Originally posted by Kurt911: I've seen some really neat HD Super Mario 64 textures done in YouTube videos, but everything here says that the absolute highest texture size is 64x32. Were those videos done in that size, or is there some way to get higher resolution textures on there?
That I believe it's actually done by the emulators themselves and not though Super Mario 64, there's a graphic plugin called the Rice Plugin that stops textures loading from the ROM and loads them from your files instead. You can't actually edit the ROM's themselves to have HD textures.
Originally posted by Kurt912: Can I set up the camera to follow a pre-defined path naturally through a linear section of a level? I'm thinking something along the lines of Spiral Mountain on Banjo-Kazooie, where the camera naturally rotates around the mountain in the center as Banjo walks up it, but you can still move it around if you want. The reason for this question is that I saw somebody fake a Sonic Generations style 2D section in a Sonic Adventure level by using a camera along a pre-defined path and two invisible walls to prevent Sonic from going towards/away from the camera. I thought something similar for a level or two would be a unique idea for a Mario game.
The camera would be something that would be really awesome to hack in SM64, unfortunately despite all we know so far about camera hacking, it would still be a long way off to do what your describing.
Originally posted by Kurt913: I read a comment about a patch that makes the possible level size much larger than the original limit. If it's not too difficult for a complete beginner to set up, where can I find it and is there anything I need to consider as a drawback or anything if I use it?
The patch is here, you would apply the patch just like an other Super Mario 64 hack. Though I would warn you now, the patch has some side effects such as objects not working for some people along with other things. I would also suggest you read the readme.txt before using.
Originally posted by Kurt914: Finally, speaking of patches, are there any in particular that you guys would recommend using for a Super Mario 64 hack?
There's the one you have to patch to your ROM to use the OBJ import program, but apart for that there is none that I can think off that don't have some hidden bugs with them.