Changing spell particle effects

[azxten]

Hello all,

I am attempting to correct all of the non-classic particle spell effects on P99. A basic example of this is the "Shielding" line of spells where the particles float straight up instead of shooting out from the hands.

There is an existing thread about this in the Bug forum:

http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=105509

I have successfully been able to modify the spellsnew.edd file to change this behavior:

http://i.imgur.com/BZecgGn.png

The reason I am making this thread is to expose the issue to a wider audience so I can compile a list of changes that need to be made. This is the list so far:

Shielding spells <-- Shoots from hands
Healing spells <-- Shoots from hands
Frost nukes <-- Shoots from hands
Bard "Chant of Battle" type effect <-- Hands glow/shoots from hands?
Mage DS effect <--- Hands glow
SoW effect <-- Shoots from hands
Root effect <-- Shoots from hands
Tash/Slow/Swarm <-- Shoots from hands

Does anyone else know of any particle effects that are not classic or that you suspect aren't classic?

Thanks!

[citizen1080]

Very cool =) Thanks for the effort sir

[Furinex]

Sow Effect (STR, feel like cat) all need to go outward from the hands like heals and shielding.

[Stormhowl]

What era of the game were the spells like this? I don't recall seeing it like that but Velious was a long time ago...

[fuark]

awesome!!

[Furinex]

What era of the game were the spells like this? I don't recall seeing it like that but Velious was a long time ago...

Since day 1. Spells NEVER went from the hands to your face. This has been one of the major non-classic issues in reverting to old spell effects

[Swish]

Particle colours are out of whack as well... "back in the day" a Lvl 1 casting shield type spells (Skin Like Wood, Minor Shielding etc) would just be casting green.

At 24 (iirc) this would go up to green/(yellow/orange).

At 39 (iirc) this would go up to green/(yellow/orange)/blue.

You could always tell the pro players buffing people in Greater Faydark by some of their spell particles.

Not limited to shields either, extra strands of particles seemed to be added to the slow/tashan effects and the intensity of nuke effects. The shields I'm 100% on, the others...were they definitely pre-Kunark or added later?

[Reubin]

Particle colours are out of whack as well... "back in the day" a Lvl 1 casting shield type spells (Skin Like Wood, Minor Shielding etc) would just be casting green.

At 24 (iirc) this would go up to green/(yellow/orange).

At 39 (iirc) this would go up to green/(yellow/orange)/blue.

You could always tell the pro players buffing people in Greater Faydark by some of their spell particles.

Not limited to shields either, extra strands of particles seemed to be added to the slow/tashan effects and the intensity of nuke effects. The shields I'm 100% on, the others...were they definitely pre-Kunark or added later?

I remember this too. The lower level spells all had effects with less particle colors and "flash" than the higher level spells. I really don't remember what levels the changes were...but I definitely remember the particle effects changing as I leveled and being impressed when I got new spell effects. It was another motivator to level and a little bit of eye candy to impress others.

[Furinex]

I remember this too. The lower level spells all had effects with less particle colors and "flash" than the higher level spells. I really don't remember what levels the changes were...but I definitely remember the particle effects changing as I leveled and being impressed when I got new spell effects. It was another motivator to level and a little bit of eye candy to impress others.

Yep, the level range specified above is exactly right as well.

[norova]

As far as I know, the particle colors/effects do currently increase at 24 and 39.

[Furinex]

As far as I know, the particle colors/effects do currently increase at 24 and 39.

Incorrectly. At 24 they give you the blue diamonds which shouldnt happen. At 24 you should gain the orange puff balls on top of the green sparklies. At 39, you get the blue diamonds as well.

[azxten]

I believe the issue with the green/orange/blue is that at level 24 you get the "target" blue sparkles, meaning once you finished casting there is blue. This is wrong and should only be green/orange.

Then at level 39 you never get the "casting" blue sparkles, meaning while you're in the process of casting.

Do "casting" blue particles ever show up? Level 60 or anything? ..or is it always only once you finish the cast that they show up?

[nilbog]

A basic example of this is the "Shielding" line of spells where the particles float straight up instead of shooting out from the hands.

There is an existing thread about this in the Bug forum:

http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=105509



Very nice. Even if it's not 100% aligned to skeletal position, this is easily better than nothing and I will definitely use it. Any specifics you need should be obtainable from eqmac screenshots/etc.

What era of the game were the spells like this? I don't recall seeing it like that but Velious was a long time ago...

Always. At least until Luclin changed spell animations in general.. npcs included.

http://i44.tinypic.com/2jrvra.jpg

Regarding spell effect changes by level, this was addressed by kanras in a patch last year. Perhaps specify what is wrong :P



Kanras: Spells' visual effects increase in complexity at correct levels.

[Furinex]

I will get really specific on how this spell effect is supposed to look through the levels. From 1-23 its just green puffy balls. From 24-38 its Green puffy balls and Orange puffy balls. From 39-60 its Green puffy balls, Orange puffy balls and Blue Diamonds. The blue diamonds are Heavier (Or have lower velocity) therefor hitting the ground faster than the rest. As it is right now, it seems that ALL colored effects are slightly too fast. With this fix, things look much better however you can still tell that the green, Orange and blue are getting fired out of the hands, not sprinkled, which is what it should be. And to add to this. YES you DO infact get the casting of blue particles. Look in the thread that was started by Thelin, Which has a picture of a female woodelf using a 39+ spell and casting the blue diamonds. This is correct.

[Hawala]

Particle colours are out of whack as well... "back in the day" a Lvl 1 casting shield type spells (Skin Like Wood, Minor Shielding etc) would just be casting green.

At 24 (iirc) this would go up to green/(yellow/orange).

At 39 (iirc) this would go up to green/(yellow/orange)/blue.

You could always tell the pro players buffing people in Greater Faydark by some of their spell particles.


qft

[Droog007]

How does one get into the nuts and bolts of particle effects, textures, models, animations... is there free software for this nowadays?

[Ayien]

The lvl 1 - 23 heal spells display the lvl 24 animations on P99. On Classic you didn't get the blue ring around the caster until 24+. At 39 you got the blue dome that went on top of the ring.

I have my old PC I found in the attic with Classic - Luclin installed. I'll see if I can't find some SS and show what I mean.

[Furinex]

The lvl 1 - 23 heal spells display the lvl 24 animations on P99. On Classic you didn't get the blue ring around the caster until 24+. At 39 you got the blue dome that went on top of the ring.

I have my old PC I found in the attic with Classic - Luclin installed. I'll see if I can't find some SS and show what I mean.

Totally forgot about this, but yes this is true as well.

[Furinex]

Add Snare and Root spells to the list. They shoot out from the hands

[azxten]

Added root. I'm not sure how difficult it will be to adjust the level that certain effects show up. This should be client based though so will have to look into it.

[Swish]

I'm glad we're all saying the same thing about the particle effects and colours at the stated levels ;)

[Furinex]

I'm glad we're all saying the same thing about the particle effects and colours at the stated levels ;)

Same here, I cant wait for this to get implemented!

BTW: Swish, My co-workers and I sat in front of my PC for like 20 minutes laughing at your Sig gif. Is that of some crazy beard guy who notices he's suddenly on one of those big screens at a football or baseball game and is like... "Oh shit I better do something insane!"?

[Swish]

I dont know who it is but I think I remember reading something about it a while ago. 90% sure he's in a courtroom... but that doesn't explain how he got the lighter :p

Glad you all enjoyed it ;)

[Furinex]

A court room!? Wtf!

[ryandward]

I think he's at a concert and they just panned the camera on him to do something crazy, that's what the video looks like.

[Furinex]

What is the plan on deploying this to the clients when complete? Through eqemulauncher?

[Arterian]

Please do this!

[Furinex]

Tash/Slow/Drones of Doom (Wasp sting, that whole line) needs the effect coming out of the hands. Chords of Dissidence bard song (Level 2 I believe) should be like the mage DS and druid immolate dot line, immolating around the hands only, not going in any direction. Hows the progress coming on this? Anything we can do to help?

[azxten]

Tash/Slow/Drones of Doom (Wasp sting, that whole line) needs the effect coming out of the hands. Chords of Dissidence bard song (Level 2 I believe) should be like the mage DS and druid immolate dot line, immolating around the hands only, not going in any direction. Hows the progress coming on this? Anything we can do to help?

Thanks for added info. The progress is that I'm busy with real life. :)

I'll work on it again this weekend. It really isn't that difficult to change. I explained the methodology.

If you want to help find the name of all the effects for the spells on the list on the front page. This can be done by finding the SpellEffects image file for the spell then searching the spellsnew.edd file for effects with that file name. Change the effect file name to something else, save and see if the spell changed. Once it changes you know you've found the right effect.

If you want to go a step further you can set the spot I outlined to FA CX where X is a value from 0-F which should change the direction. Find which value is closest to classic.

[Furinex]

Well I didn't Junk it up!!! I got snare done, and here's the outline so you can add it to the code. BTW I used a slightly different methodology to get this accomplished and I got it on the first try, Im gonna try the sow effect next, if I get the same result, then we'll have a really STATIC method to changing ALL of these.

Anyways, Here's what I got for Snare:


Rank 1

http://s16.postimg.org/gka3huaqd/snare3.png

Rank 2

http://s1.postimg.org/rp6v8h0kv/snare2.png

Rank 3

http://s21.postimg.org/v5wqpxa7b/Snare1.png

Results

http://s23.postimg.org/tplor5o8r/EQ000034.png

I will post the methodology if it actually works more than once, will return shortly with some more results.

EDIT: Some more things about the first 3 pictures... The items I changed are highlighted in only the bottom picture, however you can see the numbers in the top 2 if you look on the end of the column 7 lines down from the last line with the file name on it.

[Furinex]

SoW done.

