ROM Hack Importing models into MKDS tutorial?

[MegaMemeMan]

i need help finding a tutorial on how to import .obj files for use in MKDS. as i cant seem to find one anywhere.

 

[FAST6191]

For the record while many here will likely know MKDS means Mario Kart DS it is best to spell it -- plenty of people that might know how to hack a format in the general sense might not be watching for specific game titles. Or if you prefer does SMB mean super mario, super meat boy or super monkey ball? GOW god of war or gears of war?

Anyway 2 main scenarios here for what you are trying to do.
1) Tracks are visually handled by giant 3d models. Do note the driving sections are handled with KCL files so if you change the model in some way that changes the driving aspects then you need to edit the KCL to match.
2) Karts/players, some objects on tracks and similar such things.

Hacking of 3d files, in as much as would be hackers being able to export files or edit existing ones in nice GUI programs, is not as far advanced on the DS as it is on the 3ds (or indeed the 3ds a few months after smea did his thing). There are a few people trying some things but it is not far advanced.

For the sake of a quick overview.
Earlier on in the DS lifetime Nintendo introduced a 3d format for their games, somewhat related to other formats we had seen on the gamecube (we BMD there, and versions later on the Wii and 3ds) but not enough to really note. There were some before (the Metroid stuff as seen with DSGraph) and there were other devs doing their own thing (I think I first saw it in Eragon but there were plenty of others after it) but I will skip that. These formats were
NSBMD. This is the model format, includes some minimal colours and textures. Many DS 3d models will only use their model colours and some lighting rather than textures.
NSBTX. This is the texture format. Can be edited in quite a few things. There are texture animations but no kind of fancy depth from textures stuff. For an example of texture animations I believe the wheel animations in Mario Kart DS are this.
NSBCA. This is the animation format.
NSBTA. Rarely seen, though Mario Kart DS apparently does have it. This is apparently a dedicated texture animation format.
These formats are covered in various places but if you want the 3d hardware itself then http://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm#ds3dvideo


The earliest stuff that was not completely manual would tend to involve some leaked files from the SDK, one of a few higher end professional 3d modelling programs (naturally a specific older version for each of those) and possibly still some fiddling. Naturally I can't link any of that around here, and some hacking sites are iffy about taking things made using such methods.

For the manual stuff I cover the basics in https://gbatemp.net/threads/gbatemp-rom-hacking-documentation-project-new-2016-edition-out.73394/ . Most of that was editing a flat cube/square but that was more for visualisation purposes and the techniques will expand easily. If you are content to make copies of existing things in M

MKDS course modifier had a few things for the textures, and some guides around the place for custom tracks.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/mkds-course-modifier.299444/

More of a viewer
https://github.com/scurest/apicula

I will skip tinke's texture editing, old school nsbmdtool, some of Barbuary's stuff, even more old school stuff like tahaxan for now as it is probably not relevant here.

 

[MegaMemeMan]

For the record while many here will likely know MKDS means Mario Kart DS it is best to spell it -- plenty of people that might know how to hack a format in the general sense might not be watching for specific game titles. Or if you prefer does SMB mean super mario, super meat boy or super monkey ball? GOW god of war or gears of war?

Anyway 2 main scenarios here for what you are trying to do.
1) Tracks are visually handled by giant 3d models. Do note the driving sections are handled with KCL files so if you change the model in some way that changes the driving aspects then you need to edit the KCL to match.
2) Karts/players, some objects on tracks and similar such things.

Hacking of 3d files, in as much as would be hackers being able to export files or edit existing ones in nice GUI programs, is not as far advanced on the DS as it is on the 3ds (or indeed the 3ds a few months after smea did his thing). There are a few people trying some things but it is not far advanced.

For the sake of a quick overview.
Earlier on in the DS lifetime Nintendo introduced a 3d format for their games, somewhat related to other formats we had seen on the gamecube (we BMD there, and versions later on the Wii and 3ds) but not enough to really note. There were some before (the Metroid stuff as seen with DSGraph) and there were other devs doing their own thing (I think I first saw it in Eragon but there were plenty of others after it) but I will skip that. These formats were
NSBMD. This is the model format, includes some minimal colours and textures. Many DS 3d models will only use their model colours and some lighting rather than textures.
NSBTX. This is the texture format. Can be edited in quite a few things. There are texture animations but no kind of fancy depth from textures stuff. For an example of texture animations I believe the wheel animations in Mario Kart DS are this.
NSBCA. This is the animation format.
NSBTA. Rarely seen, though Mario Kart DS apparently does have it. This is apparently a dedicated texture animation format.
These formats are covered in various places but if you want the 3d hardware itself then http://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm#ds3dvideo


The earliest stuff that was not completely manual would tend to involve some leaked files from the SDK, one of a few higher end professional 3d modelling programs (naturally a specific older version for each of those) and possibly still some fiddling. Naturally I can't link any of that around here, and some hacking sites are iffy about taking things made using such methods.

For the manual stuff I cover the basics in https://gbatemp.net/threads/gbatemp-rom-hacking-documentation-project-new-2016-edition-out.73394/ . Most of that was editing a flat cube/square but that was more for visualisation purposes and the techniques will expand easily. If you are content to make copies of existing things in M

MKDS course modifier had a few things for the textures, and some guides around the place for custom tracks.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/mkds-course-modifier.299444/

More of a viewer
https://github.com/scurest/apicula

I will skip tinke's texture editing, old school nsbmdtool, some of Barbuary's stuff, even more old school stuff like tahaxan for now as it is probably not relevant here.

is it the same stuff for character models?

 

[FAST6191]

I don't know offhand but most things don't tend to mix and match 3d formats.

If you mean are the characters 3d then I have not checked but

It sure does not look like sprites.

Character models should not have any KCL or equivalents, though I don't know offhand if collision is handled by the models themselves or by a more classical hitbox/simple radius.