EQG Weapon Model Importer v0.1
 

A tool for importing (and exporting) weapon models into .eqg files, using any ID numbers you like.

Link

Forewarning 1: Currently, this tool only supports plain, non-animated geometry. It may support adding and working with particle animations in future versions -- a kindly forum-goer has already offered to share some particle know-how with me, so hopefully I'll be able to make some headway with that before long.

Forewarning 2: I know basically nothing about Blender and 3D modelling in general, so don't bother asking me anything about that! I've used Blender all of two times, both just to make sure this tool worked. Tutorials are not too hard to find -- I used this extremely basic one to find my way around enough to make the dumb example you'll see below.

Apparently posts are limited to 6 images, so I'm gonna have to split this up a bit...

Importing

1. First things first, you'll want to make your model and its texture in Blender (or another 3D modelling program, maybe).

http://i.imgur.com/yxGsW8p.png

2. Having that, you'll want to export it as a .ply file. This is the closest independent format to what the client expects, so we're going with it, at least for now.

http://i.imgur.com/6MRb3LB.png

3. Base export settings will not do! The client uses "left-handed" 3D coordinates internally, which basically means the coordinates you need are the ones that make the least sense. In particular, if your model is properly upright (as mine is) you'll want to export with positive X as the UP direction. Don't question it. Figuring out the Forward direction will be up to you.

Also, you should uncheck "Vertex Colors" and make sure everything else is checked.

http://i.imgur.com/sFn6tkJ.png

4. Now it's time to fire up EQG Weapon Model Importer. It's not gonna win any UI design awards, but it has all the info we need for now. You can import your weapon model into one of the existing weapon model .eqgs (filtering for "equip" is a good idea), or you can make a new .eqg file of your own by right-clicking in the first column and selecting "New EQG Archive". I'm gonna do the second one for this example.

http://i.imgur.com/8ykMFrS.png

5. Either way, select your desired destination .eqg file from the first column, and then right-click in the second column to bring up your options. We're gonna want to "Import Model from .ply". Doing so will let you search for the .ply file you exported from Blender (or whatever). You'll also be prompted for the ID number you'll want your weapon model to have -- I picked 3333 since the 3000 range is nice and open. A .mod file will be made from the .ply's geometry data; its name will be in the format "it#####.mod".

http://i.imgur.com/Ox1xWs2.png

[Continued in the next post...]

6. A material will also be made for us, named "Custom" (the name doesn't matter). When we select that, we will be able to edit this material's opacity setting(?) (currently a string with an unknown range of possible values), and its properties. Properties control the material's texture as well as things like shininess. Our model will just be a pure black blob if we don't at least include the "e_TextureDiffuse0" (main texture) property, so we click the "Add Property" button and select that from the list.

http://i.imgur.com/tJUBgb4.png

7. Having done that, we'll be able to select our new property from the property list and set its value. In this case, it's the name of the texture to look for in the same .eqg file.

EQG Weapon Model Importer currently only works with .mod files; to import new images, you'll probably want to use EQGExport.

Furthermore, it's worth noting that although pretty much everything in the .eqg files use .dds or perhaps .bmp for their textures, .png textures will work just as well. It makes sense that the client would use a generalized image loader. This is good, because not many programs support writing .dds files, and .bmp files are huge. Sticking with .png is both convenient and worthwhile, so we might as well do that.

In any case, type in the name of the image file and then hit Enter or press the "Commit Change" button to save your changes.

http://i.imgur.com/ruGPr0P.png

8. If you're putting your model into one of the main weapon model .eqg's, this won't matter, but if you made your own .eqg file like I did, you'll want to make sure the client actually loads it by adding it to the /Resources/GlobalLoad.txt file in your EQ folder.

http://i.imgur.com/qwS0uPU.png

9. Now you're set! You might want to make an item using your new model's ID, but if you have a server you can use the #wc command in, that'll be enough for a quick test.

http://i.imgur.com/eGO8EWn.png

And, hopefully, that's it!

http://i.imgur.com/B3qck7K.png

[Continued in the next post...]

Exporting

EQG Weapon Model Importer can also export existing weapon model data to the .ply format. This may be useful if you want to use an existing model as the basis for a new one, or just to muck with something you're familiar with.

