Real-time Lighting and Normal Mapping on the N64: A Stunning Reverse Engineering Feat

This article details an impressive technique for achieving real-time lighting and normal mapping on the Nintendo 64. By cleverly leveraging palette textures and CPU-side shading, the author circumvents the N64's hardware limitations to achieve surprisingly impressive visuals. The technique involves compressing diffuse and normal information into a shared palette, and updating the palette at runtime via the CPU to simulate lighting effects. While the method has some limitations, such as lack of point light support and shadows, its innovative nature is remarkable, opening new possibilities for graphics rendering on the N64 platform.