SM64’s Invisible Walls Explained Once and for All

I explain Super Mario 64’s invisible walls once and for all. This video took 10 months to make! So if you want to support me and my efforts like this one, please consider becoming a member of my channel: / @pannenkoek2012
Thanks to the following people:
➤ MasterKush, for providing a tool that helped with the visuals
➤ CadBrad (@CadBrad ), for fixing up my audio
➤ KoBrahJer (@KoBrahJer ), for having archived many clips of speedrunners hitting invisible walls
➤ Fazana, for helping with coding
Separate video of just the finale: • A Montage of Super Mar...
Timestamps:
0:00:00 Intro
0:01:25 Surface Triangles
0:03:09 Floors
0:04:36 Walls
0:05:57 Ceilings
0:10:48 Out of Bounds
0:15:05 Walls vs Ceilings vs Out of Bounds
0:19:06 Positional Units
0:27:12 Invisible Walls
0:29:45 Cause #1
0:34:26 Cause #2
0:38:29 Cause #3
0:39:21 Cause #4 - Top Down View
0:46:02 Cause #4 - Side View
0:53:48 Cause #4 - First Example
0:56:40 Cause #4 - Why You Only Hit It Sometimes
1:05:38 Cause #4 - Rest of the Examples
1:35:02 Cause #5
1:40:50 Cause #6 - Top Down View
1:44:51 Cause #6 - Side View
1:48:28 Cause #6 - Examples
2:21:45 Cause #7
2:31:56 Invisible Walls on Rotating Objects
2:44:54 Cause #8 - Floor Overshadowing Explanation
2:52:22 Cause #8 - Floor Overshadowing Examples
3:02:32 Cause #8 - Invisible Walls
3:12:52 Cause #8 - Invisible Walls on Objects
3:21:59 Getting Squished Explanation
3:25:22 Getting Squished Examples
3:30:42 Squish Cancel Explanation
3:33:15 Squish Cancel Examples
3:37:03 Outro
3:37:34 Member Events
3:41:25 Finale Introduction
3:42:02 Finale

[@pannenkoek2012]

If you’ve wondered where I’ve been for the past 10 months, it was working day and night on this one video. In other words, I never actually left, I’ve been working on sm64 the whole time. So I didn’t forget about you guys :)

[@jackalacka507]

Legendary, excited to see ya the video!!

[@mandyone5284]

The GOAT returns, I’ll me making my roommate watch this with me whether they like it or not ❤

[@thegoosh6469]

Day and night you say? I think I've heard this story before...

[@anonanon9871]

Love your videos man. Great to see you back

[@Pixelcraftian]

you are incredible at this stuff, and just awesome overall, can’t wait to see this :]

[@popular_dollars]

It's my sleepover and I get to pick the movie.

[@NeonValkyrieGaming]

no complaints here

[@DogsRNice]

What if I already picked the same movie

[@Reilia_]

This is so me

[@jerrie11]

Invite me over, im down

[@nothomebutnotreally3782]

*I LOVE WALLS!!!!!!!!!*

[@y2kafka472]

"It's like Moses parting the Red Sea, but it's the clock hand parting the invisible wall." That is most certainly a... way... to look at it.

[@NLoooo]

1:29:48 My god its the fact that he was already mad before mario spontaneously dies that gets to me, and u just know its coming... (and it looks so spooky too lmao, like a demon possessed his cartridge), haven't laughed that hard in a while... thanks for putting this together!

[@OliBomby]

Construction workers accidentally misaligned a floor tile in my bathroom by one unit so i stubbed my toe really bad

[@gromburt]

Floor tile slid away from under my foot causing me to lose my hat and die instantly

[@emmettturner9452]

Toe, knee, and nose… all at once.

[@Suko120]

exactly

[@Nichiyoobiko]

Wow lucky you. Imagine if you ran face first into that invisible wall.

[@gablink5190]

I hate when i walk into invisible walls in public spaces, people think im stupid.

[@TriforceWisdom64]

Every frame: 1) Take Mario's hat 2) If he's out of bounds, kill him

[@GuanlongX]

3) Give it back

[@Seloliva1015]

​@@GuanlongX Next Frame: 1) No you don't! 2) Are you dead? 3) Ok, Ok, but just this once

[@rinnnnnnnnnnrin]

6) steal Mario's lasagna from his lasagna pocket

[@AmaroqStarwind]

Why do they even do that hat check in the first place?

[@Krimsonrain]

​@@AmaroqStarwindmaybe to determine if he should take damage

[@Congele_]

So we've got a 3h45 video essay with full commentary, real subtitles, chapters, and absolutely chock-full of detailed infographics and easy to understand graphs and visualisations, complete with examples in game? You're truly amazing, no wonder this took 10 months to make! I want you to know that this amount of dedication and attention to detail has not gone unnoticed, this is insane!

[@TheSolitudeGuard]

This man just changed the future of SM64 forever. Think about it. All speedrunners from now on will be armed with knowledge which was before an enigma. He just reduced the average time across all high level SM64 speedrunning forever by giving the SM64 community this insanely in depth information to use from now on. Incredible.

[@poudink5791]

it's been known how invisible walls work for ages. here it's simply vulgarized for a general audience.

[@-ZH]

⁠@@poudink5791 Yeah, for high level, probably not. But for mid-low level players, there is a 0.01% it saves them time if they miraculously remember some invisible wall during their run.

[@raldoman-kfpexecutivekroni2854]

​@poudink5791 I don't think a 4 hour video quantifies as vulgarized, but aside from that, there's bound to be lots of info unknown to many speedrunners, even if they know parts of it. And also they might not fully know the "why"

[@umamifan]

@@raldoman-kfpexecutivekroni2854 I love how doing speedruns is like a science similar to our reality: Knowing what happens, how to reproduce the result, etc. but not knowing why

[@SOEgame]

Dude, I havent played SM64 in at least 20 years and watching this video actually made me both remember how much I got frustrated with that game, and also so much better knowing why this shit was happening lol. Like dude healed lingering pains in me I forgot I had my whole life 😂

[@jpegwarrior5431]

Note to self: Be careful when rounding, otherwise someone will make a 4-hour-long video tearing apart every one of your mistakes 30 years later.

