Classic Spell Effects

[Furinex]

Hello, I am creating this thread in an attempt to centralize all the information we have into one place. Also, so I can have the first post, and Update it with the most recent release of this on going project. (Requesting a Sticky as this may come in handy for many people searching for this...)

First of all, lets start off by what we have done in the past. You can find the original thread about it Here (http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=87426&highlight=particle+effects) (Or at least where I started looking into this).

This led to my thread Here (http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=105509). This thread has very useful information, as a collaboration of people, including Azxten, Telin, myself and others, were trying to decipher these specific files. During this thread, we broke through to a stage where we were able to start editing, yet we needed information on old spells and what they looked like.

Thus, the creation of This (http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=106926) thread in the server chat. This thread has the meat and potatoes of what we have been working on.

Thanks to the help of Azxten and the guidance of Telin and his helpful pictures and descriptions, and many other people helping us, we've made LARGE strides in a short amount of time. However, there is a ton of work to be done still. I am going to outline the procedure of how to edit EVERY aspect (We know of) in this thread for the future. Also, this will enable anyone to look through this and see if they can make the same improvements or help us further the work.


Without further delay, here is the method to my madness, and how I have been correcting the effects.

1. First lets take a look at the EQ directory:

http://s16.postimg.org/rae3wk4hx/main_EQfolder.png

This is where the Spelleffects folder, spellsnew.edd, and spellsnew.eff files are. As well as spells.eff, however we will get into that after.

Navigate to the SpellEffects Folder

http://s21.postimg.org/gq80ziudj/main_EQfolder_SEFpointer.png

Scroll down until you start seeing .tga files, there will be a few misc ones at the top and bottom, but most of them start with 'spelxx.tga'.

http://s24.postimg.org/pj6g3fb6t/spelleffectsfolder.png

2. Find the spell in question. This takes a decent eye (One that I dont really have, but Telin has been helping me out a lot when it comes to this). You need to go through each one of the tga's to find the effect you are looking to recreate. Once you find that, remember/write down the file name.

3. Navigate back to the EQ directory and open the spellsnew.edd file. For this example, I will be using spela2.tga, which is the Healing effect.

http://s15.postimg.org/625j07oe3/edd.png

Well here it is... scary. Anyways, (I recommend HxD hex editor as I have had good results with this) Run a search, CTRL+F for HxD, and search for a string value equal to the file name of the tga, in this case: spela2.tga

You can probably hit F3 (Search more) and find a bunch of entries however, they will probably be easy to identify. For example, this effect, when searching for the file, brings up 'VengeanceV2 S1-1'.

http://s22.postimg.org/ntspu31b5/eddboxed.png


(Note: If you didnt know, hex is read left to right)

So, Here we have the value we searched for. You can see Ive boxed a couple of items in different colors (NOTE: THESE COLOR SCHEMES MAY CHANGE DEPENDING ON MY SHORT TERM MEMORY AND I WILL IDENTIFY THAT IF IT DOES). The Red Boxes indicate the name of the effect. In this case VengeanceV2 S1-1.

In Blue we have the TGA used for the effect. Thats what pulled our search up.

Now, the ONLY other thing I know how to do with this file, is to change the direction. This area is boxed in Green. Specifically, the C5 Value (Which is correct for this healing effect, it was C2). Changing this value indicated in the pictures below (Thanks Azxten), will rotate which direction the effect goes from the origin.

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

Now, we have noticed that C4 is the sweet spot on a lot of spells, however, some spells C5 is the same direction as C4 is in other spells. Hence testing is important. NONE of the values (That I have found so far, and no I have NOT tried them all), have followed the skeleton. This is a fixed direction.

Light Blue, I wanted to point this out, See S1-1, and S1-2, these are the different RANKS of the effects. ex: 1-23 is S1, 24-38 is S2, and 39-60 is S3. Notice the different TGA used. Anyways... Moving on.

I know NOTHING else about the rest of these values in between. If anyone can shed light on this, I will add it to this post!

4. Now that we have the name of the effect, VengeanceV2, we can go to the spellsnew.eff file. Navigate there and open that next.

http://s22.postimg.org/ah7hr21ch/spellsneweff.png

Ahhh, Here it is, scary... again. Anyways, Do another search.

5. Search for 'veng' (Which is what we fond in the previous step, VengeanceV2). Now you're gonna find a bunch of effects listed with that search. The ones you want to look for have 'V2' in the name. I haven't found a spell yet that I was able to modify if the name didn't have V2 in there. Anyways, here's what it looks like broken down(Changing up the color scheme probably):

http://s8.postimg.org/bwuxzhprp/spellsneweffboxed.png

Red again is the name of the effect. Notice the V2.

Blue is my Starting Markers. This Starts a string of hex codes that have SOME sort of effect on what this spell does, what effect it produces and when. The top one (6C) is the start string for the "CASTING", the bottom one (6F) is for the "TARGET CASTED ON".

Green, this is the effect. So, F9 00, for this the blue sprinkler effect coming out of the hands. Notice how its in there twice. This is because there is 1 for each hand, left and right, I will go into this in a sec. Anyways, you can also see FB 00, which is the ring of blue sparkles around the caster, rising. D2 01 (Is actually the creeping crud dome) is a blue sparkly dome.

Light blue is the levels which the (green) effects are triggered. Notice 00, 18 and 27. 00 is for 1-23, 18 (which converts to 24 in dec) is for 24-38 and 27 (which converts to 39 in dec) is 39-60. Easy enough right? F9 00 being the sprinkler effect shows up at 1-23. At 24, FB 00 is the rising ring of blue sparkles, so that shows up when casting. And at 39, you get the blue sparkly dome, D2 01.

Orange is the Origin that the emitter emits the effects. Here are all the values that are known (Thanks Azxten):

00 = Stays at original casting spot, doesn't follow caster, (ground?)
01 = Waist
02 = Chest
03 = Head
04 = Left Hand
05 = Right Hand
06 = Left Foot
07 = Right Foot
08 = Stays at original casting spot, doesn't follow caster, (waist?)

I think there are others. This should be investigated further.

Now if we keep going down, the next Blue starter string shows up, this whole section is for when the spell hits. The format is the same.

Purple is where the spell will hit. ie, which target it will hit. So far I've see 2 values for this, 01 and 03. 01 is the caster, and 03 is the target. For example, last night Telin was casting the level 1 healing spell on me, but the effect would show up on him after the cast time was extinguished. Strange notion! Changing this value to 01 fixed this effect. More work to be done here as I think we can do some really cool stuff with this.

Now what I have done is looked at other spell effects, and tried their values, and it does indeed work. I could heal you with my shielding or fire spell if I swapped the values. More identification needs to be made on which values pull what information. I will be trying to compile a list of all the known values and place them in this thread.

Now that this is all done, you should be able to move onto number 6.

6. Test and Profit. This is the hardest part really, Or longest at least. Loading the game a bunch of times in and out is a lengthy process but necessary to see if it all works correctly.

