[Video] Andrat's Mario Kart 64 HD "texture pack" — playable MK64 cover art

[Spring-Loaded]

View: https://youtu.be/lsGb4YOFnBY

The way the character sprites had to be replaced with models, replacing ~1800 textures to account for every angle they'd be viewed from, is astonishing 😱

Like Nerrel says on the video, I never really grew up with MK64 or liked the game much, but the sprites always looked bad to me, so it's easy to appreciate this new work.

 

[Foot]

That's frickin' cool.

 

[Stone Cold]

That's really cool. I can't imagine the amount of time that had to take.

 

[shadowman16]

The character sprites are pretty impressive - its clear care went into them as the vid points out, rather than just a cheap up res, they look on point with how they should look. Though some of the background objects look bad - sure the trees never looked great back in the day, but its really obvious now how bad they look, even more so when compared to how good the sprites now look.

 

[evrythngwastakn]

Looks really really cool.

 

[Bane]

It's a shame Nintendo doesn't play around with stuff like this more. I've long wanted a Star Fox game that uses the puppet style of the SNES cover. Putting out a game in this 90's Silicon Graphics style would be so cool.

Couldn't roll my eyes hard enough at the "Does NSO do this?" bit at the end. Fuck off with that shit.

 

[Bulby]

Holy shit. I never realised they were sprites. I knew a lot of other things were, but it never occured to me that the racers were.

 

[Rickenslacker]

That looks amazing, the lengths went to keep it faithful is incredible.

 

[jett]

Some modders just do an unbelievable amount of work.

 

[snipe_25]

Damn the amount of sprites they had to create for this... amazing

 

[sixteen-bit]

looks just like the February 1997 GameFAN magazine cover

 

[oatmeal]

Damn that's amazing.

 

[AuthenticM]

that's awesome.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Couldn't roll my eyes hard enough at the "Does NSO do this?" bit at the end. Fuck off with that shit.

Click to shrink...

Here's a rendition of Rainbow Road to set the mood for this aside:


View: https://youtu.be/Mv0oFyKpk1o

 

[404LinkNotFound]

It's a shame Nintendo doesn't play around with stuff like this more. I've long wanted a Star Fox game that uses the puppet style of the SNES cover. Putting out a game in this 90's Silicon Graphics style would be so cool.

Couldn't roll my eyes hard enough at the "Does NSO do this?" bit at the end. Fuck off with that shit.

Click to shrink...

Tbh outside a few nostalgic folk i dont see something using that old cgi style selling much today

 

[Bane]

Here's a rendition of Rainbow Road to set the mood for this aside:

Click to shrink...

This is hell.

Tbh outside a few nostalgic folk i dont see something using that old cgi style selling much today

Click to shrink...

Which I'm sure is exactly why it's not been done by someone the size of Nintendo. But we also are at the point where early 3D styles are becoming nostalgia and being used in indie games now. Maybe we'll see something from that part of the industry eventually.

 

[Sargerus]

Mario T-posing while fire coming from his ass is not something i expected to see when i clicked the video.

 

[Cantaim]

King shit

 

[Lumination]

That looks fantastic.

 

[MarcelloF]

Saw this this morning. Really insanely impressive.

Always wished people would recreate CG art from that era in the same style, like for the DKC games.

 

[phonicjoy]

It's a shame Nintendo doesn't play around with stuff like this more. I've long wanted a Star Fox game that uses the puppet style of the SNES cover. Putting out a game in this 90's Silicon Graphics style would be so cool.

Click to shrink...

This is my dream game, get out of my head.

 

[Cymbal Head]

Holy shit, those look incredible. Major congrats to the team working on this.

 

[xyla]

I love that look! Having high res sprites works a lot better with keeping the look of the game intact compared to 3D Models!
Hopefully this will be compatible once the Mario Kart 64 compiler is ready. Would love to see this in 60FPS 16:9

Edit: Is this process similar to the way Arc Sys does their models?

 

[Fawz]

That's a really impressive visual enhancement to stay true to the source material

 

[mztik]

Damn. This looks beautiful! I always loved the box cover art and the main screen renders.

 

[Pop-O-Matic]

Edit: Is this process similar to the way Arc Sys does their models?