[@YeprilesteR]

True,

[@theethicsofliberty4642]

Wow, Super Mario 64 is a nightmare of invisible walls and out of bounds ... !!!

[@WhoAteAllThePi]

i believe this was the same reason for the discovery of the buttefly effect.

[@elfrangofrito]

IT'S NOT ROUNDING, IT'S TRUNCATING

[@isilver226]

@@elfrangofritoright it’s a Programming/logic error, not a rounding error

[@gold_hev_suit]

the speedrunner clips feel like a nature documentary

[@j_c_93]

Some of them are calm and roll with it, having a laugh and still clearly having fun. Some rage like toddlers. It's like observing the behavior of prey vs predators or something.

[@brandonsaffell4100]

We see a wild gamer in his natural habitat. While his skills are video games are fierce, we can clearly see him struggle with his greatest enemy - the temper tantrum.

[@icewing202]

ikr. especially the one where the guy accidentially discovered how you can hover in midair. it really felt like watching a wild animal suddenly figure out the purpose/function of a human invention and then start messing around with it

[@MegaZeta]

a window into how those who cultivate the nastiest chats turn out to be the most oversensitive whiners

[@YeprilesteR]

Hah true

[@willowpets]

Pannenkoek’s commitment to making high quality diagrams and visualizations is insane actually

[@oldgameenjoyer465]

Imagine being a SM64 programmer and having the smallest errors in your work dissected by some guy all those years later

[@darrenjackson4646]

I mean, its one of the best games ever despite the errors. Speaks to the overall design

[@FishySmith37]

27:32 "the term invisible wall has two parts to it , invisible and wall" insane

[@user-to9lk8ix6h]

There’s no way in hell.

[@ShinyMew76]

And it took 27 Minutes just to get to that part!

[@BruceCarbonLakeriver]

Well, proof him wrong :)

[@Bomkz]

- Pushable - Bonkable

[@IAm18PercentCarbon]

All good science eventually makes you think "wait, we really need to define this?"

[@FioreFire]

Hate when my ceiling springs a leak, killing a bird that's trying to fly over my house

[@jongyon7192p]

Infinite Spear Delta Function

[@LandonEmma]

Bruh what the fortnite

[@LandonEmma]

Hate when a LGBTQ trans person likes stuff I like

[@OlgaZuccati]

hate it when the first vertex of my shoes intersects with the first vertex of the floor extending the ceiling on the floor below upwards so i bump into an invisible wall

[@Erik_The_grate]

If you time it just right, you could trap the bird

[@PickyMcCritical]

40:30 this visual is incredibly professional. it's hard to put into words how gifted this guy is.

[@Shivaxi]

Honestly what's really impressive here and blows my mind is just accurate the collision system is based on the simple rules it has. Like all these invisible walls DO make sense given the ruleset floors/walls/ceilings have, and to be so accurate that it even updates in REAL TIME with moving objects/geometry. I come mostly from Unreal 1998, and I can tell you first hand how finicky it could be getting movers (Unreal's moving geometry brushes), especially complex movers, to actually behave. We would run into all sorts of collision issues, but the thing is in Unreal it IS random essentially (there's probably some logic behind it nobody has cracked yet) because every time you rebuild the map, it can compile things completely differently on each rebuild, resulting in entirely different issues lol. Always a nightmare trying to fix BSP holes and other collision problems when map making for Unreal xD good times.

[@Yatsuzume]

This is the kind of video that will irreparably alter the life trajectory of a 16 year old to become an incredible game developer

[@teenagesteveminecraft]

I watched Watch for Falling Rocks in Half An A Press when i was younger and I'm a developer now

[@RedstoneRuler]

Can confirm. I now know how not to program 3D collision

[@alexyz9430]

Super Mario 64 Lunatic No-Miss No-Bonk Full-Star

[@fabiosonhandogrande1697]

Wait... Yeah, I think the Pannenkoek2012 to game developing pipeline is very real! I sure started dreaming of becoming one around the time I... Watched for Rolling Rocks.

[@cheatseychespin2792]

​@@alexyz9430 as one of those at a time in the past, yes-

[@peppinoandweskerfriendsfor3450]

It’s so funny how almost every single invisible wall in the game is so carefully accidentally placed in the most inconvenient spots

[@GaussianEntity]

I think it's hilarious that so many spots are anti-speedrunner spots

[@icewing202]

i feel like a good chunk of these were on purpose. maliciously so

[@world_still_spins]

​@@icewing202 Meticulously so also.

[@xxvimilia]

​@@icewing202This game was an N64 launch title. They didn't have the time for any of this to be deliberately malicious.

[@icewing202]

@@xxvimilia thats what they want us to think

[@frog_boy]

I feel absolutely spoiled by the dense visual treat that was this video. The way that you used augmented game footage and motion graphics together absolutely SEAMLESSLY was so well done it's hard for me to put it into words. Not only did you take every single opportunity to explain things better with visuals instead of just narration, you animated _every detail_ to your highest standard. It's very apparent that it's not just the 10 months of work on this one video, but the many many years of research, testing, practice, perfectionism, and above all *passion* that you've been putting into your hundreds of other amazing videos that make this one so fantastic.

[@C2Talon]

1:28:34 I explicitly remember dying here "randomly" as a kid. And because I like trying to break games and find bugs, I tried working out how to do it and eventually was able to do it enough times in in fairly quick succession that I thought I knew how to consistently do it. However, when I eventually tried to show someone else the bug of dying in that spot some time later, I just could not get it to work again. I chalked up the failure to maybe the game was glitched only for that one session where I was dying, and moved on. It's nice to know now that it wasn't just a once-in-a-lifetime glitched session, but just that either my timing was off or I was maybe a few pixels off since it seems to happen much more frequently on the one side.

