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GoldenEye Setup Editor V3 and 8 Meg GoldenEye Release!
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SubDrag
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 PostPosted: Sun Aug 02, 2015 5:39 pm    Post subject: GoldenEye Setup Editor V3 and 8 Meg GoldenEye Release! Reply with quote Back to top

http://www.goldeneyevault.com/

Two major updates today for the world of N64 Level editing and GoldenEye. One is the release of Version 3 of the GoldenEye Setup Editor with many new features and even three new games. The second, is the release of an 8 meg version of GoldenEye, that allows full advantage of the 8 meg of RAM by Zoinkity!
There are more great things in store, so keep checking back, and enjoy these gems.

GoldenEye Setup Editor V3:
The GoldenEye Setup Editor was originally released not quite 10 years ago, in October 25th, 2006. It was the culmination of early work, to edit coordinates in the Runway level, of a tool I had initially called the Runway Setup Editor. Compression was brute-forced, and there wasn’t much to it. With the help of Zoinkity and Wreck and all the GameSharking greats of the past, this blossomed into an advanced, full blown setup editor. That was version 1, which much effort was spent to get the GoldenEye Setup editing accurate, but it didn't include a desired visual interface.

A year or two later, I came out with the GoldenEye Setup Editor Version 2, which added a long-awaited visual interface. I also launched my own "spin-off" web site from the Rare Witch Project called GoldenEye Vault, to showcase all the exciting new levels created and host the ever improving editor. Slowly over time, the editor got more and more powerful. There was even an attempt to add Perfect Dark, though the initial version was lost in a hard drive crash. I released what I had done, called it something like "PerfectDarkEditorNeverToBeFinished", and went back to GoldenEye. This likely proved (though frustratingly) to be a blessing in disguise. Instead of dividing my efforts between two editors, the GoldenEye editor progressed a lot, and when I got back to Perfect Dark later, it wasn't thousands and thousands of hours to make a new Perfect Dark as I had thought, as it could be incorporated into the GoldenEye editor, instead of its own separate code base. Over years and years, the editor slowly got more powerful, allowing editing models, better support for levels, sound editing, midi editing, most recently animations, and even modelling tools such as a UV editor!

I had been asked before, what would it take to get to "Version 3" of the editor? Was it not enough to add models, animations, light sources, etc? From version 1 to 2, the major version jump had been the addition of the visual interface. Then it stayed at version 2, for almost 8 years. Finally, today, I release version 3, where I finally upgrade the major version, since I have added multiple new games, combined with the many new features that together take the editor to the next level. Special for version 3, is also the ability to “skin” the editor itself, with built-in versions that enhance the look and feel of each game, created by Trevor.

Version 3 adds a lot of great new powerful core GoldenEye/Perfect Dark editor features (such as improved guard visualization, model editing, orthographic view, etc), and then early support for Diddy Kong Racing, Mickey Speedway USA, and Jet Force Gemini (initially really just added to do some research and curiosity, but turned out to be functional). What are you waiting for? Go check out the new features and full details at the V3 Editor page.

8 Meg GoldenEye Patch:
As for the 8 meg patch, this allows for bigger levels, more objects, more variety, more textures, etc. It was made with Goldfinger 64 in mind, but it can benefit everyone right now. Once patched, the ROMs memory allocations can be increased in the 21990 Game Configuration editor, far beyond the original allocations. It works by allowing GoldenEye’s data to shift beyond the 4 meg range. It’s quite a technical achievement, and involves significant assembly code modification and extensive testing. This very exciting advancement can allow for many possibilities and expansive creation, and is compatible with V3 of the GoldenEye Setup Editor. Things that may have seemed impossible, now become possible.
 
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Sogun
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 PostPosted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 2:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Congratulations on its release!

The Editor just gets bigger and bigger. You should be running out of ideas Razz
There are lots of new features that appeared in the v2 and you didn't mention. Aside from the lighting sources mode, which makes levels look sooooo much better if used correctly, my favourite feature is to be able to cut the polygons with an ortho plane of your choice, then move the vertices with a single click of mouse. It's something you don't even see in many professional modeling tools, and it helps a lot when you need to split a part of the level in more rooms in order to improve performance or to fix flickering decals.

And there's my so long waited DKR support! Very Happy
I wish some day that editor brach gets as powerful as the GE and PD ones. It may be a simpler game than the other two, but the possibilities are enormous.


Thank you so much for your hard work, SubDrag and the people that made it possible!
 
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Kerr Avon
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 PostPosted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 7:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Thanks for these, but does '8 Meg Goldeneye' mean that the game can now use the expansion pak (the 4MB add-on, that Perfect Dark uses)?

I mean, the text says "Expansion pak support extends the engine to detect and use the 8MB expansion pak when present. The memory will be allocated using the usual method internally and invisibly to the user.
It also provides a different TLB manager that is significantly more efficient than the original.", but every expansion pak I've ever seen, including the one in my N64, is only 4MB, do you mean the 4MB pak + the 4MB RAM in the N64?

I'm looking forward to trying out the new editor when I get home!
 
