GTP will be recoded for the Nintendo 64!

Post by **marshallh** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 5:08 pm

After a lack of activity, I've found I have little interest in continuing this project in Visual Basic.
But, I enjoy coding in C for the N64, so Grand Theft Portable will be targeted at the N64 platform now. This means all the work I've done will have to be re-created, but it will be more fun for me.

Advantages:

Since the final product will be a N64 rom, there are a number of ways someone could play GTP.
- On a real N64 with a Doctor V64 or similar backup device
- On a N64 emulator for Windows, Linux, or Mac
- On a N64 emulator for the PSP
- And, the code will be in C. Guess what? a GP2X version, that's what!

That's FOUR different ways you could play it! Talk about cross-platform!

Disadvantages:

- Less graphical detail (meh, who cares about graphics, it's the game right?)
- Game size restriction (game must fit in 16mb or 32mb of space)
- I don't know how to do audio on the n64 yet. I'm working on a modplayer though.

And everyone said, "Amen!"

XPCportables · Post by **XPCportables** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:07 pm

yay! this will be super cool! but wait, C cant be compiled to a windows exe? fForgive me, I don't know much about programming beyond Dark Basic.

EDIT: also, I thought that you could rip it to a real N64 cart. Is that not possible?

Post by **Triton** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:27 pm

why such a small filesize? cant n64 support romsizes up to like 256mb or 512 for games like dk64?

XPCportables · Post by **XPCportables** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:42 pm

I thought DK64 was 64mb

Post by **bicostp** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:43 pm

Are we using the same units here? I think he was talking about megabytes (1024k), not megabits (whatever they are

)...

So it will run on:

A real N64 (duh)
Windows
Mac
Linux
Unix
BSD
Basically any other OS and hardware that can handle N64 simulation
PSP

GTPp!

Post by **gannon** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:43 pm

I guess the n64 can't access more than that without banking?

Post by **Triton** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:51 pm

wait nm, i think they have a max of either 64 or 128mb rom sizes, coulda swore that som e n64 roms were bigger than that, musta been thinkin psone or something lol, lemme check some stuff

edit: checked emuparadise rom sizes, most seem to be in the 20mb range with RE2 topping the list of ones i looked at at 62mb, its the playstation roms that are fecking huge

Post by **marshallh** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 9:06 pm

Nintendo 64 roms (or any other rom) are usually measured in megabits. So, a 256Mbit ROM like Zelda 64 or DK64 are actually 32MB when stored on a computer. Yes, only 32 megabytes.

But that's plenty of space, for a game like GTP that won't have near as much game data as any of the big-name N64 games.

Neoflash is also currently producing a N64 flash cart, and it'll probably be fairly cheap. It's about the size of a regular cart, so we can all play GTP on our portable N64s!

The one major hurdle with N64 graphics is the limited texture cache. Each texture is loaded into the cache while it's being rasterized by the RDP. This cache is only 4kb (Four kilobytes)! Yes, that's right. With mip-mapping, this is reduced to only 2kb! This means each texture can only be drawn at a maximum of 32x32 or 16x64 etc. That's small.

But hey, it's a challenge. Why not?

Post by **Triton** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 9:33 pm

i read in the wiki that it was 64x64 with mip mapping, there are ways to tweak it like they did for starwars battle for naboo and conkers bfd to eitehr use lots of small testures to mimic a higher rez texture, im still totally diggin this and just seeing my car rendered on n64 on a tv is kickass, i woud buy one of those neoflash carts just to play gtp, i hope those come out soon!

Unidentified Assilant · Post by **Unidentified Assilant** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 11:34 am

A very not so good idea...

EDIT: Oh well I can dump textures, use them in my No Mercy save and beat the crap out of GTP characters as The Sandman

sammy · Post by **sammy** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 6:02 pm

Triton wrote:i read in the wiki that it was 64x64 with mip mapping, there are ways to tweak it like they did for starwars battle for naboo and conkers bfd to eitehr use lots of small testures to mimic a higher rez texture, im still totally diggin this and just seeing my car rendered on n64 on a tv is kickass, i woud buy one of those neoflash carts just to play gtp, i hope those come out soon!

Ok, first of I'm not trying to insult marshallh. BUT marshallh is not Factor 5.
CBFD used several layers of textures to increase the depth in color and the filling, and Rogue Squadron/ Battle for naboo used something really special for there textures. I think Rare made a custom program with Âµcode for better results in texture. And Factor5 also wrote a tool that could choose the best texture seize. (wikipedia)

I mean, it would might be possible if marshallh were to have these tools but he doesn't (as far as I know). So it would be hard/impossible to become such results.

But it will be really cool playing the game on a N64! I really hope you pull this of. I would even be willing to pay for the actual rom.

EDIT: Have 200$ spare? link

daguuy · Post by **daguuy** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 5:21 pm

sweet, i'm gonna have to get one of those flash carts

. or you could make it for dreamcast so it'll work from normal CDRs and have less texture/speed/sound/size/everything limits

Unidentified Assilant · Post by **Unidentified Assilant** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 11:49 am

marshallh wrote:The one major hurdle with N64 graphics is the limited texture cache. Each texture is loaded into the cache while it's being rasterized by the RDP. This cache is only 4kb (Four kilobytes)! Yes, that's right. With mip-mapping, this is reduced to only 2kb! This means each texture can only be drawn at a maximum of 32x32 or 16x64 etc. That's small.

There was enough of that with No Mercy.

Thank god for Rice Deadlus and it's hi-res textures, if I was you, I'd do all the textures, then lower them by 400% for the game, then you could release the hi-res texture pack for anyone with Rice Deadlus and the emulators that support it.

Post by **Skyone** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:35 pm

So I guess my mockup N64 cart pushed you over the edge?

But seriously, I can't wait.

blackbox_dev · Post by **blackbox_dev** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 7:37 pm

A N64 port is nice but what I like about it is the PSP version! Maybe by the time it's done a 2.71 downgrader will have been done!

Also, for the PSP version will the EBOOT.PBP files be distributed in the 1.0 format, or the KExploit 1.5 (%) version?

Finally, on the N64 will the game require the expansion pak, or take advantage of the rumble pak/controller pak?