[@eulefranz944]

*Pannen: I'm a fan of invisible walls* Community: Okay. Name every invisible wall *Pannen: BET*

[@yablock7346]

Celing, out of bounds

[@DaVince21]

Pannen _cooked._

[@Otamatone69]

@@yablock7346you forgot wall

[@collinkaufman2316]

​@@DaVince21pancake

[@DaVince21]

@@collinkaufman2316 Yeah but I wanted to make a bilingual joke.

[@Ledslinger7777]

The fact that Mario has his hat simultaneously removed and replaced on every single frame of gameplay is fucking wild. The more I hear about the inner workings of this game, the more it sounds like the original dev team was made up of equal parts geniuses and absolute maniacs.

[@trustytrest]

In the Mario universe, there is a cosmic force solely dedicated to playing Schrödinger's Hat with Mario every microsecond of reality.

[@Mirrormn]

The reality is that pretty much every video game is and always has been like this, it's just that a lot of the crazy stuff gets papered over.

[@JoeSmith-db4rq]

Equal parts geniuses and maniacs? Those are synonyms

[@Albert-P27]

In fact, it's something quite common in video game programming and engine logic, don't think it's something so special either. Once you learn to develop something (even somethat basic), you learn that a game is an infinite loop of threads that complement each other simulating an ordered system (software in general it's like this), and the apparent logic that you see visually has almost nothing to do with the logic applied behind. Many developers or programmers are simply fixers and engineers who seek a goal through an engine, but they almost never understand a damn thing about the engine or how its very inner core works, they simply get carried away and fix the bugs that appear in the process.

[@insertname252]

Technically it's just resetting the state of mario and then correcting it within the same frame internally, there's no actual hat being removed in-game so the performance hit is minor. Probably it fixes some other major animation issue or something.

[@RandomPerson-iz1qu]

i love people who are willing to grab information from all corners of the internet and bring it together under a single, coherent topic. i’ve learned so much in one video

[@W1zardRyan]

It's insane how good the visualizations are for the entire vid, that is some real dedication

[@jolly1801]

the constrast of pannen calmly explaining invisible walls cutting to speedrunners losing their shit is funny literally every time

[@yousorooo]

I chuckled every time that happened

[@Will-uv9kx]

Imagine being sleep deprived, 12 hours into the same level over and over, hearing "BING BING WAHOOOOO", questioning your life choices as 7 people watch you on twitch and then you lose a PB to an invisible wall, you get so angry, but really... You're a grown ass adult playing a 25 year old game and getting mad at it for having a glitch is like getting mad at an old antique door for creeking. Very funny.

[@jongyon7192p]

@@Will-uv9kx With all that said, given losing a run, these are sucky ways to lose a run haha

[@taylorwoolston8856]

The BebopBandit one (1:29:40) always gets me. It's funny because things are already going badly, then he just spontaneously dies. The reaction is also top notch.

[@Ze_eT]

@@taylorwoolston8856 The added element of dramatic irony makes this even better. You know that is is going to happen and why it happens, yet from the perspective of BebopBandit, this was essentially divine punishment from the Super Mario 64 gods.

[@Kosmicd12]

Really incredible work to make those visuals possible

[@pugchamp419]

yeah, i wouldn't be able to make those visuals as fluent for 10 minutes let alone 3 hours wait a damn minute, KOSMIC?

[@HexFire03lmao]

Damn we got the entire gang here

[@blakksheep736]

It's him!

[@ianweckhorst3200]

I have actually encountered that one, it’s quite stupid 1:07:36

[@ianweckhorst3200]

Frankly, if you could make a mod that gives you all these visualizations so it’s easier to see them

[@NoobOfLore]

Every time I learn something new about Super Mario 64, I become less surprised that it has so many glitches, and become more impressed that the game works at all.

[@BladeCrossEXE]

I guess THESE are the "Castle Walls" that Peach and the Toads are trapped within.

[@SudoYETI]

1:02:58 "The thicker it is, the higher the chance of hitting it" Hell yeah brother.

[@0lgaZ_madudif]

underrated comment of the year

[@David280GG]

Booba

[@the10ofdiamondscard]

​@@David280GG Thighs

[@BowserTiny]

Lmfao

[@ghostoflazlo]

Fat chick's Amirite!

[@TJ-Henry-Yoshi]

I'm expecting an entire 10+ minute section of this video dedicated to TTC. Edit: Having now finished the video, I reflect on just how shallow my expectations were. This video had some of the funniest one-liners, beautifully heart-tugging moments and accomplishes all of this while being a technical marvel that never stops presenting engaging educational material about one of the most important cultural landmarks of our generation. People always say "This man could accomplish any world problem and instead he's making videos about Mario 64" and meanwhile I am left here thinking "If this man has all this passion to keep making these beautiful videos in such a creative and entertaining way, why would you ever want to force him to do something else?" Don't let anyone else tell you what value you should hold to the world, because your work inspires people in more ways than you could ever know. You have a beautiful soul and at this rate, you have my undying support.

[@G-Major]

Well put TJ "Henry" Yoshi

[@Hk_498]

I know how tiring it must be to deal with the old “joke” all the time, but to me, that history makes this already lovely comment even more wonderful. As an outsider, it’s heartwarming to see you’re still around here.

[@meysq]

It’s always so good to see you in these comments. We don’t know each other but you have the kindest heart man

[@abittoocheesy3635]

The Good Ending :)

[@kylewood4001]

TJ “””you’re gonna make me cry””” yoshi

[@DanielDeadpool]

Once I hit the "Positional Units" section of the video, I not only realized that the video was almost 4 hours long, but also that this is the same guy that taught us about parallel universes with half an A press in Mario 64; and then everything made sense

[@lupi8652]

The animation and visualisation of what's happening is absolutely amazing

[@Minty_Meeo]

I think the in-game visualization of every kind of invisible wall is even more impressive than the complete understanding of them.

