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  • Most issues reported these days stem from users not enabling their emulators to use the required amount of RAM.
    We also tend not to use the search feature but post our issues within the texture pack release page.
    Failure to load a texture pack should not be posted in the release thread unless you have already patched the emulator.

    If you don't have the resources to use Large/HD texture packs please do not attempt to do so.
    Users should have a minimum amount of System RAM not less then 4GB's.
    If you have less then 4GB's of RAM do not post about how your emulator crashes,
    RAM is dirt cheap so invest some money into your PC.

    I would like to say thanks to squall_leonhart
    for posting this Solution.

Macphisto's hi-res Banjo-Kazooie!

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macphisto

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I thought I'd seperate myself from the other thread based on this game due to the fact that I started from scratch and not continued any work on from anyone else. Re-texturing this game will take some time as there seems to be more textures than any other game I've seen so far. Still, I'm enjoying doing it, and I'm making good progress.

Banjo-Kazooie retexture work in progress: pack 1 - Direct Download: bajo_kazooie_retexture_workinprogress
Emulation 64 Mirror.
Pack contents are 95% complete Monster Mansion and parts of Grunty's Lair beyond the witch statue show in the screen below.
 
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Terranigma

New member
It's sad to see that the other project from a few months ago die, but your project looks just as good. Best of luck to you.
 
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macphisto

New member
Time I released what I've done so far. I could have spent a bit more time on some of the earlier textures to make them sharper, but there's a lot to do in this game, and I'm going to keep most of my effort for some of the more interesting looking levels in the game. Don't be afraid to give opinions.
 

Poobah

New member
Do you think you could compress them all into a solid 7-Zip archive? That'd probably half the total size. 40MB is a bit too much for most people who just want to quickly see your progress.

(Well done, though. I really like some of the textures. Others appear a bit too grainy, but that might just be because you weren't using filtering when you took the screenshots.)
 
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macphisto

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I would compress them if I knew how. I got the program for it, but I've to figure out how to compress the files in unison. I know what you mean about the grainy look to some of the textures. There are a few on the outside that look a little out of place and I'll be going back to correct those. On the inside of Grunty's, I wanted to give the textures a cracked and decayed look for some of the rougher surfaces like walls and the floor in some area's. The grain is just due to distance and the sharpness of the texture. It looks pretty well in-game, I think. I'll compress those files as soon as I figure out how. Help appreciated.
 
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macphisto

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Well, about 95% of the first outside section; most of Grunty's Layer up until the section where the giant witch statue is; 95% of that swamp section, and about the same of the first level - Mumbo's Mountain. The file size does seem too high, doesn't it?
 

Poobah

New member
I would compress them if I knew how. I got the program for it, but I've to figure out how to compress the files in unison. I know what you mean about the grainy look to some of the textures. There are a few on the outside that look a little out of place and I'll be going back to correct those. On the inside of Grunty's, I wanted to give the textures a cracked and decayed look for some of the rougher surfaces like walls and the floor in some area's. The grain is just due to distance and the sharpness of the texture. It looks pretty well in-game, I think. I'll compress those files as soon as I figure out how. Help appreciated.
  • Download and install 7-Zip
  • Right-click on the 'Banjo-Kazooie' folder within the high resolution textures folder
  • Click '7-Zip->Add to archive...'
  • Make the settings look exactly as shown in the screenshot below
  • Close as many memory hogging programs as you can to free up memory (you may want to copy this into a text document to read off, because browsers use a lot of memory, you should close explorer, too.) Use the task manager to do this, sorting the processes by memory usage.
  • Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to bring up the task manager, and go to the Performance tab
  • Observe the amount of available physical memory
  • Increase the dictionary size in 7-Zip's configuration box as high as you can get it so that 'Memory usage for compressing' is still less than the amount of available physical memory. The task manager reports memory in KB. Just look at the first three digits to get a rough idea of how many MB you have.
  • Click 'OK'
  • Once it's finished, press Ctrl+Shift+Esc again to open the task manager. Use 'File->New Task' and type in 'explorer' to launch it again.
  • You should now have a solid 7-Zip archive that is split up into 8MB files.

 
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Enzo Dragon

STFU, NAVI
I'm really looking foreward to this pack. I love Banjo Kazooie, and your retexture has great depth of detail!

Keep up the good work. I'll be watching.
 
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macphisto

New member
Thanks for the comments. I'm still getting to grip with some of Photoshop's features, but that section of Grunty's Lair there turned out really well as I've found more out. The rest of the game should continue in the same vain. I want to figure out how to impose a texture over another so that it blends seamlessly into one another. I don't want to change some of the artwork in the metal textures in banjo, but I do want to make them cleaner with more detail without distorting them too much as seems to be the case. I'll release that small section in those screen shots with a save file for anyone wanting to try out the pack instead of having to download all of them so far.
 

pilm

Member
Thanks for these explanations - details about the creation process always interest me :)
I hope this pack will be completed : we've seen so much discontinued works on this forum... It seems to me that it is more important to retexture all areas than to spend a lot of time on each texture ; you can still improve some parts once a first complete version of the pack is archieved, after all.
 
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macphisto

New member
There is no reason why the pack will not be finished. It'll be a large sized pack overall with the size of the textures mostly all being around 256x256. Banjo doesn't re-use textures even if they are the same ones for certain areas, apart for a few, and it's because of that that it will take a bit of time. A lot of the textures with orignal artwork on them can only be resized, sharpened, and have added details and effects put on them, while some textures, I feel, are better suited to a complete makeover with a custom texture - like the lava and the cracked ground in the fire room.
You're right about improving textures. I feel that some of the earlier one's I started on need to be to some extent.
 

Anchel

The Xpaniard
I once posted in the first banjo-kazooie retexturing project my opinion about retexturing this game.

Banjo-Kazooie is the finest game in textures from all of the N64 games, there's no doubt about that.
However, there are many times when I wished the textures were cleaner. I loathed the N64 for its low resolution textures just because of seing this game. Don't get me wrong, what I mean is that the textures were so impressive that if only the N64 had had more power, this game would have obtained praises all over the world just for its graphics. Let's just say that BK was a game ahead of its generation.

With that reason, I've always said that THIS is the game that really needed re-texturing, but while leaving the ORIGINAL artistic style. As you said, most textures are better left by stretching, upping the resolution and adding a little bit of detail. Still there are some little touches that work great when added over the original textures. For example, you've added some kind of liquid-looking substance on some floors and walls, and I think those are PERFECT. That was a very neat idea.

V-King also added some neat touches on his textures, like the ground texture when getting near the entrance to Mumbo's Mountain in Grunty's Lair.

Adding a little not, most people who use texture packs for their games are people who have already played those games. So the thing they like most is playing an old game and seing NEW surprises. I'll explain: when you play Banjo-Kazooie for the first time, you get dazzled by the surprising interiors of Grunty's Lair. The architecture is so weird, and there's so many kinds of rooms that players may even pass their time just wandering about, looking at the walls and ceilings.

When you use a texture pack, you can get dazzled again as if you had never played the game before: you're looking at the places in awe, and keeping the game on, collecting jiggies to open new worlds just to see what NEW SURPRISES that world may have.

I'm certainly more than happy to see a new BK retexturing project, don't doubt that, and I sincerely hope that this project won't die, as it is, I think, the game that most deserves getting a make-up.


WoW! That was a long read. I guess I get waaaaaay too talkative when speaking about these things...
 
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