1. In EQG Weapon Model Importer, select your desired .mod file and right-click to bring up the "Export Selected Model to .ply" option. It'll ask you for the folder you want to export to. The exported file will have the same name, just with .ply instead of .mod.

http://i.imgur.com/pV8alrk.png

2. Then, go into Blender (or whatever), and find the option to import from .ply...

http://i.imgur.com/cazLRT2.png

3. Note that, in Blender at least, we aren't given the option to specify which way is up when importing. So the models will generally be on their sides. Rotating the Y axis by 270 degrees in Blender will get it back upright.

http://i.imgur.com/PZVxwGy.png



Annndddd... that's it. The program is not thoroughly tested so there could be bugs etc. Also there are probably Material Property types that I missed (I didn't look very hard) as well as the mysterious Opacity options, so if anyone feels like figuring out all of those I'll be sure to include them. Also, some pre-existing weapon models have multiple Materials to allow e.g. different shininess values for different parts of the model, but currently this tool supports only one material for new models. Materials are applied on a triangle-by-triangle basis... I'm not sure of any good, non-tedious way of selecting particular triangles (especially since I'm not likely to produce anything like a complicated 3D interface). Here's hoping particles are a bit easier...

Few points I forgot to make:

* Weapon attachment points (where they go in your hand) are assumed to be at 0,0,0 on the model.
* Be mindful of units. Models use the same units as /loc -- the tube in the above example is 2 units long.
* The client expects non-.bmp images to be upside down (flipped, not rotated). It just does!

That looks simply awesome! What language/toolset do you write these apps in?

This is awesome work Zaela_S I've been learning a bit about how blender works last few months casually just for the fun of it. I'm still not great with it, but I know understand a lot more about it now than I did not to long ago. It's a fun program to learn and play around with you can do really amazing stuff with it if your good enough at it.

Anyway this site here is called BlendSwap.
http://www.blendswap.com/blends

It has tons and tons of freely distributed 3D models people have submitted. It should be possible to load them up in blender and export them over into EQG files!

You can obviously design your own 3D models as well to export, but this is a big break through tool in this area of EQemu development in my eyes.

This is like a fairly modular 3Diminsional stairway labyrinth design I made in it back in February for the hell of it.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bg2-otpCEAAqXx8.png:large

Anyway this is exciting news the possibility of a abundance of copyright free player made content being possible is awesome to think about this opens up the doors a lot to true player made customization.

Here's a example of a texture made from scratch in GIMP as well. It kind of reminds me of lava and steam vapor.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BgEo-rECQAAVX9b.jpg:large

Mostly Lua, with some C++ to handle low level stuff like reading and writing the binary files. I use a non-mainstream GUI library called IUP. It's made by the designers of Lua so it makes good use of the features of the language, more so than typical bindings. The documentation can be a bit confusing (it's translated from portuguese) and it takes a bit to get used to, but it's pretty simple and quick to work with once you get the hang of it. Well, provided you're comfortable with Lua.

I might put the project up on github if there's any desire for that. Most of the code already comes with the program though in the form of the Lua scripts.


Also, I answered my own question of how to handle multiple materials: start with the model to import split into separate pieces and files, then combine them in the importer; each separate piece would get its own material entry. Shouldn't be too hard to put together for a future version.

http://i.imgur.com/PKFHC7O.png

Work on particles begins...

Soon as I have the ActorEmmitters more decoded I'll send it your way Zaela, that will open up the door for the custom particles ;)

- Vaion

Vaion, feel free to document on the new Wiki. It is super easy to use. Send me a PM if you want an account :)

When I try to add
a property i get the following error
I'm trying to put them into Dodequip.... I did go in game to see that the number is working - got a black model.

Using underfoot

Any thoughts?

Ah, I forgot about properties when I changed how some things were arranged.

Re-download, should be fixed.

This worked thank you

Cliche as hell example of the kind of thing an uncreative total newb (me -- my first model more complicated than an auto-generated cylinder) can slap together in a couple hours (most of it grappling with Blender's UI and skimming tutorials) with a little effort.

http://i.imgur.com/WfgQwfi.png http://i.imgur.com/zOCVrIN.png
http://i.imgur.com/gsp5opf.png http://i.imgur.com/3AJpMDE.png
http://i.imgur.com/IV5gEA2.png

Getting started is not as hard as it might seem! Although, making the texture and normal map (the e_TextureNormal0 property) decent is probably harder than making a workable static model... (The sharp edge of the blade looked more distinct before I put that noisy metal texture on, for one thing.)