[@aperson1373]

Hey meeo when are we getting visualizations for those weird grid cell hitbox shenanigans in Pikmin 2 :p

[@ryusdarling]

real

[@marbeardontknow2870]

Exactly It's so impressive that he had the patience to cover every single invisible wall I really wonder if there's a mod of the game with these visuals

[@Forthelemon]

There's so much mind-blowing effort and attention to detail on display on this video but one example that's easy to miss is how he found all the examples of streamers hitting invisible walls. He must have combed through so much footage!

[@mutmoochi6486]

i hope this starts an "hit all invisible walls" speedrunning category

[@giraffelove12]

same

[@snake_eater1963]

some of these are 1 unit thick, they'd have to be pixel perfect. would be hell lol

[@giraffelove12]

@@snake_eater1963 true

[@marshallwhat]

I wonder if one day there could be a mod made to remove all invisible walls, then have a new speed running category with invisi-walls removed

[@quut6594]

@@marshallwhatkaze made that like years ago

[@fishtrekgames]

I cannot get over how good the visualisation animations are in this, great editing

[@Shamox]

I opened the video thinking it was something silly that I could watch while I eat, 3 hours laters and I'm now scared that I get an invisible wall in the middle of my job and start rotating my torso independent to the lower half of my body. You've won a new sub, this was such a cool video to watch

[@HBMmaster]

the long awaited spiritual successor to the "walls floors and ceilings" series

[@adiginist]

and it is truly an oscar-worthy finale

[@RedFoxtail26]

Do you think this video is mainline? 👀

[@timpunny]

I'm a bit excited

[@COArSe_D1RTxxx]

chequemark man

[@michalswag]

i knew someone was gonna make the connection, and out of all tubers its very fitting it was you. shoutout.

[@voltdragon]

1:38:30 “Hey, this is the invisible wall I showed in the intro. Remember that? You were so innocent back then. You had no idea how deep this rabbit hole went.” This hits so hard after sitting through more than an hour and a half of technical information on mario 64’s collision systems. I am not the same man I was when I started this video

[@JonathanSicoli]

No. You're better now.

[@origiginal8056]

It's stuff like this that reminds you that SM64 was one of the first 3D video games of its kind ever developed. There was no standard for how to program even something as simple as floors and ceilings in 3D space.

[@icebowserthesnowykoopa1311]

2:10:48 His reaction always gets me😂😢😢

[@ChillaxeMake]

It's not even another invisible wall, it's the same one.

[@sir.op3429]

And then he hits the wall a g a i n

[@HexFire03lmao]

Streamer: "What just happened??" Pannen, 12 years later: "This is exactly what happened" Edit: just wanted to let you know pannen, I of course enjoyed the roller coaster where we talked and looked at invisible walls. Your an awesome teacher and a legend.

[@mximuse]

I laughed so hard at that part, just the raw confusion right after being negated inputs xD

[@Darkseany]

1:22:55 I knew I wasn't crazy!!! When I was a kid, I'd always fall off there and my brother was like "just stop letting go of the button dumbass." And I assured him I wasn't. And he went and did it with no problems, and I doubted my sanity and self-awareness ever since. Screw you Joey! I WAS holding the button! YOU JUST GOT LUCKY!

[@trentonjackson578]

This definitely happened to me as a kid. I thought I let go accidentally but now I'm not so sure.

[@ilex_occulta]

average big brother behavior

[@kaydwessie296]

Yeah honestly screw you, Joey

[@AnimaWild]

Im half way through this video after watching this bit by bit for like a month maybe, and i just wanted to say how impressive the examples are, like they all look perfectly aligned with the ortographic perspective, zoom ins to the other type of example with the vectorial art, how you made mario show all the examples perfectly, its all so well DONE i cant begin to imagine how you did this, 10 months sounds righT I would actually love to see a whole video on how this one got made because im sure it would be as interesting, really impressive work this has got to be one of my favorite videos! such an enjoyable watch through and through so faR

[@professorbadvibes695]

That ending sequence was amazing...thank you for making such charming and informative videos pannenkoek!

[@horrisnorris6478]

The most anticipated film of 2024

[@Seelen_]

Video length is 3h 45m 25s

[@TheJayKayA]

​@@Seelen_already wondered about that for a work of 10 whole months...so where to find that info?

[@qwertymanswitch]

@@Seelen_ i thought he quit, but no

[@fabiosonhandogrande1697]

​@@qwertymanswitchOh, I've been there, but now I know... *HE DOESN'T STOP*

[@helloolleh_dis]

@@qwertymanswitch If he quit, then that would be a nightmare

[@Drdoodoot]

shoutouts to the secret aquarium for not having any invisible walls

[@forgiveman]

that we know.

[@CoingamerFL]

Wing Mario Over The Rainbow solos

[@taylorwoolston8856]

I mean, it's just basically a floor, 4 walls, and a ceiling. Not saying it's impossible for them to screw it up, but still it is a very simple course.

[@mariotheundying]

@@CoingamerFL somehow impressed that isn't in the video

[@fabiosonhandogrande1697]

Honestly, yeah! Shoutouts!

[@shona-sof]

Fantastic video! I love how you cleanly explained everything leading up to the meat of what's happening so it was all easy to follow!

[@ShinyMew76]

I spent around a week watching this video in parts, and I’d like to say that it’s one of my favorite KZbin videos I’ve ever watched. It’s incredibly well crafted, everything seems to just fit in place. Thank you for making this!

[@TheOobo]

That streamer getting killed by the invisible wall in Snowman's Land is so fucking funny. He screws up, gets bullied by the level geometry and pushed around by the snow, then just killed out of nowhere with no explanation to end the comedy of errors.

[@RonZertnert]

timestamp?

[@balkU1]

@@RonZertnert 1:29:40

[@AlexR-ATG]

I'm honestly shocked that it didn't result in him yanking the entire console out of the wall and chucking it out the window. I sure the hell would have...

[@phithetagamma]

It's like the game said, "you're done bro"

[@Sixfortyfive]

It's like Mario just got psychokinetically impaled at the end. Adding injury to insult.

[@blueguitarthings4722]

I can see the M64 devs watching this decades later and thinking, “Wow, so that’s how it works!”

