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| Zelda64 bible; read | |
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| Topic Started: Feb 23 2016, 12:32 PM (3,400 Views) | |
| AriaHiro | Feb 23 2016, 12:32 PM Post #1 |
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A mentally drained friend
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Most may not know me but i've stuck around over the years. I never was really in the scene but behind them. some people are new here so i created a short autobiographical excerpt in my own perpective of how the community has changed throuought the decade, its been 10 years and rocky but im here to shed light and tell a brief anonymous history of the scenes downs. why are there two communities? why do people hate ura mods? those questions will be answered. if anything else its a entertaining story. https://www.dropbox.com/s/tlxm8fqriund89c/Zelda64%20Bible.txt?dl=0. I encourage people to tell their stories to educate the next generation modders and possibly software developers. Please, I know it's not entirely possible to stop drama due to the nature of this topic but please avoid all possible mudslinging. Drama KILLS communities. You guys are ok so far. Edited by AriaHiro, Feb 24 2016, 07:13 PM.
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| AriaHiro | Feb 23 2016, 08:06 PM Post #11 |
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A mentally drained friend
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i think no one told wayera spinout's place is dead. Xdan i remember looking forward to your tools |
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| xdaniel | Feb 23 2016, 08:12 PM Post #12 |
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Eh, it's probably dead, but spinout actually just updated SMF and MediaWiki (i.e. the forum and wiki software) this January, so who knows what they have in mind. |
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| sairugoth | Feb 24 2016, 02:01 AM Post #13 |
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Zelda Mapper
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My story starts back in 2012. I found the URA videos on YouTube and was extremely impressed by what I saw. The 22nd of November that year I joined the GCN. It was the first community of any kind that I ever joined. At that time I had no experience in anything 3D or code related at all, But I was very inspired by the URA, and I was pondering the thought of making my own mod. But even tho the thought accrued to me then, I didn't feel like I could ever go through with it or; if I did, I knew I couldn't stop until it was complete, no matter how long it took. Then one day in February a member named "Samurai" PM'd me, saying that my profile inspired him, and that he wanted me to join his mod "Legend of Zelda: Tainted Blade". (back then I would keep a typed log on my profile about the things that inspired me) I told him I had no experience in anything mod related, but he didn't care. He wanted me to join. So I told him I would try 3D modeling. Back then I hated SketchUp. I didn't know my Y axis from my X axis. I was so terrible at 3D modeling that I gave up on. And instead I tried to make a logo for "Tainted Blade". I made 3 or 4 different ones in all And I even made some textures for the mod. But somewhere around the end of May "Samurai" just stopped coming to the GCN. After Samurai left the GCN I decided to make my own mod. So I started practicing 3D modeling. And then later on I met "Spire" Who I discovered was one hell of a 3D artiest. We would talk from time to time, But Mostly I would ask for his opinion about my maps and how I could improve them. In June 16 2013 I announced my mod "The Sheikah's Apprentice". its almost been 3 years working on it now and theirs still a lot to be done on it. And I guess that's it. That's how I ended up here. |
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| CDi-Fails | Feb 24 2016, 02:17 AM Post #14 |
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Huh, didn't know you started the project in June! Third Quest and The Sheikah's Apprentice have basically been developed side by side then. It's cool to see how your mapping skills have grown, I remember seeing some earlier maps and your new ones are definitely way better! |
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| LordHexahedron | Feb 24 2016, 07:11 AM Post #15 |
