PicFlip64 is a tool for converting texture files for Nintendo 64 into PNG files. You might find this tool useful if you're working on a fan translation or a mod for a game.
This tool makes it possibile to convert the following texture formats to PNG, or vice versa:
- rgba32
- rgba16
- i4
- i8
- ia4
- ia8
- ia16
- ci4
- ci8
For texture formats like ci4 and ci8, you need to specify where to read the TLUT data. This palette information is usually at the beginning or the end of the file. Picflip64 by default assumes such data is at the end, but you can control this aspect!
This tool supports texture with interleaved data, some games like Conker's Bad Fur Day and Diddy Kong Racing use this trick.
You need Python >= 3.9 installed and Pillow, you can install the library with the following commands
python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt
You can also install Pillow using the package manager of your distribution, this tool is not very picky about the version!
Picflip64 doesn't automatically recognise the format of the texture, so it's necessay to specify it manually like the following example:
python picflip64 ci8 64 64 some-texture.raw
If everything goes well, you will find a file named some-texture.png
in the same directory of the texture. You can go back to convert the
image to the texture in the same way.
python picflip64 ci8 64 64 some-texture.png
Since the example is dealing with ci8 format, picflip64 assumes the TLUT data is at the end of the file, if it's not the case, you can read the palette at the beginning in this way
python picflip64 ci8 64 64 some-texture.raw --tlut-begin
you will also need to define the flag when you convert back the image
python picflip64 ci8 64 64 some-texture-done.png --tlut-begin
If you want, there is also --tlut-end, usually there is no need to
specify it but you might want to use it anyway.
You don't need to define any TLUT data for other formats, just ci4
and ci8 are a special case.
Be careful, the tool used like that will overwrite the original
texture, it's better to specify where the tool should write the file
with the --output parameter, like this:
python picflip64 rgba16 64 64 some-texture.raw --output converted/some-path.png
python picflip64 rgba16 64 64 translated/some-texture.png --output build/texture.bin
As mentioned before, this tool supports textures with interleaved data, by default it assumes the texture has the data arranged in this way. You can inspect the texture and check if it's interleaved with tools like Texture64.
You can control this aspect during the conversion with the options
--no-swap and --swap. Remember, by default the tool assumes the
data is interleaved!
| Case | Image |
|---|---|
| Texture not interleaved or the data has been handled during the conversion |  |
| Texture interleaved, game data is optimised! |  |
First public release, this tool was specifically made to help the fan translation of Conker's Bad Fur Day!
- Infrid
- Rulesless
Rulesless, for requesting the creation of the tool and for giving tips on how to improve it and for helping out with the testing.
Thanks to the staff of N64Squid and their exhaustive information about texture formats.
Huge shout out to mkst over the N64 decomp discord for providing a small snippet on how deal with interleaved data.
Thanks to you for using this tool!
Gianluigi "Infrid" Cusimano infrid@infrid.com