Better than a cardboard tube, at least. Feel free to post your own~

(Oh, and for reference: with the blade facing the positive Y axis in Blender, I had to export with negative Z as the forward direction to make it face the right way in game).

Cloud Strife's Buster Sword...in all it's EQ glory! ;) Looks pretty decent for just a few hours work. Sword looks a little to heavy for you though Zaela!

http://cdn2.screenjunkies.com/wp-con...man-meme-1.png

And now you know why they went with it: distinctive while using very few triangles ;p

One model's worth of experience helps a bit:

http://i.imgur.com/tOflGZJ.png http://i.imgur.com/hEok44m.png

http://i.imgur.com/ksFBvUp.png http://i.imgur.com/l7sgTku.png

Last from me... hopefully.

Played around with blender some the past day or two and ended up here:

http://i.imgur.com/4m05JZs.png

and eventually here:
http://i.imgur.com/miirqRz.png


Obviously not great, but I will admit, I had a blast learning about the different techniques and methods to do stuff!


- Vaion
The Hidden Forest

I lied.

http://i.imgur.com/gQHUG88.png http://i.imgur.com/m969AYk.png

Crappy flat texture and I put the attachment point too low (seems to match up with the top of the hand rather than the center). But, you know, nostalgia points.

It's too bad this stuff will probably see hardly any use. Someone with just a little artiness and the patience to put together textures from photo-quality sources could make some pretty sweet weapon models. A sword made of floating, glowy fragments would be first on my non-rip-off list if I could do non-rip-off stuff.

That last one would probably sell in the Marketplace in EQLive. Plenty of stuff being generated by Player Studio on EQ Live is not as good as that!

It's the bane of pretty much any open source game I've looked into. The ratio of programmers to 3D artists is about 10,000:1, however seeing as there's 10's if not 100's of player created items in EQ Live marketplace, there *are* people out there... I don't know if you've used Player Studio? I've not used it since it's not available outside of the US (probably for copyright issues).

Could you use any of the available 3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing sites and download weapon models there?

I know yeggi.com is a nice one... here's a few example weapons that might be "easy" to texture.
http://www.yeggi.com/

Skull Axe
http://thingiverse-production.s3.ama...w_featured.jpg
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:164345

Light Saber? Heh...
http://thingiverse-production.s3.ama...w_featured.jpg
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:321812

Another cool sword here:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:192098


May find some time to play with it this weekend.
~Reppots (from SoD forums)

Hadn't heard of it. I'm not in the US either though.

Interesting that they say they expect specular maps on the site, though. I can't seem to find any specular maps (or the exact name of the property for it) among any of the extant weapon models.

Probably waaaay too detailed. None of the extant weapon models I've looked at even reach 1000 triangles -- probably more than that just in the grip of that axe, with all those smooth curves.

I put up a new minor version at the download link.

Now that I know my way around a bit better, this tool now also supports importing from .obj (Wavefront) format. It's somewhat more complicated to use than .ply, but .obj encapsulates separate materials and objects (i.e. different sections of the model) from Blender (or whatever) rather than just the geometry. This enables things like having one part of the model be shiny and another not, or different parts of the model having different source textures (inefficient, but may be easier to work with for UV unwrapping), and may just generally save a little time if you're setting things up properly in your modelling program.

The process is pretty much the same as with importing from .ply:

http://i.imgur.com/K3Uxg7E.png
When you have your model ready, find the option to export to Wavefront (.obj).

http://i.imgur.com/qwyo3tw.png
There's more export options to consider this time. As in the image, you'll want to be sure to have these options selected:

* Apply Modifiers
* Include Edges
* Write Normals
* Include UVs
* Write Materials
* Triangulate Faces

"Objects as OBJ Objects" probably isn't needed, but it doesn't hurt. Remember that you may need to set the Forward and Up directions to weird values to make your model show up right-way round in-game.

http://i.imgur.com/TAwOtrl.png
Aaaand then select Import Model > From .obj in the tool.

Provided you have all the relevant files (the .obj and .mtl files from the export, and any image files for the material textures) in the same folder when you import, they will all be loaded in for you. The image files will automatically be flipped (and converted to .png if they weren't already).


Note that only diffuse and normal map textures are recognized for the materials; other values captured during the export are mostly unused by the client. You'll have to add any other properties (like shininess) in the tool.

