Frigid Peaks (A Re-Volt conversion)
Frigid Peaks is a track shown in the Nintendo 64 racing game, Top Gear Overdrive by Kemco & Snowblind Studios back in 1998. Although this track itself & it's art assets ain't mine (belongs to the companies I mentioned), but turning this into a track for Re-Volt is. This is one of the most gruelling projects I've done, and it you think this would be so simple. Nah, it ain't.
Project started on March 26th, 2020, then finished on April 24th, 2020.
To start, we need to get the model. I used Project 64 as my emulator, and then used the NEMU plugin to rip them as this alien .VRML file which Blender accepts. It doesn't rip the whole thing but everything on screen. Note the texturework is poo.
After the cruel process of ripping sections, removing unnecessary models, and catalogue the individual textures, I initially test the track out. First off, it was too small, so I upscaled it by several times, using one of the Re-Volt cars as reference.
One thing that the .VRMLs don't have is vertex coloring, so I had to make 'em myself which is easier said than done. Also, added some animated textures, mainly the Start sign and that waterfall. Also, animated Re-Volt textures are quite finnicky to work.
There are some problems of the converted track I would like to point out which are the barriers & guard rails being too small and can be easily go over, so I made it slightly taller.
This isn't a game rendering problem but an OpenGL problem in general -which transparent textures goes wonky if there's another transparent texture behind it. The solution was to make the trees as separate objects. Not 100% effective, though.
If you mapped transparent textures but the polygons not translucent, then you get some weird things. Also, I mapped out the mountain.
The cave shortcut featuring this spaceship. The insides aren't fully textured yet. One thing I did some remodeling, mainly this room and the shortcut paths following it.
One thing I have a thing for is to make the textures looked seamless. In the background, I was sorting out the textures ripped from the game, and sometimes edited said parts to make it a seamless transition.
Though making everything seamless is a new kind of puzzle to solve altogether. This here is without the mipmaps and filtering.
Most of everything is sorted out at this point: Skyboxes, textures, seams, and gameplay things. Only things left are some details.
This point I got 95% of things done. Unfortunately, I was going to put a Vivi easter egg in that waterfall, but due to the wonky rendering nature of transparent textures, it was nixed. Enjoy some tacos.
Some screenshots of the final track.
Mountainside.
West side.
The alternate cave shortcut.
The Cave shortcut.
The rest of the track with the dam.
The end of the first tunnel featuring this Jeep here.