Questions that still need answering:

http://s21.postimg.org/7j8i5pro7/boxed.png

-Whats all this in the black boxes?
-Why is 4 effects the max? if so why are some of them already filled in, with the same structure and why dont they work? I cant seem to get more than 4 effects to work. In this files case, the 2 hand effects for the sprinkler, 1 for the circle around the caster, and the last is the globe, however I cant get more than that to show.
-Can I add more than one origin emitter to an effect? If so, this would fix our shielding issue.
-Can I tie in effects used in the spells.eff file (Old spells file).

http://s3.postimg.org/y630yzjbn/spelleff.png

-Also, this is the old spells.eff file... how can we decipher this? can I pull the functions in this, from the other files? Can we use the GEN10 SPRITE or whatever its talking about in here? Can we use these old sprites? If so, can we use them with the new files? If so, we can probably... reproduce all the spells 100% classic.

----------------------------

Attached is the latest spellsnewVx.xxxzip file containing both the spellsnew.edd and spellsnew.eff. To install this mod, simply download and unzip this attachment below, into your EQ (p99) main directory and overwrite the files if asked to.

----------------------------

Change Log:

v0.48
-Healing Spell revisited again. Modified the Leg position on the casting and casted portions.
-Particle Level effects ensured on Aegolism line.


v0.47:

-Healing spell revisited, corrected a problem with it hitting the target and still giving the caster the ring.
-Fixed Clarity line of spells.

v0.045:

-Illusions fixed
-Direct Fire Damage spells fixed.


EDIT:
--------------------------------
Last Updated 5/22/2013 at 7:02PM EST, file revision v0.048:
- Fixed Healing effect at 39 for the Caster. Healing spells will never have the single Star in the center of the body unless the effect offset is found - And I dont think it exists anymore in the newspells. Either way, this is why I am doing the healing spell like this.
- Also modified the shielding spell to ensure levels are being hit correctly with spell effect changes.
--------------------------------
Last Updated 5/22/2013 at 7:46AM EST, file revision v0.047:
- Added Azxten's explanation of the spells.eff file to the 2nd post of this thread (Below), due to the number of pictures I can place in one post.
--------------------------------
Last Updated 5/9/2013 at 1:19PM EST, file revision v0.047:
- Fixed the explanation to follow the same spell all the way through to make it less confusing. Sorry for the first run through.
--------------------------------
Update 5/9/2013 at 7:47 EST, file revision v0.047.
- Added Information about Caster/Target hex, allowing particles to show on either with the right offset.

[Furinex]

Here is the old spells.eff change I made that you asked about. This is the shielding spell and changing that 00 to 02 causes the origin to be the caster instead of 0,0. You can change it to several other values as well which change the way the effect looks but 02 was the best I found.

If you only make that change and nothing else the effect is a circular green particle and some strange falling orange particles at the caster. During my testing I was able to make these particles behave as expected as well, using the "jet" effect or whatever.

What I couldn't figure out was:

1. How do you get effects to follow the caster/target if they move?
2. How do you get the effects to come from the hands instead of the center of body?

http://i.imgur.com/7vflADy.png

As for my methodology of how I figured this out, I just noticed that all the effects in the file say GENXYY_SPRITE where X is a letter A-Z and YY is a number (10, 20, 30). I did a replace all on GENA with GENB, see if that was the shielding effect, then replace all on GENB with GENC, see if that was the spell effect, repeat until the shielding effect particles change in some way to know you've found one of the sprites involved.

Then I reset the file to normal and changed the particle I found, GENC I think it was, one effect that used it as a time. That allowed me to identify the spell block for the shielding effect.

Next I noticed that the frost nuke effect actually had the origin at the caster instead of 0,0. I repeated the above process to find that effect. Then I copied that whole spell block over the shielding block. Then I went back and changed 1 line at a time back to the original shielding lines until I identified which line was responsible for changing the origin.

Unfortunately there seems to be no spell effect in the game which will stay with the caster/target if they move or that originates from the hands as expected. This is why I gave up. Without a working example to use as a template its extremely hard to just change random characters and then check and see what happens. If you look through various spell blocks you'll see that they all seem to have "random" areas changed to "random" values. I can't identify any kind of pattern to work with.

As Aeolwind said, I think the involvement of the character model hands and staying with the model may be outside of this file. I just fixed the origin location.

As for the gravity effects of particles, this can be adjusted in spellsnew.edd. I accomplished this during my original testing but didn't take any notes on how I did it. It was an unintended consequence when I was trying to get the particle direction to change. I was able to create particles that flowed out and then began falling down in an arc like pattern. I also identified a change that increased velocity and various other things. This is why I said I was confident these changes could be made. I've made all the necessary adjustments at one time or another, just forgot to write them down.

[Furinex]

<Post Reservation>

[Telin]

Educating myself on particle systems. This is just a quick read:
http://apacudn.epicgames.com/Three/ParticleSystemReference.html

[Swish]

Kudos again on this project guys, I've tried reading through it to understand better but...

http://i.imgur.com/22Z8J.gif

[Vellaen]

You switched from spellsnew.edd to spellsnew.eff when you went from the shielding spell to healing... which do you edit to actually produce changes, or do you have to edit them both?

[Furinex]

Follow the effect you are looking for. If you want a spela1.tga effect, search for that in the spellsnew.edd file, once you find it there, Take the name of that spell, (ie Aegolism, or Aego) and search for a portion of it in the spellsnew.eff file, then (Make sure you find the one with V2 in the name) edit away. Also, the .edd file, as I explained, has spots for the direction, but Im not sure what else we can do with this file. The .eff file is the one with most of the juicy stuff in it. Sorry I switched from shielding to healing, Not sure what I was thinking, Had kids in the background tugging on my arm, lots of distractions, I have ADD and a short term memory, plus... I smoke copious amounts of weed, so im sure that doesnt help... or maybe it does. When I get home tonight, I will re-edit the post with the same spell in each area to make it less confusing.

[Furinex]

Alrighty, my explanation is now fixed, and should flow better for its readers.

[Telin]

Furinex, after breaking down some of the processes I can now say there are at least 9 "spellpoints" where the particles can originate. They are:
1) Right Hand
2) Left Hand
3) Chest
4) Default
5) Right Foot
6) Left Foot
7) Left Eye
8) Right Eye
9) Mouth
10) "spell_point_dag" appears twice

[Furinex]

Furinex, after breaking down some of the processes I can now say there are at least 9 "spellpoints" where the particles can originate. They are:
1) Right Hand
2) Left Hand
3) Chest
4) Default
5) Right Foot
6) Left Foot
7) Left Eye
8) Right Eye
9) Mouth
10) "spell_point_dag" appears twice

Default? Where does that come from? And do you know the offsets for these? We can fill in a few gaps.

[Telin]

Perhaps the center like wolf form uses

[Furinex]

Perhaps the center like wolf form uses

The 10th one that you said showed up twice... thats interesting too. Also, do you know the off sets for these?

[Telin]

Search and download an exe decompiler. I won't be home for a while. I was comparing eqgame.exe of the one I used on P99 and the one I use for eqmac. Lots of interesting evens occur. It's structured similarly, executes some things in different orders. You can see what programs it's externally using and what programs take info from it. I do see errors on the p99 in spell and character area.

[Furinex]

Gonna hold off on this for a bit until I can get to level 39, I cant test much further with certain spells until I can see the effects. Finding someone to cast for me everytime Im working on this is terrible.

