Classic Particle Effects - How?
Before anyone tells me to delete spellsnew.edd/eff, I am already aware of that. However, this method doesn't have particles streaming from the hands. I'm looking to see if anyone has developed a way to get the classic particle effects. I know there is someone on Red Guide's who did it and is selling them via donation. I have those but they're completely unfinished (i.e. some spells still have the wrong effects associated with them, for example, clarity has the mez effect, or heroism is a fire explosion).
Also, u/Telindarkforest created a half finished version but has since disappeared and does not respond to messages.
All that to say, has anyone figured it out? The Live client still clearly has the particles/effects necessary to accomplish the classic effects but some modification is needed of the spellsnew.eff to get it to work. Most likely just associating certain spells with whatever effect.
If you have any idea, I'm sure many people would appreciate! Thanks.
Posted May 25, 2016, 3:42 PM UTC
Well I cant provide you files, as I dont play on live servers - I mostly play on my own emulated server and p99 from time to time, but I think I can provide some direction. I originally started working on this for project 1999 and basically created the method behind re-doing the spell effects. This method, which [I have completely documented, Here,] (http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=107787) can be used on the live version of EQ as well. I've tested this theory for a friend who plays live by using my modified client files on the Live server - That being said, I've only changed the effects for up to level 70, thus anything higher was not yielding the correct effects. Long story short - Use the guide I linked and you can recreate this.
Your own server? As in, solo?
Well yes and no. I have a group of friends that play on it as well, also it's public so anyone with access to the eqemu login can play as well. Also, anyone who plays on my server will have access to the Spell effects Ive gone through and recreated, Up to GOD expansion at least.
Awesome! Thanks man.
Gotta admit, I'm trying to figure it out but it's way over my head, haha. This Hex Editor is giving me a headache. I think my problem with Live at the moment is figuring out which spells use which effect. Wouldn't I need to look for the Live png/tga spell effect? What are these .dds files that Live uses?
:'(
Alright, well I guess a Wall of text is incoming because I'm feeling Typey.. First of all, go ahead and grab the files from This Post on my Forum (Give it a few refreshes, My DNS changed recently, Its updating as we speak). Its a private forum but I'm willing to allow access to people who will use this for classic awesomeness purposes, as I'm an open source kind of guy. I'll approve any legit registrations. Anyways, attached at the bottom of the post is a .rar file with my servers files zipped inside. Grab that, Extract it somewhere, then look at the following files:
-SpellEffects (Folder) - is the set of imagery that your changes will need to load the correct graphic. Copy that to a working folder.
-Spellsnew.eff/Spellsnew.edd - are the files that holds all the hex entries. So - by using these files instead of the live version's (Meaning you'll have to use some -patchme method to stop the patcher or copy in the files after the patching process), it will call the proper Hex codes to load the old spells - thus allowing you to pretty much skip all the bullshit you're stuck on :). Again, Suggested you copy to a working folder until you're ready to use the files in a test / live environment.
-ActorEmittersNew.edd - is the file that gives the Actor emitters the correct positioning, also do the same with this file as described above.
-spells_us.txt - is the spell file that calls which effect is used when casting the spell. Now this is the either tricky or aha! part you will need to go through to get things lined up properly, because - With the first two files alone, THIS file provided from the live patcher, will call the new spell effects instead of the old.
Breaking this down further, this spells_us.txt file has each spell listed separately with all values lined up and separated by ^ like so:
^ NAME OF SPELL ^ 1 ^ 22 ^ 0 ^ 0 ^ 0 ^ 0 ^ 100 ^ 23 ^ etc ^ etc ^ ... ( NO SPACES - Fucking Reddit Formatting fucked me there...)
First thing I'll tell you is that you the value that needs to change is: NewSpellVisual. Now by looking at the file, its all text, you're probably thinking.... "What in the holy fuck is this dude talking about". Well... Use This Little Program to open the spell file instead. Once the spell file is open, Click a spell on the left, then navigate to the "All Values (aka Expert Mode)" Tab on the right, and scroll down the list until you see the value I listed above.
Now - you can actually make the changes you need to load the proper effects a couple of ways.
You can go into each spell, either with Notepad++ or this spell editor(DON'T, I REPEAT, DO NOT OPEN THE SPELLS_US.TXT FILE IN NOTEPAD AND SAVE CHANGES - IT WILL ROYALLY JACK UP THE FILE), change that value to the correct value for the classic effect (Use this app, open my spell_us.txt file from the download earlier, and use this as a reference for what spells effects have which value assigned to them. For instance, look at Resolution, and you'll see the Value 86 for the NewSpellVisual value. This is the Green Circular things / Orange Circular spiky things / Blue Diamond Effect for most shielding spells.) Assign this value to the same field in the Spell file from your Live spell_us.txt and save the changes.
