Character Texture Update

[Nysus]

Over the past few years (literally) Xevin and myself have been working on rebuilding the character textures at a higher resolution. The goal is to keep them looking as classic as possible while making them look better at the same time.

The project was originally started by Xevin but he hasn't worked on it in a while and I work on it here and there every few months. He did the human armor while I worked on the human male faces. I've since switched to working on the armor so that more people could get use out of them. Since this post Joyelle has started helping as well!

Here's what's been completed so far.

Human male armor
Human male faces
Human female armor (not included, I don't have access to them)
1 Halfling male face (beard guy)
Dark elf male cloth
Dark elf male plate
Froglocks (with armor)
Wood Elf leather (https://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1069879#post1069879)
NEW SMR and all robes finished (http://www.project1999.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1345720&postcount=45)

DOWNLOAD!! (http://www.mikelynn.info/textures.zip)
(Includes updated character textures, Froglok textures and transparency fixes)
Download and copy over to your EQ folder.

Pics

http://www.mikelynn.info/completeplate.jpg
http://www.mikelynn.info/redmonk.jpg
http://www.mikelynn.info/darkelf-plate.jpg
http://www.mikelynn.info/robeoftheoracle.jpg
http://www.mikelynn.info/halfling.jpg
http://www.mikelynn.info/madman.jpg
http://www.mikelynn.info/darkelf.jpg
http://www.mikelynn.info/moustache.jpg
http://www.mikelynn.info/froglok.jpg


FAQ:

Q: When's my favorite race going to be finished?

A: Probably never. This is a huge undertaking and I only work on it here and there every few months.

With that said instead of finishing up all the armor for each race I'm going to go by popularity. I wanted to make sure I was doing textures that people would get the most use out of so I checked out Project 1999 Population Database (http://p1999pop.dmsimard.com/). I took the info there and broke all the race armor types into 7 groups based off of population to give me a better idea of what characters people were playing. All the robes aren't finished yet so I'll start with those then I'm going to start at the highest group and go down. The one in italics have already been done.

Not sure how I'm going to handle the male/female versions. I'll start with the males but I'm not sure if I'll do the females at the same time or come back to them later.

GROUP 6
Dark Elf Robes

GROUP 5
High Elf Robes
Wood Elf Leather
Half Elf Plate
Gnome Robes

GROUP 4
Iksar Monk/Leather
Halfling Leather
Barbarian Chain
Erudite Robes
Human Monk/Leather

GROUP 3
Human Robes
Human Plate
Iksar Chain
Iksar Robes
Wood Elf Chain
Wood Elf Plate
Dwarf Plate
Ogre Plate

GROUP 2
Troll Plate
Troll Chain
Ogre Chain
High Elf Plate
Halfling Plate
Dark Elf Plate

GROUP 1
Erudite Plate
Gnome Chain
Gnome Plate
Dwarf Chain
Human Chain
Dark Elf Chain
Half Elf Leather
Half Elf Chain
Barbarian Plate

GROUP 0
Erudite Cloth
Erudite Leather
Erudite Chain
Gnome Cloth
Gnome Leather
Human Cloth
Dark Elf Cloth
Dark Elf Leather
Half Elf Cloth
Barbarian Cloth
Barbarian Leather
Halfling Cloth
High Elf Cloth
High Elf Leather
High Elf Chain
Ogre Cloth
Ogre Leather
Troll Cloth
Troll Leather
Iksar Cloth
Wood Elf Cloth
Dwarf Cloth
Dwarf Leather


Q: Can I help?

A: Absolutely! This will never get done if only I work on it. If anyone wants to help I can compile and distribute the files. I can also touch up the files if needed. I did this with Xevin's armor files. Send me a PM.


Q: What's the process?

A:Extract the character textures S3D file using S3DSpy (http://sourceforge.net/projects/eqemulator/files/OpenZone/S3DSpy%201.2/) (global_chr.s3d and global4_chr.s3d)
Open file in Photoshop
Incease size by 400%
Clean up what you can by bluring and smudging
Rebuild the pieces you need (This is the long hard part)
Save File As... Bitmap + PSD
Repackage global_chr.s3d using the bitmaps and S3DSpy
Check in game
Rinse, Repeat

Every texture has a standard naming scheme:
Example = "humch0001.bmp"
"hu" = Race
"m" = Sex
"ch" = Armor Location
"00" = Armor Type
"01" = Part

Races:
ba - Barbarian
da - Dark Elf
dw - Dwarf
el - Wood Wlf
er - Erudite
gn - Gnome
ha - Half Elf
hi - High Elf
ho - Halfling
hu - Human
ik - Iksar
og - Ogre
tr - Troll

Sexes:
f - Female
m - Male

Armor Locations:
ch - Chest
fa - Forearm
ft - Foot
he - Head
hn - Hand
lg - Leg
ua - Upper Arm

Armor Types:
00 - Cloth
01 - Leather
02 - Chain
03 - Plate
04 - Special (Monk/Erudite)


Q: Why did you make Froglocks? They aren't player characters!