Here's the Hex:

http://s10.postimg.org/i51sohry1/sow1.png

Here's the Result:

http://s13.postimg.org/gzzu8v5jb/result.png

So, The methodology is... when you see this:

http://s8.postimg.org/ywx1lonl1/exp1.png

(Which is the file you are looking for in the spelleffects folder, the one related to the effect you are editing). The name of the tga file used for that spell. Notice how it spans 2 lines. It finishes its file name on the 2nd of the 2 lines with "ga.........". The line underneath this line, is where you start counting.

http://s11.postimg.org/xh1voruz7/exp2.png

Count 7 Lines from where I just pointed out to start.

http://s9.postimg.org/4zgn9db4f/exp3.png

Notice the LAST two characters of this line are "úÄ" which wont always be the case. However, this is what the hex code "FA C4" looks like. Highlight Those 2 characters (Probably . . ) and type FA C4 (You might have to try C5 as mentioned previously to get the right direction, however Ive done nothing but C4 other than the heal spell which was C5, and its all worked on the first shot).

So basically:

1. Find Spell file with the effect of the spell you want to mod.
2. Search for that file name in the spellsnew.edd file.
3. Count 7 spaces down from the "ga" of spel**.tga.
4. The last 2 characters on the right will be your mark. (4 chracters on the left pane with the Hex entries)
5. Change to FA C4 (Or C5 if you find it looks messed up still)

[azxten]

SoW done.

Awesome, good job. If we can get a list of effects and hex values to change we can create a complete "redone" spellsnew.edd and send this to the devs for review and inclusion in a future patch.

[Furinex]

Awesome, good job. If we can get a list of effects and hex values to change we can create a complete "redone" spellsnew.edd and send this to the devs for review and inclusion in a future patch.

So far Ive done about 80% of druid spells which can probably attribute to 30% of other classes. I will see if There is a Numbered pattern when I get home, Ive been working on this during work. Makes the time go by faster at this fucking lame IT job where no one gives a shit.

Something Im wondering and trying to fiddle with at the same time. Is FA of the FA C4(c5) required? Can it be different? Will we get different results? Can we get this to follow the skeleton instead of making this a fixed direction? Gonna keep investigating this.

[azxten]

Something Im wondering and trying to fiddle with at the same time. Is FA of the FA C4(c5) required? Can it be different? Will we get different results? Can we get this to follow the skeleton instead of making this a fixed direction? Gonna keep investigating this.

I believe I tried just changing it to 4/5 but it didn't work, give it a try though.

I also have a theory that it is possible to get it to follow the skeleton. When I was changing things randomly I got the shielding spell to use a bunch of different effect types during the initial casting. Many of these don't look like any other classic spells.

I'm thinking that there may be a different part of the hex that could be changed to bring back the classic "type" of spell which would follow the skeletal structure.

Our main issue here, in my opinion, is that you have to reload EverQuest after every change you make. If you could make changes and test them instantly I could reverse engineer that whole file in a few hours. I just don't have the patience to set every spot to all possible values and record what happens when you have a ~3 minute delay every time.

[Furinex]

I believe I tried just changing it to 4/5 but it didn't work, give it a try though.

I also have a theory that it is possible to get it to follow the skeleton. When I was changing things randomly I got the shielding spell to use a bunch of different effect types during the initial casting. Many of these don't look like any other classic spells.

I'm thinking that there may be a different part of the hex that could be changed to bring back the classic "type" of spell which would follow the skeletal structure.

Our main issue here, in my opinion, is that you have to reload EverQuest after every change you make. If you could make changes and test them instantly I could reverse engineer that whole file in a few hours. I just don't have the patience to set every spot to all possible values and record what happens when you have a ~3 minute delay every time.


I don't believe you need to do this really... What we can do is make a prototype. Im working on this right now as a matter of fact. I have a method that will allow me to go through this whole file systematically and change them, however I dont know how to program or I would automate this. Its really very simple. Im changing all the spells right now, we will figure out C4 vs C5 after I get the whole thing done, it will be much more manageable to track down little issues with spells rather than ALL the spells.

[Telin]

These examples are the particles rendered when deleting spellsnew files on EQmac. I am not sure what files the old particles use to render these effects. I imagine it could be simple if we found them. I have played around with editing the spellsnew files myself; however, they still use the .dds spell particle images that aren't exactly classic like these examples.
When you load the spellsnew files on EQMac, the healing spell looks like it does on this server, and same for the buff spell, except that the particles flow correctly from the hands. The blue particles never come out of hands from buffs, and the healing effect is missing a ton of particles.

The GMs were informed of this bug and haven't fixed it. It's been broken for years, which leads me to believe the info for these animations may have been removed or overwritten in the titanium files. During this version of the game they were converting to the new spell particle system (which didn't all happen at once, I believe they changed the Cleric Virtue spell line first to some glowy blobs). You can see some of new spell animations in the spellsnew files that come with titanium. Some of them look like they were never implemented for any spell.

http://imageshack.us/a/img811/1116/healingir.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img833/2954/buffing.jpg

[Lagaidh]

Ah.

This explains the particle effect on the target. Like when you cast an undead DD, in classic live the effect was a burst of sparkles. It looked like a globe of white light points; quite granular. Later on, and what we see here, the effect is more diffuse and has a shape to it like an energy burst.

[Kautin]

These examples are the particles rendered when deleting spellsnew files on EQmac. I am not sure what files the old particles use to render these effects. I imagine it could be simple if we found them. I have played around with editing the spellsnew files myself; however, they still use the .dds spell particle images that aren't exactly classic like these examples.
When you load the spellsnew files on EQMac, the healing spell looks like it does on this server, and same for the buff spell, except that the particles flow correctly from the hands. The blue particles never come out of hands from buffs, and the healing effect is missing a ton of particles.

The GMs were informed of this bug and haven't fixed it. It's been broken for years, which leads me to believe the info for these animations may have been removed or overwritten in the titanium files. During this version of the game they were converting to the new spell particle system (which didn't all happen at once, I believe they changed the Cleric Virtue spell line first to some glowy blobs). You can see some of new spell animations in the spellsnew files that come with titanium. Some of them look like they were never implemented for any spell.

http://imageshack.us/a/img811/1116/healingir.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img833/2954/buffing.jpg


This is how i remember them on live when i played from 2000-2002. These particle effects are soo amazing! I would be so happy if a patch or a download could be done to bring all the spell particles to classic. It is simply the only way to go in my book! Keep up the good work, hopefully the more program savvy individuals can work this out! It would surely bring joy to hundreds of players. :)

[veejur]

Just want to add that I LOVE this. Nice work you guys who figured it out.

[Furinex]

Well, I did some work on the DOT spells for druids, I ended up going through the whole file and changing that string every certain amount of lines (Given that it followed .tga line 7 lines above). This worked. However -- Some spells are going in the wrong direction still. Not the direction we were originally seeing but a different direction. So this probably has to do with the C4-C5 value. I gotta go back through and find the one that is for the Dot but what this means is, There is much work to be done and I cant, or Azxtan probably cant handle it all. Need help finding values for spells.

[nilbog]

I look forward to the results of this.

http://midlifegamer.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/fallout-3-thumbs-up.jpg

[tristantio]

This isn't tested but I think this would work for automating:


sed -i 's/\(\x2E\x74\x67\x61.\{124\}\).\{2\}/\1\xFA\xC4/g' your-file.ext


Obviously back it up first and confirm (I am on my laptop and don't have the spells file to test it on).

This should (and pardon if I have a typo) find where your file has the .tga ASCII (0x2E746761) and match the next 124 hex numbers (its late, if I miscounted feel free to let me know) and find your spot where you are setting the following 2 to 0xFAC4.

[Telin]

Are you editing every spell with the same .tga? That would change all spells using that particular graphic. Spelc2.tga is used for various fire spells as well as the buff spell out of the hands, for example. The codes seem to able to alter the size of the graphic as well as the behavior. Spela2.tga look like it's used for healing.

[Furinex]

Telin, there are multiple entries in the file dealing with 1 tga file that gets used for specific spells. I've found several entries for Spela2.tga. The first one corrected by Azxten was the healing offset. However, this uses the same files (Spela2.tga) as the druid DoT line, creeping crud (Stinging swarm etc). In fact, each of these were different values to get them to work how (almost) correctly. The heal was C4 and the dot was C5. Also, check your PMs Telin.

Tristantio, Thanks for that, however Im not savy enough to use that, or at least I dont know how. Im just learning this crap right now, so forgive me if I sound newbish.

One last thing I would like to point out. I stated before that if we change that 1 offset to FA C4 that it will change the direction. This is true, however last night I was messing around with some other stuff with that file. I decided I was gonna copy and paste FAC4 and replace it with everything from the line we are targetting, back 4 lines up. So it was all FAC4. Loaded into game, guess what I found? My green spell effects are gone (While casting, however they show when the spell lands, just like the blue diamonds). The orange got very scarce but it was still there. This leads me to believe that we can get these spell effects working REALLY well. I bet there's an offset variable within each on of these entries that controls what effects come from where and when, which direction and how much.

[tristantio]

furinex, sed is a command line stream editor, linux and mac have by default, on windows you can use cygwin to get it, then just run my command

[Furinex]

Well... i figured I should at least release this so other people can try and mess around with it. Not sure if this is the right spot, or if this is even ok, I dont see any reason for it not to be since this file is rolled up into the patcher for playing on P99. Anyways, attached to this post is my spellsnew.edd file that I have been working with. Its probably the most complete I have. Please note this is a work in progress.

[dragolyche]

Well... i figured I should at least release this so other people can try and mess around with it. Not sure if this is the right spot, or if this is even ok, I dont see any reason for it not to be since this file is rolled up into the patcher for playing on P99. Anyways, attached to this post is my spellsnew.edd file that I have been working with. Its probably the most complete I have. Please note this is a work in progress.

i downloaded your files. Nice work ! Ty friend.

[Arterian]

Please - release this.

[Furinex]

Please - release this.

It ... is... released.... look 3 posts up. WIP btw

[Furinex]

i downloaded your files. Nice work ! Ty friend.

Thanks, this is all thanks to a collaboration of people, including Axzten and Telin, amongst others, im just trying to compile it all in one spot and get it moving... I think this file is really just beginning to be decrypted. I think we can control all aspects of the spells from this file. My next goal is to find where the blue sparkles are controlled while casting. Please if anyone has any spells that still are incorrect with my version of the spell file, please post here with what spell it is, and if you could find the .tga that it uses so I can fix it and I will post back with that spell corrected.