[Razdeline]

Should ask a dev to help supply some test characters for this, being that you are putting the work in for it.

[Furinex]

I doubt they would do this nor would I ask for it. I, as many others, enjoy this experience and I would rather not ruin it for myself by accepting chars that I didn't earn. Even if it were just to test. I have found another way to test this. I set up my server to accept these spell changes as well, and things are going pretty good. All I need now is a few more pictures and exclamations about other class spells that I am unaware of. I believe all of the druid spells are completely fixed and any other class that uses the same type of spell animation would also receive these fixed changes. I know that harmony and Matiz need some work with the level adjustments but this is kind of like the shielding problem where the values in the hex file are hard to determine. In the .eff file, If someone can find the entry that effects Mezz and harmony, that would help me a lot.

[Aeolwind]

Probably going to make a tool of myself with this, I don't have access to a hex editor, but the mez/lull effect could be tied too rest the dead effect?

Pretty sure that is the one, found the restdead V2.

[Furinex]

Probably going to make a tool of myself with this, I don't have access to a hex editor, but the mez/lull effect could be tied too rest the dead effect?

Pretty sure that is the one, found the restdead V2.

This is probably it as Ive seen this entry before, Im at work right now but I will look into this as soon as I get home and post an updated spell file with the correct levels.

[nilbog]

http://24.media.tumblr.com/ff72b9b41805f129398df89859e57ac0/tumblr_mh3hwtDLSh1ruv4gto1_500.gif

[Furinex]

http://24.media.tumblr.com/ff72b9b41805f129398df89859e57ac0/tumblr_mh3hwtDLSh1ruv4gto1_500.gif

That got a good laugh out of me.

[Telin]

Changing the FA C2/C4 values on eq Mac only changed direction of particles. The particles still looked affected by gravity. That effect might be outside these files! What exactly would make the particles behave like ribbons during the animation phase?

[Furinex]

Maybe the spells_us.txt? Ive kinda been suspecting this file might have something to do with it. However, it might be that the game is still calling functions from Spells.eff (Which I would LOVE to know more about and what effect is the shielding effect, or even how to fix origin...) or even the exe itself. Dunno, more testing might tell.

[Telin]

It does read from the spells.eff file before it moves on to spellnew files, but it says error creating spell table. That file is so much older though, I can't imagine it being necessary to load the spellsnew particles. The classic spells.eff particles I noticed are missing more than just the character hand origins. It doesn't know where the waist or tunic area is, because all target particles work except for those that are supposed to be binding to the center areas. Such as the higher healing ring, the sow particles start at the feet instead of the waist probably for similar reasons.

[Furinex]

If you delete the 2 new spell files, Spellsnew .edd and .eff, go to 0 0 in the zone, and cast a shielding spell, you will see the spell effects. You'll also notice... the gravity is fine. It looks like the origin is the only thing that is screwed up, and I bet if we found the root of the problem, it would fix the PROPER origins for every spell.

[Telin]

Yes I've seen the particles fall from the sky Near the east commonlands inn closest to Freeport. Its probably in the exe file and/or the directx 9 dll. It could be as simple as offsets being out of range after changes were made. or worse if titanium had overwritten important parts of it. That would take someone who knew about graphical programming wouldn't it?

[Furinex]

I dunno, But Somehow, I fail to see what the issue would be with modifying this somehow to support the DX8 file that actually comes with Titanium as it is the same file and date as the one in trilogy, which I know works. If it used to work, why cant it now with some editing? I dont know jack and squat about this but Im sure someone does and that would be our best bet.

[Telin]

You can probably recode the dx8.dll file to work with dx9 and use the dx9 file name unless it does a checksum. Ive read where people have done this for other games, but it would have to be specifically done for this file and version of eq. Dx level 81 is probably the most the client needs since we aren't using anything too complex. All this work sounds expensive

[Aeolwind]

If you delete the 2 new spell files, Spellsnew .edd and .eff, go to 0 0 in the zone, and cast a shielding spell, you will see the spell effects. You'll also notice... the gravity is fine. It looks like the origin is the only thing that is screwed up, and I bet if we found the root of the problem, it would fix the PROPER origins for every spell.

This has been the thing for a while. If you are going to kick this thing, it is going to be in a dll file. The animations no longer 'tie' to character models. There may be an opcode change.

[Telin]

Interesting discussion on another game's particle system that wasnt loading. They figured it out lol. http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=42084

[Furinex]

This has been the thing for a while. If you are going to kick this thing, it is going to be in a dll file. The animations no longer 'tie' to character models. There may be an opcode change.

Azxten figured this out. He was able to fix the origin with the old file however the direction wasn't right. I'm still waiting to hear back from him on how he accomplished this. If we can figure that out, we may be able to hack the old particles into this new spell file to call the same effect and get it in the right direction. This Might be the easiest method to fix it however not the best since the gravity is still screwy.

[Aeolwind]

Azxten figured this out. He was able to fix the origin with the old file however the direction wasn't right. I'm still waiting to hear back from him on how he accomplished this. If we can figure that out, we may be able to hack the old particles into this new spell file to call the same effect and get it in the right direction. This Might be the easiest method to fix it however not the best since the gravity is still screwy.

If he can get it back with the old files; direction/gravity should be there as well. If it works right at 0,0 it will work right everywhere. You just have to undo what isn't.

[Furinex]

And that's exactly what I thought. I sent him a pm but his RL is hectic during the week so I haven't heard back from him. When I can duplicate this, I will mess with it until its right or I'm dead... Whichever comes first.

[Razdeline]

I doubt they would do this nor would I ask for it. I, as many others, enjoy this experience and I would rather not ruin it for myself by accepting chars that I didn't earn. Even if it were just to test. I have found another way to test this. I set up my server to accept these spell changes as well, and things are going pretty good. All I need now is a few more pictures and exclamations about other class spells that I am unaware of. I believe all of the druid spells are completely fixed and any other class that uses the same type of spell animation would also receive these fixed changes. I know that harmony and Matiz need some work with the level adjustments but this is kind of like the shielding problem where the values in the hex file are hard to determine. In the .eff file, If someone can find the entry that effects Mezz and harmony, that would help me a lot.

Nothing wrong with asking for a specific test environment, but you already have it figured out.

Cheers

[Furinex]

Nothing wrong with asking for a specific test environment, but you already have it figured out.

Cheers

Not entirely, but we're getting there. :)

[azxten]

Here is the old spells.eff change I made that you asked about. This is the shielding spell and changing that 00 to 02 causes the origin to be the caster instead of 0,0. You can change it to several other values as well which change the way the effect looks but 02 was the best I found.

If you only make that change and nothing else the effect is a circular green particle and some strange falling orange particles at the caster. During my testing I was able to make these particles behave as expected as well, using the "jet" effect or whatever.

What I couldn't figure out was:

1. How do you get effects to follow the caster/target if they move?
2. How do you get the effects to come from the hands instead of the center of body?

http://i.imgur.com/7vflADy.png

As for my methodology of how I figured this out, I just noticed that all the effects in the file say GENXYY_SPRITE where X is a letter A-Z and YY is a number (10, 20, 30). I did a replace all on GENA with GENB, see if that was the shielding effect, then replace all on GENB with GENC, see if that was the spell effect, repeat until the shielding effect particles change in some way to know you've found one of the sprites involved.

