Just an update. I haven't done any more rendering since Erudin, I've been busy playing with the model viewier/ZoneConverter MmoHunter linked to. I'm really hoping to get it working, but so far I've had limited success. I am interested in exploring this route because it will offer ENTIRE zones to me, where as currently I can only capture bits and pieces.
This is a great viewer that offers a lot of potential to me. It's just the export to 3D Studio Max that I am having issues with. So far I haven't been able to get an entire zone in with all textures. I'm also really eager to get some characters in so I can maybe play with some animation, which is more difficult to do with in-game captured models.
Surely there are workarounds for the problems i'm having, but it's difficult dealing with ancient user-made utilities from 2002! They were made with old operating systems in mind, and I believe my 64 bit OS might be causing compatibility problems. Even commercially available programs have 64 bit issues. Anyway, we'll see how it goes this week.
Dunes, it unfortunately is not possible to upgrade the graphics of EQ (to my knowledge) but it MAY be possible to upgrade the textures to "fake" the new lighting. All the lighting, shadows, and shading could be "baked" (embedded) onto the textures. However this would only be suitable for indoor zones, where lighting conditions do not ever change. Even then, it would definitely look nowhere as nice as you might expect it to judging by these renders. Furthermore, the 3D geometry would also have to be manually re-worked and replaced in-game because of the way the textures are mapped onto the surfaces (currently everything is tiled...it wouldn't allow for the level of precision that would be required for embedded lighting). And THEN, even if you could manage to actually get a zone fully converted, the size of the bitmap files that would be required for decent quality would quadrupedal zone load times, and would probably end up overloading the engine. So really, it would be too much work to be worth it.
When I say "flythroughs" I'm referring to a similar render style I have going here, except perhaps having the camera animate through the whole zone. Imagine sitting in a helicopter flying over the tree tops of West Commonlands, seeing the inn, druid ring, derv camp, and mobs passing by beneath you. Or drifting through South Karana and circling around Aviak Village in a hot air balloon. In reality, I don't know how far I will get on that. My high quality trees are currently giving me some issues in the WC scene I recently started!
Anyway, I can't say when the next update might be. I'll see what kind of free time I have this week.
However, if anybody knows of any other offline EQ emulators or zone explorer, I'd love to check it out. Different emulators might display the geometry in a more helpful ways.
Thanks guys!
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