Click to shrink...

Actually, it's pretty much the opposite. MK64 is a bunch of pre-rendered sprites with a boatload of animation frames to give the impression of smooth animation, while ArcSys games are real-time 3D models being animated at low framerates with no interpolation to give them the feel of anime or older sprite-based fighters.

 

[Nerrel]

Couldn't roll my eyes hard enough at the "Does NSO do this?" bit at the end. Fuck off with that shit.

Click to shrink...

You're fine with them still not supporting something as basic as the controller pak? I assume you mistook it as talking about HD sprites, which, yeah, no one would reasonably expect them to do.

 

[Creepy Woody]

That's goddamn insane looks so good

 

[Replicant]

Would be nice if you could patch a real rom with some of these and play on real hardware..

 

[xyla]

Actually, it's pretty much the opposite. MK64 is a bunch of pre-rendered sprites with a boatload of animation frames to give the impression of smooth animation, while ArcSys games are real-time 3D models being animated at low framerates with no tweening to give them the feel of anime or older sprite-based fighters.

Click to shrink...

Now that you mention that, I think I've read that before. Love both results though.

 

[JaseMath]

Passion project like this are so inspiring.

 

[TechnoSyndro]

That MK64 video should be banned from any MK discussion, honestly. It's like one of those popular videos that hates on Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled - it is in bad faith, specifically choosing and sometimes forcing ways to make the game look much worse than it actually is (mixed in with some actually valid points which are there to add credibility). With the same tricks one could make a video that would make it feel legitimate that MK 64 HD is just the worst.

 

[Daccus]

I'm curious if this game ever gets decompiled, whether or not the sprites can be substituted entirely for models.

Half of that question stems from if the prerendered backdrops in the OoT PC port can be replaced with models like with OoT 3D.

I suppose both are possible with access to the source code.

 

[Blackpuppy]

That MK64 video should be banned from any MK discussion, honestly. It's like one of those popular videos that hates on Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled - it is in bad faith, specifically choosing and sometimes forcing ways to make the game look much worse than it actually is (mixed in with some actually valid points which are there to add credibility). With the same tricks one could make a video that would make it feel legitimate that MK 64 HD is just the worst.

Click to shrink...

 

[mael]

Funny enough I don't think anyone thought MK64 used anything but sprites for most of everything.
It's why MK64 didn't compare well graphically with DKR and other racers of its time.
This mod is pretty much what you'd see in a remaster, I mean it's how people thought the game looked when looking at it in mags or while playing it back then.

 

[Tiny Chihuahueño]

That's super cool. It's like an alternate timeline where the n64 games were made with the sgi stations, replicating those old renders.

 

[Unicorn]

Insane character details!

 

[VariantX]

This looks like how I wished the game looked back in the day but was literally impossible both for the hardware to do and for my 480i tv to render lol

 

[mael]

That's super cool. It's like an alternate timeline where the n64 games were made with the sgi stations, replicating those old renders.

Click to shrink...

I mean considering the tv resolution and tech at the time, MK64 looks about as good as what you would expect.
the whole cgi sprites thing was suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper old by the time MK64 came out.
It only looks blurry and that different from the cg renders because we're blowing up old crt signal to 4k lcd pannels.

 

[Kolibri]

These textures look amazing. Can't believe the work they did. Thousands and thousands of textures.

That MK64 video should be banned from any MK discussion, honestly. It's like one of those popular videos that hates on Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled - it is in bad faith, specifically choosing and sometimes forcing ways to make the game look much worse than it actually is (mixed in with some actually valid points which are there to add credibility). With the same tricks one could make a video that would make it feel legitimate that MK 64 HD is just the worst.

Click to shrink...

lmao

 

[Dyle]

Impressive mod but the originals are more aesthetically pleasing to me in-game from what they showed, that super clean look 90s rendering look comes across as uncanny and seems at odds with 64's largely gritty or dirty environments.

 

[Bane]

You're fine with them still not supporting something as basic as the controller pak? I assume you mistook it as talking about HD sprites, which, yeah, no one would reasonably expect them to do.

Click to shrink...

Yep, I did in fact misunderstand. Thank you for the clarification!

 

[emperor bohe]

Wow, this looks great