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aka aaammmsterdddam aka a person who you've likely never heard of who never accomplished anything but posting mostly useless posts. As for the heated argument, I still stand by my point today - especially if we're talking about something a bit less feature rich (such as pre C++98), in any case that "a while" lasted for over half a decade, I hated you since several years when I got myself banned from Glitchkill and that's almost half a decade ago now, so I'd wager it lasted for ~6-7 years. (but we've already agreed that it was mostly a misunderstanding, my argument was never from a perspective of practicality but more a perspective of possibility - it's doable but not practical by any means unless you really want to write a custom compiler suite (hint: the time spent on that could be better spent on whatever you're writing). and as for Glitchkill's collapse, it's partly because of the IRC thing but also partly becuase the members that posted actively enough to keep it alive dropped off one after one, I was one of the last few to go (in the most immature way possible, at that - but such actions have been long since forgiven and the consequences long since dealt with, it's a story better left untold - or at least for another time and place) - I still drop in every now and then but since I don't have anything to say I lurk, there's around 2 active users or so and they don't post about anything I find interesting. As for my story; I'd share it but you'd be bored to death halfway through - it's neither interesting nor does it contain any valuable lessons, I never released a mod, I never came up with any groundbreaking new technique, I didn't even make GS codes - I amassed a lot of knowledge, shared it at times (but mostly just hoarded it) and now, several years later I have returned. Why have I returned? I don't even know myself, something about S.S ______ made me want to pick up the tool I was writing way back when, the tool that I'm now rewriting - the tool that'll likely never ever see the light of day because I'm notoriously lazy. My role in the zelda modding community has been one which is by now forgotten by most, and those who have not forgotten either do not remember anything meaningful (there isn't anything) or remember me as an immature [insert profanity of choice]. In any case, mostly posting to point out that you added a 'w' too many, it's "Andreawws!" not "Andrewwws" (it fundamentally doesn't matter however as I no longer use that handle, as evident from this post in itself) |
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| soulofdeity | Feb 24 2016, 01:46 PM Post #16 |
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oh, xdaniel and Andrewws just reminded me that I never got around to stating my accomplishments as far as modding goes. My first big project that I started was a tool called "Hylian Cartographer". The first version included a file manager fairly similar to GZRT and a patch manager. That one was written for an obsolete beta .NET runtime, and after I lost the source, it was completely trashed. A second version of it got quite a bit further, including the ability to load textured wavefront obj's and f3dzex objects, dissecting them into groups on pipeline sync instructions, and allowing you to hide or delete groups. I was working on gizmos for manipulating the meshes and writing a class that would map out the memory so that you could insert new data into unused space when my laptop died. I was multibooting Windows, Linux, and a hackintosh OS X at the time, so that probably had something to do with it. After that, I didn't work much on the project anymore. I ended up writing a tool called dlobj that sloppily converted display lists in zobjs into wavefront obj's, and some other tool which I think I called z64rip that sloppily ripped them to valve smd's. Then I wrote n64conv which converted files with the same file name format as those output by the texture extractor of ZRE (or was it ZLE2?) into targa *.tga files. After that, I wrote several tools called tga2i4, tga2i8, tga2rgba16, and tga2rgba32 that converted the files back into raw n64 textures. I was also working on a display list replacement mod at the time (I think it was to replace the megaton hammer with an iron knuckle axe). The orientation was wrong though, and I could never get spinout's display list converting tools to work, so I ended up writing a tool called dlpos that would let me position, rotate, and scale display lists directly (by offset) rather than having to extract them from the game, position them in a 3d modelling tool, convert back to f3dzex2, and reinsert. I then spent a long time studying n64 documentation, trying to figure out how combiner modes worked and miscellaneous stuff. I ended up writing a tool called fcint based on the gbi.h header in the official n64 sdk which would decompose hex codes for FC SET_COMBINE instructions into a formula. But some values in the formula actually overlap, so what it spit out often didn't make sense. Sanguinetti was working on a mod at the time and was having some annoying texturing issues; so a wrote a new version in MSHTML called TCM, which supported both composing and decomposing combiner modes and texture wrapping / clamping modes. I did some guessing at the time about the overlapping values as to which ones were valid, so the formulas it gave ended up making a lot more sense, but it still wasn't perfect. I ended up figuring