I followed the tutorial here:
http://wiki.eqemulator.org/p?Modeling_Custom_Zones_
which is apparently unfinished. I created a 3d zone model and textured it appropriately.
I started with a plane and used a grayscale heightmap to create the elevation, and then applied patterns to the layers to create the rectangular texture map.
Now that I have my .obj file, what do I do with it?
I currently just have a textured topology, no buildings, no water, no foliage.
I've read around that people use OpenZone to add that stuff in and export all the files they need, though I can't find a tutorial for OpenZone 8.3.
I'm running Windows Server 2012, though I can build an ubuntu vm if I need (since I also read somewhere that there's an issue with a .map file or something with Windows).
Basically, I have not found one consistent start-to-finish guide on how to create a zone, only fragments of how to do specific tasks, and no idea in what order to complete those tasks or what tasks I am missing.
If anyone could provide some direction on how to go about this, I would appreciate it very much.