Then I reset the file to normal and changed the particle I found, GENC I think it was, one effect that used it as a time. That allowed me to identify the spell block for the shielding effect.

Next I noticed that the frost nuke effect actually had the origin at the caster instead of 0,0. I repeated the above process to find that effect. Then I copied that whole spell block over the shielding block. Then I went back and changed 1 line at a time back to the original shielding lines until I identified which line was responsible for changing the origin.

Unfortunately there seems to be no spell effect in the game which will stay with the caster/target if they move or that originates from the hands as expected. This is why I gave up. Without a working example to use as a template its extremely hard to just change random characters and then check and see what happens. If you look through various spell blocks you'll see that they all seem to have "random" areas changed to "random" values. I can't identify any kind of pattern to work with.

As Aeolwind said, I think the involvement of the character model hands and staying with the model may be outside of this file. I just fixed the origin location.

As for the gravity effects of particles, this can be adjusted in spellsnew.edd. I accomplished this during my original testing but didn't take any notes on how I did it. It was an unintended consequence when I was trying to get the particle direction to change. I was able to create particles that flowed out and then began falling down in an arc like pattern. I also identified a change that increased velocity and various other things. This is why I said I was confident these changes could be made. I've made all the necessary adjustments at one time or another, just forgot to write them down.

[Telin]

Great job. I'm going to isolate spells.eff and spells_us.txt when loading Mac client to make sure those are the only two spell files required for the classic particles. I could also play with offsets to find out what else they control since the spells are working right to begin with. It's interesting the old genb is now like new spelb and genc is like spelc. I bet a gena would be for the blue healing sparkles.

[Furinex]

Here is the old spells.eff change I made that you asked about. This is the shielding spell and changing that 00 to 02 causes the origin to be the caster instead of 0,0. You can change it to several other values as well which change the way the effect looks but 02 was the best I found.

If you only make that change and nothing else the effect is a circular green particle and some strange falling orange particles at the caster. During my testing I was able to make these particles behave as expected as well, using the "jet" effect or whatever.

What I couldn't figure out was:

1. How do you get effects to follow the caster/target if they move?
2. How do you get the effects to come from the hands instead of the center of body?

http://i.imgur.com/7vflADy.png

As for my methodology of how I figured this out, I just noticed that all the effects in the file say GENXYY_SPRITE where X is a letter A-Z and YY is a number (10, 20, 30). I did a replace all on GENA with GENB, see if that was the shielding effect, then replace all on GENB with GENC, see if that was the spell effect, repeat until the shielding effect particles change in some way to know you've found one of the sprites involved.

Then I reset the file to normal and changed the particle I found, GENC I think it was, one effect that used it as a time. That allowed me to identify the spell block for the shielding effect.

Next I noticed that the frost nuke effect actually had the origin at the caster instead of 0,0. I repeated the above process to find that effect. Then I copied that whole spell block over the shielding block. Then I went back and changed 1 line at a time back to the original shielding lines until I identified which line was responsible for changing the origin.

Unfortunately there seems to be no spell effect in the game which will stay with the caster/target if they move or that originates from the hands as expected. This is why I gave up. Without a working example to use as a template its extremely hard to just change random characters and then check and see what happens. If you look through various spell blocks you'll see that they all seem to have "random" areas changed to "random" values. I can't identify any kind of pattern to work with.

As Aeolwind said, I think the involvement of the character model hands and staying with the model may be outside of this file. I just fixed the origin location.

As for the gravity effects of particles, this can be adjusted in spellsnew.edd. I accomplished this during my original testing but didn't take any notes on how I did it. It was an unintended consequence when I was trying to get the particle direction to change. I was able to create particles that flowed out and then began falling down in an arc like pattern. I also identified a change that increased velocity and various other things. This is why I said I was confident these changes could be made. I've made all the necessary adjustments at one time or another, just forgot to write them down.


Well... Im interested in 2 things. Can we call GENB sprite in the spellsnew.edd file. AND, im especially interested where you found to control the gravity in the spellsnew.edd file. That would make things MUCH closer to classic.

[Telin]

........GENB10_SPRITE (Green Level 1)...................GENC10_SPRITE(Orange Level 24)...................GEND30_SPRITE(Blue Level 39)

Spells_us.txt, Spells_en.txt and Spells.eff are all three required to load game.

The effect 02 gave it was like other spells using the shielding particles instead. This must be why most of the target's effects work properly except for some, and of course not at all when target moves. I think 00 is meant as the source for the hands, but the game isn't loading the hand spell bind points.

[Bamzal Sherbet]

great work. looks like we'll be able to see proper spell effects some day

[nilbog]

Stickied.

I encourage people to try the downloads from the OP. Even if this isn't 100% complete, it is substantially better than particles vertically rising from the hands.

http://i44.tinypic.com/znrl0z.jpg

[Furinex]

Thank you for this Nilbog. This project is far from dead. I am working on getting to 39, where these effects can start really pissing me off again. My motivation has shifted to Leveling for now. I spoke with Telin about this in depth the other day. He found some interesting stuff while comparing the two clients, eqmac and titanium. He will probably post with an update on that. I am going to edit the first post this week, and also point to here from the EQEMU forums to see if we can attract some more attention to this, and possibly some more skilled hands.

[azxten]

I'm keeping an eye on this thread as well. We'll get this working some day, I'll be around to help when you get 39 and start diving in again.

[Uggme]

Furi, you and I discussed this Earlier. Here is a Screenshot on this thread of 3 classic bolts in the air. Right now they have the same graphic as a GBS in someones hand flying towards the target. They should look a lot more like large Firestars

http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=50398&page=2

Additionally, the bolt itself does not travel fast enough towards it's target currently. It should move a bit faster and hit the target a short amount quicker than it does now.

Seeing as this thread is all about spell effects and classic looks, this is as much as I could find. If the effect itself can be fixed that would be great... though I'm not sure there's any way you could fix the time it takes for the bolt to hit. I'm guessing that's something that takes place on the staff's side of things.

Do ya think it's fixable?

here is the main thread listing consolidated issues

http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=45895

Thanks in advance!

[Aeolwind]

Not sure if it has bearing to this, but there is a file called missle.eqg. Any correlation?

[Handpartytowel]

this is from an emu server like 5 years ago. seems better than p99 tho.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwSlZfVbgtQ

[Furinex]

That's what's so frustrating about the entire thing. This was an older client that utilized dx8. Which seems to be key to all this.

Uggme, the look of the spell can definitely be fixed. I will work on this soon.
I'm 35, almost there. I'm already starting to get pissed thinking about it so it won't be long until I dedicate time to this.

[Furinex]

Btw azxten, the gravity value eludes me. I can't find that entry

[TarukShmaruk]

You men are doing the lords work.

I just came here to say that.

[sellawiz]

I come here every day waiting for updates...

[Nirgon]

If he can get it back with the old files; direction/gravity should be there as well. If it works right at 0,0 it will work right everywhere. You just have to undo what isn't.