EDIT: Btw, Im looking for an EQMac spellsnew.edd. If anyone has one, I would love to compare the two.

[azxten]

Hey Furinex, does your spells file include fixes for all the spells on the list in the front page?

I'm going to work on this some again. I am thinking I'll try to recreate this look:

http://imageshack.us/a/img833/2954/buffing.jpg

I was able to recreate the "falling" effect during my testing so I know its possible. I'm guessing green needs to be more disbursed instead of a straight column of particles. Same for orange/blue and orange/blue also have a higher acceleration and gravity.

Green -> Straight, more cone like disburse pattern
Orange -> Slight gravity, more cone like disburse pattern
Blue -> More gravity, more cone like disburse pattern

[Furinex]

Did NOT DO Frost nukes, bard stuff and Mage DS. All others should work. Btw the green spell effect needs to be shorter. Red/orange is medium length and blue seems to be the longest with the most gravity. I still have not found how to modify the file to show blue effects when casting. If you find that let me know

[azxten]

At the moment I'm kind of giving up on spellsnew.edd and instead working on spells.eff.

Removing the spellsnew* files produces much better looking particles in my opinion. The only problem is that there is no "source" effect, there is only target effects.

[Furinex]

At the moment I'm kind of giving up on spellsnew.edd and instead working on spells.eff.

Removing the spellsnew* files produces much better looking particles in my opinion. The only problem is that there is no "source" effect, there is only target effects.

So, elaborate... What is the .eff one going to give us that the .edd one wont? and how will that help if we are deleting them anyways to get the better effect? I'll give this a shot too.

[Furinex]

when I delete those 2 files, I get NO spell effects when casting and only the finishing effect. Not sure how we're gonna be able to use this.

[azxten]

So, elaborate... What is the .eff one going to give us that the .edd one wont? and how will that help if we are deleting them anyways to get the better effect? I'll give this a shot too.

Left is spells.eff, right is spellsnew.eff. On the left the white orbs start in a circle on the ground and begin rising up in a cone like "tornado" shape. On the right the white orbs start in a circle around the caster and go outwards. Note the difference in brightness as well. This can be seen in the pictures posted from EQMac. P99 spell effects are "dulled" because they aren't classic.

So, the .eff is going to give us the actual classic particle effects. However, either way there are some serious problems.

Using spells.eff when you start casting a spell the particles stay at that origin. If you move they don't follow you. Also, all the effects work except for effects that originate from the hands.

Using spellsnew.eff you don't get the classic particles, they aren't as bright, don't originte from the hands properly.

http://i.imgur.com/6DgZm57.jpg

I get NO spell effects when casting and only the finishing effect. Not sure how we're gonna be able to use this.

You don't get the hand particle effects. Casting other spells like invis, as shown in the screen shot, works normally.

Sure, spells.eff sucks almost as much as spellsnew.eff but if we could somehow merge both of them we would have classic effects. :)

[cowjosh]

Downloaded the updated spellsnew.edd file, great job with the particles emitted from the characters hands. I also tried deleting both spellsnew files, which produced an interesting result. I did not see all of the particles (none from the hands, clearly missing some from other sources, etc) but the ones that did show up were "classic" by this I mean, on my level 34 druid, the skin series spells landed on target with green and orange particles, as was the case in classic, not green and blue as we see now. Perhaps whatever file is being read in the place of the spellsnew.edd contains all of the information about classic particles in the way that the "fall through" files work for the classic load music.

I'm not sure where to find these files, unfortunately. There is some chance that the placement of particles was buried in some library string table or something instead of having its own file.

[Furinex]

Left is spells.eff, right is spellsnew.eff. On the left the white orbs start in a circle on the ground and begin rising up in a cone like "tornado" shape. On the right the white orbs start in a circle around the caster and go outwards. Note the difference in brightness as well. This can be seen in the pictures posted from EQMac. P99 spell effects are "dulled" because they aren't classic.

So, the .eff is going to give us the actual classic particle effects. However, either way there are some serious problems.

Using spells.eff when you start casting a spell the particles stay at that origin. If you move they don't follow you. Also, all the effects work except for effects that originate from the hands.

Using spellsnew.eff you don't get the classic particles, they aren't as bright, don't originte from the hands properly.

http://i.imgur.com/6DgZm57.jpg



You don't get the hand particle effects. Casting other spells like invis, as shown in the screen shot, works normally.


Interesting. So... How can we get these old effects to go with the hand particles? I guess thats the question.

[azxten]

This looks useful:

http://forum.ragezone.com/f480/guide-basic-editing-eff-files-591738/

Haven't read it yet, will do so in a bit.

[azxten]

I wish I could look at some classic spells.eff files. I'm considering buying a classic EQ CD from eBay.

[Furinex]

I read through this, unfortunately, I feel like his methods might not work since he's dealing with items and spells seem to be a bit tricker. Anyways, it might help, and I just dont kow.

[Furinex]

I wish I could look at some classic spells.eff files. I'm considering buying a classic EQ CD from eBay.

lol... give me a couple of minutes.

EDIT: Im installing the original EQ onto my pc right now, do you have some place I can send this file so you can view it?

[azxten]

lol... give me a couple of minutes.

I just bought classic EQ and SoV CDs for $5. I figure worse case I can show it to my grandchildren and tell them I wasted half my life playing this game.

do you have some place I can send this file so you can view it?

PM sent

[Furinex]

Email sent out to ya. Looks like the spell.eff file is like... the same as the one in EQT, maybe Im wrong.

[nilbog]

I made an #effects channel on irc.eqemulator.net if you wanted a place to discuss in real time.

[Furinex]

I made an #effects channel on irc.eqemulator.net if you wanted a place to discuss in real time.

Thanks! I actually was looking for an reason to install irc.

[Telin]

I have been observing the behavior of the current state of using what classic particles we have and how they should behave. Obviously all hand particles aren't being generated. It appears that any particles that are supposed to be directly tied to the caster, and therefore move with the caster are not being rendered. The particles around the caster and target are being generated, but upon moving they don't stay with the character as shown in this screenshot:
http://imageshack.us/a/img843/6773/99sowtest.jpg

Also there seems to be some link that allows for the complex nature of the particles out of the hands and how they seem to flow gracefully depending on where the hands move, instead of being forced in one static direction:
http://imageshack.us/a/img836/926/macsowtest.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img7/1184/macbufftest2.jpg


Here is how the classic healing effect looks for a level 24-39 caster: The ground level particles work properly. They actually never did follow the caster with movement. But the second higher ring that is missing is supposed to stick with the caster's movement. I don't have a level 39 character on the server to check and see if the globe of blue particles is working.
http://imageshack.us/a/img9/3706/99heal.jpg

Here is the healing spell shown correctly with the second ring and of course the hand particles:
http://imageshack.us/a/img38/1035/machealtest.jpg

Here is the druid DoT line of spells. This shows the correct graphic for my level, except for the missing hand particles:
http://imageshack.us/a/img805/7785/99dottest.jpg

Here is the gate spell, it's missing a few particles from the initial casting. Maybe it's tied to the reason the hand particles don't work. Otherwise this is correct for a level 24-38 caster.
http://imageshack.us/a/img838/7985/99gatetest.jpg

Here is a druid AOE fire spell. Only a few initial particles are missing. Otherwise this looks correct for a 24-38 caster.
http://imageshack.us/a/img29/8996/99aoetest.jpg

Here is a root/haste spell effect. This is the correct mid level particles for around the caster. The outer rings are supposed to be added at 39.
http://imageshack.us/a/img850/5545/99roottest.jpg

[Telin]

Here is a direct damage fire spell effect. Notice the missing waist (and hand) particles, which always follow the caster on movement. The ground level effects don't require sticking with the caster and so it shows up correctly here.
http://imageshack.us/a/img541/2275/99firetest.jpg

Here is the correct effect. With the waist particles, hands, and at level 39+ the random fireballs.
http://imageshack.us/a/img713/9094/macfiretest.jpg

Here is how the buff spell looks on the target. It's correct for my level, as somebody mentioned in the forums earlier. Just orange and blue.

http://imageshack.us/a/img585/2304/99bufftest.jpg

Here's how the hand particles should behave for my level if they worked:
http://imageshack.us/a/img19/5760/macbufftest.jpg

[Furinex]

Ok. Is there a method to play eqmac on pc that works? I can't seem to find one that still actually works and I would love to test or even compare files.

[Telin]

According to sources, virus scanners are giving the patch a false positive on a virus. This could limit its transferability.

[azxten]

I've been reverse engineering the spellsnew.edd file to figure out what each part of a spell actually does. It hasn't been easy.

I decided to try my luck and E-mailed about 5 artists who worked on EverQuest before before and after the spell changes were made. Hopefully one of them is feeling generous and will explain something to me but I doubt it.

Allen Bond is my one true hope for an explanation.

http://www.warcry.com/articles/view/interviews/5420-Everquest-Artist-Spotlight-Allen-Lebounde-Bond

What are your main duties on EverQuest?

Building zones, textures, objects, particle effects.

However, I believe he is still employed with Sony and working on EverQuest. In fact, I couldn't find his contact information so I just used the standard soe.sony.com E-mail address format and I didn't get a return message.

I'm stalking EverQuest artists for information on how to reverse engineer the files they made.. unbelievable.

[Furinex]

i hope you get something because honestly, Im not sure i understand these hex values very much and im getting lost easily.

[azxten]

My goal right now is to make the shielding spell effect look classic. I've attached my notes on the spellsnew.eff file. Nilbog mentioned this is where I could change the level that certain effects get activated.

The attached file shows all of the hex for the NPCAegolism V2.ect effect block. It is slightly modified to have the particles show up at the correct levels. Also, its just one long string of hex that I broke into 3 sections.

First is just the spell name. This does nothing except provide a header for humans. It doesn't impact the game at all.

Next is the particle effects that occur while you're casting. This contains 4 emitters. Green left hand, green right hand, orange left hand, orange right hand. Note that if you convert the "Level" section from hex, which is either 0, 18, or 27, to decimal you get level 0, 24, and 39. I modified this so that it correctly shows the orange particles at level 24 while you're casting instead of at level 39.

