hello =)
if you can do a 3D viewer, you can do a 3d editor, and now, it's what worldbuilders want ^^
include the abilities to put and remove monsters in the 3d view, to change their stats in a npc editor, to change their loot by dbl cliking on em and assign em one or more lootables you can create before in a looteditor you can access in the menu, that's what we need =)
something like warcraft 3 or neverwinter editor ^^

Just a little update:
Zone Previewer is almost done, still working on the UI, to make everything a bit easier to use.

But I'm having exams right now and one project required me to work on it for 3 days with 12 hours / day to get it done in time, so I didn't code that much in the last two weeks.

Another question though:
I intend to make screenshots of all 300+ races (not including all the different skins though) and use them to display mobs. Distributing screenshots of eq data is fine, right?

What, like in-game sprites? Going back to the good ol' Doom days! <sniff> Those were the days... To save yourself some time Mongrel there's a 'server handbook' I DL'd from the forums somewhere - it's in PDF format that already has snapshots of all the classes and thier various textures.

Is your previewer going to be able to read and write to the db? Will it handle loot/mob stats as well as spawn info?

Well, despite whatever you do - I give you snaps for donating your free time to the community. Thanks!

>> What, like in-game sprites? Going back to the good ol' Doom
>> days! <sniff> Those were the days...
yup, hehe. Not really like those 2d sprites though, I'll map the images around a box with a front and a back view, that way a world builder can see the heading of the mob right away.

>> there's a 'server handbook'
I know, but those pictures are just "normal" in-game screenshots, I need two pictures per race (front and back) in front of a single colored background so that I can mask out the actual mob image.

>> Is your previewer going to be able to read and write to the db?
>> Will it handle loot/mob stats as well as spawn info?
read/write: yes
loot: not yet
mob stats: yes, on a per npc_type basis
spawn info: yup

It wouldn't be much different than posting screenshots taken in-game, really. I don't see how you could get in any trouble. I'm no lawyer, though...

So Mongrel, what's the status? You building this or what? Desperate server admins want to know! ;)

yes, yes, I'm building this :)

Though, as I already mentioned above, RL stuff had interfered, so I couldn't work on it for a bit. Got one last presentation tomorrow, which means you can expect a release by the end of the week.

hey, was wondering if you could add in the ability to move and place objects too instead of just npc's, unless you posted you are planning to add that and I missed it, in that case can just ignore me

but, in the client all you can do it click objects to use, some can't even use, is only decoration, but sounds like with this program you could make something to represent the object and could move the thing around to just the way you want it to be and then have it saved to the database that way

prob be real nice for placeing tradeskill things and other decorations or teleports or whatever you want instead of having to go in the client stand where you think you want it get the loc go and use eqemu admin or something to add it to the database start your world up log in then see you got the heading or wanted it to the left or right a little bit :)

well just a suggestion incase you didn't think of it already, but sounds like an awesome idea you got going here with this program you're making

I was wondering are you planning on realeasing source for this and if so what language are you doing it in. Please do release source. This project sound great, thanks for putting in the effort.

Ves

Yes, source will be released (C++). However, only the actual program itself, not the engine I'm using (which was also written by me, but I'm using it for other projects as well, so I cannot release the source).