I have an old EQ disk. Lemme know what you need.

I haven't fuxed around with a hex editor like this before, but I'm willing to try my hand.

I'll take a crack based on your original post.

Some of the effects like the 39+ targeted aoe magic are massive compared to what is here now lol.

[Furinex]

I need some assistance. I was looking through this thread trying to find a post from someone who identified other spells that used the same effect that the Harmony / mezz line of spells. I can't seem to find it however. Can someone post some spells that use the same effect? Im trying to fix this spell now. I recall a Necro spell that used this but I cant be certain.

[oldschooltrader]

Necro charm looks like harmony not sure of the names of the line

[dali_lb]

I'm just shooting from the hip here,
but would it be possible to create a project on sourceforge so people interested could work on the files without fucking everything up that is already made.

I also just had an idea sitting at work.

Would it be possible to instead of deleting the spellsnew file like sugested in one of the other threads, putting it somwhere else (kinda the the way the ui system works) and then only calling it specific when needed (when someone finds a fix to a specific spell particle not covered by the old system) ??
Not sure if that would be possible, depending where the calls to the spellsnew files is located.

Or maybe just try to see what happens if you strip the spellsnew.edd file for all things that havn't been changed to fix something. Not sure if it's just one long hex datafile, but it is definetly indexed. Clearly the calling process are looking for those 4 hex bytes indexing what effect you are changing, so without being a hardcore coder myself I would definetly try to see what happened if I deleted a part of the file's data that I don't need (or don't know what is used for ... yet), and just see if something strange happens ingame :)

[dali_lb]

Makes you remember the good ole DOS days, fiddling around with savegame files to try get that superlife, and having to restart the puter each time you changed something new :)

[Telin]

I would like to add running an older version of eqgame through an IDE and comparing it to the results of titanium. I have noticed that the older version executes definitions of the right and left hand spawn points for particles two times. I assume the first set of them are used for the classic particles and the other pair for the newer particle system. The titanium client only defines it once per hand, obviously only for the new particles. Some experienced coder could probably make the titanium client define them for classic particles using the comparison of the two clients as a decent starting point.

[dali_lb]

I did some tests with the posted zip with the modified spellsnew files, and noticed some things.

The hand directions is fixed on the stat buffs and sow line, but the blue overhead effect on target .. the one that is like a blue rocket explotion is now tilted so that the direction is more like 75 degrees instead of original 90 degrees to the earth.

Also there still is the error that both the SoW/stat line and healing line effect on target is actually showing the 39 version when casted by a low lvl char

I remember this because eg. the healing line only gave a cheasy blue shower at low levels on live. At 24 or 39 you then got the cool broad raising circle wall that made the heals look so much cooler.

I am pretty sure that the overhead blue explosion effect on SoW line also first kicked in at eithere 24 or 39.

On the HP/AC line of spells. its green on lvl 1-23. Orange added at 24 and Blue stars added at 39.

[Furinex]

The sow line I can fix. If You read this thread, you'll see my explination why we can't get the blue sparkles on casting for shielding effects. I can only use 4 possible effects. Right now I have 2 for green (one on each hand) abd at 24 I have 2 for orange. That's 4 and it won't let me do more for some reason. On the target however.. There's only 3. Since it hits the chest./

[Vellaen]

The sow line I can fix. If You read this thread, you'll see my explination why we can't get the blue sparkles on casting for shielding effects. I can only use 4 possible effects. Right now I have 2 for green (one on each hand) abd at 24 I have 2 for orange. That's 4 and it won't let me do more for some reason. On the target however.. There's only 3. Since it hits the chest./

That's odd, because I'm using your spell files and I'm not getting the orange from the hands 24-39 (currently 35). When I see 39+ casting, they get the green/orange from the hands, just no blue sparkles.

[Telin]

The blue sparkles from hands will be missing until we can add a line and make it work or figure out how they originally worked in first place. I wish I had a fresh spellsnew file from when they first starting using it (luclin?)to see if there was a third line of code for the hand effect or if they used color changing on the particles at the end of the cone effect from orange to blue. Particle engines do have that ability. It's possible they experimented with it at that time.

[Telin]

I think it's worth repeating that the blue sparkles from the green/orange/blue aka Npc aegolismv2 effect are missing from the hands at 39+ on the alkabor server, even from a Mac.

[Vellaen]

The blue sparkles from hands will be missing until we can add a line and make it work or figure out how they originally worked in first place. I wish I had a fresh spellsnew file from when they first starting using it (luclin?)to see if there was a third line of code for the hand effect or if they used color changing on the particles at the end of the cone effect from orange to blue. Particle engines do have that ability. It's possible they experimented with it at that time.

My current theory is still that the particle effects in the tiers are inclusive, meaning you only have to program (using shields/buffs as an example) the green from the hands in the 1-23 section for the spell, the orange from the hands in the 24-38 section, and the blue in the 39-60 section. This would produce the classic effects within the limit of two effects per tier.

Biding my time until I have a character at level 39 to test it out, then it's time to study Furinex's guide in the first post and see what I can make happen.

[Furinex]

The spell effects listed on the front page should have the orange from 24-38. Not sure why you arent seeing them but redownload them. I am updating the post anyways with some minor updates as I have been reworking this some.

EDIT: As I was posting this, I was looking into the sow line... it looks like because of the way we did the start of the sow spell, so the little blue effects would come out of the hands at the right angle, or close to it, the rest of the line is doing the same thing and I cant find the offset to fix. I'll keep working on it.

[dali_lb]

That's odd, because I'm using your spell files and I'm not getting the orange from the hands 24-39 (currently 35). When I see 39+ casting, they get the green/orange from the hands, just no blue sparkles.

Thats because the 24-38 and 39-60 effects are exchanged in the current mode.

When casting a shield/hp buff
on the target of the spell buff you will currently first see the Orange effect at 39 (should be 24)
at 24 the blue effect is added (should be 39)

but as mentioned that should be pretty easy to fix for this spell line.

the problems with hands effect is another thing.

I am also convinced tho that we are missing something out
There must be some default values somewhere for the directions of the effects.

But got to remember its propably very old coding.
I remember Verant/Sony posting that bigger than 10 slot bags would never happen in game because of the datafiles being one big sequential file and not indexed so it would require total redesign of client if they were to add bigger bags.

So there still is a chance that these files simply just is a big datafile with each single part of all spells being explicit defined in one spot.

gotta love old nerd coders .. as long as they are still around able to fix their code themself :)

[Furinex]

The current spell file shows orange effects at 24 as it should. If it Isn't like this for you and you have my file, redownload it or delete the two files in your folder and extract again.

[dali_lb]

The file spellsnew v0.048.zip still have the 39 and 24 effects exchanged.

just redownloaded it and tried :)


Edited

I apologice ... found out that eqemulauncher patches spellsnew.eff each time it loads, and nowhere to turn it off

Worked after just running the eqgame.exe directly

[Furinex]

Need some help finding a value. Im looking for the value areas for the 49 Bard song, Song of Shields. This song currently looks like Hymn of restoration and SHOULD look like the Aegolism line of spells. I want to fix this however, I cant seem to find the area where that spell is linked to in the spellsnew.eff/edd files. Any help on this would be appreciated. Currently the spell uses speld2 (which I have searched for but didnt find anything that looked like that specific song).

