Working on a new zone generation tool – looking for EQEmu input

[MarenaServer]

I started this project with a fairly simple question:

“Is there somewhere I can just download custom zones for EQEmu?”

That question got a little out of hand.

For the last while I've been experimenting with generating classic EverQuest zone geometry from scratch, specifically targeting the Titanium client and EQEmu.

At this point the project – Zone Forge – can generate its own terrain and architectural geometry and produce both the client-side S3D/WLD and the corresponding EQEmu server MAP from the same world model.

So far I've live-tested:

Completely generated textured geometry in Titanium
Buildings with usable interiors, doors and stairs
Procedurally generated terrain
Client-side collision
Generated EQEmu MAP geometry / Best-Z
Terrain + buildings together in the same generated zone

None of the geometry in these tests is copied from an existing EQ zone. The eventual goal is considerably bigger than these ugly test scenes: describe a zone at a higher level and have Zone Forge construct a playable EQEmu zone from it.

I'm deliberately working from the boring foundations upward before worrying about making anything pretty.

This is where I'd really like some input from people who have worked with EQ zones before.

If you could have a modern tool for creating new classic EQ zones, what would you actually want it to do?

In particular, I'm interested in:

Things that traditionally make custom zone creation painful
WLD/Titanium quirks I am likely to run into
Features you'd consider essential for a usable zone editor/generator
Existing tools, experiments or source code I should study
Things you've wanted to build but avoided because creating the zone itself was too much work

I'm especially interested in hearing from anyone who has worked directly with WLD/S3D, azone, OpenZone, EQG tools or custom EQEmu zones.

I'm not releasing anything yet. The format is still evolving and I'd rather prove the fundamentals before pretending this is a usable tool.

But the important bit is working now:

Zone Forge can generate new terrain and architecture, put it into Titanium, and generate the matching EQEmu server geometry.

Here's what the current glamorous development environment looks like:





Yes, the house is hideous. But you can walk up the stairs and through the door.

[MarenaServer]

Current progress:

• Procedural terrain and functional buildings
• Materials, textures and UV mapping
• Shared client/server geometry generation (S3D/WLD + EQEmu MAP)
• Production OBJ import
• Imported OBJ geometry is now live verified in both Titanium and EQEmu
• Stable semantic object IDs, dependencies and deterministic builds
• Core/local asset library architecture
• Read-only local asset scanner
• Unified SQLite asset catalog
• Multi-source/multi-target architecture, so assets and output game formats are not permanently tied to Titanium

Next:

• .zoneforge project save/load format
• Better procedural buildings and settlements
• Roads and improved terrain generation
• Water: lakes, rivers and oceans
• Natural zone boundaries/world-edge concealment
• Populate the asset library from local Titanium assets and freely distributable Core assets
• Visual editor / asset browser
• Eventually prompt-driven generation and editing

The longer-term idea is that Zone Forge should become a non-technical Windows application where you can describe/build a zone, edit it visually, use both bundled and locally scanned assets, and export a playable EQ zone.

The architecture is deliberately not locked to EQ/Titanium, so future source libraries and target formats (potentially newer EQ clients or even other games) can be added later.