3D Mesh, Texture, and Compression Formats for Retro Video Games

Welcome to the documentation for reverse-engineered 3D mesh, texture, and compression formats used in retro video games. This project aims to provide detailed, easy-to-follow documentation for these formats to help developers, researchers, and enthusiasts better understand and work with these assets.

This site is built using AstroJS and Starlight, ensuring fast, modern, and easy-to-navigate static documentation.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Features
• Getting Started
• Installation
• Documentation Structure
• Contributing
• License

Introduction

The purpose of this documentation is to share insights gained from reverse-engineering various 3D mesh, texture, and compression formats used in retro video game development. These formats were often proprietary and optimized for the hardware limitations of their time. Understanding them can be useful for game preservation, modding, and educational purposes.

Features

• Detailed format specifications for various 3D mesh and texture formats used in retro games
• Guides for reverse engineering and working with these formats
• Examples and tools to help visualize the formats
• Compression methods used in older games and how to decode them
• Built with AstroJS, offering a lightweight, fast, and static site
• Powered by Starlight for documentation-friendly navigation

Getting Started

To get started with this documentation locally, you'll need to have Node.js installed.

Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/DashGL/FormatDocs.git
cd FormatDocs

Install Dependencies

npm install

Preview the Build

npm run preview

Deploying

To deploy the documentation site, you can host it on platforms like GitHub Pages, Netlify, or Vercel.

• Deploying to GitHub Pages: Follow the Astro guide to deploy your site on GitHub Pages.

• Deploying to Netlify: Refer to the Astro documentation to deploy on Netlify.

• Deploying to Vercel: Instructions for deploying on Vercel can be found here.

Documentation Structure

The documentation is structured to be intuitive and easy to navigate:

• Home: Overview of the project and key concepts.
• Mesh Formats: Detailed documentation of various 3D mesh formats.
• Texture Formats: Specifications and examples of texture file formats.
• Compression Formats: Methods used for data compression and decompression.
• Tools and Examples: Code snippets and tools to help with reverse engineering and working with these formats.
• Contributors Guide: Information on how to contribute to the project.

Contributing

We welcome contributions from anyone interested in reverse-engineering retro video game formats. Whether it's improving the documentation, adding new formats, or developing new tools, your contributions are appreciated!

How to Contribute

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a new branch (git checkout -b feature-branch)
3. Make your changes
4. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add new feature')
5. Push to the branch (git push origin feature-branch)
6. Open a pull request

Please ensure your changes follow the project’s coding standards and are well-documented.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.