Problem. There appears to be more space in this "casting effects" block. I believe this is for the next set of particles which should be the blue particles while casting at level 39+. Unfortunately, if I try to copy the previous "templates" into the next area at the appropriate spot it does not cause any additional particle effects to show up while casting.

Interestingly, there is also only NPCAegolism S1-1 (green shielding particles) and NPCAegolismV2 S1-2 (orange shield particles) in the spellsnew.edd file.

There is also NPCAegolismV2 S3-1, S3-2, S3-4. Based on what I observed when changing these they are the "after cast" effects for green, orange, and blue respectively.

I'm thinking that there simply is no longer an effect in spellsnew.edd for blue particles coming from the hands.

There is one major priority we need to figure out now. How can we add additional particle effects to the "source/in casting" NPCAegolism V2.ect effect block from spellsnew.eff file? It has 2 effects, one for each hand, but there is blank space which to me clearly was intended to be used to add more effects for a "being cast" spell. I can't figure it out though.

If we can figure out how to add another 2 effects to that specific part, we then need to figure out how the specific effect in spellsnew.eff is mapped to the particles in spellsnew.edd.

For example, the green "casting in progress" shielding particle is referenced as "3C" in spellsnew.eff. How does this map to NPCAegolism S1-1 in spellsnew.edd? I know that it does, I just can't figure out how.

Hex 3C = 60 Decimal

Also, the next effect is 3D for orange "casting" particles. Then 3E is green "finished casting" circle, 3F is orange circle, 40 is blue circle. This further supports my theory that there is no blue particles from hands effect anymore since these are in order numerically.

60 = green casting
61 = orange casting
62 = green post-cast
63 = orange post-cast
64 = blue post-cast

Where are these values being referenced from? Find that out I can probably manually add a blue "from hands" effect. Then we just need to figure out how to add another set of particles to the effect in spellsnew.eff.

[RelivingNorrath]

My goal right now is to make the shielding spell effect look classic. I've attached my notes on the spellsnew.eff file. Nilbog mentioned this is where I could change the level that certain effects get activated.

The attached file shows all of the hex for the NPCAegolism V2.ect effect block. It is slightly modified to have the particles show up at the correct levels. Also, its just one long string of hex that I broke into 3 sections.

First is just the spell name. This does nothing except provide a header for humans. It doesn't impact the game at all.

Next is the particle effects that occur while you're casting. This contains 4 emitters. Green left hand, green right hand, orange left hand, orange right hand. Note that if you convert the "Level" section from hex, which is either 0, 18, or 27, to decimal you get level 0, 24, and 39. I modified this so that it correctly shows the orange particles at level 24 while you're casting instead of at level 39.

Problem. There appears to be more space in this "casting effects" block. I believe this is for the next set of particles which should be the blue particles while casting at level 39+. Unfortunately, if I try to copy the previous "templates" into the next area at the appropriate spot it does not cause any additional particle effects to show up while casting.

Interestingly, there is also only NPCAegolism S1-1 (green shielding particles) and NPCAegolismV2 S1-2 (orange shield particles) in the spellsnew.edd file.

There is also NPCAegolismV2 S3-1, S3-2, S3-4. Based on what I observed when changing these they are the "after cast" effects for green, orange, and blue respectively.

I'm thinking that there simply is no longer an effect in spellsnew.edd for blue particles coming from the hands.

There is one major priority we need to figure out now. How can we add additional particle effects to the "source/in casting" NPCAegolism V2.ect effect block from spellsnew.eff file? It has 2 effects, one for each hand, but there is blank space which to me clearly was intended to be used to add more effects for a "being cast" spell. I can't figure it out though.

If we can figure out how to add another 2 effects to that specific part, we then need to figure out how the specific effect in spellsnew.eff is mapped to the particles in spellsnew.edd.

For example, the green "casting in progress" shielding particle is referenced as "3C" in spellsnew.eff. How does this map to NPCAegolism S1-1 in spellsnew.edd? I know that it does, I just can't figure out how.

Hex 3C = 60 Decimal

Also, the next effect is 3D for orange "casting" particles. Then 3E is green "finished casting" circle, 3F is orange circle, 40 is blue circle. This further supports my theory that there is no blue particles from hands effect anymore since these are in order numerically.

60 = green casting
61 = orange casting
62 = green post-cast
63 = orange post-cast
64 = blue post-cast

Where are these values being referenced from? Find that out I can probably manually add a blue "from hands" effect. Then we just need to figure out how to add another set of particles to the effect in spellsnew.eff.

My brain exploded.

[Telin]

This is exactly the issue I ran into a couple months ago when I was trying to do just that. I found out where to change the particles from left and right hands like you. I also found all the additional layers associated with the target npc_aegolism v2 effect.

It seems that there are only two particles (green and orange) that are there for the hands. The other 4 are for the target. There is the green, orange, and two blues for the target effect. That's because the first set of blue particles flow inward toward the target. The second set of blue particles burst outward at the end of the cast. So that actually takes two effects to complete.

I wasn't able to figure out how to add in a 3rd layer to the hands. If i tried to, it broke everything past that point because everything has to line up as expected. It's probably also important to know that even EQMac which uses those particles is broken to the point that the blue particles never come out of the hands. Their spellsnew file also doesn't have a place for the blue particles to come out of the hands. I'm not sure if we could find files from the luclin era when they first switched to the spellsnew files if we would be able to find where the blue particles are coded for the hands.

If my memory serves me, the blue particles for post-luclin spell effects were just like the healing blue stars coming out at the end of the hands. It was not the blue diamonds that were in classic. That is why the target effect uses the blue stars and not diamonds as well.

[Telin]

I've been reading the text in the dbg.txt and in the directx and eqgame files. The clients that load the classic particles properly are all using directx 8.1. This includes Eqmac and SoD server. I think Titanium uses directx 9. Could this be on of the issues at least when attempting to load the original classic particle system? Is there a way to force Directx 8 or would that require changing eqgame.exe itself.

[Furinex]

I thought of something. I remember there being an Item, that had a clickable effect where the spell effects were of the old classic shielding effects. And I distinctly remember the new spell effects already been around for some time. I wanted that item so bad just so I can splash the old spell effects around everywhere I went. Maybe if we can figure out this item (I wish I could remember more), we can find out what it is listed as using in the item global, match it with the spell file, then find our offsets.

[Rhambuk]

Best of luck to you fellah's your doing bog's work!

[azxten]

The "orange" shielding casting in progress effect actually has green in it as well. This kind of blows my mind because the .dds file is just an orange sprite. Where the hell is it getting green from as well?

This is also a potential "hack" to fix the issue. You could define a blue from hands particle effect and use the green/orange effect that is typically thought of as just "orange." The problem is you would see much less green than normal and also it would show up at level 1.

[Telin]

If these effects have the ability to add a different color to the sprites, maybe that is how they added shades of blue to the new effects. If you notice the orange particles from the hands seem to be far too thick when the settings are high. They also get progressively smaller toward the end of the cone. If about half of the orange particles turned to blue as theyre getting smaller toward the end it would look as I remember it during luclin.

[Furinex]

Azxten, you have to take a look at EQMac. This is retarded what we are doing. There's gotta be a way to harness the power over in the EQMac directory. Ive been logged into eqmac for 5 minutes and I already just want to tear apart these files. The spell effects look SO different than what we are using to accomplish the hacked together spell graphics of what classic might have looked like. I cant really describe it so, you gotta check it out.

[azxten]

Azxten, you have to take a look at EQMac. This is retarded what we are doing. There's gotta be a way to harness the power over in the EQMac directory. Ive been logged into eqmac for 5 minutes and I already just want to tear apart these files. The spell effects look SO different than what we are using to accomplish the hacked together spell graphics of what classic might have looked like. I cant really describe it so, you gotta check it out.

Send me the spell files then. I don't want to sign up honestly and the only OSX I have is not open for putting games on.

I'm back to the old spells.eff file though. If you go to 0,0 in a zone you can see the initial casting effect. If we can fix the origin data for these spells everything will be 100% classic.

[Furinex]

Emailed you the files. I included some other ones that Telin sent me, and ones I think are relevant as well.

[Furinex]

wow, I went to 0 0 0 in the zone and what do you know all the spells are shooting out there. This needs to be looked into for sure, I think you're right Axzten.

[Furinex]

were you able to come up with anything Azxten? that effect at 0 0 0 is awesome and 100%, that origin has to be somewhere.

[azxten]

Yeah I fixed the origin of casting effects but I couldn't fix getting the effect to follow the caster or show up correctly on hands. I'm pretty sure it won't be possible to fix the old file after all. The engine just doesn't work correctly with it anymore no matter what you do.

[Furinex]

Yeah I fixed the origin of casting effects but I couldn't fix getting the effect to follow the caster or show up correctly on hands. I'm pretty sure it won't be possible to fix the old file after all. The engine just doesn't work correctly with it anymore no matter what you do.

Where in the file did you find the origin location? I have an idea.

[Hawala]

Nice work guys. I hope it was easy to implement once you figured out the root of the problem. For once, I feel like I used to feel as a shaman when I played live.

[Furinex]

My goal right now is to make the shielding spell effect look classic. I've attached my notes on the spellsnew.eff file. Nilbog mentioned this is where I could change the level that certain effects get activated.

The attached file shows all of the hex for the NPCAegolism V2.ect effect block. It is slightly modified to have the particles show up at the correct levels. Also, its just one long string of hex that I broke into 3 sections.

First is just the spell name. This does nothing except provide a header for humans. It doesn't impact the game at all.

Next is the particle effects that occur while you're casting. This contains 4 emitters. Green left hand, green right hand, orange left hand, orange right hand. Note that if you convert the "Level" section from hex, which is either 0, 18, or 27, to decimal you get level 0, 24, and 39. I modified this so that it correctly shows the orange particles at level 24 while you're casting instead of at level 39.

Problem. There appears to be more space in this "casting effects" block. I believe this is for the next set of particles which should be the blue particles while casting at level 39+. Unfortunately, if I try to copy the previous "templates" into the next area at the appropriate spot it does not cause any additional particle effects to show up while casting.

