You should be well in the know about what no clipping in video games is, but if you aren’t, it’s where a player can “fly” through the world. Some noclip features allow you to go through literally everything in the world, some have you collide with structures. It’s usually popular in online multiplayer matches when spectating, but what about on your browser? What about in a growing selection of datamined games?
Well, noclip.website is pretty darned cool. No, not the documentary creators Noclip. It’s a website that appears to have been going since 2018 according to the creators Twitter. It allows the user to access a number of video game maps that have been datamined and with some technical wizardry, they become accessible in a browser.
Users can fly around the maps, however, these only show the specific areas of maps. You can’t, for example, go inside the buildings when viewing the exterior map of Skyloft from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
At the moment, there are various games from various consoles and it’s really quite mesmerizing to experience. If you want to look at the detail put into Super Mario Galaxy 2, you can. Maybe jump into The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker from the Gamecube, even Banjo-Kazooie is on the list.
These maps are mostly split into sections, for example, if I wanted to look at the DK Summit track from Mario Kart Wii, it’ll be listed under “Flower Cup”.
Under the “Other” section you can have a look at the character animations in Sonic Mania, showing the chosen character on a grid and allows you to freely move around them. It certainly seems as if Noclip.website could be a range of things for users, perhaps a research tool for budding developers, maybe a fun tool for gamers and fans of the titles available, maybe even something for artists.
It looks as if more completed titles are on the way as well as an “Experimental” section shows off levels from Dark Souls, Tony Hawks Pro Skater, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and more. Some levels look a bit distorted in regards to textures, but the general layouts are there.
Furthermore, you’re able to save your current state that you’re looking at and then share the noclip site with friends. You can flick through the textures used, showing their properties and mapping. There’s some render hacks to enable in some levels, options to change the view settings, in-depth statistics, and more.
It’s a fantastic tool and I’ll admit, it’s taken me a longer time than usual to write this news post because I kept flying through levels. One thing worth remembering is that these maps aren’t with all the fancy post-processing tools, so newer titles so look rough. Some levels also lack skyboxes, but it’s still great to look at.
So go ahead, knock yourself out!
The post Noclip.website Lets You Fly Through Maps From Dark Souls, Zelda, Mario, and More by Ben Bayliss appeared first on DualShockers.