Holy shit, I don't routinely stalk a thread for a few days, and somebody posts A FRELLING BUSTER SWORD?! I love you guys. I love that after 10 years* EqEmu is a source of both learning and laughter. <3 you all.

Mmh. Maybe I should just keep trying to make models myself and put up a custom .eqg full of my work for any custom servers that want to use 'em... Probably a lot easier than trying to make another fully custom server myself while still finding time to make more. Weapon model overrides would have made a cool donator perk, though.

Shouldn't be any issue since it would be a fully custom file with no company-owned content in it. Could whip up a quick patcher program too.

Dunno. Still much better at the programming part than the modelling part :| Still need to get the hang of particles too!

A patch program I'd absolutely love to see is one that could mod patch texture swap EQ's own textures locally. Like taking all of Innothule's textures and apply them to other zones via a patch program with a quick patch config files that you could share to load for users to locally patch. This would among other things allow remolding seamlessly zone lines between zones which never belonged together without them look out of place just fix the zone in and zone out textures to match presto looks normal and intentional as if it always belonged together. There is a lot of potential for it because a lot of the Luclin and beyond textures are flat out better looking plus all the neat zone line immersion remixing trickery that could be done. This also could be handy for 3D model textures as well of course especially with your earlier program that allows you to add new ID's.

I don't have much experience with zone textures, but that seems like it would be pretty tedious to work with. It's not like you can just swap one zone's textures over another's and expect to get something coherent. I'm pretty sure they aren't standardized or anything; deciding which textures should replace which would take a lot of care. And even then, one zone might have 6 or 7 textures for "grass" while another has one or two or none. And some textures get stretched out a lot more than others, or expect to be stretched a certain way (I'm thinking of paths in parts of gfaydark and butcherblock and such, for example).

Actually setting up such texture swap patches that don't look totally awful would take much, much more work than writing a program to make the swaps.

edit: Let's not forget transition textures either, like when a zone has a grass texture and a dirt texture, and then a third texture where grass transitions to dirt in a nice, clean, edge-hiding way. Can't expect such things to be equivalent among different zones. And just ignoring transitions in a zone that normally has them would presumably give you some rather stark changes, clearly pointing out different sections of geometry in the zone. Etc etc etc.

Here's a example involving swapping katta zone textures into unrest zone. I highlighted the textures for both in bold. Don't worry about the extension changes from .dds to .bmp textures you can rename a .dds graphic file to .bmp and it'll work fine as a .bmp file.

katta.s3d katta_hrock01.dds replaces entryway.bmp unrest.s3d
katta.s3d katroof03.dds replaces roof.bmp unrest.s3d
katta.s3d katroof03.dds replaces 1roof.bmp unrest.s3d
katta.s3d katcathwindow_s.dds replaces interiorwall.bmp unrest.s3d
katta.s3d kattagrass.dds replaces xgrasdir.bmp unrest.s3d
katta.s3d kattagrass.dds replaces xgrass1.bmp unrest.s3d
katta.s3d kattower01.dds replaces floor.bmp unrest.s3d
katta.s3d katta_hrock03.dds replaces newbrickwall.bmp unrest.s3d
katta.s3d katvampfloor01.dds replaces block.bmp unrest.s3d
katta.s3d katvampfloor02.dds replaces stoneblocksn.bmp unrest.s3d


Is it possible to create a patch program that could load a similar config file which the mod maker would create and a user would load to patch. In this situation loading katta .s3d files textures renaming them and overwriting them to the specified unrest textures a bit like example below.

load katta.s3d katta_hrock01.dds rename to entryway.bmp copy and replace into unrest.s3d

Yeah, I understood the concept. And as I said, writing the program would be the easy part. I just think it would tend to produce ugly, homogenized results. I'm not sure how interested anyone else would be in it. Quite, quite niche. If you want it, maybe you should make it yourself.

I'm also not sure what it has to do with a thread about custom weapon models and the making thereof.

FYI, renaming a file from "whatever.dds" to "something.bmp" doesn't change it from a DDS to a BMP. It's still a DDS file. File extensions are just hints for humans; they don't mean anything to machines.

Having thought about it a bit more, I want to point out that this is pretty silly.

Wanting zone lines to look like they connect together is about the most minor concern a player or developer could have. Plus, if you actually look at the "proper" zone connections, you'll find that they pretty much never look like they belong together, at all. Walk a few steps from the edge of a swamp and bam! you're in a leafy, viney jungle. Go in some random cave in a watery, rocky place and bam! haunted mansion with a manicured lawn. Find some book on a pedestal in some random place and bam! PoK.