Interestingly, there is also only NPCAegolism S1-1 (green shielding particles) and NPCAegolismV2 S1-2 (orange shield particles) in the spellsnew.edd file.

There is also NPCAegolismV2 S3-1, S3-2, S3-4. Based on what I observed when changing these they are the "after cast" effects for green, orange, and blue respectively.

I'm thinking that there simply is no longer an effect in spellsnew.edd for blue particles coming from the hands.

There is one major priority we need to figure out now. How can we add additional particle effects to the "source/in casting" NPCAegolism V2.ect effect block from spellsnew.eff file? It has 2 effects, one for each hand, but there is blank space which to me clearly was intended to be used to add more effects for a "being cast" spell. I can't figure it out though.

If we can figure out how to add another 2 effects to that specific part, we then need to figure out how the specific effect in spellsnew.eff is mapped to the particles in spellsnew.edd.

For example, the green "casting in progress" shielding particle is referenced as "3C" in spellsnew.eff. How does this map to NPCAegolism S1-1 in spellsnew.edd? I know that it does, I just can't figure out how.

Hex 3C = 60 Decimal

Also, the next effect is 3D for orange "casting" particles. Then 3E is green "finished casting" circle, 3F is orange circle, 40 is blue circle. This further supports my theory that there is no blue particles from hands effect anymore since these are in order numerically.

60 = green casting
61 = orange casting
62 = green post-cast
63 = orange post-cast
64 = blue post-cast

Where are these values being referenced from? Find that out I can probably manually add a blue "from hands" effect. Then we just need to figure out how to add another set of particles to the effect in spellsnew.eff.


I looked through your notes, and I honestly, couldnt even find your first line in my spell file, Is this NPCAegolism S1-1? Also, where in here did you fix the correct colors and certain levels spot? Also, I remember a time before the new spell effects, where they redid the old ones slightly. I think we might be able to replicate it here using the TGAs. The blue diamonds turned into the spela2.tga, then they revamped them all together. Anyways, I would def like to fix the correct level colors showing in the spell file so we can at least release this again with more fixes. if we cant get it perfect, I suggest we at least make it as good as we can. A lot of effects just need some tweaking which you have found out how to do for the most part. They already look the part. like SoW and DoTs look great, they just need the levels 24/39 reversed. Also, The snare looks good to, same thing tho, levels need to be reversed. The healing and the Shielding are going to be the 2 biggest things.


EDIT: Found it, .eff file..


So tried your notes and such, I even copied it right in, No change, still only have green balls at 24 on my druid. not sure where I went wrong, can you upload your spellsnew.eff?

[azxten]

http://i.imgur.com/PDntV9e.png

Here is a shitty picture showing what was in my notes. There appears to be 3 sections.

A "name" area that is just for organization, you can change it and it does nothing in game.

A "casting" effect section, note that there are 4 effects for this spell in the casting section. Green left, green right, orange left, orange right. The first two are green left, green right and they have 0 in their effect level slot. The next two are orange left, orange right which have 27 in their effect level slot.

This 27 should actually be 18. In hex, 18 = 24, 27 = 39. If you look at the hex there is a lot more blank space after these 4 effects which is why I think it should have been possible to add more effects. However, if I copy paste one of the previous effect lines it doesn't work.

3C 01, 3D 01 in the "casting" effects sectio is the type of particle effect to use.

04, 05, 04, 05 is the origin slot. 4 is left hand, 5 is right hand.

Also effect 1 in my picture should be "green" since its really 2 effects, same for "orange" which is 2 effects. 1 per hand.

Try to keep in mind that this hex is really just one long line and the hex editor wraps it for you. Everything goes left to right.

Also looking at the "target" effect block...

There are 4 effects, green circle, orange circle, blue circle, blue circle radiating out instead of in.

40 = green
41 = blue
3E = blue
3F = orange

02
02
02
02 = origin, center on caster for all

27
18
0 = levels effects show up

Hopefully this clears it up. If we can figure out how to fit more than 4 effects in a single "casting" block we would be able to make the classic shielding effects.

Alternatively you can set the hex directly below FA C4 in spellsnew.edd for NPCAegolismV2 S1-2 to 1 in any of those 4 slots it will cause the particles to be much brighter and also apparently causes the orange particles to look green somewhat. This might be a potential hack work around where we could do that then set NPCAegolism S1-1 to be the blue particle effect. I guess you'd actually want to swap the two effects as well after making these changes.

Of course, then at level 1 you would have orange and green particles but at least then at 39 everything would look classic.

[Arterian]

I'm sure this is a completely irrelevant contribution, and is not relevent...but:

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=1&mid=126410658374056245&h=50

This describes how to use the old spell effects on EQLive. I tried this and it works very well. All the old effects work perfectly. This may be a server side thing, which of course we have no control of here.

Just a thought - not sure if this helps anyone reverse engineer anything.

[Tekman]

I just wanna say that a lit of the spell effects.are too flashy I believe. Like the level 4 mez looks like a level 50 one. Sorry if this has already been discussed

[Furinex]

I just wanna say that a lit of the spell effects.are too flashy I believe. Like the level 4 mez looks like a level 50 one. Sorry if this has already been discussed

no actually, this is correct. the mezz before 24 looks insane. It looks like the 39 version. Good information, we need this compiled.

[Furinex]

http://i.imgur.com/PDntV9e.png

Here is a shitty picture showing what was in my notes. There appears to be 3 sections.

A "name" area that is just for organization, you can change it and it does nothing in game.

A "casting" effect section, note that there are 4 effects for this spell in the casting section. Green left, green right, orange left, orange right. The first two are green left, green right and they have 0 in their effect level slot. The next two are orange left, orange right which have 27 in their effect level slot.

This 27 should actually be 18. In hex, 18 = 24, 27 = 39. If you look at the hex there is a lot more blank space after these 4 effects which is why I think it should have been possible to add more effects. However, if I copy paste one of the previous effect lines it doesn't work.

3C 01, 3D 01 in the "casting" effects sectio is the type of particle effect to use.

04, 05, 04, 05 is the origin slot. 4 is left hand, 5 is right hand.

Also effect 1 in my picture should be "green" since its really 2 effects, same for "orange" which is 2 effects. 1 per hand.

Try to keep in mind that this hex is really just one long line and the hex editor wraps it for you. Everything goes left to right.

Also looking at the "target" effect block...

There are 4 effects, green circle, orange circle, blue circle, blue circle radiating out instead of in.

40 = green
41 = blue
3E = blue
3F = orange

02
02
02
02 = origin, center on caster for all

27
18
0 = levels effects show up

Hopefully this clears it up. If we can figure out how to fit more than 4 effects in a single "casting" block we would be able to make the classic shielding effects.

Alternatively you can set the hex directly below FA C4 in spellsnew.edd for NPCAegolismV2 S1-2 to 1 in any of those 4 slots it will cause the particles to be much brighter and also apparently causes the orange particles to look green somewhat. This might be a potential hack work around where we could do that then set NPCAegolism S1-1 to be the blue particle effect. I guess you'd actually want to swap the two effects as well after making these changes.

Of course, then at level 1 you would have orange and green particles but at least then at 39 everything would look classic.



First of all, Bravo on all your work, this is sick. Secondly, I was able to get my casting shield to go Green / orange at 24. Which is perfect. However, the way you described the target effects istn working for me. if what you say above holds true about 41=blue and 3E= blue then these effects should already be working properly according to your spell file and mine, however, at 24, on p99, this isnt true. My druid, is 24 and he can cast with Green/Orange but it lands Green/Blue.

[Telin]

Looks like the hand effects for the buff spell never had the blue particles coded separately. This effect is broken for eqmac server for all players and nobody can figure out what's wrong. I would assume there is something more complex that was supposed to happen to the orange particles at level 39 that no longer works.

[Telin]

I remember playing around with the four digit effect values and changing them from 3D 01 to 3D 02 for example changed the effect

[Furinex]

Ok so I made some progress.

3E is Orange
3F is Blue
41 is the AFTER EFFECT, AFTER it HITS you. Here's some examples... First my Hex file:

http://s13.postimg.org/ppu61fj3b/SNIP.png


Now here's me casting:

http://s21.postimg.org/cgsvicrav/cast.png

Here's the spell hitting me:

http://i39.tinypic.com/332a5gx.png

Here's the after effect, where it hits me, from Outwards to inwards... (then hits me..) then bounces back outwards:

http://i40.tinypic.com/amtf9g.png

Notice in the hex picture, at the bottom, you'll see i have 41 as 18. I was working through my theroy that you had it slightly backwards, and found that the 41 area was a totally different part of the spell phase. There are now... 3 phases to spell casting. Initial Casting. Target Hit. After Effect.

[Razdeline]

Particle colours are out of whack as well... "back in the day" a Lvl 1 casting shield type spells (Skin Like Wood, Minor Shielding etc) would just be casting green.

At 24 (iirc) this would go up to green/(yellow/orange).

At 39 (iirc) this would go up to green/(yellow/orange)/blue.

You could always tell the pro players buffing people in Greater Faydark by some of their spell particles.

Not limited to shields either, extra strands of particles seemed to be added to the slow/tashan effects and the intensity of nuke effects. The shields I'm 100% on, the others...were they definitely pre-Kunark or added later?

QFT.

Also I beleive the non buff spells (DD's, dots, Life-Taps, Grim aura,de-buffs etc) had a change in complexity as well at 24/39+. It could be higher as well although I think it is in line with lvl 24/39 enhancements with other spells.

Bolt spells are incorrect, do no collide with the target in it's path, and do not have the massive distance.

Do pets still eat a rain spell tick?

[Furinex]

I changed the orange effect to the Druid Dot line 1-23 part effect. It had a nice green and blue effect, much like the classic. I tried putting that effect hex in the line below it where the 3rd effect is supposed to trigger and nothing. I couldnt get this to have 3 total casting effects.

[Furinex]

Here's is my progress thus far. This fixes shielding spells up to level 24 for the casting anumations and completely fixes it for the target hits for the correct level. Green 1-23, green/orange from 24-38 and green/orange/blue from 39-60. We still need to figure out how to give the 3rd effect to these spells at 39 and then we can just add anything that uses spela2.tga as the "Blue diamonds" this is gonna be hacked together anyways, but it will look pretty decent I think.

