I know a few people have complained about users not posting questions in the old general help thread. Here is the problem I have with those types of threads though; Questions can easily be buried among other questions and never get answered. With people making their own individual threads, their questions are going to more than likely be seen and answered. I mean, what is the point of having an entire forum dedicated to posting SM64 questions if you are only going to use one thread? Seems a bit silly to me. So I am turning this thread into a common question and answer thread. Here we can compile all common questions and answers in to one place so users can check them out here. I will leave this thread open, not for users to just post questions, but to help add common Questions AND Answers to the thread. I will then update the first post in the list with anything new added to the thread.
Link to Old Thread
http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=59070
Tutorials
Importing from Google Sketchup
Creating with Sketchup
How to create a PPF Patch or a BPS Patch
FAQ's [Jump to: General | Music | Textures | Models | Collision]
General
Q; How do I apply a patch to SM64?
A; Make sure you download a clean SM64 ROM before we go, It's your responsibility to legally do that. SMWCentral we not in any way supply you with any ROM's.
Firstly you must extend your ROM with VL-Tone's Mario 64 ROM Extender. After that apply the PPF patch on the extended ROM with PPF-o-Matic 3.0. The ROM should be loaded on the "ISO file" field and the .ppf file on the Patch field.
You'll have to change the "Default Memory Size" to 8MB. To do this, click on Options -> Settings -> Options and uncheck "Hide Advanced Settings". Click OK and now do Options -> Settings -> Advanced Settings -> Default Memory Size -> 8MB. The ROM should boot afterwards. If the emulator shows 2 warnings, it is caused by the hack creator not having recalculated the checksum - don't worry about it. Some romhacks require you to also patch some OBJ importer patches, for that, just load your rom into skelux' obj importer and click on the "OK" button a few times.
Q; Why does it say my ROM is invalid?
A; You need a USA SM64 ROM.
Q; Where do I get a USA ROM?
A; By searching this key word on Google "Super Mario 64 (U) [!]".
Q; My ROM won't open in TT64!
A; Open a regularly extended ROM and go into preference, and enable "Skip ROM Checksum".
Q; When I try to run my ROM I get a CIC chip error.
A; That's caused by some checks being disabled, to make modifying the checksum more comfortable. To remove those messades, go into the OBJ importer and click on "resotre CRC and Checksum".
Q; I get an error saying "In a permanent loop that cannot be exited" when trying to run my ROM.
A; You modified the checksum, restored the CRC and Checksum check and did not recalculate it. Drag your rom over "chksum64.exe" to fix this.
Q; Why does Mario die when I start my level?
A; Mario spawned out of bounds. You either have to move the "Warp: Mario start" object or use the "initial position" function in the OBJ importer (not both, only one of those 2 will work)
Q; I get a black screen!
A; A result of an error in configuring the warps.
Q; How do I remove the Nintendo copyright and TM sign at the title screen?
A; Open the tweak manager in the OBJ Importer and apply the "skip title screen" tweak.
Q; I get a white screen I try to enter my level!
A; That's a result of your game crashing right after the loading screen. Common causes are absence of a start warp or the attempt to use a behavior that requires a specific rambank.
Q; Why are there invisible walls everywhere?
A; Enable Death Floor in the Level Importer.
Q; I imported a level into Peach's Castle Grounds and moved the warp but Mario still spawns at an unusual place.
A; Warps at Peach's Castle is hardcoded, now open your ROM in TT64, at the bottom of the screen, you see some parameters like;
X 1000 Y -1000 Z 100, now open that same ROM in the OBJ importer, go to the "Level Settings", you shall see a check box called "Initial Position", check it and copy those parameters into their expected places.
Music
Q; What is the limitations for channels on SM64?
A; 15.
Q; What is a .M64 file?
A; It's the Sequence file format SM64 and some other N64 games use.
Q; Why does a part of my custom music sound weird?
A; Transpose the channel/track that sounds weird.
Q; Why doesn't the tempo of my track go above 255?
A; The tempo is one byte; the maximum value is 255 (0xFF). Unless you're using extremely short notes, you can get around this by halving the length of all your notes and rests, and halving the tempo.
Q; Is it possible to import WAV files and MP3 into SM64?
