Ramblings about crap in my life.
Guides
Optimizing Your Computer Use #1: Firefox Search Keywords
Apr 28th
I’m a huge fan of optimizing the way I use my computer, if I stumble upon a task I know I will be doing in the future (e.g. looking up opening hours for the local grocery store) I usually try to make this task easier. So I’ll write a couple of articles about what techniques I use to do these things, the first being Firefox search keywords, which I’ve talked about before.
Firefox has a built in function that lets you add keywords for search fields on websites by right-clicking them and pressing “Add a Keyword for this Search”. This makes it possible to make a search on a site by typing “<keyword> <search term>” in the address bar (e.g. “i die hard” searches IMDb for “die hard”). This obviously has a lot of possibilities, and it’s probably the one thing that saves me the most time on a day to day basis. I use the following keywords:
- Google
A standard Google search. Type “g <search keyword>”. - Keepvid
Download video from sites like YouTube, Metacafe, etc. Type “d <video URL>”. - Port Check
Checks if a certain port is open. Type “p <port number>”. - Google Maps
Searches Google Maps. Type “gm <location>”. - Google Maps – Directions From Home
Search for a direction from your home. Change “blegdamsvej 78A, københavn ø, denmark” to your own address. Type “gmd <destination>”. - Google Translate
Type “gt <text or url>” to translate something from English. - YouTube
Search on YouTube. Type “y <search term>”. - WikiPedia
Search on WikiPedia. Type “w <search term>”. - IMDb
Search on IMDb. Type “i <search term>”. - Kino
Search on Kino.dk Type “k <search term>”. - RottenTomatoes
Search on Rotten Tomatoes. Type “rt <search term>”. - Play.com
Search on Play.com Type “p <search term>”. - UrbanDictionary
Search Urban Dictionary. Type “u <search term>”. - Ordbogen
Search on Ordbogen.com. Type “o <search term>”. - Google Currency Converter
Convert money to Danish Kroner. Type “dkk <amount and currency>” (e.g. “dkk 50 usd”). - Google Currency Converter (USD)
Convert from US Dollars to Danish Kroner. Type “usd <amount in US Dollars>”. - Google Currency Converter (EURO)
Convert from Euro to Danish Kroner. Type “euro <amount in Euro>”. - Google Currency Converter (POUNDS)
Convert from Pounds to Danish Kroner. Type “pounds <amount in Pounds>”. - Dansk Wiki
Search on the Danish WikiPedia. Type “dw <search term>”. - Wiktionary
Search on Wiktionary. Type “wi <search term>”. - Amazon.co.uk
Search on Amazon.co.uk. Type “a <search term>”. - Filestube
- Search for files on Rapidshare. Type “f <search term>”.
You can follow these steps to import my keywords:
- Right-click on my Search Keywords bookmarks file and choose “Save Link As…” Place the file somewhere on your computer.
- In Firefox, from the Bookmarks menu, choose “Manage Bookmarks”.
- From the Bookmarks Manager File menu, choose Import. Choose “Import Bookmarks from File.” Browse to and open the file you just saved.
The next article will be about Greasemonkey scripts.
How to play Ocarina of Time with cell-shading and hi-res textures
Mar 12th
NOTE: If you have any questions, write a comment. This guide may not work with Windows Vista.
The communities for old console games are quite amazing, I myself am mostly interested in Nintendo 64 games, especially The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (best game ever made), and I had heard about someone redoing all the textures. I finally decided to check it out and since it took me forever to figure this out, I thought I might as well do a guide about it.
Emulator
First of all you need an emulator to run the game, the most popular are 1964 and Project 64. Since I got everything working first on 1964, that’s what I’ll be talking about in this guide. So, without further ado:
- Download 1964 version 0.9.9 here.
- Install it.
Now we need a better video plugin, the most popular is the Rice Video Plugin version 6.1.1 beta 10. As far as I’ve understood a guy named ‘Mudblood’ started updating it after that, so this is the last version made by ‘Rice’ himself.
- Download Rice Video Plugin version 6.1.1 beta 10 here.
- Unpack it and put the two dll files in this folder: C:/<installation folder>/1964/099/plugin/.
- You need another file though, it’s called BMGlib.dll and you can download the package here.
- Unpack it and put the dll file in C:/<installation folder>/1964/099/.
Now we need to configure 1964.
- Open the program.
- Go to Plug-ins -> Change Plug-ins.
- Select Rice’s Video Plugin 6.1.1 beta 10 from the dropdown window under System Default Video Plugin.
- Press OK.
- Go to Plug-ins -> Video Settings.
- Go the General Options tab.
- Change Full Screen Resolution to something higher (like 1024 x 768).
- Uncheck Hide Advanced Options.
- Go to the Texture Filters tab.
- Change Texture Quality to 32-bit Texture.
- Change Texture Enhancement to 2x (Double the texture size).
- Check Load hi-res textures if available.
- Press OK.
That’s all for setting up the emulator.
ROM
Now you need the rom, the game itself. I can’t really help you with that, although looking here may be a good idea. The rom I’m using is called Legend of Zelda, The – Ocarina of Time (U) (V1.0), the guide may should work on all versions of it, though. If you find the rom you can run it from 1964 by pressing Ctrl + D and then selecting the folder where it’s located.
Cell-Shading and Hi-Res
This is really what makes it worth going through all this trouble to play the game. The texture packs are rather hard to find, but I found two of the most popular. The first one is made by a guy named ‘Djipi’. He spend 1,5 years redoing every single texture in the game, making it look like Wind Waker. The second pack is with high-resolution textures, which look a lot like the textures from Twilight Princess. This is how you install them:
- Download the cell-shading package here (mirror 1, mirror 2).
Or, download the hi-res package here (mirror). - Unzip the package you selected.
- Put everything into C:/<installation folder>/1964/099/pluging/hires_texture/ (you may need to manually create the hires_texture folder).
- Now your directory structure should look like this: C:/<installation folder>/1964/099/pluging/hires_texture/The Legend of Zelda.
If that’s the case you’re done! Now, if you want to try the other package you can rename the The Legend of Zelda folder, and then put the other folder in there. Now, when you open up 1964 and double-click the rom the emulator should start going through all the new textures before loading the game. If it doesn’t find anything you probably forgot to check Load hi-res textures if available.
Taking it to the next level
Playing Ocarina of Time on a keyboard isn’t quite the same though, I decided to buy this, so now I use my wireless Xbox 360 controller to play it and all my other roms. Also, you can connect eight controllers to it, which is awesome.
There are also some unfinished high-resolution texture packs for Ocarina of Time but I haven’t been able to find working download links. There are a lot more texture packs on emutalk.net, but, as I said, it’s pretty hard to find packs that are totally done. Anyway, hope the guide is helpful, here are some screenshots:
Cell Shading Package
High-Resolution Package
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