There was a great suggestion that I publish in this forum the basics of my class and book - which is going to be available starting today. I'll make the book available on every traditional server. So here it is!! I want to add that this is for layout editor version 1.7.2.16 Basic Layout Editing - Volume 1 - Setting Up Basic Layout Editing – By Gracey <Maj Dul server> An Introduction - Layout Editing is a way of manipulating the location numbers of items that are placed in a house (or hall). Everything in Norrath has a location and you are no exception. To see your location in the world type /loc. See those silly number? Those are the numbers you are changing on items by using an outside program (Layout Editor). JesDyr made this outside program to help us do this. His Layout Editor can be downloaded at: http://www.eq2designers.com/?page_id=7 Get your download installed and make sure that IN GAME you are in windows mode (Alt+Enter) so you can use it while you are playing. First Things First! There are some things you have to do in game and in the editor to make it work ! This is the only real hard part of using the Layout Editor and once they are done you will be able to use everything easily. When you begin to use the Layout Editor it is best to be in an (almost) empty house with just an item or two set down to work with. You need to have your items set down on an actual in game floor (no – beaches don’t work correctly). You are going to begin with the use of /house. You don’t have to be on or near the door of your house to use /house and open up the same window. So the first button at the bottom is a “Save” button if you hover over the icon. The second button is a “Load” button (icon). To start – type /house Click on the “Save” button and make a file called With – you should get a message that the layout saved successfully. Click on the “Save” icon again and make a file called Without – you should get a message that the layout saved successfully. Click on the “Save” icon again and make a file called Working – once again you should get the layout saved successfully message. MACRO”S Now you are going to make some Macro’s. You will be making 3 macro’s and moving the macro icons to an empty spot on your hotbar To make the macro’s go to your EQ2 button > Socials > Tab at the top says Macro’s > you will see Edit under this tab. Click on Edit. Macro 1: Name will be: With and this will be a command type macro so click on Add a Command line and go to that line. Type in /save_layout With Click on Test and make sure it works and you should see a message that says Layout Saved Successfully. While you are in the macro setup – find an icon that you like at the top by clicking thru them. Click OK and then drag that icon to your hotbar. Macro 2: Name will be Without and following the steps above… the Command line will read: /save_layout Without Once again, test this and find an icon you like at the top then drag it to your hotbar. Macro 3: This one is just a tad different and please make sure you get the command line in correctly. Name will be Working Command line will read: /load_layout Working Yes. you read that right – you are not saving on this one – you are loading. Find a unique icon and hit ok on that one as well. Make sure all 3 macro’s are now on your hotbar. You can name these 3 macro’s anything you like – but if you are talking to the community, those 3 names are ones that are generally used and you can usually get help using those names. You are ready to open the layout editor On the top bar of the layout editor you will see: File – Edit – Tools – Help You will choose FILE and go down to New from Dif (Control+Alt+D). Now you will see a box with 3 lines in it. The first line says Original File and the button at the end says select file. You want to go select a file. If you are aware of where your files are kept on YOUR computer – Select the With file. If you are not aware of where your files are stored on YOUR computer there are 3 possible paths to your files that I know about (every computer is different). Possible Paths: C: > Users > Public > Sony Online Entertainment > Installed Games > Everquest 2 > saved_house_layouts > With C: > Program Data > Sony Online Entertainment > Installed Games > Everquest 2 > saved_house_layouts > With C: > Program Files (x86) > Sony > Everquest II > saved_house_layouts > With If you still can’t find the file, I would go browse your files and see where your game is kept outside the layout editor and write down the path. Then come back and follow the above steps. Line 2 – This is the Difference File – go select the Witout File in the same manner as described above. Line 3 – This is the Destination File – Select the Working File in the same manner as described above. Click on Go at the bottom. It won’t actually do anything at this point, but this is just the setup steps. We are done setting up and you are ready to use the Layout Editor!!’
