EQ2 Player Studio Adds Weapon, Shield, Hair Style Categories

Today, Player Studio introduces three new categories of items which can be submitted to EverQuest II — Weapons, Shields, and Hair Styles.

As with all PlayerStudio items, Weapons and Shields have very specific design parameters that must be followed to be accepted into the world of Norrath.

This includes a maximum number of triangles (1,000), texture resolution, level of detail, etc. Weapons and Shields are submitted with at least 3 textures or “maps”, with an optional 4th map.

• Diffuse (color) map — This is the design or “painting” on the item
• Normal map — This is the relief of the item, adding additional depth and surface details
• Specular map — This is the shiny map, with light parts shining when exposed to light
• Fresnel map (optional) — This map determines which parts of the object should use the environment map to simulate reflective surfaces. Particularly effective for glassy or polished metallic surfaces.

From the EQ2 Forums:

For weapons, artists are currently able to design one-handed hammers, maces, daggers, swords, axes, and wands, as well as two-handed large swords, axes, hammers, maces, monk staffs, and halberds.

As for Hair Styles, at first, Player Studio artists will be able to create new hair styles for Humans, High Elves, Half Elves, Wood Elves, and Dark Elves. Other races will presumably not be far behind.

UPDATE: Non-SOGA models only, at least for now.

Also there is nothing in the design specifications that either rules in or rules out hats, so it will be interesting to see what is accepted by SOE.

From the EQ2 Forums:

New hairstyles are being accepted for regular human and elf models. In the Download Sample file, you will find mannequin heads to use to craft your styles; please do not submit the mannequin head with your final product! Also, you do not have to submit hairstyles for every race. If you only want to design Wood Elf Females, for example, you can!