Editing DAOC TEXTURES...

[Shadowcaster]

Im not sure if this can be done at all, but theoretically morrowind and daoc used the same game engines. If anyone has ever looked into morrowind, it's a single player mrpg comes with a game editor. Aside from that there are few utilities available off the bethesda site, more like plugins for 3d studio and photoshop. The plugins allow use importing/exporting nif and dds files for editing, since DAOC dosn't have a game editor I assume the plugins could still be usefull for editing textures and or graphics for daoc.

Heres the link to their plugin section: http://www.elderscrolls.com/downloads/u ... lities.htm

[Several]

Editing the Game Client is illegal, i think you should know that before continuing.

[ThatRickGuy]

you can always follow the link in my sig...

err, here: http://dmoc.ringdev.com

-Rick

[Shadowcaster]

Editing the Game Client is illegal, i think you should know that before continuing.

You think that would stop people? Besides never said I was going to use it, just posted it for the info.

Your site is pretty cool there rick, talk about luck hehehe.

[ThatRickGuy]

and editing the client is iffy. [edit: Duff didn't say that, Several did]Several is right, that by the strictest reading of the EULA, Mythic can open a can of Whoop-ass (tm) on you. But realisticly speaking, they can't track it, and don't really mind. I've spoken off the record with some Mythic employees, and the general feeling I got was that as long as the mod's didn't effect the servers, or give someone an advantage, they would be for the most part, ignored.

I was asked to stop posting about the Dark Mod of Camelot project on the vn boards though. But it was by the VN staff, not Mythic. Any post referencing DMoC was turing into a bloody flame fest of anti-cheaters flaming modders and bica-versa, so we just stopped posting about it.

-Rick

[Smallhorse]

Hay ThatRickGuy ... I have a question for you as old graphic maker for DAOC ... do you think it is possible to read out and display the modes of DAOC in a graphical way in a .NET application? ... I mean if you follow the boards you will see that Mashani is working on a Database Editor ... he mailed me some days ago with this question ... he wants to let the user select item/mob/equipment models by displaying the models graphically ... this would really be the killer feature in the db editor if it somehow works ... if you have any ideas or suggestions on how this could be archived, could you talk to Mashani perhaps about it? Thanks!

[ThatRickGuy]

I'd have to say, yes, and no...

I personally don't know the code to render NIF files, but I know that there are people who can. My knowledge of C started only aa trimester before finding DOL. And my knowledge of advanced graphics rendering is even more nuebian. Bitblt is about as advanced as I get :/

but anyways, I see 2 options to do this. either have an image array, which would be bulky to create and distribute(read: total pita), but much faster displaying. Or, figure out enough of the NIF file and Direct X/Direct Draw to display the selected object's model.

There are all sorts of possible problems with the NIF displaying though. 1st, many Nifs are locked up in .MPK files, while getting them out isn't hard, it does mean that either each selected file has to be extracted when selected for rendering, or the whole mpk has to be expanded. Also, many NIFs use .TGA and .DDS files that are in seperate .MPK files. as you can imagin, the links can get tedious as each need file will have to be pulled out of the .MPKs. And as it that isn't bothersome enough, The character models(not the mobs), the ones people are probrably most interested in displaying have every possible combination built in. All of the head models, all of the cloaks, robes, pants, skirts, etc... That's why /hood was such a big deal for Mythic, it had to alter the model that was already displayed. Anyways, you'd have to find a way to do the same thing, to only display selected objects with in the NIF file. And if that weren't challanging enough... there are plenty of other examples that throw all of these standards to the side and have uncompressed textures, or are uncompressed models that have compressed textures...


So yeah, it is possible, but it'll take a hell of a lot of work. If someone wants to take it on, more power to them, but if it were my shop, with the tools currently available, I would call it unfeasable, and continue working on other things.

On the other hand, if someone can talk NDL into handing out a copy of their NetImmerse evaluation system(or by chance come across the full blown suite. even if it is out dated), the tools that would become available would make it much easier to develop, and I would say go for it.

-Rick

[Shadowcaster]

Net Immerse engine can be licensed as a trial, you have to qualify for certain standards I believe.

[ThatRickGuy]

Yeah, I've had a few phone conversations and emails with the sales reps. Last time I spoke with them, the word was still that they were not willing to release anything to the modding community.

-Rick

[Bstaz]

Instead of doing the rendering on the fly what if someone pregenerated all of the images to tga or jpg for the DB editor ahead of time?

May that be a more realistic realtime solution?

[Smallhorse]

well yes of course you can pregenerate the images. They need not be big or anything, but imagine the work of prerendering the thousands of models ... if someone is willing to take this task up ... go ahead! ... the questin remains though ... how to pre-render? Any tool to render the models out there?

[duff]

just to say i have say nothing !! it s several

[ThatRickGuy]

Any tool to render the models out there?

There is an old NIF 3 rendering tool called Scene Immerse. There are also a few people who have figured out the NIF 3 -> Poly conversion, although I've found it to be rather hokey as far as what it will and will not do.

I'd say talk to the guy doing the real time mapping, there's a guy on the VN forums in the ToA UI forum that has a mapping tool that draws rendered trees, you could try to use that code, or try to get ahold of the guy who did Bombadier, it'd be faster then trying to line up models in SceneImmerse. And then you could automate it and just use BitBlt and a file routine to create the image array.

But I still have no idea on how to do a rag doll, as there are no existing apps or code that I know of that can make use of the object dummies (hook points for weapons, and controling the head model, cloak, and body...)

-Rick

[Wilton]

There is an old NIF 3 rendering tool called Scene Immerse. There are also a few people who have figured out the NIF 3 -> Poly conversion, although I've found it to be rather hokey as far as what it will and will not do.

I'd say talk to the guy doing the real time mapping, there's a guy on the VN forums in the ToA UI forum that has a mapping tool that draws rendered trees, you could try to use that code, or try to get ahold of the guy who did Bombadier, it'd be faster then trying to line up models in SceneImmerse. And then you could automate it and just use BitBlt and a file routine to create the image array.

But I still have no idea on how to do a rag doll, as there are no existing apps or code that I know of that can make use of the object dummies (hook points for weapons, and controling the head model, cloak, and body...)

-Rick

It looks as though daocmapper has been maintained and steadily upgraded as of late and can read NIF 4. I'm sure their code could be looked at to give a jumpstart to at least exporting out to a format you can render.

http://nathrach.republicofnewhome.org/mappergui.html

[Wilton]

There is an old NIF 3 rendering tool called Scene Immerse. There are also a few people who have figured out the NIF 3 -> Poly conversion, although I've found it to be rather hokey as far as what it will and will not do.

I'd say talk to the guy doing the real time mapping, there's a guy on the VN forums in the ToA UI forum that has a mapping tool that draws rendered trees, you could try to use that code, or try to get ahold of the guy who did Bombadier, it'd be faster then trying to line up models in SceneImmerse. And then you could automate it and just use BitBlt and a file routine to create the image array.

But I still have no idea on how to do a rag doll, as there are no existing apps or code that I know of that can make use of the object dummies (hook points for weapons, and controling the head model, cloak, and body...)

-Rick

It looks as though daocmapper has been maintained and steadily upgraded as of late and can read NIF 4. I'm sure their code could be looked at to give a jumpstart to at least exporting out to a format you can render.

http://nathrach.republicofnewhome.org/mappergui.html