DreadBlade99
Dalayan Adventurer
That 52 Adept in MielB should be given the Velious armor treatment!
Adventures In Texture Editing
- Thread starter Grinkles
- Start date
Should be able to un-transparent something by copying the "Visibility Flag binary" of something non-transparent and copying it over the "Visibility Flag binary" of the thing you want to change.
10000000000000000000000000010100 is the most likely value (= 0x80000014 in the Visibility Flag field).
I've gotten a lot better at making tools, maybe I'll remake this one some time... having to export and import the WLD is pretty crappy.
I recall being unable to save after attempting to input the non-transparent value manually. I'll have to revisit the Transparentifier and see if I was doing something wrong. Looking forward to any updates you come up with! Your work is coming in very handy in my own little experiments, and I'm sure others are getting even greater use out of what you've made.
I wanted to do a few more tests with robes to see just how viable the other designs might be with the Froglok model. First is a palette-swapped Robe of the Kedge, arranged exactly the same way I arranged the Flowing Black Robe above:
Next is a variant of the Shining Metallic Robes design. I wanted something green but didn't realize until after the fact that the purple I put in was pretty hard on the eyes. Nonetheless, here's the result:
I then wanted to try something a bit different. I figured I could shorten the sleeves to leave the forearm exposed in order to balance out the fact that the legs could never have a proper robe "skirt". I also decided for the first time to texture the upper legs while leaving the lower legs exposed. The result could, with some more diligent color work, easily be utilized for Froglok mobs of the Monk persuasion:
Finally, I wanted to return to the armored variant of the Old Froglok (i.e. the one with red eyes and chainmail armor). This is the variant I used in the above Halfling Velious armor experiment. It sports a pair of epaulets at its shoulders and, uh, "leg warmers" around its lower legs that I thought might work well with a robe design. I used a recolored Robe of the Oracle as the design of choice, though in retrospect, the red would've come out much better if I'd darkened it substantially. Apart from the initial reaction of "this is a Froglok in underwear cosplaying as a superhero", I think the result is fairly interesting:
Next is a variant of the Shining Metallic Robes design. I wanted something green but didn't realize until after the fact that the purple I put in was pretty hard on the eyes. Nonetheless, here's the result:
I then wanted to try something a bit different. I figured I could shorten the sleeves to leave the forearm exposed in order to balance out the fact that the legs could never have a proper robe "skirt". I also decided for the first time to texture the upper legs while leaving the lower legs exposed. The result could, with some more diligent color work, easily be utilized for Froglok mobs of the Monk persuasion:
Finally, I wanted to return to the armored variant of the Old Froglok (i.e. the one with red eyes and chainmail armor). This is the variant I used in the above Halfling Velious armor experiment. It sports a pair of epaulets at its shoulders and, uh, "leg warmers" around its lower legs that I thought might work well with a robe design. I used a recolored Robe of the Oracle as the design of choice, though in retrospect, the red would've come out much better if I'd darkened it substantially. Apart from the initial reaction of "this is a Froglok in underwear cosplaying as a superhero", I think the result is fairly interesting:
I thought of a new practical application for texture editing. I've edited the texture for the bag model (the one that appears when you drop an item, find a groundspawn, etc.) so that it is a very bright chartreuse in order to improve the model's visibility. Granted, purists would likely take issue with this, and I'm sure many groundspawns have been placed where they were with the express intent of making them hard to find. Nonetheless, this is what the newly recolored bag looks like:
Here is a second picture to show that its visibility remains high regardless of distance, unlike the default brown color, which blends into so many floors/walls/backgrounds:
In this Surefall scene, try to spot the groundspawn. Then, try to imagine how hard it would be trying to do the same thing if the bag were its usual brown:
I've already stumbled across a few groundspawns by accident while puttering around with this change today, including that last one. I never would've noticed them if it weren't for the ugly yellow/green!
And finally, here's a nice screenshot of the farmers' fields of Western Badlands in the dead of night to show how majestic (and helpful) the recolored bag can be. (You may need to click the image to view it in full size if you're working with a small screen...)
Here is a second picture to show that its visibility remains high regardless of distance, unlike the default brown color, which blends into so many floors/walls/backgrounds:
In this Surefall scene, try to spot the groundspawn. Then, try to imagine how hard it would be trying to do the same thing if the bag were its usual brown:
I've already stumbled across a few groundspawns by accident while puttering around with this change today, including that last one. I never would've noticed them if it weren't for the ugly yellow/green!
And finally, here's a nice screenshot of the farmers' fields of Western Badlands in the dead of night to show how majestic (and helpful) the recolored bag can be. (You may need to click the image to view it in full size if you're working with a small screen...)
Vitali
Dalayan Master
Definitely the kinda stuff I like to see!
What exactly do you have in mind for the Frogloks? If you give me a rough idea what you might like (e.g. a dark blue Froglok, a yellow Froglok, an ordinary Froglok in a specific robe, etc.) I could definitely whip up some more polished versions, or at least some that are specifically tailored to the color schemes you have in mind. In the meanwhile, I've been playing even more with the Froglok models to varying degrees of success.