A; In the sense of directly streaming a full song in game, no. SM64 only supports sequenced music. But custom samples can be inserted using
Subdrag's N64 Sound Tool.
Q; My music cracks at some point when it's playing.
A; This is called clipping, it's caused by the mix exceeding the maximum possible signal level. Turn down individual channel volumes to fix this.
Q; There was no Drum in the instrument list of NINST37 but it is heared in the original.
A; It's a percussion, the channel you want to have a drum change it to a "General Percussion".
Textures
Q; How do I replace textures in the game?
A; By using N64 Rip and TT64, N64 rip is more convenient, you can get the addresses from TT64, make sure you are in Hexa-decimal mode.
Q; Why are my textures stretched?
A; A texture can't repeat more than 32 times, subdivide that face with a line.
Q; How do I change the textures on Mario's cloth?
A; Mario's clothes was colored, they didn't use an actual texture.
Q; Why do my textures look blurry?
A; Any textures with a height/Width more than 64x32 and 32x64 will get resized to fit with the N64 Texture Cache Size, resize them by yourself and sharpen them.
Q; Why do my textures always appear stretched after being subdivided?
A; Textures need to be resized to SM64 Resolution which would be 32x32, 64x32 and 32x64 and so on, they must be rectangles or squares. Textures with resolutions of Something like 32x31 or 24x32 will get the calculations wrong when Texture maps are being converted into F3D Microcode.
Q; Why are my textures upside down?
A; Try checking "Vertically Flip Textures".
Q; My background is corrupt.
A; Scale it to 248x248 and use the background converter, to convert it into a 256x256 picture. after that, you can properly import it into your rom.
Q; Why are my textures not showing up and are just replaced with random ones?
A; Resized BitMap Images(BMP) tend not to show up.
Models
Q; I imported an Untextured model into Mario 64 and it's not white like in the 3D modeller, there are Random Textures applied.
A; Those are placeholders, the current importer does not support colors.
Q; Where do I get a wavefront OBJ?
A; With google sketchup or blender, OBJ is a 3D model type. Note that the 2014/2015 versions of sketchup seem to have some compatibility issues with the OBJ exporter plugin for some people (trashing exports) so use with caution.
Q; How do I replace the Title Screen?
A; Make your model, export it to obj, load it in the OBJ importer 1.9s, open the "Custom Importer", look for the title screen and select "Import Model".
Q; Why is my polygon count size double?
A; Don't export two sided faces.
Q; Why are some faces in my level invisible?
A; Only white faces show up, reverse all purple faces.
Q; Why does my level appear weird with some missing faces?
A; Your model needs to be triangulated and edges need to be exported as they are literally the building blocks of all 3D models.
Q; When I try to replace to an Object in the custom importer or import a title screen I get a "Maximum Model Size Exceeded" Error.
A; You might have to chop down some polygons and reduce the amount of textures used.
Q; I'm trying to make a fence but when I look to the other side it is invisible!
A; The back face doesn't get exported. Push/pull it to the thinnest simple.
Q; What is object with the highest polygon count to replace?
A; From an order of Biggest to the smallest-
-------------------------------------------
1. Castle in the sky: 382.
2. Vertical Maze: 281.
3. Pyramidal Platforms Anim 1/2/3/4/Assembly: 230.
4. Flying Ship: 118.
Q; Why does all the objects position in my level move when I re-import?
A; You have to uncheck the centered option in the obj importer, otherwise your level will move when changing the bounds.
Collision
Q; Why does the game freeze when I play through?
A; It's often caused by using a solid object who's collision is not in any available rambank (no way to fix this aside from reimporting with a new rambank), if the problem persists then reduce the polygon count around the crashing area. Also, using a lot of objects(especially fire) can freeze the game.
Q; Why does are there glitched collisions in my level?
A; Make sure there are any underlying unused polygons, these are prone to cause problems and place your model higher.
Q; Why does Mario fall right through walls?
A; Don't export back and front faces.
Q; How many Polygons can my level have?
A; Depends on the amount of textures. you can not have more than about 16500 collisionable polygons. Texturecount*60+polygoncount should be below 23500. You can have a bit more, if many of your polygons are non - solid.
Layout by LDA during C3.
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