[nilbog]

Bump.

I encourage people to try this. Looks much better than the default. The more people who try and experiment with this, the better it will get.

[Telin]

I have gotten frustrated over the complexity of the issue. I was trying to repair the classic particles and ignoring the spellsnew files entirely. I would probably need to debug this client and the older one. I can't execute this completely without a server I guess. The classic particles just need the spawn points defined for them just like the newer particles get. I just don't understand coding enough to make these necessary changes. The particles exist and all ground level particles work correctly and most particles around the character but they do not bind with character movement and also do not bind to hands as we pointed out before how they go to center of zone. Decompiling gives a lot of clues as to what is going on during the spell loading process and maybe an experienced coder could fix these issues without major work.

It would be easier to keep toggling with the spellsnew files to make that look better but it wouldn't be classic :-/

[Furinex]

I have gotten frustrated over the complexity of the issue. I was trying to repair the classic particles and ignoring the spellsnew files entirely. I would probably need to debug this client and the older one. I can't execute this completely without a server I guess. The classic particles just need the spawn points defined for them just like the newer particles get. I just don't understand coding enough to make these necessary changes. The particles exist and all ground level particles work correctly and most particles around the character but they do not bind with character movement and also do not bind to hands as we pointed out before how they go to center of zone. Decompiling gives a lot of clues as to what is going on during the spell loading process and maybe an experienced coder could fix these issues without major work.

It would be easier to keep toggling with the spellsnew files to make that look better but it wouldn't be classic :-/

Gonna agree with this. I also don't know enough to fix this the way I would like. Hence I'm going through and trying to mimic the old spell effects.

[Telin]

I bet that the orange particles for the npc_aegov2 effect from the hands are supposed to change to blue toward the end of its life. That's probably why there is no line for a 3rd particle. Here is a video demonstrating this effect with Unity:

http://www.3dbuzz.com/training/view/unity-fundamentals/particles/7-particle-animator-color

[Rhun]

As someone pointed out earlier, the patcher will try to overwrite these files on each start.
I tried making them read only, but that causes other problems, like many error messages before starting the game and my spell gems graphics on my cast bar are corrupted.

Is there any way to make this work properly?

[Vellaen]

Is there any way to make this work properly?

Just don't use the EQemu launcher unless there's a patch (or at all if you don't mind manually copying the patch files). You should have a "bypass EQemu" shortcut in your EverQuest Start menu directory if you used Duxa's all-in-one installer.

[Rhun]

No, I didnt.
How do I bypass the launcher without it?

[Ariemos]

Here's how you bypass the Launcher and run eqgame.exe direct:

Make a shortcut to eqgame.exe, right-click the shortcut and select properties.

In target:
C:\Games\EverQuest\eqgame.exe patchme

(replace with the path to your game)

[Ariemos]

Just wanted to say the work gone into this thread is awesome. Even though it's minor, the fact that the spell particles have never been fully accurate has always bugged me. The available download is certainly closer to what they were like on Live. I doubt I can be of much help but I'll see if I can try based on your instructions. As there's still some inconsistencies, excluding the ones mentioned on the thread already.

[Ariemos]

Hi,

I've been taking a look at this more. The guide is very useful, I'd not even begin to delve into this without it. Would love to get things 100% accurate. But not sure that is possible based on past posts.

To get me started I've edited the Harmony/Mez/Lull effects, (which for the record use RestDead V2.Effect) which were showing high level effects on low level characters. Now it looks correct (at least as best I remember).

It would be useful to have a list of spell effects which are not quite working like classic to be able to correct them. I know of a few and shall list them, mainly spells appearing with a high level effect on low level characters.

Healing effect on target
Low level correct effect needs to be found.
(Possibly no longer in game as previously stated?) I have not seen any other effect which uses the old graphic. On Live I'm pretty sure I recall the Bard healing song used to use this effect when low level, but it now looks the same as Clarity. Would like to know how the low level heal shows up on Al'Kabor.

Shielding/HP Buffs
As previously stated, blue particles not coming from hands on Level 39+

Firefist effect on caster and target
Using high level effect for low levels

Breeze
Effect is not classic. Currently using the same as Clarity. But it definitely had a different graphic.

Bind
Effect shown is too high level on target for low levels.

Enchanter Mez/Harmony/Lull
Effect shown too high level on both caster and target for low levels. - Fixed


I will need more time to go through the ones which are fixable and edit the file, but I plan to.

Here is also a list of all the 'V2' effects for easy reference:

BlindingPoison V2
BondofDeath V2
Breeze V2
BurnTouch2 V2
Calefaction V2
Call of Alarm V2
Cessation of Cor V2
Chill V2.life V2
ChillUnlife V2
Choking V2
Creeping Crud V2
Demi Lich V2
DenonsDiscord V2
DisSummoned V2
DynsDraught V2
ElemMastery V2
EnvenomBreath V2
ExtendRegen V2
Firework1 V2
Firework2 V2
Firework3 V2
Firework4 V2
FlameSongRo V2
Flare V2
Force V2
Frost Breath V2
GlowGlyphs V2
Grim Aura V2
Haste V2
HorrifyingApp V2
Illusion Iksar V2
Immo Breath V2
InvertGravity V2
LifeDraw V2
LightningShock V2
NPCAegolism V2
RestDead V2
Resurrect Effects V2
ScreamofChaos V2
SeloChain V2
SFofSeukor V2.of Seukor V2
SongofDeepSeas V2
Special_Sight V2
Torrent of Ice V2
TorrentPoison V2
Vengeance V2
Vision V2
Voc Earth V2
Zumaik's Anim V2

I've attached my edited spells file which has the fix for the Mez/Lull/Harmony line, based on the spellsnew v0.048.zip file in the main post.

[Telin]

Good job on mezz spell. I will say though that I consider this project obselete if those guys working on the older client succeed. Spell issues would be gone for classic particles. There would be issues with healing and the blue from hands in the buff spells for the newer particles we currently use. But if we delete the spellsnew files with that older client, the particles should be corrected.

Those bugs exist on eqmac as well using the spellsnew files. You will only get a true representation of the classic particles by bypassing the newer particles from those file deletions.

As far as fixing what we can, there are dozens that still need the level 24/39 particles adjusted. I spent a lot of time in eqmac with old particles turned on so I have memorized every step to the particle additions but don't have time to mess with files. You can try going there as a guide.

The level one heal cannot be accurately recreated from spellsnew. The old particles use a very long blue particle trail and lands with a giant particle in center of target with a small sprinkling of particles flowing up and outward out of target. If you use spellsnew files on eqmac and cast heal, it will look like it did here with just particles from hands that are shorter and a ring around target

[Ariemos]

Hi Telin,

Yeah I saw the project for the older client. I hope that succeeds, as I sure want to use it. Who knows how long it might take though. I am doubting that an older client willl be mandatory to use, so I don't consider this project an entire waste of time. As I bet there will be those who will want to stick with the Titanium client.

I don't have a Mac, or a Hackintosh and it looks like a recent patch broke the hack for using a PC client on Al'Kabor.