out how alpha blending and multitexturing worked along the way though, and wrote a new program for fun called trololol that replaced the combiner mode of every display list in every zobj, zmap, and zscene with my own custom combiner mode that removed the texturing and coloring of the models, only keeping the alpha masking where it was used (pretty much turning the game grayscale). After poking around spinout's website, an idea came to my head about writing a tool that would use smart searching techniques to figure out which files were which, allowing you to mod any version of a zelda game. thus, z64dump was born. There was a bug with the decompression and extraction though, which I think carried on over to z64dump2 (which included the ability to detect which files were the gameplay keeps, and iirc, it makes a file listing). After that came my biggest accomplishment, the completion of the io_import_z64 plugin for Blender. It was able to rip fully textured and rigged models from the game. I was working on the animation when some guy called RodLima from the models-resource website (which I posted it on) picked it up and finished it first. The animation ripping was a bit slow though, and I had planned on trying to improve it and add support for proper color combining through glsl shaders, but never got around to it. One person who was particularly interested in it was someone from the Team Fortress 2 modding community. He was having trouble trying to find some files in the game, so I ended up writing z64dump3, such that it would organize all the files in the game into a hierarchical directory structure (eg. placing the zmaps into the same directory as their respective zscene files, and moving the gameplay keeps into the root directory after identifying them). I also wrote a tool for him called zobjfix that would append a hierarchy to the end of any zobj with limbs that point to all the display lists in the file (which made it possible to import models into Blender that weren't rigged with my script). As far as mods are concerned, I've: * replaced Link's head with a wolfos head (was going to do a full replacement, but got bored) * replaced the megaton hammer with the iron knuckle axe * ported the termina shield, hero bow, and hookshot from MM to OoT * ported the twilight realm from TP to OoT * imported a custom temple of time made in Minecraft into OoT * replaced the Hyrule Field theme music with the Dark World theme from LTTP * replaced the biggoron sword with Zangetsu (Ichigo's sword from the anime Bleach) * replaced the saddle on epona with 2 other saddles (the green one on the 'generic' horse, and the gerudo saddle) * ported the beta jumpslash to MM * ported the somersault, frontflip, and zora flip attack (aka. the backflip jump attack) from MM to OoT * did a custom shield retexture * wrote a music player assembly mod * found the player states that could hide or silence Navi * created "the best OoT GS code ever", a gs code that let you clip through floors, swim in the air, and let you perform the zombie hover from WW in OoT. * ported a lot of OoT debug rom documentation to the 1.0 U version * was the one who modelled and textured the custom enemy showcased by Flotonic's Hylian toolbox (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-wuxHBZBnM). I did have better pictures from before it was uploaded, but imageshack deleted all my stuff after they decided they were no longer going to be a free service * figured out how fire animations worked, including how to replace the burning effect on the logo in the title screen * started the community project for Unity Zelda64 game engine, which featured accurate shading, basic player controls, z-targeting, a full recreation of the hud and pause screen from OoT, animated skyboxes, and several maps imported from OoT and MM. I ended up leaving the project myself because it was too much of a pain to maintain due to Unity's lack of integrated version control and team management features. I never stopped development on it (it was open source), but the other people working on it ended up abandoning it not long after I did I think. Before I joined the modding community, I was the creator of a project known as Zelda - Fused Destiny. It ran on TP's graphics, had basic player controls with sword combos and the ability to use a bow, 3 enemies (spiders, wolves, and beamos), seamless transition between the different parts of castle town, hyrule field, and gerudo desert; and a hidden cutscene for Demora (Ganondorf wearing Majora's Mask) in the sacred realm. It originally began on zeldauniverse.net, branched off into it's own website (zeldafd.webs.com), and was the project was cancelled after I lost my home. To add further insult to injury, the demo's of the game were all uploaded onto MegaUpload, which got taken down by the FBI a few years back. Never was able o get motivated enough to reboot the project after that. Edited by soulofdeity, Feb 24 2016, 01:51 PM.