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EternallyAries
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 PostPosted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 7:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Oh man, this is awesome Subdrag. I've been waiting for a huge release for a long while. Can't wait to try this bad boy on my fresh installed Windows 7 haha. Glad to finally see this reach version 3 though, been a long time since a release.

I do have a question about the 8 Meg option for Goldeneye though. Does this mean Multiplayer 4 player splitscreen won't slow down as much in modded/vanilla Goldeneye? If so that would be fantastic and a note worthy patch for those who play a smooth 4 player game haha.
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acceptable67
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 PostPosted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 8:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Nice to see this released. Smile
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Wreck
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 PostPosted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 1:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Very happy to see another big release of The Editor. This has grown so much since just being able to make small changes to one mission in GoldenEye, to now supporting - count them - FIVE different games! I'm quite exicited for Diddy Kong Racing. It was a great game, which deserves some attention on the modding side. I may even have to spend a little time on it myself.

I don't think the memory expansion would really help with framerate in multiplayer, though I could be wrong. It should help to reduce the black outs you would encounter when too many rooms were loaded at one time through the different player view ports. However, that may possibly affect the framerate moreso, as now it's actually drawing even more. I think the biggest upgrades this gives the user, is the ability to utilize more textures, both within a background file and the number of unique models used in a setup file, and also it may increase the total amount of rooms a background is capable of having. You'd need to ask Zoinkity or Sub about any changes to the performance, though.
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bmw
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 PostPosted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 4:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

I'm going to use my modding powers for the first time in some time and convert this to an announcement thread, since it totally deserves it.

The 8 meg upgrade is a huge advance as I remember the texture limit being somewhat of a limiting factor when I created my Library mission. This will be especially useful for increasing the number of guard models and vehicle models which both use quite a bit of texture memory.
 
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MRKane
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 PostPosted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 7:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Holy cow that's incredible! That's a really really stunning list of tools you've wrapped together there! I am going to have to get a PC to run this!!!!

...and somehow buy you a beer...
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G14Classified
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 PostPosted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 9:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

I just passed by to say how grateful we are to have not only talented programmers but programmers who have a true passion for dissecting understanding and manipulating such an obscure and notoriously difficult piece of hardware that is n64. I take it most of you guys are Gen X gamers like myself.

I just wanted to thank you, for keeping my teen N64 gaming dreams burning bright after all these years.


you guys are at the vanguard of N64 hacking. The last of the great consoles.
 
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zoinkity
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 PostPosted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 5:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

The bottleneck for framerate is the graphics pipeline. RDRAM doesn't much help the RDP process lists.

The 8MB patch allows the game to detect the total amount of RDRAM installed. It gets thrown into the general memory buffer like all unallocated memory.

What the 8MB does for an unmodded game: not a whole lot.
The TLB management feature though does give a minor improvement to gameplay by preventing unnecessary code DMA. There's a buffer in memory where they load code during play, and this gets assigned a random TLB entry as needed. The problem is they were filling the buffer randomly as well, so it would shuffle code in and out of memory even though, during gameplay, the buffer is large enough to hold all the code they'll ever run.
The fix changes the behaviour. When a block of code hasn't been loaded it puts it into the next slot in the buffer. When assigning TLB addresses it looks first at the code that's been loaded, then loads a block if it isn't found.
You'll still be DMAing music and stage resources, but...

What it allows modders to do: use larger allocations and shove more stuff in.
So, say you're a modder and want to make an Archives Backzone map, but you're concerned about the blackouts. Raise the vtx allocation for the map! More rooms can now be loaded at once. Silo MP unplayable? Raise the allocations! Want Oddjob, Mayday, Samedi, and Jaws to all come at you in Runway? You'll have the memory to load all those textures at once now. You could, given the room, load all of a stage's rooms at once--PD style.

It can also be used as the backbone for other mods. For instance, increasing the size of the framebuffers, or making extensions for the room and object lists. GoldFinger64 already implemented an object extension so it's no longer bound by the ~1000 object limit.
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bmw
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 PostPosted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 5:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Have any hard numbers been figured out yet as to exactly how high the texture values can be raised to?
 
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PaRaDoX
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 PostPosted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 6:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

I wasn't around when version 1 or 2 was released, I think I started lurking the forums around when Perfect Dark finally got a visual editor(before I actually made an account, it's been so long so I might be wrong).
Usually I still lurk and barely post anymore and don't even try to mod the game anymore but I still come here and read the progress on the stuff you guys make.I think it's great to be around to witness the birth of Version 3.

Everyone involved in this project and this great website, thank you.We are a few of the communities that are still active and don't abandon projects, which is something ...dare I say it... Rare to see nowadays.

I will continue to watch as I love GE and PD, hoping for more advancements in PD modding though, you guys won't believe the nostalgia that that game gives me.

Cheers ~

Paradox
 
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Dragonsbrethren
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 PostPosted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 7:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Congrats on the release! Never thought you'd be supporting even more games. Very Happy
 
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zoinkity
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 PostPosted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 4:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

bmw wrote:
Have any hard numbers been figured out yet as to exactly how high the texture values can be raised to?


Since textures are allocated in clumps of 0x400 I'd assume you can increase them by 4096.
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Ami
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 PostPosted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 5:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

If I update it would I lose all my original work or may I be able to simply reinsert it again?
 
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