A: Cause they're awesome.


Q: Will this work on other servers?

A: It should but I haven't tried it. You might have to extract the updated textures and re-add them to that server's texture files.


Q: Why didn't you post this in the tech forum where it belongs?

A: We've put a lot into this and I'd like to get it seen and used by as many people as possible.

[khanable]

been using these for a while now, shit is dope

must get moar iksar graphics!

[Zeldak]

Looks awesome :D Very nicely done!

[Naerron]

hah i love the DE male's belt is a grateful dead stele

[SmallpaulTZ]

Great stuff! bump for the lads!

[Xadion]

Up for great justice, and its oh so nice- It looks great! keep up the support for more and more, would love a complete retexture and also an upgrade to for the velious armor ! ohh

[Stinkum]

awesome idea and project

/salute

[Mattius]

Cool work, can test it out later

[Norathorr]

Can't wait for the troll make chain and plate to be done!

[Fountree]

looks good! Thank you!

hah i love the DE male's belt is a grateful dead stele

[Vega]

Looks great Nysus! Love having this integrated with the transparency fix now.

[DukeVonSausage]

I installed these but whenever I try to switch to my human character it crashes everquest.

I installed the files into my main EQlite directory.

[Nysus]

Try re-downloading.

[Reppy]

IS There a new place to dl this S3DSpy ?? I can not get it to Download

[Joyelle]

Try the sourceforge site. I tried to DL the version that was linked in the OP but my virus scanner kept popping it. There is a newer version there that works just fine for me.

[Reppy]

Yeah I have it now, I just want to fool around and see what happens

[Sidelle]

Cool project but should have been ladies first! =)

[raitheon]

This is something I may chip into - however I don't have photoshop and I have GIMP instead.

I'm guessing the PSD files that are being recompiled are for master editing if needed.

So, is the .xcf format OK?

[raitheon]

Never mind. Just answered my own question - forgot that I can export as a .psd.

Woot!

[Nysus]

Updates! Joyelle has started helping and has completed the Wood Elf male leather armor. I've also completed the Kedge robe - just the SMR left now and all robes will be done.

http://www.mikelynn.info/download-textures.png (http://www.mikelynn.info/textures.zip)
(Includes updated character textures, Froglok textures and transparency fixes)
Download and copy over to your EQ folder.

http://www.mikelynn.info/wood-elf-male-leather-before-after.jpg

http://www.mikelynn.info/kedge.jpg

[Ponden]

dat gnome chain

[Mattius]

Kudos on your work, lads

[Vega]

Bump for awesome! My druid mule looks great now :D

[Psycher]

I'm not very good at photoshop but I made ogre male textures bigger and put some filters on.

http://i.imgur.com/NH0csh1.jpg

Link (http://imgur.com/NH0csh1)

Wish I was better at this stuff.

[JackFlash]

I'd be willing to work on some of these in my spare time if it would help.

[crkhobbit]

A:Extract the character textures S3D file using S3DSpy (http://sourceforge.net/projects/eqemulator/files/OpenZone/S3DSpy%201.2/) (global_chr.s3d and global4_chr.s3d)
Open file in Photoshop
Incease size by 400%
Clean up what you can by bluring and smudging
Rebuild the pieces you need (This is the long hard part)
Save File As... Bitmap + PSD
Repackage global_chr.s3d using the bitmaps and S3DSpy
Check in game
Rinse, Repeat

I know I'm late to this thread (I'm new here), but I thought I would point out a good technique that I've used to clean up pictures that might work for texture files.

• Open the image in PS
• Increase size by 400%
• Copy the layer
• Add a subtle gaussian blur to the top layer - might need to play with the settings, but generally 1px is good
• Set top layer to "Soft Light" and that's it

On pictures taken with digital cameras, this will remove the artifacts and weird colored pixels that the camera creates - making the colors and lines smoother. You can also over-do it a bit to get that Glamour Shots look.