Nevertheless, I know a lot of the effects from memory, and there's always YouTube ;)

I've some time & patience to fix some of these effects if it's 'minor' adjustments to the file, as I am no programmer. Just need to find out all the ones which are not right.

Many thanks for your help!

[Vermouth]

Just wanted to say thank you so much for the work that has been done here. On Live, I was always super excited to get my casters to 24 and 39 for the upgraded spell effects and was sad to see that they were not truly classic.

Thanks for taking the time to do this and sharing it with the community!

[Morningbreath]

I have the original Everquest Trilogy CDs so if any of the files would be of use let me konw.

[Bardalicious]

You can probably recode the dx8.dll file to work with dx9 and use the dx9 file name unless it does a checksum. Ive read where people have done this for other games, but it would have to be specifically done for this file and version of eq. Dx level 81 is probably the most the client needs since we aren't using anything too complex. All this work sounds expensive

very easy to spoof crc's on files if it is indeed being checked. but of course that may be against the rules here to alter the file regardless.

[Bardalicious]

Does anyone have an *ORIGINAL* EQ and Kunark disc floating around? Wouldn't mind having the files to do some comparisons. Of course you'd need to upload them for me tho, I have them but they are in storage somewhere =)

[Rhun]

The particles of summoning spells are not exactly centered on the caster (at least not on my gnome mage). Its a bit to the left.
I am using .048. Is that fixable in these files or do I have to report it as a bug?

[Telin]

Now that the last official classic era server is shutting down, I hope all information that can be collected from the only working server of an older client is being taken advantage of before it's gone. It could be useful to this bug and many others.

[Dangermouse]

Does anyone have an *ORIGINAL* EQ and Kunark disc floating around? Wouldn't mind having the files to do some comparisons. Of course you'd need to upload them for me tho, I have them but they are in storage somewhere =)

I've got an Kunark CD "English version" (in its original box no less!). If you want me to rip it and upload the files somewhere, let me know.

Alternatively if you just want a few files, I could install this disc and then send you a selection of files from the install dir. The disc itself just contains a load of CABs.

[Telin]

Some testing using EQMac client before it's gone. Here i was able to turn off the green particles from the hands and keep the blue and orange. This doesn't help with much, but it was interesting. Notice the pink and purple from the collision of orange and blue.

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/5901/a7p6.jpg

[dealicious]

for truee classic spells effect, delete the Spellsnew.eff and spellsnew.edd from your eq folder, back it up somewhere else or w/e. try it, no particles gettin out of the hand when casting, but 100% classic when casted dunno if that help lol

[Telin]

for truee classic spells effect, delete the Spellsnew.eff and spellsnew.edd from your eq folder, back it up somewhere else or w/e. try it, no particles gettin out of the hand when casting, but 100% classic when casted dunno if that help lol

Oh yes we know about that, the glorious original particles are really just too broken for anyone to want to use them right now. It makes sense to keep working on the newer particles first since they're still not perfect yet, but may help teach us a lot about how the older particle system works.

The main thing is finding the code to link the emitters to the character model's skeletal mesh. I'm not sure if it is as simple as an offset, a few, or require reverse engineering all spell-related sections of the client itself. I have been looking into this possibility. I probably cannot talk about what actions I'm taking. I have tested a lot of offsets using the spellsnew.eff and spellsnew.edd. So far I haven't found anything to align them to the character's arms. This client really is quite different then the clients before it. They never used the character's arm alignment in any spell effect at this point. That's probably why it's not working currently. The spell effects from this era were all "floaty". A lot of spell points for the character models are defined though, just not the one we need.

[Telin]

I have made the following changes to the following spell effects making them as close to classic EQ as possible for now:

- Added new healing effect for low levels (1-23) to replace the previously overdone effect. This effect remains for all levels filling in the previously void center of the target.

- The healing ring effect around target now begins at level 24 to match the ring around caster.

- Selo's effect now appropriately levels with character.

- SoW/Stat effect now scales in complexity exactly as classic does with level. The caster has all effects at 24 and target at 39.

I hope you guys will test these and let me know what you think.

[AffEcT]

Awesome work guys!
Love it!

[Skurd]

Bard song lines using the healing effect (blue particles) seem bugged, using this.
That includes : Cassindra's Chorus of Clarity (mana song), Hymn of Restoration (hp regen) and Psalm of Cooling (DS + fire resist, not sure if it didn't have shield effects btw).
Not sure if that's normal or not but there you go...

[Telin]

Bard song lines using the healing effect (blue particles) seem bugged, using this.
That includes : Cassindra's Chorus of Clarity (mana song), Hymn of Restoration (hp regen) and Psalm of Cooling (DS + fire resist, not sure if it didn't have shield effects btw).
Not sure if that's normal or not but there you go...

Thanks for trying it out. A lot of spells haven't been fixed yet including the hymn of restoration effect. That shouldn't be too difficult though.

[sellawiz]

I have made the following changes to the following spell effects making them as close to classic EQ as possible for now:

- Added new healing effect for low levels (1-23) to replace the previously overdone effect. This effect remains for all levels filling in the previously void center of the target.

- The healing ring effect around target now begins at level 24 to match the ring around caster.

- Selo's effect now appropriately levels with character.

- SoW/Stat effect now scales in complexity exactly as classic does with level. The caster has all effects at 24 and target at 39.

I hope you guys will test these and let me know what you think.

Hey thank you for all this hard work.

I'm afraid it's going to get buried though if you don't update your original post with the newest updates. ;) I'd hate for nobody to know where to look.

[Hawala]

Jesus, someone needs to make an editor

[Telin]

I'm working on more tonight. An easy editor would open the door for customization inconsistent with classic, undermining the restoration efforts

[Hawala]

So, after messing around with these two files all day long, I've at least come up with a few solutions to issues. Bytes are grouped into sequences of 4 hex digits

EDD animates the spells. There are 344 hex codes of parameters, I don't think this one is possible to crack without some kind of decompiler.

EFF calls animations in sequential order. So 01010000 refers to the very first animation drawn in EDD. 02010000 is the second, 03010000 is the third, etc.

So, for example in NPCAegolism
3C010000 00000000
01000000 04000000

3C010000 00000000
01000000 05000000

The 3C(hex)th animation(01) from .EDD happens at level 0(hex) from the Left Hand(04).

I still have no idea what the 01000000 does, when I change it there is no animation.

[Telin]

Hawala, I PM'd you. lol

[Telin]

I need to test more before updating the files for everyone, but I've been gotten a few things done. I've been focusing on spell sound effects which i didn't notice there were so many issues until i begin testing individual spells. These now have the correct classic sounds:

-- Gate and Invisibility spells now has proper sound effect during the cast and the end.

-- Self-port spells now play the proper sound effects that differ from the above effects at the end of the cast to sound like a portal.

-- Fire DoT spells such as the immolate line now have the proper sound effect at the beginning. It previously sounded like a combustible fire spell.

-- Wind spells now have the proper sound effect at the beginning. Added the missing sound to the end of the effect. Wind spells also have a more classic look by fixing a few of the particle locations.

-- Firefist and similar spells will now have a previously missing sound effect during the cast.

