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Kuribo64 is officially closing its doors
Posted on 06/04/2012 17:06:04 by Mega-Mario
Recently, a new category of people has started to show interest into this place. The good new is that it has been long since Kuribo64 last got activity. The bad new is that...

... said category is spambots.

To prevent the place from falling into excessive spam and chaos, I decided to put both blog and board into read-only mode. That is, registrations are closed, and existing users can still log in, but they can't touch stuff anymore.

SM64DS hacking is officially dead too. Noone gives a shit.
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Kuribo64's new world domination plan
Posted on 04/22/2012 20:51:16 by Mega-Mario
At some point I talked about Rayman Origins. Well, I don't think I'm going to try hacking it. From what I could see, this game is a mess, and levels are nothing like NSMBWii levels-- I think they're made of premade ground blocks, and modifying that would be a pain.

However, I may very well be looking into Super Mario Galaxy games. Maybe I can get something interesting done. My goal would be to get some 3D editing interface working, like what SM64DSe has. Except the SMG models are more complex and better defined, so I may need a more performant renderer, and perhaps another method of detecting user interaction with the 3D scene... we'll see.

As for SM64DSe, well... given the interest it gets, I guess I'll just let it die. I already hear you whining 'nooo dont stop sm64dse i fully support it i want moar releases'. The code is in a SVN repo at Google Code, so if someone is truly interested in SM64DSe they can always get the code and mess with it. I may be committing changes from time to time too, but for now I lost motivation to work on it so don't expect anything.

Now about this site. If I do make changes to it, I'll be upgrading the board to the latest ABXD version-- lots of changes have been happening since version 2.2.2 (what the board is currently running off). And the blog will be remade too, I'll scrap this very software and instead use the BlogXD plugin so that the blog will finally be integrated well with the board.
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So in the end SM64DSe isn't dying
Posted on 02/05/2012 18:47:47 by Mega-Mario
Instead of just discontinuing the project and throwing the source at the internet, I decided to create a SVN and put the code there, so that interested coders can contribute.

http://code.google.com/p/sm64dse/

Though, there is no guarantee that you can use the code in the SVN to get a working build.

Dirbaio, from the NSMB hacking scene, already joined us. If you feel like joining, show me a patch of yours, and if your code is good, I may add you.
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One year minus three days.
Posted on 02/04/2012 14:48:58 by Mega-Mario
Exactly 362 days.

This is how long ago the last SM64DSe release was.

I realized that motivation kinda fell down. The issues with the model importer are the most annoying of all.

Instead of just letting people waiting for a new release forever, I'm considering discontinuing the project and releasing the source code so that interested people can continue it if they feel like it.

When reading that, you may be going to say "but hey, I'm interested in this, but I can't code". Well, there's no reason you can't learn. If you're really interested in this project, there are a lot of C# tutorials out there you can follow. Documentations on SM64DS are linked in a thread on the board. There's stuff about the level format and BMD/BCA/KCL fomats, whatever is missing can be learnt from the editor's code. And if in doubt, there's always Google.

This site will be kept running so that SM64DSe can still get its object database (unless potential successors reprogram it to download from another site). I might even offer moderator/administrator roles to good, trustworthy people (don't ask: if you're asking, you're not one of those).

However, I'm still unsure what to do. Keep this in mind: SM64DSe isn't discontinued until I explicitly say so.

If SM64DSe ends up being discontinued, here's a list of what needs to be finished:
* model importer. There are annoying precision issues. This is my number one motivation killer. More generally, I'm fed up of that fixed point bullshit. Can't wait to do some hacking on 3DS software.
* path editing
* object-specific parameters. The ODB has some support for them but imo it needs to be redone.
* and of course more features have to be added.
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SOPA/PIPA must not pass
Posted on 01/16/2012 23:18:57 by Mega-Mario
If any of those bills pass, it will be the end of the internet as we know it. Basically, the American government will be able to censor any site they don't like by removing them from search engines and removing their DNS entries.

Kuribo64 will be following the internet blackout move of the 18th to protest against those.

Kuribo64 is operating on GMT time. This may not be right, but who cares if we're one or two hours off, the effect mostly remains the same.