[Furinex]

lol cant find the sow spell. Honestly, so far, NONE of the spells ive come across have all 3 effects working properly. On the cast, I can only seem to get 2 effects working right. Azxtan, can you find the SoW spell in this .eff file? I cant seem to find it, and I KNOW for a fact that all the effects work in that spell.

Here's my 3rd revision. Heals fixed. Frost spells directional fixed.

[Hawala]

lol cant find the sow spell. Honestly, so far, NONE of the spells ive come across have all 3 effects working properly. On the cast, I can only seem to get 2 effects working right. Azxtan, can you find the SoW spell in this .eff file? I cant seem to find it, and I KNOW for a fact that all the effects work in that spell.

Here's my 3rd revision. Heals fixed. Frost spells directional fixed.

Spirit Strike is still flying upwards into my face :p

[Furinex]

i had to reupload that attachment. Failed the first shot, try again?

[Hawala]

i had to reupload that attachment. Failed the first shot, try again?

http://i.imgur.com/Dj2w9AW.png

Sorry, I feel like the bringer of bad news.

[Furinex]

Frost spells Fixed (Probably this time for sure... maybe... I dunno let me know, I have no frost spell characters to test with). SoW has been fixed. The balls will now flow properly from your chest at level 39, NOT 24. You will still recieve the waist balls. Im still looking into this 3rd effect. I figured it out for the most part, However, there is some questions I have. the 01 between the level range and the casting position the effects come from, I would like to know what that does. Same with the rest of the 0s, because when I put values there, it removes my effects. Anyways, Here's the low down as of right now. I can do 3 effects, 1-23, 24-38, and 39-60 to on ANY spell, This is HUGE. Totally works 100%. Now, the probelm is... on spells where you have different effects coming out of the hands at different ranks, thats where the problem starts. Unless I can find a value that tells this thing, use this effect at BOTH hands on one line, then shielding will never look right. I managed to get it with Green on both hands, Orange on left, and blue on right. Thats about it. However, since SoW has its effects comming from 3 different places, it was simple to setup. Hands for the first part, waist balls that spin around you for the 2nd part, and the balls that fly from your chest upwards for the 3rd.

[Furinex]

the more and more I look at sow, I think its the other way around, can someone confirm?

[Hawala]

Frost spells Fixed (Probably this time for sure... maybe... I dunno let me know, I have no frost spell characters to test with). .

Ice flying up in my face on wizard and shaman still

[Furinex]

Ice flying up in my face on wizard and shaman still


Interesting. Gimmie A few

EDIT: Try this badboy, let me know how it fares.

[Telin]

You can probably fix everything from this method except the healing and buff spell and the gravity for the hand particles. Keep up the good work

[Telin]

Sow source is spela1 from hands and spheres rotating quickly near waist then target gets large spheres moving inward in cone. Level 24 introduces smaller spheres rising from waist on source and adds spela2 particles flowing inward on target. Level 39 adds nothing on source and adds the explosion of small particles from forehead and feet on target.

[Hawala]

Interesting. Gimmie A few

EDIT: Try this badboy, let me know how it fares.

Still flying upwards. Lol

[Furinex]

WOW Lame. Anyways, I probably fixed 7 other spell types in the process of fixing frost spells because the Tgas all look the same to me. It is DEFINITELY Fixed though. I tested it, Made a shammy on my server and rolled it out. Im going to bed. Will work more on this tomorrow.

[Hawala]

WOW Lame. Anyways, I probably fixed 7 other spell types in the process of fixing frost spells because the Tgas all look the same to me. It is DEFINITELY Fixed though. I tested it, Made a shammy on my server and rolled it out. Im going to bed. Will work more on this tomorrow.

FIXED!

[oempi]

Dang you guys got it down. Good job

[Furinex]

Dang you guys got it down. Good job

Amazing what a little hard work and dedication can do right?

Just as a thought... This would have been a lot easier if eqemu supported the eqmac client. And 100% classic. No idea how that would work though.

[Furinex]

I'll be working on the Snare/Root effect tonight to fix the leveling aspect. I'll probably do Mezz/Harmony as well. These types of spells where the effects show up other than the hands, make things very easy to correct. I have a feeling that this spellfile will only allow us to do 4 total effects. The first 2 are usually tied up for the left and right hands. The last two, if they are dealing with the body or feet and head, are easier to correct.

[dragolyche]

Nice work. Ty much, i love the new classic Particle effects.

[Vellaen]

Hopefully this clears it up. If we can figure out how to fit more than 4 effects in a single "casting" block we would be able to make the classic shielding effects.

Alternatively you can set the hex directly below FA C4 in spellsnew.edd for NPCAegolismV2 S1-2 to 1 in any of those 4 slots it will cause the particles to be much brighter and also apparently causes the orange particles to look green somewhat. This might be a potential hack work around where we could do that then set NPCAegolism S1-1 to be the blue particle effect. I guess you'd actually want to swap the two effects as well after making these changes.

It sounds like changing that slot to 1 may have been making the spell effects inclusive to previous levels, which could explain why you don't have the space to add more than four effects in a single block. The bright/washed out particles you describe could be the engine giving you green 1-23, greenx2+orange 24-38, and greenx3+orangex2 39+. If that's true, then if you set the slot to 1 you'd just need to program one set of particles for each tier.

More than likely I'm just misunderstanding you; all I know about hex codes and generating particle effects I've learned from this thread, after all. Either way, many thanks to you guys for the work you're putting in for this. Getting even some of the classic effects back is a treat.

[Furinex]

It sounds like changing that slot to 1 may have been making the spell effects inclusive to previous levels, which could explain why you don't have the space to add more than four effects in a single block. The bright/washed out particles you describe could be the engine giving you green 1-23, greenx2+orange 24-38, and greenx3+orangex2 39+. If that's true, then if you set the slot to 1 you'd just need to program one set of particles for each tier.

More than likely I'm just misunderstanding you; all I know about hex codes and generating particle effects I've learned from this thread, after all. Either way, many thanks to you guys for the work you're putting in for this. Getting even some of the classic effects back is a treat.

I havent given up on the shielding spell. Its gonna be probably one of the most difficult ones to fix entirely. The healing spell will be a close second.

[Hawala]

Thank you for your hard work and dedication gentlemen.

This is probably the one thing that's bothered me more than anything else since I started playing 2 years back. I even tried to fix it, but I didn't get nearly as far as you all.

Before they disabled it, I used to use new particle graphics.

[Furinex]

Fixed an issue with the shielding spell at 24.

[Furinex]

azxtan, when you were looking at the spells.eff file, which entry was the sheilding spell? i know you said you fixed the origin data for it but couldnt get the direction to follow the skeleton. However if I can call that same spell effect in the new spell file... i can hack this together.

[Furinex]

Did some work with heals. corrected them as much as i could until i can find the dome effect offset

[Furinex]

Snare and root are good to go. fixed some issues with invis.

changed naming convention, i realize there is a lot of work

[Telin]

Furinex, last night the sow effect from your file had the 24/39 effects backwards. Caster should have everything by 24 and target should get the flat circular bursts at head and feet at 39.

[Hawala]

Furinex, last night the sow effect from your file had the 24/39 effects backwards. Caster should have everything by 24 and target should get the flat circular bursts at head and feet at 39.

I'm 99% certain that SoW caster effects should be:
1 - Simple blue aura coming from fists
24 - Orbiting blue/white spherical particles around the waste then fade about 1 second after cast start
39 - Blue/white spherical particles rising from body, the most noticeable by far

You're right, the target should not have the fireworks flying from the head/shoulders until 39.

[Furinex]

I'm 99% certain that SoW caster effects should be:
1 - Simple blue aura coming from fists
24 - Orbiting blue/white spherical particles around the waste then fade about 1 second after cast start
39 - Blue/white spherical particles rising from body, the most noticeable by far

You're right, the target should not have the fireworks flying from the head/shoulders until 39.

And I bring you the updated File with sow fixed properly (Hopefully), as well as Invis fixed for the correct levels, Levitate as well.

EDIT: Found the TGA for Mezz but holy mooooly, I dont really know what effects happen when, any insight?

[Telin]

Level 25 Enchanter casting STR/SOW effect:
Rising particles are all there from caster.
http://imageshack.us/a/img27/9025/sow24.jpg

During the landing:
Blue particles added moving inward to center.
http://imageshack.us/a/img832/5263/24sowland.jpg

Mez Casting:
Falling particles are tiny and close to body from 1-23. Larger particles from farther away start cascading from 24+. At 39+ two rings form around caster appears with rising particles going in a straight up.
http://imageshack.us/a/img69/7531/24mez.jpg

[Telin]

Here's is a level 39+ Druid casting Harmony. Same as Mez line:

The rings around caster are both rising, kind of like the healing effect.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/6407/39mez.jpg

[Furinex]

Im having issues finding the right entry in the spellsnew.eff file, or even the correct one in the spellsnew.edd file, Ive found multiple entries to what I believe is the TGA used, flare_blsp501.tga. There's a bunch of entries in edd, which are linked to eff, but which one is the right one? I dunno.

[Telin]

I'm not sure either. I see charm and enthrall. I'm not sure if that's the right versions though. They have so many newer versions in there we don't want.

[Furinex]

neither one of those in the .edd file is it :( Cant find it still. However, another updating fixing some other stuff that we screwed up in the past testing things. All our old mistakes should be corrected at this point. Now to move forward.

[Telin]

Noticed the gate/invis spell line needs reversed for 24/39. Blue particles are added at 24, white flat bubbles radiate outwards at level 39.
Here is a level 25 caster:
http://imageshack.us/a/img708/5360/24gate.jpg

[Furinex]

Noticed the gate/invis spell line needs reversed for 24/39. Blue particles are added at 24, white flat bubbles radiate outwards at level 39.
Here is a level 25 caster:
http://imageshack.us/a/img708/5360/24gate.jpg

Strange how you remember things one way and they are actually another. I worked for an hour to get invis the way it was and its wrong. Lol fixed pending my mext release... When I find mezz or give up on that

[Telin]

put off mezz until later i'd say. Still some easy fixes out there. Damage spells and bards!

