fantasy novel and seeing a map on the first page. It adds so much.
Looking amazing and I can’t wait for the full release.
W vid, was recommended to me by my friend, looking forward to the full game release
I absolutely love seeing update videos
Thank you so much for sharing. I watched an analysis of a very old game called Elite by Alexander-the-ok which was also very fascinating. I really like hearing about the functionality, development and enhancement of older games.
You asked for suggestions for the atmosphere, so I was thinking all the rest of the time watching the video and I just saw everything I had in mind showing up, like the eel outside the glass, deep water creatures are scary and its inclusion there is great.
I REALLY really like the way that Mario stretches when you're descending in a jump. I think it'd be very satisfying if when he hit the ground he squished a little as well.
This is looking really good man!
my man is about to put mario sunshine on the n64 with this power
imagine how goofy it would be to run mario 64 at 144 fps at 1080p on real hardware
I totally get what you mean by "placeness". You want the level to feel like a particular location or environment, rather than just a collection of puzzles, platforms, and enemies. Like a level being a volcano, or a giant tree, or a factory. This is something that most Nintendo games do pretty well, and I think the Mario 64 engine is a great platform for that. I have the same design philosophy in my Grimrock II dungeon I'm making.
This project is very cool and impressive, and I'm excited to see how it turns out.
Basicly opposite of modern games. They first do the quests etc then build the world instead of building world first
This is absolutely incredible. I cant imagine the amout of work it took to do this. Awsome stuff.
*can't
*amount
*Awesome