Now you're thinking - holy hell that's going to take a while. Well - Yes and No. Even with the No, which everyone wants to hear, its still kind of yes. Which leads me to my 2nd method, and the method I used to build MY, Spell_us.txt file, which is basically what p99 uses, and then some, as I continued polishing it, for levels beyond the current Max on p99.
Now that you know method one - you can use that information, and Notepad++ to get this done on a grander scale. I looked at, not only the NewSpellVisual field, but also the NewSpellGem field as well, and found that, if I were to search for BOTH in Notepad++, I could generally do a "replace all" and get most all shielding spells in that line of spells in one shot.
For example: I would search for ^ 180 ^ 255 ^ (I'm guessing on this number, you'd have to look at what the live spells_us.txt says each value is, then separate them by ^ ) and have the replacement be ^ 134 ^ 86 ^ , then all the shielding effects would now have the correct effect. (AGAIN - NO SPACES)
Further drilling down - I would say that the reason I use the ^ before and after, in the search, is to ensure that the fields that I am searching are those two fields specifically, since they are always together. Mostly, this yields the best result. You do have to be careful as some creature spells have less fields and they are a bit harder to follow, but they kind of jump out at you after a while.
Another note, I mentioned that generally speeds things up. Well let me tell you why this can be fast and slow. Some spell effects are used for uncommonly thought of spells. For instance, Necro/SK spells, such as Feign Death, have a class effect that looks almost like blue, oddly shaped bubbles, going into you. Well - Paladins also have a spell that looks like this, Instrument of Nife. The reason I am pointing this out, is because Instrument of Nife could have the same LIVE values as, say, resolution, meaning you could potentially change all of the shielding spells to what the FD effect looks like. I'm just saying, you should verify all change you make before and after you make them. Create a project file to do this outside of your EQ folder for working purposes. This will make it easier to track changes, by copying the saved file into the EQ directory to test, rather than using the file you are working with.
I'm sure this isn't the answer most people are looking for, but, I imagine that some people are kind of like me, and really fucking hate the new effects. To the point where I can't even... I can't Even. uhg.... side tracked... fucking hate those effects. Either way, if someone else wants to go through this, by all means, I have provided the paved path. Enjoy...?
Shit after re reading this - I don't even want to do it, But, there it is, for anyone brave enough.
Other Options? - Play on p99 which has these effects, granted up to Velius. Or play on an emulated server that supports classic effects, such as mine (not trying to proliferate my server, I could give two shits, its been up for years as my fuck around grounds, but I wouldn't kick anyone off either)
TL;DR:
If you don't take the time to read everything, you will fail - Sorry.
Awesome, dude. Much appreciated. I think this will be my pet project on the side. I think once I figure even just one spell out, it'll all roll together.
Regarding P99 and your server, I love emulated servers and P99 is a great experience. I moved to Live (Phinigel specifically) due to going PAST Velious. I'm not so anal about the 'classic' experience as I had a great time in Luclin and, especially, Planes of Power.
Thanks again though!
Sure thing. I am also a fan of PoP. Even though my server is up to GoD in terms of spell effects, Ive Level Locked my server at 65, and locked the other zones. I prefer the PoP era.
So I've been fiddling with the stuff and finding that spells_us.txt for NewSpellVisual is ALWAYS 0 on the live version. There is another option 'NewSpellEffect' that seems to correspond to the text included with the EQSpells program.
Hmmm...
Anyway, just to clarify because I'm simply unsure of this, your method is a utilization of your own spellsnew.edd/eff and a modification of the Live spells_us.txt? The reason I ask is because both the guy from Red Guides and u/Telindarkforest seemingly modified the spellsnew.edd/eff but never included a modified spells_us.txt in their packages.
Your method definitely has more clarity than Hex editing the eff/edd files but just wondering if this is essentially the case: to use your spellsnew.edd/eff files (because you've already done the necessary work up until 70+) and modify the spells_us.txt of the Live client.
When you use this method after placing the files needed, the live version that the patcher gives you won't mean anything. However with the right values it will call it. This guys on Reddit used another method, I looked into it however concluded that it would be impossible to get all the spell effects correct given the overlap of effects on different spells. Basically work backwards. Reference my spell file, fill in the live version, should all coincide nicely. It's a shame you couldn't use my file since they basically changed most every spell.
You can delete the new spell files and it will give you some old spell effects BUT you won't have the particle effects coming from your hands. Really sealed the deal for me so I went back to the new ones.