User:Krank

Mario Kart: Double Dash!! connoisseur and tryhard custom course creator.

BCA files



 * BCA (File Format) animation files can be opened with the j3d-animation-editor.
 * In order to install the j3d-animation-editor, you have to download the source code and then run.
 * Open bash or a terminal and write.

BCO files



 * See file specification at BCO.
 * See custom tutorial at Custom_Track_Tutorial/BCO.
 * A BCO model represents the areas in a track the player can drive on, throw items on, receive boosts and fall off-track.
 * These areas are represented with triangles, which together form a mesh.
 * Each triangle has a material, which sets specific rules for how the carts and items behave.
 * Each material has multiple flags, which describe the road type (road, offroad, deadzone), sound type (steel, concrete), camera position (default, steep) and additional flags (rough road, display falling animation, etc).
 * The BCO files are a Gamecube specific file-format which not many 3d programs can open.
 * First, we have to transpile the BCO files into  files. For that we use mkdd-collision.
 * When importing the resulting  file into a 3d program (like Blender), we can see the collision model (see image).
 * Each material is named by a naming scheme:.
 * These flags in the material name can be transpiled back into a BCO file, which in turn gets processed by the game.

Camera
Focal Length:   16mm Rotation X:     70° Camera Distance: 380 units (between cart center and camera if projected onto a flat plane) Camera Height:  315 units (distance from camera to flat ground)
 * When creating a custom track, it is useful to mimick the camera settings ingame.
 * This way, you can save a few iteration steps (compiling the game and testing it) if you want to check the looks.
 * Here is an approximation for the ingame camera:
 * Note: This approximation was done with the original 4:3 aspect ratio. If you use a widescreen hack (16:9), the effective values might deviate a little.
 * Note: A  describes a single unit when extracting tracks or driver models and importing them into a 3d program. For example, a cart has about the size of 145 units (width) x 160 units (height) x 200 units (length).

Custom Track File Specification
Adapted from mkdd-track-patcher.

ARC File Overview
ARC files are actually archive files and are used for every track.

Helpful Links

 * waifu2x – program to upscale and denoise images and illustrations
 * The Spriters Resource – Mario Kart Double Dash – ripped sprites from the game, good as inspiration for designing track intro images and minimaps; also includes subpages for textures, sounds and models for MKDD.
 * Double Dash Font – not perfect but pretty good MKDD font file