-- Summoning spells now have the proper sound effect at the end of the cast. Classic has a softer wind sound at the finish of the summoning spells. Currently it's way too dramatic.

[Telin]

I'm excited to share that I have been able to implement the classic blue diamonds into the shield effect!
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/8008/wvny.jpg

[Telin]

Version 0.5 has the following updates:

-- Gate and Invisibility spells now have classic sound effects.

-- HP/AC/Resist spells now have classic blue diamonds instead of the blue stars on target. The size of the orange particles from the hands have been drastically reduced and sharpened to appear more classic.

-- Wind spells now have classic sound effects and progresses properly with level.

-- Firefist spell effect now has classic sound effect and progresses properly with level.

-- Summoning spell effects now have classic sound effect and progresses properly with level.

-- Fire DOT spell effects now have classic sound effect.

[BillyCranston]

So, after messing around with these two files all day long, I've at least come up with a few solutions to issues. Bytes are grouped into sequences of 4 hex digits

EDD animates the spells. There are 344 hex codes of parameters, I don't think this one is possible to crack without some kind of decompiler.

EFF calls animations in sequential order. So 01010000 refers to the very first animation drawn in EDD. 02010000 is the second, 03010000 is the third, etc.

So, for example in NPCAegolism
3C010000 00000000
01000000 04000000

3C010000 00000000
01000000 05000000

The 3C(hex)th animation(01) from .EDD happens at level 0(hex) from the Left Hand(04).

I still have no idea what the 01000000 does, when I change it there is no animation.

01000000 is probably just a true/false for on/off. Seems redundant but if that's all that happens with no matter what you change it to, that's probably all it is. Can you change the 0400000's 0100000, in order to only have the right hand display particles?

[Telin]

Went ahead and shrank the shield particles around target to make them look more classic. It matches the hands more. Updated the link on previous page and on server chat.

[Vega]

Amazing work, Telin! Don't currently have a chance to test them out myself, but very happy that you are continuing the work!

[Telin]

I've been busy working on this again. Here are the latest updates:

-- The See Invisible spell effect now levels up with the player. The particles that were above the head are now properly aligned with the eyes of the player.

-- The shielding spell particles around the player get closer to the target per classic era.

-- The fire-based Ignite line of spells now level properly with player. The sound effect for the target is now correct.

-- The Invoke Lightning line of spells now level with the character. Particle effects have been added and altered to appear more classic. Sound effect has also been corrected.

-- The Blinding line of spells now level with the player. Classic had particles on the feet going both horizontal and vertical into the air. For now I was limited to which one I could keep. I added the vertical effect because it's more noticeable.

-- Revisited the Immolate line of spells to correct the landing animation. Flames have been added with the fireballs around the target to appear more classic.

An example of the classic look I was able to give this AOE spell:
http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/1836/q166.jpg

[Telin]

v0.53

--Levitate now has classic sounds and levels with the player.

--Mezmerize and Harmony spells now level with the player.

[Telin]

LATEST UPDATE (http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128473)

[azxten]

Looks like our work made it into the latest patch, sweet. Telin you have put more time into this than anyone, thanks for putting in the effort from start to finish.

[Telin]

Looks like our work made it into the latest patch, sweet. Telin you have put more time into this than anyone, thanks for putting in the effort from start to finish.

Thanks to you and Furinex for starting it!

[Hailto]

So, im getting error in your GUI XML files error after this latest patch, any idea guys?

[Vega]

Yeah, I was kinda sad that Azxten and Furinex didn't even get a mention. I think Telin's persistence obviously deserves the lion share of notice, but still.

[azxten]

Oh don't be too sad. I've been banned for MQ2, banned by Uthgaard for calling him gay, called Nilbog some names. I'm also generally a non-issue in game, have donated a decent amount, and now have contributed some work. Its all a wash.

[nilbog]

Looks like our work made it into the latest patch, sweet. Telin you have put more time into this than anyone, thanks for putting in the effort from start to finish.

No one was trying to disparage or take credit from you. Added your names to the patch notes thread.

[Mac Dretti]

They're so beautiful

[kylok]

lvl 24 shielding spells have blue diamonds coming outa the hands, think it should be just orange/green balls.

[Telin]

lvl 24 shielding spells have blue diamonds coming outa the hands, think it should be just orange/green balls.

You're right, but due to the limitations on the number of animations per spell with the new particle system I had to put them in together. As soon as someone discovers how to allow more per spell (it is possible since fire bolt spells have an extra effect) then I will be able to change it to look exactly like classic. So there will be other spells that aren't fully done yet like fear, heal, root, clarity, and fire spells. Most of the effects are just missing duplicated animations for the waist and feet that classic had.

[whitebandit]

You're right, but due to the limitations on the number of animations per spell with the new particle system I had to put them in together. As soon as someone discovers how to allow more per spell (it is possible since fire bolt spells have an extra effect) then I will be able to change it to look exactly like classic. So there will be other spells that aren't fully done yet like fear, heal, root, clarity, and fire spells. Most of the effects are just missing duplicated animations for the waist and feet that classic had.

i do appreciate what you are trying to do.. i really dont understand why these changes were made official when you yourself admit they are not complete/classic

[Vega]

i do appreciate what you are trying to do.. i really dont understand why these changes were made official when you yourself admit they are not complete/classic

Really? Cause this whole server isn't quite classic yet, they're still working on it. Do you think they should have held off letting people play on it till it was perfect?

[NextGenesis88]

Really? Cause this whole server isn't quite classic yet, they're still working on it. Do you think they should have held off letting people play on it till it was perfect?

Either way for some reason even though they are older styles of spell effects they are much better improvements and colors. Do not understand why they would downgrade, but they definitely looked like shit compared to Telin's modifications which are much more classic than before. Wouldn't you want closer to classic than not? (him obviously, not you)

[Deathrydar]

Are these automatically put into the game now after you download the new spell files? Or do I have to download these and install them separately?

[lyledavid85]

Hey folks, I just want to say big thanks if any of you see this some 10 years later. I am playing on Mangler TLP and overwrote spellsnew files with the files from v0.048 and it GREATLY improved the existing new particle effects. For the last month I have been straight up deleting those files though before clicking play to revert back to the original particle effects, but without the magic shooting out of the hands.

From what I'm gathering these files are specifically for P99? Is there instructions on here somewhere on how to use these files to restore original particle effects with magic shooting out of the hands or is that just not possible?

Saw this other thread from that genius Telin and downloaded the file at the top of that thread from DropBox ClassicSPells v0.98

Cannot even say thank you enough.

[lyledavid85]

Wanted to add that while I miss the old particle effects and dug around for methods to try and bring them back on Mangler TLP in their exactness, even if there isn't a way to do that, the files you provided yield incredible updates to all the particle effects.

Other question - what is the difference between your most recent file (v.53 or v5.1?) and the file posted by Telin ClassicSpells v.0.98

HUGE THANK YOU AGAIN.

[notmarcusd]

Anyone figure out how to get the spell effects visible in first person? The old spell effects when you revert to those (which don't show particles from the hands) are visible in first person, but these revamped effects do not. Was thinking maybe it is an offset issue.