EQG Weapon Model Importer v0.1

[Zaela_S]

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



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...

[Zaela_S]

Originally Posted by Zaela_S

(like in the third pic -- no idea why it's cutting a "V" through the lower sections)

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:



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.

[vsab]

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

[Zaela_S]

Beep boop lazy particles.





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.

[Akkadius]

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?

[Akkadius]

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

[Scorpious2k]

Originally Posted by Zaela_S

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.

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.

[Akkadius]

Originally Posted by Scorpious2k

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

[Zaela_S]

Regardless!

Originally Posted by Akkadius

Ever thought of working on zones?

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...

[Zaela_S]

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

[Akkadius]

That's pretty sweet, this brings alive fantasies of wanting to make a Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time EQEmulator server where the campaign is remade and the MMO part is topically added ontop of it with tiered dungeons and bosses.

Of course you need all of the in-game assets to port...

[Zaela_S]

The cross-section of N64 ROM disassembly enthusiasts and EQEmu developers is probably pretty small ;p

Though for whatever reason that made me think that it would be neat to have a script hooked up to a weapon that sends out WearChange packets for its owner at prescribed times when equipped -- i.e., have the regular particle-less sword most of the time, but have it "ignite" during combat/in certain zones/against powerful foes/what have you by actively swapping the model. (It helps that when the particle model first appears, it takes a sec to pump out its full amount of simultaneous particles, so it really does seem like it's igniting.)

Would probably need a little custom infrastructure to make it consistent (e.g. so someone who zones in later will see the active model rather than the base one). Might need to let items to hook onto player script events as well to keep from polluting player scripts with item script code, if that doesn't already exist. But could do some neat things with that: broken swords that reform themselves, particles that change from blue to red in dire situations, a weapon with "bloodlust" that gets more intense the more you kill in a short period of time, etc. Make a weapon feel a little more "alive" and special. Although it's admittedly not very EQ-like (as far as I know) not having your weapon pumping out particles and looking most impressive when you're strolling through a town or whatever ;p

I'm sure some more interesting things could be thought up to do with custom weapon models~ Maybe someone's already done that with whatever particle/no-particle model pairs already exist, even.

[Akkadius]

Originally Posted by Zaela_S

The cross-section of N64 ROM disassembly enthusiasts and EQEmu developers is probably pretty small ;p

Though for whatever reason that made me think that it would be neat to have a script hooked up to a weapon that sends out WearChange packets for its owner at prescribed times when equipped -- i.e., have the regular particle-less sword most of the time, but have it "ignite" during combat/in certain zones/against powerful foes/what have you by actively swapping the model. (It helps that when the particle model first appears, it takes a sec to pump out its full amount of simultaneous particles, so it really does seem like it's igniting.)

Would probably need a little custom infrastructure to make it consistent (e.g. so someone who zones in later will see the active model rather than the base one). Might need to let items to hook onto player script events as well to keep from polluting player scripts with item script code, if that doesn't already exist. But could do some neat things with that: broken swords that reform themselves, particles that change from blue to red in dire situations, a weapon with "bloodlust" that gets more intense the more you kill in a short period of time, etc. Make a weapon feel a little more "alive" and special. Although it's admittedly not very EQ-like (as far as I know) not having your weapon pumping out particles and looking most impressive when you're strolling through a town or whatever ;p

I'm sure some more interesting things could be thought up to do with custom weapon models~ Maybe someone's already done that with whatever particle/no-particle model pairs already exist, even.

You can achieve this via script and wear change. Would have to cycle through similar models in the "animation"

[Mariomario]

I have to say that this is very amazing! This brings together SOO many more combinations of things not to mention making some of the more dull models a bit more exciting.

Ive literally lost the last 6 hours playing around with these tools and testing what fields do what, how to increase the particle effects, playing with blender etc etc.

You have truly opened something great here! I can fully admit that when I get my server back up and running I will be utilizing these tools 100%. Ive always wanted to differ the graphics between my upgradeable weapons such as increased particle effects from +6 to +9 and this makes it completely possible now!

Once I get the hang of things I have a feeling creating new weapon graphics will go 10x faster.

[Esildor]

I'm hoping to play with the particle stuff when I get some more time.

The particles alone are a pretty awesome custom feature. It seems it takes a lot more time to create a sword, vs. adding particles to an existing sword.

Being able to add the particles to existing weapons is awesome though, allows you to easily recycle a weapon graphic while making it still look 'new'.

My question is, if you take a Fine Steel Sword and add a blue particle to it, do all Fine Steel Swords now have a blue particle(it26 or whatever) or are you creating a new weapon model?