Changing spell particle effects

[August]

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

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

[Furinex]

Originally Posted by August [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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

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

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

[August]

Originally Posted by Furinex [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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

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

-August

[Furinex]

Originally Posted by August [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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

-August

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

[August]

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

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

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

[Furinex]

Originally Posted by August [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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

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

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

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

[Furinex]

I took the time to write up a full explination of my methods on fixing this, Here. Any help on this project would be appreciated, as it is a lot of work.

[Furinex]

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

[Telin]

August,

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

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

[Gadwen]

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