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| xdaniel | Feb 24 2016, 02:48 PM Post #17 |
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Minor additions to my history post, mainly regarding ZSO. One of the final incarnations of ZSO or ZC were the ZC Backup Boards on InvisionFree, which are still online [1]. These came up in early June 2008, after ZSO went down once again, possibly due to being hacked. Following these backup forums, things seem to have split somehow. By August 2008, there was a new Zelda Coalition forum set up at a new domain [2], which had lasted until mid-December of that year, when it was moved to yet another domain [3]. This incarnation was lead by Spexfox et al. and actually lasted quite a bit longer than I remembered; I was actually still around by February 2011 [4], although the site appears to have fizzled out during that year. There was also 64.vg [5], which was somehow related to the split I mentioned. This domain, at different times, hosted the Zelda Coalition wiki, the Z64 Station forums (I think headed by TS_Death_Angel or whichever name he went by at that point?), a blog by the aforementioned TSDA (or whoever it was) and/or various related and unrelated things. And finally, as a historical footnote, I was the 4th user to register on the original Zelda Coalition forums, as can be seen from the link to my profile in the archived code hacking thread I had linked to in my history post. [1] http://z4.invisionfree.com/ZSO/index.php? [2] https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://zelda-coalition.net/ [3] https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://zelda-coalition.com/ [4] https://web.archive.org/web/20110405015341/http://zelda-coalition.com/index.php?action=profile;u=39 [5] https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://64.vg/ Edited by xdaniel, Feb 24 2016, 02:48 PM.
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| Dagoth_Bob | Feb 24 2016, 03:50 PM Post #18 |
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Serious Z-Modder
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hihihi petr how dun yer day??? What a walk down memory lane. I was 14 when I discovered ZSO (24 now), though I contributed little (I played around with Cen's jump-slash animation modifier code and iirc the "notes" I took are on an old wiki somewhere around the web), and I was probably annoying considering my age at the time. I remember a lot of silly things about the community back then: SnowManZero's gratuitous use of "Encyclopedia Dramatica" articles as fitting responses to dumb shit people posted. I remember when JSA first appeared out of nowhere and began pumping out amazing things like the original ZLE, and everyone thought he was Cen using an alt. I remember when TS_Death_Angel (under the name ZZT32, I think) created one of (or was it the first?) alternate zelda hacking forums to ZC, which I want to say was under "z64.emedian.net". I believe this was when the first zelda64 hacking wiki appeared (which was just full of joke articles about the users on ZC). I stopped following the scene around that point because the drama killed the community somewhat. There was always a new thing for someone to bitch about, plus I had much more important teenager things to do lol. |
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| AriaHiro | Feb 24 2016, 05:28 PM Post #19 |
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A mentally drained friend
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The original idea behind this was to bring people together and not bash other members of the community. That's the whole reason I refrained from adding names or my accomplishments in the original document (Which are mainly fan project and documentation which has been expanded by other members). Drama is cancer. Ive been also been trying to keep backups of this. I want to leave the backups untouched and preserve their integrity. It's all about the experience. Learning, and self development alike. The community has shaped me to become a (mostly) respectful individual. Became very technically inclined. Learned problem solving skills. Became an above average 3D and 2D artist. And most importantly learned who to keep in my life. Edited by AriaHiro, Feb 24 2016, 05:45 PM.
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| xdaniel | Feb 24 2016, 05:51 PM Post #20 |
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I specifically avoided bringing up Cen, the ZFU fiasco, only mentioned ZSO being hacked in passing, etc. to not cause any more unnecessary drama. However, I do not think that flat out avoiding to mention names or your own accomplishments will help with that - on the contrary, I think that doing that is actually necessary, to a certain degree. And, honestly... May I quote you story really quick? "Ura has turned into a fan project with a new leader. This guys only claim to fame was a texture pack which any idiot in photoshop or gimp can do. I remember outlandish claims about the project. MP3 soundtrack in game. OOOOOOOOO. Custom Ai. Ahhhhhhhhhhh. Works on real hardware. Sold." or "It was a scam. He accepted thousands of dollars in Zelda fan hombre` money and bailed. It wasnt the other modders faults. But it gave the community a bad name." That's exactly what you're saying you don't want to see here, or does it make it okay just because you're not mentioning the person's (nick)name? |
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