[@keiyakins]

I like to imagine the SM64DS devs opening the code and boggling at the fact the game worked at all

[@ElectricFortune]

I imagine the SM64 devs having large issues with the floor overshadowing in particular during development, but they also figured out that reordering the vertices "fixed" it for more egregious cases rather than fixing the underlying issue

[@EVPointMaster]

Same thing with Kaze's videos. I wonder, what would a Pannen and Kaze collab look like

[@galoomba5559]

@@EVPointMaster ABC trials

[@EVPointMaster]

@@galoomba5559 oh yeah, I forgot Kaze was involved in that. Though from the sound of it Pannen 'just' told Kaze "what platforms/objects there should be and where". I was thinking more of what's under the hood in Mario 64.

[@keepyourhornson5311]

Only an hour and a half through so far, but this is fantastic stuff as usual so far. Incredibly informative and engaging, great depth and spectacular visuals. Thanks for all your contributions!

[@thomasphillips885]

This is the most detailed and complete video on Invisible Walls that there is, and will ever be. Awesome work! Thanks for taking the time to explain everything so well, and it was fun to see real world examples of a lot of these walls

[@bbfreak10000]

2:14:10 “It’s like Moses parting the Red Sea but it’s the clock hand parting the invisible wall” 🔥

[@Seelen_]

🗣️🔥🔥

[@hps362]

This was my favourite line from the entire video.

[@khaas9]

I can't believe the bible copied Mario 64.

[@Lestat13TheVampire]

I needed to stop the video just to appreciate this line. How does he do it?

[@YeprilesteR]

It's peak

[@wyn9693]

so while it requires very specific setup, they did in fact implement mario randomly having a heart attack and dying. truly they thought of everything

[@lalter_]

Cardiac arrest

[@AlbRomano]

Mario's heart is actually in his hat, that's why when it doesn't reappear at the end of the frame he just dies

[@lonelylark7584]

@@AlbRomano This also explains why he slowly loses health when it gets stolen, oddly.

[@Dexuz]

It's more like your heart quantum tunneling away to the nearest galaxy through sheer bad luck but yeah.

[@ccgarciab]

@@Dexuz Getting your heart stabbed by the impenetrable substance that permeates the universe, because the protective floor had microscopic imperfections 😔

[@DefinitelyEllie]

Had to watch in a couple chunks, but finally finished it. Very thorough and informative. Massive kudos for all the work and passion you put into these videos :)

[@Thecrazymerio]

Amazing video, Pannen. Stellar work throughout, and time well spent, sir.

[@pleaserespond3984]

I guess this is what Miyamoto meant with "A delayed game will be eventually good, a rushed game will have invisible walls forever."

[@Albert-P27]

Today a blunder in the engine logic like this would be patched weeks later with the launch That is why old games have that mystique that will never be replicated again.

[@OdaSwifteye]

@@Albert-P27 Oh you could replicate it. You just have to never patch it after the full release.

[@exterminator9676]

@@OdaSwifteye Or just archive or load version 1.0 on any game!

[@FirstKingPotato]

Miyamoto never actually said that.

[@JamUsagi]

@@FirstKingPotato Behold, the joke.

[@tripprainey]

This is, without a doubt, one of the best videos I've ever seen on KZbin. The editing alone is absolutely insane. I have no idea how you managed to edit/animate those graphics for a nearly 4 hour video. Incredible work.

[@IlllIIllllllIII]

Shut up

[@vedwards5027]

Dude honestly this is literally the best video I’ve ever seen on KZbin!!! Dude how the hell did he animate the exact scenes and time the audio to be synchronized with his description of what is going on??!!! And how did he obtain the details to arrive at the conclusions he has without Nintendo releasing any of the source code or technical design specifications????!!! Dude seriously???? He is the smartest person I’ve ever sawed on KZbin and best video making person I’ve ever seendeded.

[@daveb8891]

@@vedwards5027 The source code for Mario 64 is available. I think it was decompiled and cleaned up and can create a 1:1 copy of the original when you compile it. It is one of the most reverse engineered and documented games out there.

[@noodletribunal9793]

the finale feels so dedicated to all the lost runs, rage, and confusion from speedrunners over the years. showing these spots like "remember when your pb died here?" lol. but now a lot of them are avoidable! great work on the video, this is amazing!

[@Peippy1]

This is excellent! It’s amazing the effort you put in to let others know something that is completely invisible for so long. I can’t wait to see what you do next!

[@tommo4356]

Causes 1-3: Working basically as intended Causes 4-7: Some mildly annoying invis walls due to oversights in floor and ceiling collision Cause 8: "How do we tell which floor is higher if at least one is diagonal", "Just pick randomly, it'll be fine"

[@MarioFanGamer659]

To be fair, cause 2 also is unintentional, considering that ceilings should be surrounded by walls and floors but some of them aren't (the arches in the TTM slide) or wall tiles unintentionally end up being ceilings (the broken bridge in CCM).

[@peterclark2152]

1:50:14 "And fourth, Mario hit a wall, which happens when Mario hits a wall." My night time, nearly two hours in, not much sleep brain: "Woah."

[@ConsarnitTokkori]

mario hit the wall he never had it all

[@Connection-Lost]

it's "whoa"

[@einstein951]

​@@Connection-Lost"woah" is a newer, informal alternate spelling. While not "correct", it's not incorrect.

[@peterclark2152]

@@Connection-LostLol

[@hutek4202]

@@Connection-Lost i bet you british.

[@veggiet2009]

What's funny to me is that I've been listening to this while working like it's a podcast, I'm not even watching the video, and yet i can imagine every location described as somewhere i randomly "bonked" I haven't played sm64 in 20 years, and I remember bonking that clearly. My childhood makes more sense.

[@mandatepeaceunity-rb3wz]

incredible!! I'm stunned. Its like science and math class with the visual demonstrations i had always asked for.

[@tailgrowth]

The phrase "...causing the ceiling to leak through" is such an amazingly cursed sentenced and it's said like 140 times in this video lmao

[@nethowarrior3294]

it causes the hitbox to PROPAGATE UPWARDS continually and it CANNOT BE STOPPED

[@connorconnor1631]

did you count?!

