Hey!
I am kinda new to SM64 COOP. There are technical things I don't understand much. So my questions are: what are the limitations for making a level?
I was wondering how hard it is to make a map so I gave Fast64's level exporter a chance. Short reading, figuring out the structure... loaded the game, level with a simple plane... It worked! Oh, wow. So I messed around with material, vertex coloring, then added enemies, a terrain, caves, all improvised and I have no idea if it'll be ever a real map, probably just a mess of improvised things. But how far can I go?
TL;DR, the question:
-How large a level can be?
-Triangle limitations?
-How to optimized? Do I need to split the map into multiple meshes? What are the recommendations for this? Does SM64 only support frustrum culling?
-How heavy vertex colored world? That's what I want to rely on instead of default lighting. It's so pretty!
-Can I make certain parts of the level darker? Like entering a cave the entities should be darker.
-Is it possible to add dynamic lighting? I know mods that apply dynamic vertex lighting, again, pretty!
-Will I suffer performance penalty if my map is much more complex, detailed than a real N64 SM64 map?
-Texture limitations? I know the size limits mostly, I tried to use Color Index 4 texture mostly, sometime intensity ones and vertex color them for variety or just simply for adding color to them. Mostly using 32x32, sometimes 64x64 textures. I keep TMEM usage often below the maximum per texture.
-Any clever ways to split the map into areas? Talking about areas, I see Fast64 made Area 1 where I build my stuff in. What are areas exactly in SM64 term?
I am kinda new to SM64 COOP. There are technical things I don't understand much. So my questions are: what are the limitations for making a level?
I was wondering how hard it is to make a map so I gave Fast64's level exporter a chance. Short reading, figuring out the structure... loaded the game, level with a simple plane... It worked! Oh, wow. So I messed around with material, vertex coloring, then added enemies, a terrain, caves, all improvised and I have no idea if it'll be ever a real map, probably just a mess of improvised things. But how far can I go?
TL;DR, the question:
-How large a level can be?
-Triangle limitations?
-How to optimized? Do I need to split the map into multiple meshes? What are the recommendations for this? Does SM64 only support frustrum culling?
-How heavy vertex colored world? That's what I want to rely on instead of default lighting. It's so pretty!
-Can I make certain parts of the level darker? Like entering a cave the entities should be darker.
-Is it possible to add dynamic lighting? I know mods that apply dynamic vertex lighting, again, pretty!
-Will I suffer performance penalty if my map is much more complex, detailed than a real N64 SM64 map?
-Texture limitations? I know the size limits mostly, I tried to use Color Index 4 texture mostly, sometime intensity ones and vertex color them for variety or just simply for adding color to them. Mostly using 32x32, sometimes 64x64 textures. I keep TMEM usage often below the maximum per texture.
-Any clever ways to split the map into areas? Talking about areas, I see Fast64 made Area 1 where I build my stuff in. What are areas exactly in SM64 term?