[Furinex]

Elaborate on the damage spells and bards please so I can get a better idea of what to do.

[Telin]

I can prepare screenshots later. I'll try to explain some. Bard Selo's spell from 1-23 has large purple sphere in center of body and white spheres cascading downward from ground level. At 24 it adds tiny purple sprites in a large radius around effected targets. At 39 it adds a ring of white particles at a large radius in center. I think on the server at the moment the level 24 effects are holding off until 39 when it adds both 24 and 39 effects. The initial casting of the song is different, it includes more particles at lower levels, but i would have to test this out first.

Red lightning spells are red sparks staying with hands at 1-23 and lands with a firework burst. At 24 the hands get more sparks that start "dripping" toward the ground. Target looks pretty much the same. At 39 it adds random red sparks around caster, target gets a ring of red sparks around outside of firework blast.

[Furinex]

I can prepare screenshots later. I'll try to explain some. Bard Selo's spell from 1-23 has large purple sphere in center of body and white spheres cascading downward from ground level. At 24 it adds tiny purple sprites in a large radius around effected targets. At 39 it adds a ring of white particles at a large radius in center. I think on the server at the moment the level 24 effects are holding off until 39 when it adds both 24 and 39 effects. The initial casting of the song is different, it includes more particles at lower levels, but i would have to test this out first.

Red lightning spells are red sparks staying with hands at 1-23 and lands with a firework burst. At 24 the hands get more sparks that start "dripping" toward the ground. Target looks pretty much the same. At 39 it adds random red sparks around caster, target gets a ring of red sparks around outside of firework blast.

liiiiiiike this? (Just the bard thing) The force spell is looking like the shielding spell, where it req. 4 slots for 2 effects, Hands on 1-23 and 24-38.

[Furinex]

last one for the night for me.

More spells fixed.

[Telin]

Illusions:
Level 1: Hand particles.
Level 24: Sprites radiating outward from caster in all directions.
Level 39: Two layers of globes flowing outward.
http://imageshack.us/a/img221/9927/39wolf.jpg

Lightning:
Level 1: Static hand particles. (Target: firework)
http://imageshack.us/a/img560/3631/1lightning.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img211/1600/1lightningland.jpg

Level 24: Add 2nd layer of falling hand particles. (Target: same)
http://imageshack.us/a/img811/1258/25lightning.jpg

Level 39: Add random red sprites around caster. (Target: add rings of sprites around firework)
http://imageshack.us/a/img842/3295/39lightning.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img837/5346/39lightningland.jpg

Here is that healing effect showing caster and target at same time. (Light blue/Dark Blue sprites change from globe to rings on caster/target.)
http://imageshack.us/a/img14/1359/39heal.jpg
Special thanks to the guard giving his time to help for this demonstration.

[Furinex]

Ok I lied, try out these healing effects. I know its not totally perfect, but, its pretty nice I think, very close.

[Vega]

Just posting for support. Good work guys!

[Telin]

Furinex, that healing spell looks fantastic with the wider ring in. If only that could be added to the initial casting. Also wonder how you can tie the additional effects to match the casting time + animation duration.

P.S.

The invisibility spell.. lol.. The level 1 and level 39 need switched. The white bubbles with the most density add on at 39. The larger greyish bubbles start at level 1. Blue stars are at 24, which i think is right now.

[Telin]

This is probably easier:
http://imageshack.us/a/img401/4831/selorefreshdef.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img826/3334/firedef.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img827/5461/combustdef.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img546/976/poorclassiceffects.jpg

[Telin]

Furinex: I see what you did with the globe for the healing spell. I think you should try this instead...

Take the level 24 druid dot effect and copy/paste that to the effect you're using in the .edd file then change that to speld2.tga so it'll be lighter than the surrounding particles. Then apply that offset to the level 39 healing effect. I think that would look close.

[Furinex]

Thanks for the references. Ill work on this more today

[Furinex]

Furinex: I see what you did with the globe for the healing spell. I think you should try this instead...

Take the level 24 druid dot effect and copy/paste that to the effect you're using in the .edd file then change that to speld2.tga so it'll be lighter than the surrounding particles. Then apply that offset to the level 39 healing effect. I think that would look close.



In regards to the healing, If I modify it this way, this will change other spells effects in the same manner. There has to be a variable with this offset in it for me to be able to give the effect. The current healing effect uses the Dismiss Summoned effect to create the dome. I just threw that one in there looking for effects using the lighter blue sparkles.

EDIT: So... You did give me an idea... I changed the light blue particle effect to the druid DOT at 24 and it looks really good. The timing is way better, however its slightly larger, but not much. I think it looks better than the other one. I will upload it after I finish the invis spell.

[Furinex]

Invis works properly now, Also, This is the new healing effect, I think its pretty decent, let me know.

[Furinex]

Telin, I tried to do what we talked about in game but i was stopped with my effects just not showing up. Could you possibly do what we were talking about with the .edd file and the Creeping Crud effect and post the file so I can see what you did? also outline the area you changed so I can see that as well. or just post a screenshot. Also, I would have to find a way to call that function in the eff file, which means to find the function, I would have to know what the spell is called in the edd and if it matches the eff.

[Arkanjil]

Thanks for all your hard work so far on this, I imagine its extremely frustrating to do!

[Furinex]

The heal is probably as good as it is gonna get with this update. Fire DD spells are now correct.

[Hawala]

Can this thread please get a sticky? Maybe in technical discussions.

Also, now that you've mastered the Hex codes, can you let us know which particle effects are actually used, and which I can delete? I think there are a ton of DDS files I don't have a need for in P99. I'm thinking EQLite.

I think this is the biggest improvement on the server so far.

[Furinex]

I have a thread started in the Technical Discussion forum, Here (http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?p=950021#post950021). Trying to collaborate all the info there, I will post pics on the entire process when I get home, and how to change everything (That I know of). In regards to your request. I believe after we finish this project, I could be more confident in what I tell you about the .dds files. Im saying this because... Some of these dds files I believe we can use.

[skeletoria]

Thanks for this..oh how I've missed these particles <3

[August]

So could I get a quick background on what is happening here and why we are using a hex editor.

These .egg files or what have you - what is consuming this? I would assume that the client and/or server would consume these files and we would be able to reverse engineer the coding and figure out what effects do what. Are these proprietary? Just curious.

[Furinex]

So could I get a quick background on what is happening here and why we are using a hex editor.

These .egg files or what have you - what is consuming this? I would assume that the client and/or server would consume these files and we would be able to reverse engineer the coding and figure out what effects do what. Are these proprietary? Just curious.

.edd and .eff files. First off, If you can do this, please by all means do this and save me a headache of find every offset for each effect. Other than the method I have right now, which is quite connected to many other components in the EQ directory including both spellsnew.exx files, and spells.eff, as well as eqgame.exe... I've got nothing. Also, something broke between Titanium and The generation before it. The game does not call the old effects correctly anymore. It uses this same file which is formatted differently to accommodate the new particle system in place. Also, Im pretty sure what we are doing, is considered reverse engineering.

[August]

.edd and .eff files. First off, If you can do this, please by all means do this and save me a headache of find every offset for each effect. Other than the method I have right now, which is quite connected to many other components in the EQ directory including both spellsnew.exx files, and spells.eff, as well as eqgame.exe... I've got nothing. Also, something broke between Titanium and The generation before it. The game does not call the old effects correctly anymore. It uses this same file which is formatted differently to accommodate the new particle system in place. Also, Im pretty sure what we are doing, is considered reverse engineering.

I don't have access to the client or server source. I am assuming that this project does. If you can grant me access, i can certainly look around. This is the kind of thing I do at my job daily.

-August

[Furinex]

I don't have access to the client or server source. I am assuming that this project does. If you can grant me access, i can certainly look around. This is the kind of thing I do at my job daily.

-August

I am no dev of this server. If you have p99 installed, and you play, you have access to its source. the spellsnew.edd and .eff files are in your client. Anything further than that I cant help with as I am of no real authority, Im just trying to get the classic back as a supporter of this game and its classic epicness. Anything server side would be dealing with the spells_us.txt and you could just drop the p99 one in your own server (Even that is really client side as well). Thats how Ive been testing.

[August]

And yes what you are doing IS reverse engineering but it is a black-box approach. Something consumes these files and translates it to DirectX (or maybe directx directly consumes them - I don't know?).

If we can find where in the source these files are consumed we should be able to say what each field is and what it does if the code is well documented (hah) or the values do something besides getting directly passed into the graphics engine (directx).

Like I said - I am approaching this from looking at only the the title of this post and a talk with Francesca last night. To me, I would have to imagine that these .edd and .eff files are some kind of serialized datasource that is deserialized by client/server and then acted upon. More than likely there was a tool that serialized the data that verant had and in the end we would still hvae to use the hex editor to get at the values, but at the very least we could get 100% comprehesion of the values.

[Furinex]

And yes what you are doing IS reverse engineering but it is a black-box approach. Something consumes these files and translates it to DirectX (or maybe directx directly consumes them - I don't know?).

If we can find where in the source these files are consumed we should be able to say what each field is and what it does if the code is well documented (hah) or the values do something besides getting directly passed into the graphics engine (directx).

Like I said - I am approaching this from looking at only the the title of this post and a talk with Francesca last night. To me, I would have to imagine that these .edd and .eff files are some kind of serialized datasource that is deserialized by client/server and then acted upon. More than likely there was a tool that serialized the data that verant had and in the end we would still hvae to use the hex editor to get at the values, but at the very least we could get 100% comprehesion of the values.


Well, if something can be done to accomplish this, then I would love to see the result. Also, I would love to see the result of how the spell.eff file (Old spell file) is processed as well, since this file has the classic shielding effect that I cannot reproduce.

[August]

Aye well - Nilbog if you're out there, I am willing to work on it. I do need access to actual source and not just the executables, of course.

For that matter, I'm really open to working on the project as a dev in general. I spend half my time at work on these forums / browsing the internet and would love a side project that keeps me coding.

