RDX: Sorry, I'm not planning to work on MIDI anytime soon, even though it would be the best format to use. Originally I thought that MusicXML would solve the problem of polyphonic parts, which is the biggest problem I can think of when reading MIDI files, but unfortunately it didn't work that well.
KDJewl: That star issue sounds like something you can work out by experimenting in TT64, if you handle it correctly then you should be able to use the 120 stars (I don't see why you would need more than that anyway). Ask the guys who are working on full scale hacks, they should know more about it than me.
By the way, what was the error message you got with the music hack enabled?
Getting back to the importer, I'm working on some interesting features for v16:
- Swap X/Z coordinates feature: this will correct orientation problems in models exported in SketchUp (free version) using the .obj exporter plug-in I provided. Someone called my attention that the models looks sort of "mirrored", which happens because of right-hand / left-hand coordinate systems differences.
As far as I've researched, Blender on the other hand uses the right-hand system (the same used in N64 and OpenGL) while SketchUp to use the left-hand one, in which axis directions are a bit different.
- Rotate the level model around Y axis: That is, rotating the model around itself. Doesn't sound like a big deal, however this is very important to get around camera limitations. The practical effect of this feature is great!
- Adjust brightness / color intensity: basically, making the level darker (by reducing RGB values globally) or adding a few effects, such as some sort of "sepia-like" effect. This works by simple changing the values loaded from the Display List commands 0x0386 and 0x0388, instead of changing texture data.
I'm also experimenting with a 3D "preview" function, with a box indicating level boundaries (and maybe Mario's size). Recently I downloaded the XNA framework, and fortunately loading a 3D model is really easy. It's all a matter of changing a few parameters to make it match the limitations of Mario 64, this way you could spot problems before importing it. But that will probably be for v17. |