I've got my 3DS file, now what?

[Charles082986]

I followed the tutorial here:

http://wiki.eqemulator.org/p?Modeling_Custom_Zones_

which is apparently unfinished. I created a 3d zone model and textured it appropriately.

I started with a plane and used a grayscale heightmap to create the elevation, and then applied patterns to the layers to create the rectangular texture map.

Now that I have my .obj file, what do I do with it?

I currently just have a textured topology, no buildings, no water, no foliage.

I've read around that people use OpenZone to add that stuff in and export all the files they need, though I can't find a tutorial for OpenZone 8.3.

I'm running Windows Server 2012, though I can build an ubuntu vm if I need (since I also read somewhere that there's an issue with a .map file or something with Windows).

Basically, I have not found one consistent start-to-finish guide on how to create a zone, only fragments of how to do specific tasks, and no idea in what order to complete those tasks or what tasks I am missing.

If anyone could provide some direction on how to go about this, I would appreciate it very much.

[Zaela_S]

Originally Posted by the very wiki article you linked

Client Tools *Required

These are the tools necessary for importing your zone geometry, weapon models + particles and objects into the game following a brief description per each utility. Please note that each of these utilities should remain in seperate folders AND they're compressed as a .7z file. You will need 7-Zip to continue any further. Download 7-Zip Here

Download Zaela's Zone Import Tool (Check here for updated versions. This download link was last updated on 8/20/14. Source: github) REQUIRED
The Zone Import Tool takes your .obj files and converts them into terrain and object files which can be manually modified in the zone themselves.

I can't remember if/how that tool works.

There are no tutorials because making custom zones/models is something nobody really does in the first place.

[Charles082986]

I have those tools, but nothing describes how to add water, trees, or buildings to a zone.

[Zaela_S]

You can define a water area under the "regions" tab. Should be able to add a new region, set its type as Water, and then define a center point x,y,z and the "extents" in x,y,z which defines a 3D rectangle which the game will treat as water.

Object models (trees etc) would go under the "models" tab -- you'd need to add a "definition" (the model itself) and then "placements" that use that definition to define where they appear in the zone. I can't remember if the tool is set up to import object models from .obj, though... Could at least try it with object models from other .eqg-based zones though by extracting their .mod and texture files using EQGExport or S3DSpy. But that's probably a bit too complicated in itself...

If there were legitimate interest I might consider improving these tools, but there isn't.