Here's a teal that I think would blend in nicely with the default yellowish green color:
I attempted to make a "black" Froglok by draining all the color and darkening most of the textures, but the result might seem a little too cartoonish:
After that, I went the opposite direction and tried for a noticeably paler Froglok, this time going for a neutral tan color. I found that the lighter I went, the more detail I tended to lose on the stomach region, which led to the whole thing looking a bit washed out. On the other hand, if I were to try recreating this one more carefully, I may be able to work around this problem. Something like this might work well in bright, outdoorsy, or sandy areas, where the "washed out" aspect wouldn't be noticed anyway:
I have also run more tests with robes, though I don't have any screenshots to share of those. However, they are definitely usable with the Froglok model, and the robe portions could be duplicated across any additional Froglok colors that could be put into the game. That way, you could enter a single room in Miel B, for instance, and see one plain green Froglok, one green Froglok in a robe, one plain teal Froglok, and one teal Froglok in a robe. The possibilities are endless thanks to Zaela's Texture Adder utility. I'll do some more experimenting tonight and see what else I might be able to show you, Waldoff. I'm thinking a couple races' cloth Velious armor might also be able to pass as robe material, such as the Erudite and High Elf; all it would need is a little palette swapping to downplay the fact that it'd be lifted directly from other textures already seen in the game.
Lastly, I know you said you liked the Velious chain armor taken from Halflings for Ragarati. However, after browsing the entire spectrum of Velious armor, I thought that the male Wood Elf platemail would serve a "Lord Commander" even better. It is sleek, eye-catching, and looks sturdy. Here's what it looks like (mostly) unedited on the armored Froglok model:
There is still something strange going on with the hands that I can't quite figure out, and I fear it may not be fixable. I can try to work around it again tonight, but it's possible what you see here may be as "realistic" as can be achieved due to the way the texture is mapped onto the model. Granted, it isn't very noticeable unless you get all up in the Froglok's business, and I don't think Ragarati will give many the chance to scrutinize him so closely!
Anyway, I went one step further and made a colorized version that is meant to imitate bronze armor, and I think this may be slightly more fitting. I also swapped the common red eyes for a pair of baby blues, but this could easily be undone or substituted for any other color you might have in mind for this big bad frog just to make him that much more unique. Here's how that looks:
I wish I had more hours in a day and more know-how with the technical side of things so I could crank out stuff like this more quickly and with higher quality results, but if you do end up wanting something you see here to go into the game, I'd be happy to do my best.
That may be more fitting with Miel B, Reppots. Nice work! I find that the froua0001 and frolg0002 (the thighs) textures look better mirrored over the X axis, though I also wonder how they'd look shifted over 25% like you did with the hands. Also, how were you able to figure out the orientation of the hands so easily? My own method is to assign the new textures, then log in and check out what's going on in the actual game. If something isn't quite right, I have to rejig the texture, /q out to reload from the login screen (since this is a globally loaded texture), then get back in the game a second time just to see if I've done something wrong. It's tedious, and sometimes eyeballing it isn't very helpful or practical. I'm aware of programs like EQModelViewer and DZoneConverter, but neither of these will actually show me how a given texture is mapped onto a wireframe. If I'm doing this the hard way, please enlighten me....
One more bit about the Wood Elf Velious plate. I think if we were to go around to the back area and shop out the two semi-circles where the upper arms would normally connect, that area would look more convincing. I'm also wondering if the chest region's belt ought to be cropped out to lower the Froglok's pecs/abs to a more anatomically correct position. frolg0001 (the groin) comes with a sort of belt of its own anyway that doesn't connect with the chest region's belt, so this may yield a better result. The fact that the cool pattern around the epaulets didn't wrap around the whole epaulet smoothly kind of bothered me, but after viewing the orientation of the original froch0002 texture, it looks like it would involve warping the texture into a semi-circle, and I simply don't know how to do that (yet). If we could get the pattern to wrap around the edge of the entire epaulet, it'd be even better, but what you've created is already very good!
Well, there are two big places that could be spruced up with differentiated froglok models. One is the Mielech series and the other is the gruplok village.
I have no doubt that Slaariel would go through and add new textures to the gruplok named with personalities. For the mielech frogs, I really like the plate armor for Ragnarati. There is also Warlord Prip which could use a cool texture. Otherwise we would want a theme for rogue/chain wearers, knights and casters in addition to what we have.Mielech is not the most used zone in the game, so there is an argument that the effort could be used elsewhere. Still, I think a few of the ones you posted could be just fine put in as is and it would be a pretty quick addition on the dev side.
And of course, there is always froggy from the jar.
I have no doubt that Slaariel would go through and add new textures to the gruplok named with personalities. For the mielech frogs, I really like the plate armor for Ragnarati. There is also Warlord Prip which could use a cool texture. Otherwise we would want a theme for rogue/chain wearers, knights and casters in addition to what we have.Mielech is not the most used zone in the game, so there is an argument that the effort could be used elsewhere. Still, I think a few of the ones you posted could be just fine put in as is and it would be a pretty quick addition on the dev side.
And of course, there is always froggy from the jar.
Would a .zip with a folder for each set of .bmp/.dds files be okay? Do you want me to do anything with the names, or leave them alone so a staff member could assign, say, the "lava" gemathian as texture set 01, the "sand" gemathian as 02, etc.?