Basic Layout Editing - Volume 2 = Using the Layout Editor BASICS There are a gazillion possible ways to use the Layout Editor and I hope you can explore them later. We are going to be concerned with 2 possible ways to use the layout editor. Manually Changing the numbers: Find an item in your house and click on the With macro in game. Right click on that item and send the item to the moving crate. Click on the Without macro. In the Layout Editor – click on File – New from Dif and hit go. You should now see the item you wanted to work with in the editor. The item name will be listed along with its location information. Any number in this file can be changed except the ItemID – Item Name – and UID. The first way you can use the Layout Editor is to manually change a number. So say you are looking at an item and the Scale says 1. If you wanted to increase the size of the object, you would go to the cell the number 1 is in (under scale) and type in 3 or whatever size you desire. This is limited by how big an object CAN get. You cannot push the object to get bigger (or smaller) than it would in game. When you have changed the number hit Save All at the bottom of the Editor. Now you go back in game and click on the Working macro. You should see your object you are working with reappear in a larger size. The steps are: These are the same no matter which method you are using. ·With macro ·Move item (or items) to the moving crate by right clicking on it ·Without macro ·Open Layout Editor ·File > New from Dif > Go ·Make the changes you want made to the item ·Save all ·In game Working macro Highlighting the row and using the controls in the upper right side: Following the same steps listed above (With macro – move item(s) to crate – Without macro In Editor File > New from Dif > Go) You should now see the item(s) you want to work with in the layout editor. To select a row that an item is on: click to the left of the Item ID on the row the item is in. This should make the whole row light up. Now you can use the controls in the upper right side of the Layout Editor. If you wanted to move an item a little to the North, you would go to the box that says Move Amount – and say you want this to go 3 to the north. Using your compass in game helps a lot! (more on distance later). Change the move amount to 3 and then click on the N button (N – North) (S – South) (E – East) (W – West) then there are arrows to move things northwest/southeast etc.. For now – you are just changing the move amount and clicking on the N button. Click on Save all at the bottom. In game – hit the Working macro. You should see the item further north now. You have now learned the 2 ways of manipulating an item’s location!! Below is a breakdown of what each number means as you move left to right in the layout editor heading row. ·Blank (this is where we click to highlight a row) or click in the heading row to highlight all items. ·Item ID – this is the unique item number assigned by the developers to each item. Say you have a Fayberry Muffin Plate and you see 3 of those in the layout editor. Each one of the Fayberry Muffin Plate’s will have this same number, but a white tile will have a different number assigned to it. ·Item Name (self explanatory) ·x (E/W) – this is the east/west location of the item(s) ·z (Up/Down) – this is the up/down location of the item (s) ·y (N/S) – north / south location of the item(s) ·z (Rotate) – this would be how much the item has moved in a circular manner from its anchor point ·x (Pitch) this is how many degrees the item is tipped over east to west. 89.94 degrees puts an object on its side. 180.06 degrees flips an object upside down. ·y (Roll) this is how many degrees the item is tipped over north to south 90 degrees puts an object on its side. 180 degrees flips an object upside down. ·Scale – the size of an object ·Crate – you can move an item back to the moving crate using this check mark ·Notes – this is for YOUR notes on the item (to help you distinguish one item from another or any other way you want to use it). Just type in the notes you want for that item ·UID – This is a unique item number for EACH and EVERY object you are working with. Say those Fayberry Muffin Plates from the above example are in the file – you will see DIFFERENT numbers assigned to each Fayberry Muffin Plate. Multi controls for using the highlighted row method: ·Move amount – how much you want an object to move or rotate, pitch , or roll. This is degrees for pitch – roll – rotate. ·N/S/E/W and arrows are direction buttons ·Rotate – Pitch – Roll (from above) ·Scale – you can also change the size of an object here – be sure to use the set to box ·Crate – move an item to the crate ·Comment – place notes for the item you have highlighted Other Buttons ·Apply Edit – simply shows you in the layout editor what the changes are, but doesn’t make a save to your file ·Save All – To save your work so you can load it in game POINTERS ·An object CANNOT be moved outside the boundary of a house/hall. If the developers didn’t render anything in that area, you can’t move something into it and it will make the item disappear every single time you try to put something there. This is from the ANCHOR POINT of the item. If the anchor point is within the boundaries – you can get it to move. If that same object’s anchor point is moved outside the boundary – it will disappear. This is what causes flooring to disappear and objects you are trying to move into a wall to disappear. ·You can tell what the Anchor Point is on an item by rotating it before you work with it ·Objects come out of your bags in a n/s/e/w direction. Use this to your advantage when doing flooring and walls. If you have moved an item around, it would be best to put it back in your bag and set it down anew before starting to work in the layout editor. ·When Pitch is used to tip an item over (east/west) don’t use a whole number. This is a defect in the game - not the layout editor. If you use a whole number – you will see an item start to spin. If you want to tip something over 90 degrees, use a number like 89.896 instead of 90. (Pitch is a *itch is the easiest way to remember). ·You can use negative numbers by just putting – in front of the number or say-90 in the roll – or -89.896 in the pitch. You can also use negative numbers to rotate. ·Always have fun!! This is a game – it isn’t life or death. There are always people in the homeshow channel that can help you if you just ask. /join Antonia_Bayle.Homeshow in game
Any and all are welcome to copy the above information into your own books. Please spread the love around
Awesome, Gracey! I ended up buying all four of each of the two books on Maj'dul server, not realizing that was all you had on the broker at the time. Gave a copy to Vasciagio, a copy to Sandx, and was going to give a copy to Ceyarrecks but he informed me you gave him a set already. I was also going to send a bunch of notebooks to you so you could make more copies, but Cey told me he already did that too, lol. If you need more, however, my sage can make them and send them to you.
And this is one of the many reasons Norrath decorators are completely awesome. Love how folks pitch in and help!
This is fantastic. Thanks to Ceyarrecks sending me the class log and your wonderful teaching, I've learned how to set up the editor and to tile in about 10min flat!
Will have to put into books and put in my house portal room of guild hall. I have a sage so I can make people books if I ever see anyone in need of them.