[@blakksheep736]

Yeah, usually its something leaking through the ceiling, not the other way around.

[@Ambidextroid]

I find it kind of creepy that if any piece of geometry in any level is just slightly misaligned then it can result in an infinitely tall invisible out of bounds "leakage". Like each level is just a flimsy cardboard diorama with this fatal invisible force trying to force its way through any gaps.

[@appmenezes]

Dont forget about the parallel universes 😂

[@DarthKain0]

Every game ever is pretty much exactly that. A flimsy facsimile of a universe because building a universe out of math is actually really hard.

[@NLoooo]

@@DarthKain0 when u put it that way, it really puts into perspective all infinitely different ways it could go wrong. Developping a game aint a simple task, thats a takeaway for sure

[@dragon_nammi]

​@DarthKain0 Wait isn't our universe built out of math-

[@DarthKain0]

@@dragon_nammi I wouldn't say that. Our universe is built out of physics, chemistry, etc., and math is our best educated guess (or model, if you prefer) of those things.

[@Linkums]

1. You are a very good teacher. 2. I appreciate the time you took on such a long video in general, but also the smooth animations that didn't have to be there, but which give it a feeling of quality (zooms, extending arrows, pulsing colors, etc.). 3. I appreciate the awareness of likely points of confusion, and how you explain them and point out relevant oddities.

[@thedyno900]

Impressive video man! I'm just starstruck by how insanely good the visuals are and how clear the explanation is. Echt een meesterwerk, je mag hier ongelofelijk trots op zijn!

[@stuntfumbler]

What I learned from this video: It's a miracle you can go anywhere at all in Mario 64.

[@fabiosonhandogrande1697]

Yeah, if they were a lot worse at making the geometry... It'd be an unreleasable abomination. Changing the course of gaming forever, as Mario 64 gets cancelled for reasons inexplicable for all workers. "Why does Mario keep going 'd'oh'?"

[@CrAzYpotpie]

​​@@fabiosonhandogrande1697and then Nintendo gets cancelled and Xbox never exists and Sega rules the world before blowing it up. The end. Saying stuff is fun! 😂

[@fabiosonhandogrande1697]

@@CrAzYpotpie my mind sure commonly comes up with "what if Nintendo just didn't revolutionize gaming?"

[@CrAzYpotpie]

@@fabiosonhandogrande1697 A lot of fun "what ifs" in gaming, for sure. How about if Nintendo and Sony's joint venture of the PlayStation panned out? I wonder if whatever group at Nintendo made that decision was fired after the extreme success of the PlayStation, or if it was such a big group decision that they just shrugged it off in collective defeat.

[@HazhMcMoor]

Yeah considering most of the time the walls are just one pixel thick, and when it's more it's so rare that it's mention worthy. Seems like the QA actually have done their work

[@JoeDan54]

3:10:50 "You picked one? Okay well you're wrong" had me rolling LMAO

[@victinistar8968]

Looking at it, I picked middle, so I was partially right, just not the right middle, literally, it was to the right.

[@ethanhoward498]

I paused right at that point to go do something for a few minutes, when I resumed the video that was the first line I heard and I just died laughing

[@yeetabix2752]

damnit now i have to Watch for Rolling JoeDan54 in 0.5 A Presses

[@zmaj12321]

I started laughing after it zoomed in to that random tiny crystal that was barely visible

[@reshpeck]

Just the confidence with which he declares that you're wrong... And his confidence is not misplaced either, no matter how many thousands of people watch this video

[@MrArbaras]

A very interesting case study, and extremely well produced. Love this type of content.

[@Apocralyph]

Thanks for your hard work! This quality really is something to be proud of.

[@TheMortalMan]

30 minute college lecture: I sleep 3 hour video explaining Super Mario 64's Invisible walls: 📝📝📝📝📝📝📝📝📝

[@MaskedDeath_]

Your college lectures were 30 minutes long? What utopia do you live in where professors realize you can't keep your focus for 90 minutes straight? :o

[@mxveewz]

my college lectures are 30 minutes! i go to community college

[@momzwrite]

​@@MaskedDeath_mine were 30,60, or 90 minutes based on the class schedule. Our college had courses that met 1x,2x, or 3x times per week

[@Sky-bx9mn]

this video could teach my college professors how to teach, I swear

[@leonro]

​@@MaskedDeath_Mine are 60 minutes, although some courses in the last trimester had two consecutive 60 minutes slots because they had to finish quicker in that period because of exams.

[@CShellStudio]

I fell asleep and KZbin autoplayed this. I woke up with about 90% of my vocabulary being replaced with “Invisible Wall”

[@SearinoxNavras]

That's all you can saaay~! That's all you can saaay~!

[@TiltCntrlz]

What about vertex/vertices?

[@StookyDoo22]

Wait, really? I'd kept wondering if my mind would know a song subconsciously if i heard it while sleeping

[@CShellStudio]

@@TiltCntrlz that’s the other 10%!

[@DollarSignSlate]

Here are their first vertices.

[@brandonbombplays9304]

Pannenkoek: so an invisible wall is something that is invisible and a wall Me: *Blinks* Pannenkoek: ...but to understand that, we need to talk about parallel universes.

[@alexbowlin7044]

(out of nowhere) kosmic: and waiting for a bus

[@Corncycle]

the visualization tools you used and presumably created are so cool, and demonstrate such arcane and precise setups very clearly i also assume you had to TAS most if not all of the in game demonstrations of hitting the invis walls absolutely extraordinary, cant wait to see what you make next!

[@silikerYT]

the fact that I went 3 hours and 45 minutes and wasn't once confused is an insane testament to how good you are at explaining this stuff

[@V4rya]

Man’s could be a top-notch game tester. He’d give you a 30 page dissertation on where the issues come from lmao

[@jeffroymael6969]

To be fair, this video was so pleasant and educational that I didn't noticed it was 3 hours long until you mentioned it.

