Spells: Spell Effects going straight up?

[Furinex]

I did a search for this and couldnt come up with too much, only one thread with no resolution in it. So I was wonder, does anyone else have this problem? Spell effects going STRAIGHT up from the hands. They are coming out the right spot, but they look totally weird. Pic below. Any idea how to fix it?

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[Captivate]

Wonder what nirgon thinks. As far as i know ive been staring at that for so long im not sure if its right or not.

[maximum]

Check Technical Discussion forum.

[Furinex]

Yeah, I checked technical forums, but Im not seeing anything too useful. Deleting those two spell files would make progression look better but honestly, I just want them coming out the right direction at this point heh.

[Ele]

Being looked into

http://www.project1999.org/forums/sh...rticle+effects

[Furinex]

Meh, I read that one, i was hoping it was out of date and there was some movement on this but, oh well. Looks really strange.

[Furinex]

I have to ask, Is this working properly for ANYONE or is everyone seeing what I am with the spell effects? Is there anything anyone can do to help with solving this issue? I know it seems like a small thing but really, when thats all you look at all day is yourself casting and you KNOW its wrong, I guess it just gets under your skin. I would love to help in any way I could. I do have a server that I could provide testing on.

[azxten]

Everyone is seeing the incorrect particle path. I'm going to look at this a bit today. Don't expect any answers though. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

My initial thought is that a particle has both an origin and a velocity (of some type). However, I think maybe we are missing the velocity entirely and the client defaults to the velocity we are seeing.

spellsnew.edd

This file is currently suspected as holding the answer because Kanras was able to change the direction of particles. However, I think maybe he just changed what the default velocity is rather than touching on the real solution which is to feed the particle function the appropriately vector information for velocity when the particle is created.

Of course, this is all nothing but a guess.. now I'll go mess around with the file/game.

[root@black ~]# strings spellsnew.edd | grep -i emitter | wc -l
806

Looking at the same file Kanras had some success with it appears that this may store velocity information after all. In 3D engines an emitter is used to generate particles. Typically sprites which are a 2D image file mapped to a specific 3D coordinate.

This spellsnew.edd file has 806 instances of the string "emitter" within it. Sounds like a rough number for the amount of spells/effects that would have been in the game at the time of this client release.

I'm guessing every spell in the game has emitter data stored in this file.

Here is a random 3D engine emitter information page explaining their emitter functions parameters:

All emitters have a number of common parameters.

Variable Definition Values
emissionType Emission mode ET_EXPLICIT, ET_RADIATE, ET_CUSTOM
explicitLaunchVector Initial velocity in explicit mode (x, y, z)
radiateOrigin Point particles launch away from in radiate mode (x, y, z)
amplitude Launch velocity multiplier (-infinity, infinity)
amplitudeSpeed Spread for launch velocity multiplier [0, infinity)

Just including this so people know what I'm talking about. The parameters the EQ emitter function takes are likely hard coded for every spell in the spellsnew.edd file.

The problem though is that I don't know if these hard coded parameters includes a "explicitLaunchVector" which will determine which way the particles should originate from the hands. If they do, why aren't they being used? If they don't, why isn't the normal function of determining launch vector being used?

I think this may ultimately be an unsolvable problem without actually edited the eqgame.exe. I'm guessing they may have changed the way the emitter function worked which is why the old spell data no longer works correctly. It has stored data that is no longer being accessed by the game or the function that calculates particle velocity is incompatible with the old spell files and thus having issues/defaulting to something.

[Furinex]

Azxten, I appreciate your hard efforts. I understand this might be unsolvable. Im sure im not the only one that things about this everytime they cast. However, I wonder if there is a way to inject this function into the eqgame.exe, or somehow recreate it? Maybe Im just spewing a bunch of shit, who knows. Anyways, Im working on a couple of ideas, I will report back with my testing.

[azxten]

Looking through the effect tga/dds files it looks like spelb2.tga is what is used for level 1 abjuration spells like Minor Shielding. This is also confirmed in the thread linked above by Telin who was investigating the additional particle effects while leveling up. We can also see the same NPCAegolism name.

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This is from spellsnew.edd. Now its time to start playing with everything within this block of hex.

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Example of the tga which is being emitted by the emitter function.

UPDATE:

I've been changing the values in the block of hex for this spell emitter. So far I have been able to do just about everything except change the direction the particles are going. I've been able to change opacity, number of particles, spread, etc. Continuing onward.