Hello, everyone, while searching the internet, I came across a bizzare and dated component called the Everquest II character creation demo that is a standalone character creation, that was made in 2004 and could only be downloaded from gamespot. http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/everques ... 16708.html My question is, is there a way to extract the vpl file that comes with this, as I get the following errors trying to extract it with Blaz's tool: SystemOverFlow exception at readfiledirectory.... at proccessvplfile ....... And several more errors. The sole vpk file is called DemoCreate.vpf The demo itself is really unstable on Vista, I had to run the exe file through a 3d emulator for it to not crash less than a second after being started and not giving an error message and the buttons and sliders acting "sticky" and unresponsive, but thought it would be useful to see how the VDL files and definitions are composed as the demo does not connect to a sever at all.

This came out not too long before eq2 I think i also have it on cd from my pre-order. If blaz's tool will not open it I dont think there is another one made for such tasks. not sure what you would gain from this i would doubt this exe would work with newer vpk files and if stand alone is what you are looking for there is a mini login made for that purpose.

Bion wrote:This came out not too long before eq2 I think i also have it on cd from my pre-order. If blaz's tool will not open it I dont think there is another one made for such tasks. not sure what you would gain from this i would doubt this exe would work with newer vpk files and if stand alone is what you are looking for there is a mini login made for that purpose.

Oh this local character creation is vital for what I do right now, though you are right that I do not need to unpack it right at this time. Right now I'm exploring the "expressed" versions of all the meshes (.draw), bones (.skeleton), animations (.anim). I basically run the program, and use a memory editor to experiment:
I first try to find changing variables that are common to every 3d game, that control what animation frame the character is expressing, so I can go frame by frame and see what bones are actually moving in each. And other variables like the camera so I zoom in extremely close (beyond the normal bounds) to say each surface individually, or paint the character all white so I eliminate extraneous data and variables.
Then I try to find what data is being read at each frame. So say I have frame (or floating point) 3.0 second of the idle animation frozen, and I know where the data for the animation is. I experiment, and say for example, each frame consists of 128 bytes. Then hopefully if in like most games each frame is put directly right after the preceding one. I might copy and paste a piece of frame data from a different animation say jumping, and hopefully the character is in the jumping position mid air.
Then I just randomly change the currently expressed data and mentally note the effects (like say for example odd number bytes that have even values always deform the character, and none of eq2 1000's of animations ever have an odd numbered byte with an even value.....
Then I might copy a string of a gnoll attack animation, and paste it on a human, animation. And though the character will most likely be so distorted, if the meshes bones are where I predicted, then I know I have found something universal and I can make an out of game Animation viewer, or better yet a creator for custom animations, characters, zones or anything else I try to reverse compile (I don't know if that is the most correct term).
I try to turn the running game in to a development tool. Expect some out of game tools from me in the recent future.