[@ChristopherWaddelow]

Truth, this man needs to be on the board of education for whatever country he lives in and make the standards for educational communication or something

[@animowany111]

I was actually moderately confused about the downwarp caused by ceiling collision on first watch, but I have rewatched this video two times since then. This is a masterpiece

[@ferociousfeind8538]

You can tell how finely-tuned these streamers are, because they freak out so violently when something goes slightly wrong. They aren't improvising, playing jazz, they're practicing, playing a symphony, and their piano just detuned itself

[@Statusinator]

Imagine playing piano, and suddenly you hit an invisible key you didn't know about.

[@trustytrest]

I hate when domrthing goes wrong.

[@santiagorocha7948]

Godlike analogy

[@mariotheundying]

@@Statusinator just accidentally hits the leftover E# black key

[@Sponsie1000]

uhh, doesnt that have more to do with the idea that bigger reactions just simply are more engaging to an audience? l doubt they'd react so "violently" if they were just sitting alone in their room

[@lemonposting]

It is very satisfying how you present evidence, and show multiple angles. I wish more people would be capable of providing this level of detail in describing things. incredible video

[@jakegreen6341]

Amazing video and production quality. Thank you, Pannen, very much.

[@Bismuth9]

Unbelievably good video. It made me realize there were many things I glossed over when explaining SM64 stuff (mostly in the ABC). Your explanations of concepts I have also covered were far more thorough and obviously come from a much deeper understanding than I could ever dream to have. One of the things that surprised me the most was the castle OoB to the floor above - I completely forgot this was in the 120 star TAS at all, and I sort of can't believe I didn't question that further when I saw it years ago. All things considered, I'm actually kind of surprised there aren't more invisible walls. It's like they're all concentrated in the same areas and 95% of the game is fine.

[@Mswordx23]

Legend commenting on another legend's video!

[@jonpatchmodular]

A man of culture. Your series was also insanely good and a blast of nostalgia for the Pannenkoek days of old.

[@mxveewz]

oh hi Bismuth! you're the reason I'm here :3

[@Steve_Bloks]

"No babe we can do stuff for our 1 year anniversary tomorrow i need to watch a 4 hour documentary about walls and floors"

[@ToadAncom]

And not even about the visible ones

[@acatwithafancyhat5782]

⁠in a game i haven’t even played

[@flamentnagel]

*and ceilings!

[@crylune]

good, this is unironically more important.

[@babytricep437]

You’d just get married to get divorced, this is much more important

[@Duneraven]

Love you man, this stuff is really entertaining to watch and listen to. Nicely edited, very well explained.

[@KirbyCoder]

This might be the most detailed yet easiest to digest video on video game glitches I may have ever watched. Kudos, and bravo!

[@KarazolaX]

These walls damaged my psyche when I was a kid you have no idea. This video is like getting told about why your childhood bully bullied you, like how his mom didn't love him and his dad spanked him until he was 15, so he took his aggression out on you.

[@kylewood4001]

LMAOOOOO what a foul analogy

[@TrueLadyEvilChan]

​@@kylewood4001Foul, but accurate, no?

[@kylewood4001]

@@TrueLadyEvilChan way too accurate, part of why it’s so foul 💀

[@trustytrest]

I like the idea that he wasn't just spanked at 15, but he spent his entire life being spanked up until then. Bro just has zero feeling in his ass anymore, it's beyond numb

[@SuperM789]

>oddly specific story about bullying >cat-human pfp hmmmm

[@squidnipendleton3765]

A 3 hour comprehensive and explicit exposé on the devs' inability to fit shapes together. Pure cinema.

[@cosmicvoidtree]

A 3 *and 3/4* hour comprehensive and explicit exposé on the devs' inability to fit shapes together.

[@DrSpikeSpiegel]

@@cosmicvoidtree He just truncated the hour to its nearest representative point.

[@ChristopherWaddelow]

🤣​@@DrSpikeSpiegel

[@lajeandom]

@@DrSpikeSpiegel well done haha

[@ry6554]

@DrSpikeSpiegel edge hour

[@houserhouse]

This is really astonishingly well-presented. Especially as you progress through each of the examples. He starts by really explaining them well, so as you get deeper into the examples, he can start speed running through them

[@MDeeecent]

I love those in depth, extra long videos. Thank you for making that, it's a gem

[@summar-ice]

The amount of trouble caused by the decision to make ceilings extend infinitely upwards is unbelievable

[@HyperMario64]

The execution on that collision code is plagued by poor decisions. The idea is to have the inside of the world geometry being fully solid as a redundancy feature, so that the player always gets pushed inside the level. The issue is that the quality of the rest of the software is not high enough to afford this kind of strong behavior without it breaking a lot of other things. Because of gravity, it's not even useful to have the ceiling being extended, the floor would seem to be a more sensible option.

[@SuperShadow]

In an alternate universe we had extended floor hitboxes and this video was the complete guide on how to upwarp in any stage you want

[@alexhiatt3374]

I like that their collision system is mostly dynamic. But I'm taking this video as a strong hint to not extend anything infinitely.

[@SammEater]

Kinda hilarious and also impressive that the game worked so well despite the mess it actually is under the hood.

[@alexsiemers7898]

⁠@@SammEaterfr, while it’s easy to poke fun at all all these flaws it also makes you appreciate how much effort it takes to make a game work at all, especially in the 90s before the existence of more sophisticated modeling tools and hardware to avoid needing to literally cut corners like this

[@AlternateHoney]

1:10:00 "I'm not here to judge" says the one person to have ever intentionally collided with every single invisible wall

[@buttecake]

Except that one on the rocking square where it runs away from you. I can't wait for the 30 min video on how to bonk on that specific invisible wall.