You may wonder, why are we following the move, since Kuribo64 is so tiny that throwing an ice cube in the ocean would probably have more effect. Well, SOPA and PIPA must not pass, and the most that gets done, the best it is. Also, if the bills pass, Kuribo64 may be a target of the censorship bullshit since it's about ROM hacking.

On a side note, it'd be funny if we unexpectedly got blackout'd before time due to our host (bplaced) also following the move... we'll see :P
Speaking about that, database backups have been taken, just in case they don't like my position on SOPA/PIPA. We're all aware of GoDaddy's case...


By the way, I made the blog use GMT time instead of server time, so that it is consistent with the board. Though, there's no timezone setting... I should work up the blog/board integration better, really...

Speaking about SM64DSe, well, not much is being done, real life getting in the way, argh.

The model importer is being worked on. I have no idea how to overcome certain precision issues (fixed point is ack), but I know that some issues are caused by abuse of small polygons. Models should be kept low-poly enough. I may code a polygon simplifier for cases with several triangles that can be merged, though.

And well, I'll keep looking. Nintendo managed decent precision with their maps, so there's no reason I couldn't as well.

There are also some issues that will be hard to debug. Like one weird issue with vinnyboiler's Block Fort model (the one I use in my videos), where the green block shows up yellow ingame for some weird reason. Must be some weirdass texture allocation problem, because the model looks alright in SM64DSe's level renderer.

Another, more annoying issue, is an issue that's shared with SM64 hacking: due to the way the DS maps texture coordinates, if a texture on a polygon repeats too much, texture coordinates become too large to fit in a 4:12 fixed-point number, and the result looks, uh, bad. I currently have a workaround that consists into reducing the texture coordinates until they fit, and then using texture scaling. Unfortunately, this only works well on emulators (and in SM64DSe's renderer). It gives no change on the hardware because the DS does texture scaling with the same shitty 4:12 precision as everything else and therefore overflow still happens >_<

The only solution left for that issue will be to split large polygons into smaller polygons. I can either have SM64DSe do that automatically, at the risk of it going wrong and generating too many polygons, or rely on the user to not make oversized polygons, and let them be surprised if they don't take care...


Well, perhaps you didn't even understand half of all that geekspeak. All that matters is that I'm having annoying trouble on the model importer side. And when there are issues I fail at fixing no matter what I do, that makes me lose motivation :(
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And here it is, 2012
Posted on 01/02/2012 13:40:21 by Mega-Mario
Time to look at the past year and take resolutions for this year...

* take more time to complete SM64DSe for a release
* improve Kuriblog (aka the software this very blog is running off) and potentially release it
* be a better student less of a lazy fat ass
* and the usual crap

Motivation to work on SM64DSe isn't high atm, I must admit. Its little regain of attention may help, but when I see certain parts of the code, I think that they need to be refactored, but I have no idea how to proceed, where to start, and I lose motivation. This always happens to me with large, ambitious goals. I should set myself smaller goals so that I'm sure to reach them...

It seems that projects of SM64DS hacks are surfacing. For example, here is a video of a promising hack by youtube user Skelux: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YucorKCM_dg (I would embed it but Kuriblog filters <iframe> tags out for security reasons).

I should also work on Kuriblog. For example, add a [youtube] tag to fix the aforementioned issue. And separate the blog part from the ODB so that it doesn't require hacks prior a release. And finish coding the software itself... it needs more AJAX, and perhaps a post toolbar (right now there's nothing to suggest that comments accept BBCode).

Perhaps I should make some new themes for the blog and the board, too. Themes that wouldn't look like an Acmlmboard for once. Or retro-ish themes. Or themes with a completely different disposition of the site (but that wouldn't be easy as most of the site's layout is hardcoded).

And I should steal Acmlmboard add smilies, too. That has always been lacking...

Speaking about the site, I made kuribo64.bplaced.net redirect to kuribo64.cjb.net. The bplaced domain was supposed to act as a fallback in case there was a problem at CJB, but well, idk if many people are aware of that... and search engine bots kept indexing the bplaced domain even though I changed all the links I could to link to the cjb domain. Hopefully a forced redirect stops this madness. Now Kuribo64's address is kuribo64.cjb.net, period.


