Kaiyodo Spell Editor

[LanternEQ]

I am working on a Unity implementation of the classic EverQuest game. I want to start working on spell effects soon. I understand Kaiyodo had a spell editor working around the time the classic client was used. I figure it is a good starting point for reverse engineering the particle effects. Does anyone have a copy?

Thanks!

[Zaela_S]

As far as I remember it, Kaiyodo's spell editor wouldn't tell you anything about spell particles beyond what ID numbers different particle effects had.

If you're specifically interested in the classic, pre-Luclin spell particle effects, information is hard to come by. I believe all the data for these are hardcoded in the client binaries (probably one of the graphics DLLs) rather than being loaded from a separate client data file (as most graphics-related things are).

Over on the Project1999 forums, Telin has done a lot of work reimplementing the particle effects from the pre-Luclin spell particles in the post-Luclin particle effect system, so he'd probably know the most on the subject. Though I don't know if he'd be interested in sharing.


As a side note, particle effect data for classic weapon models (e.g., epics) is exposed in client data files, and is relatively simple and moderately understood. There's a decent chance that the particle data for classic spells used the same format or something similar, since it would have fed into the same particle effect system. (In the post-Luclin system, data for spell and weapon particles definitely use the same format.) I had a barebones tool for editing this classic weapon particle data (some videos of results can be seen in this thread).

[demonstar55]

Is classic spell effects in spells.eff? This is just a memcpy of some spell effect data, the "SpellAffectIndex" is actually just an index to an effect in this array.

[LanternEQ]

Originally Posted by Zaela_S

As far as I remember it, Kaiyodo's spell editor wouldn't tell you anything about spell particles beyond what ID numbers different particle effects had.

If you're specifically interested in the classic, pre-Luclin spell particle effects, information is hard to come by. I believe all the data for these are hardcoded in the client binaries (probably one of the graphics DLLs) rather than being loaded from a separate client data file (as most graphics-related things are).

Over on the Project1999 forums, Telin has done a lot of work reimplementing the particle effects from the pre-Luclin spell particles in the post-Luclin particle effect system, so he'd probably know the most on the subject. Though I don't know if he'd be interested in sharing.


As a side note, particle effect data for classic weapon models (e.g., epics) is exposed in client data files, and is relatively simple and moderately understood. There's a decent chance that the particle data for classic spells used the same format or something similar, since it would have fed into the same particle effect system. (In the post-Luclin system, data for spell and weapon particles definitely use the same format.) I had a barebones tool for editing this classic weapon particle data (some videos of results can be seen in this thread).

Thanks for the reply. I took a quick look in the files and saw that there is spdat.eff, which contains binary data about the spells. There was also spells.eff, which may contain the particle data. I originally assumed that there was something in these files about the particle system it uses. I didn't assume it had all the data but I have a classic client and a test server so I can always verify the effects and reverse engineer that way.

I'll see if I can get in touch with Telin and see what he has so far. If I make any progress, I'll release it to the community.

[LanternEQ]

Originally Posted by demonstar55

Is classic spell effects in spells.eff? This is just a memcpy of some spell effect data, the "SpellAffectIndex" is actually just an index to an effect in this array.

Interesting. I will take a look. I saw the spells.eff file and wondered what it does. By effect do you mean visual or logical effect? Thanks!

[Uleat]

Wasn't the original client developed in Maya?

[Secrets]

spells_us.txt is pretty much the same format as spdat.eff, but comma delimited as opposed to memcpy'd in blocks of memory.

I'll see if I can find the info I had on it; I used to have an 010 editor script for parsing that file and converting it into a spells_us.txt file.

[demonstar55]

Originally Posted by Secrets

spells_us.txt is pretty much the same format as spdat.eff, but comma delimited as opposed to memcpy'd in blocks of memory.

I'll see if I can find the info I had on it; I used to have an 010 editor script for parsing that file and converting it into a spells_us.txt file.

spells.eff is a different file (which is stil memcpy'd)

[LanternEQ]

Hey guys. Had a chance to check this out. spdat.eff and spells.eff are both binary.

spdat.eff - Contains information about each spell, it's type, mana cost, effects, etc. I have this parsed.

spells.eff - I assume this contains information about the particles as it references the sprite strings founds in gequip.s3d. I do think the actual particle system logic is inside either an executable or the dll, which is fine. I had planned on reverse engineering it anyway.

Here is what I currently need to do:

1. Find the index reference in the spdat.eff entry which corresponds with the visual effect in spells.eff.
2. Figure out the format for spells.eff. I have take a brief look at it and it's not like most EQ data (fixed length structs), so it will be a bit more difficult.
3. Recreate the particle systems by testing them in game. For example, if the healing spell references a specific visual effect, I can break the particle system down into chunks and recreate it in Unity.

Will be slow and require a lot of time (and I am pretty sure it hasn't been done before), but I will get it done.

In the meantime, if anyone has any information about the spells.eff file, that would be great.

[LanternEQ]

I have finished reverse engineering spdat.eff and have found the index into the spells.eff file.

I am also around 40% finished reverse engineering the spell effects. Turns out it was a complicated but fixed length structure.

Thanks for your help. Will share my findings when complete if anyone is interested.

[Furinex]

Originally Posted by LanternEQ

I have finished reverse engineering spdat.eff and have found the index into the spells.eff file.

I am also around 40% finished reverse engineering the spell effects. Turns out it was a complicated but fixed length structure.

Thanks for your help. Will share my findings when complete if anyone is interested.

Yeah, of course were interested. I developed my own version of this, I'd love to see how it compares. Ive gotten only to about velius with mine.