User talk:ShimmerFairy

Excellent work on the F3DZEX page, ShimmerFairy! Hopefully someone makes use of you busting your ass Vexiant (talk) 20:52, 18 November 2015 (CET)

Thank you, I appreciate the kind words ☺. The thing I hope for the most is really that people stop thinking E7 starts a display list 😛 . Really though, when I first wanted to learn about display lists years ago, it was frustrating to find that nobody had decent documentation on the microcode. The best resource I could find was emulator source code, until I came across the N64 SDK docs.

Of course, there's still stuff I don't know the answer to, stuff that'd require playing around with a gameshark on a real N64, and/or alternately finding out how to disassemble and understand the assembler of the microcode, but that just means there's room to explore. I've also got more to add to the F3DZEX page before I'm "done" with everything I was able to read up on in the SDK.

But I hope what I've been able to do so far will help people who like me want to learn about Zelda 64's display lists. While pretty much all of my notes are "academic" (that is, reading docs instead of poking around with a gameshark), and technically based on F3DEX2 instead of F3DZEX, I've a feeling they're already far more helpful than anything else out there (at least from what I've seen). Again, thank you, and I hope to keep doing good work :) ShimmerFairy (talk) 04:42, 20 November 2015 (CET)

Sadly, I was taught the "traditional" way of comprehending display lists back before it kicked off. I was on hiatus from Nintendo 64 hacking (not hacking and modifying games in general) from ca. 2011-2014, and intermittent breaks here and there. I acquired a fair amount of accurate knowledge relativity recently in an attempt to try to even out my skills which were more MIPS heavy with the use of tools such as nOvl and Renegade with a countless number of object and overlay edits and completely superfluous, but fun, assembly codes (lots of ands).

If you think you're up to the challenge, I'd say you should make a tutorial displaying how you can use the information displayed on the F3DZEX page in a practical manner. All the while, have it be informative, elaborate as to how and why things work a particular way, etc etc. Most individuals who concoct tutorials neglect relating to individuals by either using superficial wording, or pointless jargon that can just as easily be put in parentheses (so that they're not completely ignorant to the fact of the process). I know this first had, as I was like this upon first entering the scene: Most noobs do not learn anything you tell them (as it's usually not put properly anyways, as stated above), but usually instead merely copy the process behind how to do said "tutorial." That of course renders their 'newly acquired knowledge' useless. Moreover, when I joined, I wasn't fortunate enough to be around the plethora of tutorials and guides that are now present, but I did befriend Flotonic, Twili and others early on, and still failed to wrap my head around everything. Granted, I was hardheaded then, but the primary issue, in my opinion, was lack of "good" quality in tutorials which are still present today.

With that said though, I'm no teacher myself. Teaching is much like that of leadership; it's a practical skill that not every "Joe" can master and can be hard to come by. I study philosophy and have read Plato's Republic, but I kind of put two and two together out of my own personal introspection. Nonetheless, do or don't, you're doing an excellent job. Keep up the good work! Vexiant (talk) 04:22, 21 November 2015 (CET)