[@kolskytraveller1369]

​@@buttecake it would be funny, but I believe it would be impossible given the explanation throughout the video. "Walls" update every frame, but you have to hit the ceiling for two consecutive frames to bonk on it. Even if the "wall" interaction happens before geometry update, which is the most generous case, the most likely way to achieve that would be: 1. Tilt the platform. 2. Somehow generate or use enough speed to collide with the first ceiling while having an upwards trajectory. This cancels the vertical speed component. On the same frame tilt the platform again (is it even possible?). Notice how we have to come from "below" the platform due to an upwards trajectory requirement while staying on it on the previous frame. 3. Use the horizontal speed component to bonk into other ceiling. Notice how, in order to stay on the platform and hit the invisible ceiling on the previous frame, our horizontal speed component must be facing away from the next ceiling, and redirecting it back was impossible back then. Even PUs won't help, since objects do not exist in PUs. I also don't think cloning would be useful. Cloned platforms are intangible (or can't be interacted with).

[@FlamingZelda3]

@@kolskytraveller1369 okay so what if you gained exactly enough speed before touching the platform to where you can touch the floor making it tilt, and then on the very next quarterstep or frame (idk) hit the invisible ceiling which appeared?

[@theendlessweltkrieg7276]

@@kolskytraveller1369 i think astral projection would work here

[@buttecake]

@@FlamingZelda3 yeah I think this would work, go from standing on one side of the platform to having one of the 4 q-steps land inside the ceiling on the other side. Which would cancel the movement and cause a bonk. The only unknown here is whether the box would update its rotation on the first frame Mario is on it, since you need a bit of speed so not enough for 2 frames on the box.

[@daroay]

One of the best videos I've seen on youtube, in general. All topics? Congrats.

[@himax5795]

Now I can finally be at peace with myself knowing that it wasn’t me “letting go the A button accidentally” while hanging on the chains on Hazy Maze Cave, it was invisible walls all along. If I could travel back in time and see my child self going through that, I would tell him “You never stopped pressing the A button, the game was just unfair to you, now pick the controller and keep trying until you reach the star”

[@EnvyMachinery]

Logged in to make this same comment. I got so angry at this as a kid, to the point that I held the A button as hard as I could every time I needed to hang from ceilings. I always thought that there was either something wrong with my controller or that Mario could only hang for a certain amount of time. Seeing that there were gaps all along blew my mind. Catharsis after nearly 30 years...

[@himax5795]

⁠@@EnvyMachineryI also used to press the A button as hard as I could there, but in my case I always blamed myself thinking that I may have unconsciously let go the button slightly

[@nj8833]

This is like the "it's not your fault" scene in good will hunting, except matt damon is me and robin williams is pannenkoek2012

[@himax5795]

@@nj8833Indeed!!

[@himax5795]

@@nj8833Indeed, specially because I died so many times like that I just feared swinging from the chains

[@metashrew]

27:49 _"and to satisfy it being a wall, you'd think i'd say it has to be a wall"_ is such a surreal sentence without context

[@kruje314]

*YOU DIDNT HAVE TO CUT ME OFF*

[@Swordkiller55623]

​@@kruje314Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing

[@Michael-kp4bd]

Pannen has a knack for amazingly surreal quotes like this, where at the same time there’s absolutely nothing weird or untrue about it - in the context he constructed

[@Extramrdo]

It's 27 minutes in and we're still explaining WALLS. This is an AMAZING video.

[@N38Productions]

​@@kruje314lol and then calls us all casuals. Unreal

[@iluvharrydraco]

this is genuinely my favorite youtube video of all time, you are the coolest person who ever lived and thank you so much for making this absolute masterpiece ❤❤❤

[@Kalaphant]

30:20 Rare instance where they intentionally made a wall invisible

[@RealTal.]

The way he said "and a cool thing about this one is that it's used in the a button challenge" like it was something he'd never heard of or participated in was hilarious to me

[@christianvalente3376]

His perfectly even delivery of every line makes the jokes even funnier cuz they just come out of nowhere

[@micropizza2104]

timestamp?

[@RealTal.]

@@micropizza2104 forget exactly when but cool cool mountain ceiling leakage cause 4

[@Brentaxe]

@@micropizza21041:25:13

[@ry6554]

3:34:37

[@CobaltIngot]

Casual Players: TTC is the worst level Speedrunners: TTC is the worst level Technical Players: TTC is the worst level ABC challengers: TTC is the worst level Edit: for the love of god stop replying with rainbow ride I GET IT

[@dtracers]

And then the irony that the inivisble wall was the reason we were able to solve the ABC for TTC

[@beesus1412]

Mario Kart players: D:

[@MattRose30000]

i.imgflip.com/8mst75.jpg

[@Gameboygenius]

F TTC. All my homies hate TTC.

[@user-qr7rk8xf7n]

Okay now make a patch for the game fixing all the misaligned vertices and such so there are no more invisible walls (except for maybe moving objects)

[@swanrideryt]

Well...just wow... Somehow setting aside just how fascinating everything was, AND so well explained throughout, how did you even MENAGE to make the whole thing?! I swear 10 months is still so impressive to me. Even if you understood all of it to begin with, to compile everything, make it have some rhyme and reason, script the whole thing, somehow make all of the effects (which is still very impressive to me; I imagine it's some kind of mod, but even then), film all the footage (I'd think knowing how to make TAS's helps, but it's got to be a lot regardless), make all the visual explanations with grids, show SO MANY of them literally on every integer zooming about simply to make it even more understandable, edit everything and not tear your hair out and scream out in giving up?! Absolute respect and admiration! That was awesome!

[@toxicradon6903]

The end montage made it feel like I witnessed a piece if history being made. 🎉 Watched this video in chunks over several days. Good job on all the editing and showing examples of actual speedruns being affected. This video deserves all the success it can get ❤

[@javen9693]

It's because Mario's nose is so big that he bumps into it and it startles him

[@Zejoant]

His huge gut might cause some problems too.

[@pedroH01]

This is the best explanation I have ever seen

[@Will-uv9kx]

That's pretty racist, just because they're Italian doesn't mean they have big noses... Well... Maybe it does but still. How rude.

[@eboone]

@@Will-uv9kx strawman lmfao

[@defaultname7685]

You feel like this is appropriate to say considering what happened to Israel today? Iran attempted to fucking genocide them