Kuribo64 wishes you a happy new year (one day late) :)
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Might Kuribo64 start working on Rayman Origins?
Posted on 12/27/2011 01:42:13 by Mega-Mario
Recently, I got Rayman Origins for Wii, and started playing it. I first thought that the game was going to be retarded trash like all those RAVING RABBIDS!!!1!1!111 titles... turns out I was wrong. The game is really nice, brings back some nostalgia from the previous Rayman games, and features a nice cartoonish graphics style.

Rayman Origins is also quite interesting on the technical side. Structure-wise, it has several similarities with NSMB Wii, namely, world maps (except that they are 2D as opposed to 3D), 2D scrolling levels, rotative ground blocks (reminded me of NSMBWii's rotation controller sprites), small rooms where you have to defeat several enemies, hidden rooms/warps (probably via a layer system similar to NSMBWii's)...

I figured that the game may have a nice hacking potential. So, why not, let's open it and look into it, see if we can make an editor for it!

Once I'm done getting the game on my computer (through totally legal means), I will start looking into it. I hope that it atleast uses files for its level data. SM64DS, with its hardcoded level data, is really ugh... and I lack proper tools and knowledge for disassembling/ASM hacking Wii ISOs, unlike for NDS ROMs... so let's cross our fingers.
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Kuribo64 wishes you a Merry Christmas!
Posted on 12/24/2011 13:29:46 by Mega-Mario
Sadly, we have no new version of SM64DSe for you. Yesterday, it was all packaged and ready for distribution, but malicious elfes broke into Kuribo64's basement and stole it.

Speaking seriously, I didn't have many time to work on SM64DSe. Mainly real life taking a lot of time. Also motivation falling because when I look at SM64DSe's code, I think that it needs to be refactored but I have no idea where to start, how to proceed etc...

Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! :D
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The deadness...
Posted on 09/08/2011 18:46:12 by Mega-Mario
You may have noticed that nothing was happening recently. Well, there are several factors contributing to this. There is, of course, summer holidays ending. We all wish that those lasted longer :P

Also, there is the new 3DS hacking scene that came with the arrival of the 3DS. The 3DS must have a nice homebrew/emulation potential, so I'm getting excited by the 3DS hacking scene... can't wait for 3DS homebrew... and in the meantime SM64DSe isn't coding itself, sadly.

However, I have some plans for adding features. First of all, I figured a way of adding filenames to the game's 'internal ID to filename' table, which will be required for decent minimap editing. I also found some data about the act selector. Though, hacking that thing is going to be limited, because it is hardcoded for a certain number of entries (15 courses + non-course levels). I could modify the code to add more space, but save data has to be taken into account too, and oh shit all that crap is getting too complicated for my little brain.

I failed to find where the IDs of the messages shown by the act selector are stored, but I may just implement some basic message editing so that the level/act names can be changed anyway. On a related note, I had a look at the message IDs used by the signpost objects and such. Well, guess what, those don't directly refer to message entries in the message data files. Of course, that'd have been too easy. Nintendo had to make it nonsensely weird. I'm not done reverse-engineering that annoying shit yet, another task I have to complete.

And there's still the goddamn path editing I have no idea how to implement, and assigning per-texture collision behaviors in the model importer, and the model exporter... blah.

Long story short, don't expect the next SM64DSe release anytime soon :(


(on an unrelated and more optimistic note, yay! Kuribo64 got over 10000 hits! and over 1000 googlebot hits)
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A little update...
Posted on 08/10/2011 01:04:28 by Mega-Mario
Chances are high that SM64DSe's next release will be v2.0 final. I can't be releasing countless betas indefinitely. It will feature what I wanted in 2.0 but didn't add before the beta releases due to lack of time or not knowing how to do it. And I'll try to improve that model importer again.

As for lolSnes, well... I don't know if that thing is going to go far at all. Implementing the line renderer I thought of, would take almost all of the ARM9's power, leaving few for the CPU emulation itself. I may instead go with faster rendering methods that wouldn't support stuff like screen transitions.
Blah. The DS is really underpowered nowadays. Can't wait for 3DS homebrew-- coding for the 3DS must be awesome. That console has a nice emulation potential (and a screen that is finally large enough to fit a SNES's video output). Perhaps it could emulate a N64 or a PS1, with a well-optimized emulator... we'll see what time reserves :)
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