Blender + LibSM64 = Play Mario64... inside your own 3D world

Because... why not!

Check out this utter insanity:

That’s Blender. With Mario (from Mario64) running and jumping around. Using, in part, real code from Super Mario 64 on the N64.

How did we arrive at the point in time where something this awesome is possible?

First: Decompilation

It all started with the “Nintendo 64 Decompilation Projects” — an effort to decompile as many elements as possible from some of the most famous N64 games. Goldeneye, Mario Kart 64, Mario 64, and so many others have been worked on.

Second: Librarification (is that a word?)

Some amazing nerd then went and took the decompiled Mario 64… and turned it into a library: libsm64.

The purpose of this project is to provide a clean interface to the movement and rendering code which was reversed from SM64 by the SM64 decompilation project, so that Mario can be dropped in to existing game engines or other systems with minimal effort. This project produces a shared library file containing mostly code from the decompilation project, and loads an official SM64 ROM at runtime to get Mario's texture and animation data, so any project which makes use of this library must ask the user to provide a ROM for asset extraction.

Third: N64 Blender Export-inations

Then, check this out, the Fast64 project comes along along to make it possible to export models for the N64 (such as for Mario 64)… right from Blender.

This is a Blender plugin that allows one to export F3D display lists. It also has the ability to export assets for Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time decompilation projects. It supports custom color combiners / geometry modes / etc. It is also possible to use exported C code in homebrew applications.

Fourth: Squish it all together-i-ness

Take Blender. Add libsm64. Tie in Fast64. What do you get? libsm64-blender.

This add-on integrates libsm64 into Blender and provides various additional integrations with Fast64. Practically, this means if you're making levels with Fast64 in Blender, you can use this add-on to drop a controller-playable Mario into your scene to run around and test your terrain layout.

So cool. So ridiculously cool.

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