And the important part, if this process works, you can simply use the batch function in photoshop to do the same process to all of your textures, saving infinite time.

[Joyelle]

The problem is that starting with such small files (64px by 64px in most cases), once you blow them up by 400% every detail that was pixelated is now blurry and pixelated.

It's damn near impossible to get the results we're going for without manual manipulation. We've had to pretty much completely rebuild the textures from scratch. It takes awhile but I believe the end product is worth it.

Let's see if i'm still saying that after I get done with the iksar monk armor though! /facepalm.

[webrunner5]

I know I'm late to this thread (I'm new here), but I thought I would point out a good technique that I've used to clean up pictures that might work for texture files.

• Open the image in PS
• Increase size by 400%
• Copy the layer
• Add a subtle gaussian blur to the top layer - might need to play with the settings, but generally 1px is good
• Set top layer to "Soft Light" and that's it

On pictures taken with digital cameras, this will remove the artifacts and weird colored pixels that the camera creates - making the colors and lines smoother. You can also over-do it a bit to get that Glamour Shots look.

And the important part, if this process works, you can simply use the batch function in photoshop to do the same process to all of your textures, saving infinite time.

We are not talking about pictures of your girlfriend lol. There is a TON of work involved in what they are doing.

[crkhobbit]

Fair enough - just trying to help.

[Woldaff]

Just happened to find this thread while editing some textures myself.

Would you be okay if I used these textures as default on the Shards of Dalaya server? Would save me a bit of work, and I will happily give you credit.

[Wiery]

talking about pictures of your girlfriend

On the topic... got any?

[Nysus]

Just happened to find this thread while editing some textures myself.

Would you be okay if I used these textures as default on the Shards of Dalaya server? Would save me a bit of work, and I will happily give you credit.

Go for it, the more the merrier.

Also, feel free to contribute ;)

[Zheta]

Where's the download link? :3

[Nysus]

Fixed

[tolpa]

bump

[Razdeline]

bump

[Razdeline]

Any reason why this texture update pack's thread was closed?:
http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121490&highlight=texture

[NextGenesis88]

Any reason why this texture update pack's thread was closed?:
http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121490&highlight=texture

This is the one I installed. The same, but clarified ones, not the cell shaded or others. Is this the same work or no? I am wondering if I should install these ones or if I need to since I am using the other ones I found previously. I am confused on what I should do.

[Kaleadar]

First off thank you for your work and efforts. I am always happy to see people working and updating the game for the greater good. I know this stuff takes alot of personal effort and time.

Due to my resolution of my screen I have to enlarge the screen shots so large it kills their quality and I have a hard time seeing the fine details. Are the pictures on the left the "high res" and the ones on the right the "old"?

I do not mean to insult and deminish anything you have done here. Some are just hard for me to see when I enlarge them so big

[Nysus]

Yeah it was linking weird. Fixed now on the first post also.

http://www.mikelynn.info/completeplate.jpg.
http://www.mikelynn.info/darkelf-plate.jpg
http://www.mikelynn.info/madmen.jpg

[Destron]

Clicking on DL Link opens a page with an image of the download link image.

[Nysus]

Fixed.

For some reason it links images to themselves when you post them so you can't have image links.

[Razdeline]

This is the one I installed. The same, but clarified ones, not the cell shaded or others. Is this the same work or no? I am wondering if I should install these ones or if I need to since I am using the other ones I found previously. I am confused on what I should do.

Exactly the same here. Can this thread be re-opened?: http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121490&highlight=texture

It has all of the characters completed atm for a general upgrade in resolution.

[Razdeline]

Although Nysus' work is higher quality, that post by Psycher is a good temporary solution.

[Nysus]

SMR finished! With this one all robes are now done.

Download link on the first post has been updated.

http://www.mikelynn.info/smr.jpg

[AffEcT]

Any updates on this project or is it dead?

[Nysus]

I work on it now and then when the mood strikes me.

[AffEcT]

I work on it now and then when the mood strikes me.

Ahh ok. Very nice ;)
Is it really hard to do? I don't know anything about the 3d rendering stuff.
Anyway, keep up the good work :)

[Nysus]

More time consuming than anything. This is all Photoshop work.

[tristantio]

My custom look for Erudite Shadowknight with 5 minutes of effort :D

http://ahungry.com/img/erudite-face.png

[Joyelle]

looks like a Jawa! :D I like it!

[Growlers]

My custom look for Erudite Shadowknight with 5 minutes of effort :D

http://ahungry.com/img/erudite-face.png

Good god that is awesome Trist!