[Furinex]

I took the time to write up a full explination of my methods on fixing this, Here (http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=107787). Any help on this project would be appreciated, as it is a lot of work.

[azxten]

Aye well - Nilbog if you're out there, I am willing to work on it. I do need access to actual source and not just the executables, of course.

For that matter, I'm really open to working on the project as a dev in general. I spend half my time at work on these forums / browsing the internet and would love a side project that keeps me coding.

There is no source code that has anything to do with these effects.

Yes, this is black box reverse engineering. Good luck trying to figure out where these files are being referenced.

The .dds image files in SpellEffects folder are DirectDraw surfaces which implies they are being passed as an argument to a DirectX particle emitter function. However, the .edd file has no reference I can find.

In my opinion this means the file is a custom format that is read in by a custom function which passes data to the DirectX particle emitter functions.

[August]

There is no source code that has anything to do with these effects.

Yes, this is black box reverse engineering. Good luck trying to figure out where these files are being referenced.

The .dds image files in SpellEffects folder are DirectDraw surfaces which implies they are being passed as an argument to a DirectX particle emitter function. However, the .edd file has no reference I can find.

In my opinion this means the file is a custom format that is read in by a custom function which passes data to the DirectX particle emitter functions.

Why would it be difficult to determine where these are being referenced? What method is passing in the data to the DirectX particle emitter function. Is the DirectX particle emitter function well-defined? Are there references? How did the original EQ devs know how to create the DD surfaces? We should be able to locate calls into directx. We then should be able to see how these files are deserialized, or find the entry point into the DirectX method call and see what gets passed in as a parameter. If it's just the DDS surface, then we should be able to look up the member definition of that DX interface and understand the serialization format. If it's passing actual parameters, then our custom function is defined in source and we should be able to tell what we're pulling from the files.

In either case we own the code that deserializes or we know which method is decoding the files - and that method, if DirectX, is public domain.

[azxten]

Why would it be difficult to determine where these are being referenced? What method is passing in the data to the DirectX particle emitter function. Is the DirectX particle emitter function well-defined? Are there references? How did the original EQ devs know how to create the DD surfaces? We should be able to locate calls into directx. We then should be able to see how these files are deserialized, or find the entry point into the DirectX method call and see what gets passed in as a parameter. If it's just the DDS surface, then we should be able to look up the member definition of that DX interface and understand the serialization format. If it's passing actual parameters, then our custom function is defined in source and we should be able to tell what we're pulling from the files.

In either case we own the code that deserializes or we know which method is decoding the files - and that method, if DirectX, is public domain.

Its not really difficult, just very time consuming. Go do it. :)

[August]

Like I said - I am more than willing. I have some expertise in this exact area, so somewhat exciting just to be able to contribute. I just need source access.

[Furinex]

Like I said - I am more than willing. I have some expertise in this exact area, so somewhat exciting just to be able to contribute. I just need source access.

August, I guess what we're confused about is... what source? No one here can give you anything you already dont have access too. We're all using the same files out of the EQT/p99 directory. Have at it!

Azxten, You see your PM?

[August]

I think I get the confusion, now.

Source refers to the actual lines of code that create the eqgame.exe and .dll files. For the modifications that have been made to this game, I am assuming that we have in our possession for this server the actual C++ code and headers that accompany it. I know at some point the PEQ stuff was leaked on a torrent and I downloaded it then.

Your EQ Install folder has only the object files that are created after compilation. As such, you are forced to do black-box modifications to those files. With only these objects you have literally no options besides opening hex editors and marking files.

Furthermore, when you edit these files there's usually a checksum that accompanies them that will check for modifcations - mainly corruptions. that will prevent them from loading - it's risky business. The kind of access I would require would be to see the true source directory and dive into the code to see where these things get parsed.

If that's not possible, Furinex, then what you are doing is the best hope we have.

Cheerio!

August

[Furinex]

Well, maybe Nilbog can help with this. I know he has a vested interest in this project, as its been a thorn in this server's side for some time. Honestly, The spells are almost done, Telin has done such a great job helping me identify the stuff, I usually try and fix it right away. However, the shielding spell is what is killing me. I want this fixed the most and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to, 1) find the blue diamond sparkles, 2) add 2 more emitters to the spell to allow the blue particles, or 3) combine 2 emitter origins on the same line for the same effect to save an entry allowing me to do all 3 colors. Same goes for the healing spell (Even though I hacked together a decent version of it)

[Telin]

August,

According to staff interaction rules, there shouldn't be an issue with you sending a PM to Nilbog on what he can provide, if he reads them.

http://www.project1999.org/forums/member.php?u=3

[azxten]

I am assuming that we have in our possession for this server the actual C++ code and headers that accompany it. I know at some point the PEQ stuff was leaked on a torrent and I downloaded it then.

Unfortunately we don't have any client source code. EQEmulator (which P99 uses a heavily modified code base) was written from the ground up by reverse engineering the communications protocol between client/server.

Thus we use the actual Sony client with a completely rewritten server. All of the changes to client side things are done via patches which overwrite some of the client files with modified versions. Similar to what we are doing now with spellsnew.edd/.eff. The idea is eventually this modified file will be provided to Nilbog and he will approve it to be put into an official patch which really just means a zip file where the file overwrites the standard client file from Sony.

Azxten, You see your PM?

Yes, I'll assist on the weekend. I'm very busy during the week, sorry for not responding and letting you know earlier.

[Gadwen]

Just wanted to let you know that the work is appreciated, the spell effects are looking great.

[Reubin]

Yes thanks for your work Furinex. I've been downloading the files and using them and things are looking very good!

[Furinex]

Eh, this really drives me nuts. I love the classic effects. Hopefully someday we can resolve this totally. Be sure to keep an eye on the thread in the Technical Forums for the latest release.

[Furinex]

Shard of Dalaya. This client connects to the EQEMU, however, it uses DX8, and a modified version of the EQ client. Now Ive tried setting the eqhost.txt file in this folder to the eqemu login servers to see if I could get a server list, however I was unable to even log in. Is there any way we can utilize this client? This client has old spell effects Working PERFECTLY, and the spellsnew.edd and spellsnew.eff file are stock EQTitanium files. DX8 is the key here I think. There HAS to be some way to utilize this client. Its based off of Titanium!

[Telin]

I viewed eqgame and the dx dll files through software that attempts to decode and deflate. Found where it references offsets that bind the particles to various parts of the character like you found in the effect file. I don't know enough about trying to dechiper this language to be of any help but maybe someone else who can will find this stuff fun.

[a_gnoll_pup]

Shard of Dalaya. This client connects to the EQEMU, however, it uses DX8, and a modified version of the EQ client. Now Ive tried setting the eqhost.txt file in this folder to the eqemu login servers to see if I could get a server list, however I was unable to even log in. Is there any way we can utilize this client? This client has old spell effects Working PERFECTLY, and the spellsnew.edd and spellsnew.eff file are stock EQTitanium files. DX8 is the key here I think. There HAS to be some way to utilize this client. Its based off of Titanium!

They are using a client prior to when DX9 was introduced. That's why DX8 works there, they also use a 2003-era eqgame.

[Furinex]

I viewed eqgame and the dx dll files through software that attempts to decode and deflate. Found where it references offsets that bind the particles to various parts of the character like you found in the effect file. I don't know enough about trying to dechiper this language to be of any help but maybe someone else who can will find this stuff fun.

You should post the results so I can peek at it

[Furinex]

They are using a client prior to when DX9 was introduced. That's why DX8 works there, they also use a 2003-era eqgame.

Ok. I guess I don't get it. I started a char there. To even set up I had to install titanium. Then dl a patch, much like p99. So why does their client render dx8 or even these spell effects correctly? Also, why can't we even connect to the login server with that client? I think this is worth investigating

[Telin]

They run their own server code. They may have broken away from older emus before titanium. So my question is, is it easier to change the code on the client to repair spell effects, sky, water, animations etc. or is it easier to change the server to work with any client before titanium?

[Furinex]

They run their own server code. They may have broken away from older emus before titanium. So my question is, is it easier to change the code on the client to repair spell effects, sky, water, animations etc. or is it easier to change the server to work with any client before titanium?

If I had to bet, I would say that this client would connect to the EQMU just fine. Its the login server that I'm having the issue with. If you check out the Emu, it has op codes for all the older clients. Its the login server and the EQHost.txt file that are different.

[nilbog]

Great work.

I had to chance to try these out today. Even if it isn't 100%, it is an incredible improvement over what existed and has my blessing.

[veejur]

Is this being added to the auto-changed files when launching from eqemu anytime soon?

[Rhambuk]

you guys went WAY above and beyond to help provide the community with the most accurate emu server.

Thank you, SO MUCH!

[joreyklein]

Awesome work, I haven't logged into EQ Classic for over a year and a half but I think I will just to see these spell changes!

Excellent work guys!

[maximum]

Are these fixes live with Patch 28?

[Furinex]

Are these fixes live with Patch 28?

No but you can get the latest revision from the tech discussion. It's stickied there.

[Grahm]

Didn't read thread so not sure if it's been said, but at level 25 the healing spells, you would get the sphere of blue particles around you when casting, as it does when you get it casted on you.

If that makes any sense, not sure at all how to word it. But I remember, wanting to be a healer so bad because I thought it was badass.

[Glasken]

Particle colours are out of whack as well... "back in the day" a Lvl 1 casting shield type spells (Skin Like Wood, Minor Shielding etc) would just be casting green.

At 24 (iirc) this would go up to green/(yellow/orange).

At 39 (iirc) this would go up to green/(yellow/orange)/blue.

You could always tell the pro players buffing people in Greater Faydark by some of their spell particles.

Not limited to shields either, extra strands of particles seemed to be added to the slow/tashan effects and the intensity of nuke effects. The shields I'm 100% on, the others...were they definitely pre-Kunark or added later?


This is one that has bothered me a bit as well. I remember my first character on live looking forward to getting to level 24 to get the orange buff effects, and then being surprised by the level 39 effects.

Not sure when they changed it, but I stopped playing on live during PoP and dont remember the particle effects being the same for all levels.

[azxten]

Those issues should be fixed in the latest file download. I'm not sure though, they're fixed in the version of the file I use.