EQG Zone Importer

[Packet]

Originally Posted by Scorpious2k

Didn't Windcatcher have a program that converted a bmp to an image with transparency by adding the alpha layer? I think it came with OpenZone. Maybe it has some clues.

It was built-in to OpenZone, definitely. We could use a material which had two textures. One as the diffuse and the other as the opacity map (the black and white cuttout).

Originally Posted by Zaela_S

Yeah you're right, I tried in game myself and it doesn't seem to respect alpha. I have no idea again. Nothing jumps out at me. The shader does seem like a logical place to look, though.

Whoops, laziness. I just put up a quick fix.

Yeah. I was surprised PNG's worked though so that's good. I think I'm going to install a dds plugin for photoshop cs6 so that I can work with the native texture format now that you've confirmed that I'm not insane.

Originally Posted by KLS

Mat: brnch Alpha_MPLBumpAT.fx
prop: e_TextureDiffuse0 Di_Birch_branch03.dds
prop: e_TextureNormal0 Di_Birch_branch01_n.dds
prop: e_TextureCoverage0 oakcover.dds
prop: e_TextureFallback0 Di_Birch_branch03.dds
prop: e_fCoverageScale0 0.050000

There's the tree branches on the birch trees from Nektulos.

Interesting. I'll try this again tomorrow and see if I can get this to come out. I suppose the first step is taking out all of these textures and examine which one is which and does what. The normal is obviously the bump mapping and the diffuse is the actual texture itself. So the only thing left is the Fallback & Coverage. I've seen coverage on materials without any alpha masking so I assume it's the fallback but I suppose we'll see tomorrow. Thanks for pointing this out KLS.

[Zaela_S]

Originally Posted by Packet

Yeah. I was surprised PNG's worked though so that's good. I think I'm going to install a dds plugin for photoshop cs6 so that I can work with the native texture format now that you've confirmed that I'm not insane.

DDS isn't any different. It's all the same by the time it gets to the renderer anyway.

[Zaela_S]

Finally got the chance to test. Definitely controlled by the material shader:

Opaque_MaxCB1.fx (tool default)


Alpha_MPLBasicA.fx


Maybe not that exact one since it seems to have made the alpha texture further away show in front of the closer one around the middle there. But, you know.

[Akkadius]

This is all crazy shit

[KLS]

Looking at the disassembly for EQGraphicsDX9 it appears keywords in shader names determine the basic render method for the material.

There being a major keyword and a minor keyword that determines what render effect it has.

eg:

WaterFall

Water

Terrain

Lava2

Lava

AddAlpha
	CBSGE1
	CBGG1
	CBSG1
	CBS1
	CB1
	CE1
	CG1
Alpha
	MPLBasic
	MPLBlendNoBump
	MPLBlend
	MPLFull2UV
	MPLFull
	MPLBump2UV
	MPLBump
	MPLSB2UV
	MPLSB
	MPLGB2UV
	MPLGB
	MPLRB2UV
	MPLRB
	C1DTP
	CBSG1_2UV
	CBST2_2UV
	CB1_2UV
	C1_2UV
	CBGGE1
	CBSGE1
	CBSE1
	CBE1
	CBGG1
	CBSG1
	VSB
	CBS1 (applies only if VSB not found)
	CBS_2UV
	CB1
	CE1
	CG1
Chroma
	MPLBasic
	CBSGE1
	CBGG1
	CBSG1
	VSB
	CBS1 (applies only if VSB not found)
	CB1
	CE1
	CG1
AnythingElse (eg Opaque)
	MPLBasic
	MPLBump
	CBSGE1
	CBGG1
	CBSG1
	CBS1
	CB1
	CE1

[KLS]

Mat: ddbrnch Chroma_MPLBumpAT.fx
prop: e_TextureDiffuse0 Di_Birch_branch_bare.dds
prop: e_TextureNormal0 Di_Birch_branch_bare_n.dds
prop: e_TextureCoverage0 oakcover.dds
prop: e_TextureFallback0 Di_Birch_branch_bare.dds
prop: e_fCoverageScale0 1.000000

Here's another branch, it appears Chroma materials also have some sort of blending to them.

Also are those ropes part of the TER or are they a placeable?

[knowom]

Originally Posted by Scorpious2k

Didn't Windcatcher have a program that converted a bmp to an image with transparency by adding the alpha layer? I think it came with OpenZone. Maybe it has some clues.

Wasn't done by Windcatcher to my knowledge, but is this what you were thinking of? Has to do with magic pink and alpha transparency.
http://www.project1999.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=32380

Originally Posted by Akkadius

This is all crazy shit

I think we can fairly unanimously agree to that statement. This is rather technical stuff I believe to most of us with no backgrounds in this kind of shit. Even if you had one in this stuff it seems like EQ has it's own way of doing stuff especially early EQ where the common used API's were different Glide vs Direct X.

It's actually quite remarkable and a accomplishment that a game that was dominantly played based on Glide in infancy early days evolved into what it is today and testament to the staying power of the game itself.

[Zaela_S]

Originally Posted by KLS

Also are those ropes part of the TER or are they a placeable?

Was part of the main geometry S3D so I translated it into the TER.

[KLS]

It probably doesn't sort transparent materials within the ter, or perhaps it does it by model and the ter is a huge model with multiple materials that may be transparent.

[Packet]

I think KLS might be onto something. I'm currently playing with the shaders to see what combinations do what and im documenting as I go.

I did have a question regarding shaders that perhaps you two could answer. How does the relation between materials and material properties work? Can there be multiple shaders per each property in a material?

[Zaela_S]

Originally Posted by Packet

Can there be multiple shaders per each property in a material?

Opposite direction, just one shader name per material. Just hard to indicate that in the tool without making the layout weird.

[Packet]

Yeah. I assumed that was the case but I thought I should ask since multiple textures can exist within a material. If I could somehow add AddAlpha to normals or something but oh well.

What're you guys using to explore eqg's since s3dspy only supports s3ds.

Edit: Nvm, I see EQG's in there now. You know, I'm looking around at the physical textures of models in zones. For instance, "Harbingers.eqg". Take a look at "av_skull06_n.dds" and "av_skull06_c.dds" or even the branches KLS was talking about. The _n.dds normal maps all contain the same color as the backdrop that we want to subtract/filter out. Perhaps this is the key in combination with the appropriate shader.

I also noticed "all_alpha.dds" in nektulosa.eqg. Maybe the shader assigned to materials that use this texture will provide some insight as well.

[Zaela_S]

Originally Posted by Packet

What're you guys using to explore eqg's since s3dspy only supports s3ds.

I made a quick replacement as well since S3DSpy seems to crash or hang on certain files for no reason.

[Packet]

Awesome. Thank you. I'm still trying to figure out this alpha masking. I tried using normals with the chroma shader like the references I've seen have it set but that did nothing so next up is to cycle through the alpha shaders.

[KLS]

EQEmu has a command line pfs archive tool as well:

https://github.com/EQEmu/zone-utilities/releases