How to make N64 graphics

Hello everyone,

so I want to make super mario 64 graphics on roblox but there’s no current way of doing it as far as I know.

are there any methods you know that are available?

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What exactly do you mean?
I’m pretty sure most of the game background could be done with Terrain and custom Textures.

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If you mean the models themselves, the closest you’ll get is making a low poly model in blender and making some low-res textures for it.

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im talking about the shading in the super mario 64 mostly the shaders and streched-looking textures.

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This game is a good example of what you want if I am thinking correctly.

What you could do is find a texture you want, and then decrease the resolution of the image. You can easily do this with Canva.

Before:

After:
Untitled design

Might be the best option.

@zKevin , how were you able to make the textures look like Nintendo 64?

Try turning the lighting technology to legacy, disabling GlobalShadows in lighting, and for every part in workspace disable CastShadows.
*To get the baked shading that many older engines used you’re probably going to need to hand-texture shadows on parts, and the shadows under dynamic objects could be a surfaceGUI with a gradient sphere image.

its all in the textures & tri limits
no texture is larger than 128x128
grass

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I already know that tri limit is important but how would you make the grass texture in robot 64 look that streched?

oh i just hand made them in paint net. i’d share the process but its generally just messing with a lot of effects.

Another thing that has been done for games like Cleaning Simulator and (I think) Super Cube Cavern is applying volume to the texture and using the Median tool to soften the image. Applying the “Edge Split” Modifier to a mesh can really define the edges of something like a sword for example. I don’t remember if something like this was possible at the time for the Nintendo 64, though.

zKevin has used Paint.NET for his textures in the past, and I’m pretty sure he still does.

What I would like to know though is how he gets his textures to tile almost seamlessly. The green texture that was provided looks and tiles really well despite being 128x128, so knowing how that’s done would help me with my own stuff. :stuck_out_tongue:

Perhaps you can share that part of the process, @zKevin?

Cool

I wouldn’t mind seeing this since I’m a geek for behind-the-scenes stuff, haha.

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get the Blend Seams plugin, its a real lifesaver. also yeah big fan of noise + median effect

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Alright, I’m going to be pretty thorough so brace yourself:

Lighting & Shading:
N64 graphics have no real shading to them except for vertex shadows. Disable the CastShadow property on dynamic or moving objects, or if you want to go the PS1 route, turn down the [sun] brightness and put the ambient to its brightest. Also delete all post processing effects EXCEPT for bloom which you need to set all values to 0, and Color Correction.

Set your lighting to Compatability to get the low-quality local lights and shadows, make sure to keep the Shadows property disabled on the local lights. If you want your colors to pop, use Voxel as it has LUT color boosting, though I don’t recommend this.

Ambient Occlusion is rendered on max graphics by default, so if you do intend to publish this game, put a disclaimer to have users set their graphics to 9 and not 10.

To fake shadows, AO, and bloom, you’re going to have to rely on textures and baked lighting. Add a drop shadow by placing a part with a decal attached to the character, keeping it as close to the ground as possible. AO will have to be baked into the textures itself, which you might want to do manually In a photo editing software, or bake vertex AO in a program like blender. Things like bloom and lens flares in the N64 era was by overlaying textures on objects and having them face the camera. You can do this with Gui’s or particles.

I’ve got more to add but I’m currently in school so I may make another reply here.

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will you be sharing an rbxl file with N64 style graphics so that I can learn easier and practice with it?

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I will, though I might have to explain the changes I made and what you would have to do to maintain that aesthetic. I’ll see to it as soon as I can.

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