First off, I'm not sure what forum to post in. But I wanted to modify some character textures on my server, so I thought why not share how I did it. I also won't share any textures or meshes (modded or not) due to rule 1. But this should help you get started.
For the sake of example, let's say I want to modify the shirt of the human female Luclin model.
Programs needed:
- EQZip
- 3d Ripper DX - I haven't used this program before, so I can't say how legit it is.
But it's worked for me.
- A 3D editor. I use 3DS max, but blender should work just fine. I won't be able to help with that tho.
- An image editor. Photoshop, gimp etc...
- Advanced: A 3d painting program like 3d coat or substance painter. Makes things a lot easier.
WARNING: BACK UP YOUR EQ s3d and eqg files before starting!
Unless what you want to edit is very simple (such as changing color), you'll likely want the 3d model of the NPC you want to edit. I haven't found a way to export characters post classic (such as luclin ones) reliably. Which is why I've relied on 3d ripper for it. But if anyone knows a way, please let me know. The method I'm using is buggy at best.
When running it, you'll have to point towards the eqgame exe and add the patchme command line parameter as usual. Make sure "Also capture to Wavefront .OBJ" is checked.
Launch the game, and go to a screen where you can see the character you want to modify. For the human female it's enough to go to the create new character screen. Then press F12 to take a 3d screenshot of the scene. This may take a while.
Close the game and go to the frames output folder you set in the 3D ripper launcher. You should have an obj file there containing the models.
Go to your favorite 3d editor and import the obj file. I use 3ds max. Note that it imports the whole scene, including the skybox. So the character may look rather small.
Another issue you'll quickly notice is that the scene has been squashed for some reason. So you'll have to scale it in your editor to look somewhat representable. Also note that the character is exported in its current pose, and not in a T-Pose which would be easier to work with. But it is what it is.
After deleting everything but the character meshes, I'm left with the human female model. Note that the luclin models have two sections on the mesh that have been detached for some reason (highlighted above). I usually just attach them back to the mesh. I don't link up the other sections of the body, because they have different textures applied.
Next you can extract the EQ textures from your game. Use the EQ Zip for this. For Luclin, (most of) the character textures are located in global<race><gender>_chr.s3d - Ex globalhuf_chr.s3d for human female, globalhum_chr for male etc. After a lot of searching I also found additional textures in lgequip.s3d and lgequip_amr.s3d. I still didn't find some textures like the high elf breastplate texture, so if someone stumbles upon them, let me know!
Anyhow, it should be pretty self explanatory how to extract textures using EQ Zip. In my case if I want to modify the naked chest piece, I'm looking for hufch0002 and hufch0003. The naming convention is basically
- huf - human female
- ch - chest
- 00 - Armor type
- 02 - Body part. 0002 = clavicle, 0003 = main torso
I've dragged the textures onto the character in max to verify their slots.
Texturing - The easy way
If you have a program such as 3d coat or substance painter, you can export the model to OBJ and import into that.
... Continued in the next post because of image limit
Adventures in texture editing
Linear Mode