My advice would be just to connect zones however you want. Players won't bat an eye if a random shop door in Kelethin leads to the Plane of Fear (if anything, it would turn into a server-wide in-joke as soon as it's discovered). They don't expect them to make sense. And they'd probably rather see the Unrest they remember connected to an underwater shaft in Kedge than see it as some sterilized Luclin-looking zone.

On making zone lines match up..just remember that you'll need to take into account the hard-coded zone lines of certain zones.

Figured I might as well complete the set... although the sword should probably be thicker.

http://i.imgur.com/aGE1r9Q.png http://i.imgur.com/kOOAaBe.png http://i.imgur.com/Hrmcp84.png

Learned something in the process: if you make a one-handed model, make sure to give it the e_TextureNormal0 property, even if you're just gonna leave the value blank. If you don't, weird, tenacious interference patterns will show up when another model appears in the other hand. Not nice.

Texturing remains the tough part of all this. Baking normal maps that a) aren't impossible to notice and b) don't make details look kinda off (like in the third pic -- no idea why it's cutting a "V" through the lower sections) is tricky too...

Well, that just turned out to be a disagreement between the baker and the exporter about which way to split a quad. Making it explicit fixed it:

http://i.imgur.com/64eXG7b.png http://i.imgur.com/2GlwSux.png

Not half bad for such a simple model and texture...

No interest in any of this? Oh well. I hope to get bored of this stuff soon.

I think it's cool, I just wish I didn't suck at art ;)

Beep boop lazy particles.

http://i.imgur.com/dCOaFWx.png http://i.imgur.com/qFIIuIC.png

http://i.imgur.com/hQL7ZJs.png http://i.imgur.com/lSkH1Mx.png

Yup. I think I'm done with this. Not much drive to keep learning and trying to make models if no one's gonna be interested in using them. I put up files for what I did so far (to import from .obj) in the off chance that some future person wants to use.

I haven't retracted my comment that this is amazing. We can start archiving model works on the Wiki for when people decide to use them.

Ever thought of working on zones?

Would be amazing to do an Ocarina of Time remake with multi tiered dungeon content on top of a remade campaign lol

Just because we aren't saying anything doesn't mean we aren't impressed. It could mean we are sitting here with our mouths open in amazement.

When we first introduced Quest Globals my son was discouraged because no one responded (he and I worked them out together and he posted the announcement on how to use them). It was literally days before people started responding in any numbers.

Don't give up.

Yeah, this is quite true. It takes people a while to catch on to things and the potential they bring. I see it all the time

Regardless!

Overly long reply:

I'm not sure what the state of custom zone-making is at this point. If it's the kind of thing where you have to cannibalize an existing zone model to get a new one in there, I think it loses some of its appeal right there (not that there aren't some dull zones to replace).

I can remember seeing someone's custom zone floating around on youtube at some point and being struck by how bland it was. Maybe that wasn't the best example, but that is the expectation I have when I think of trying to make a zone. Seems like it would be a lot of work, probably boring to work on textures for, and just in general hard to say what would make the shape of a zone interesting or bland -- wouldn't even know where to start or where to take cues from. And then there are things like gaps in collision, room line of sight, zonelines and zone walls, etc to worry about...

It's a lot easier to tell when a weapon looks cool. Much better return on the time invested in making them, probably. Players always like neat-looking weapons. That's why I say it seems disappointing and a bit puzzling looking back at old threads and seeing that all the custom modelling attention was apparently on zones, and to a lesser extent player models, while item models were seemingly ignored in spite of the fact that they were and are the simplest to make, most permitted by the client (no need to overwrite anything), probably least controvertible (who's gonna turn down more weapon models if they don't have to give up anything in return? well, outside this thread), and likely easiest to hand out to players without fear of legal issues once GlobalLoad became a thing. Could have been amassing custom-made weapon models for the past 6 or 7 years or so~ Strange. But I wasn't there, so I guess I don't really know.

Anyway, yeah, zones seem like they'd be more effort than they're worth. Who knows, though, I probably won't have anything better to do for months...

One more, looks a lot nicer with smaller, more numerous particles...

http://i.imgur.com/Rf4xFsc.png http://i.imgur.com/aOOaQHt.png