[0.14.5] Weapon/armour artifacts should not palswap depending on material [RESOLVED 0.15.2]

[MrFlibble]

I've been testing my Vanilla Paperdoll & Inventory Fix with DFU to figure out if it needed some tweaks compared to the vanilla game. At first I noticed that DFU correctly displays the colours on certain inventory items like the Small statue or Holy dagger without any edits, completely avoiding this kind of errors (and thus making my edits of certain TEXTURE.??? files redundant). It also seems to do the same for artifacts, but only for those that are not equipped on the paperdoll but just sit in the inventory or occupy jewelry/amulet slots.

However, all weapons and armour artifacts are apparently affected by changing materials which palswaps any pixels in the 112-127 index range to whatever material seems appropriate to player's current level. This seems to go even beyond vanilla Daggerfall, although I've only been able to test this with one vanilla saved game and one low-level character whom I gave all artifacts via the DFU console:

Spoiler!

For the purposes of the test, I used vanilla artifact art with no edits (my fix replaces any instances of 112-127 index pixels with similar shades of grey from another range on some, but not all artifact items).

The vanilla character even had palswaps on artifacts which looked quite okay in vanilla game, including The Mehrunes' Razor and the Wabbajack. I'm attaching the saved game so you can check this. Note that vanilla DF palswaps all artifacts, while DFU does this only to those which are visible on the paperdoll.

This issue can be fixed by editing the sprites, but I suppose it would be more beneficial to alter the code and remove this palswapping altogether.

[Interkarma]

Artifacts have a set material based on their template. DFU does not change this based on player level. These items absolutely require palette swaps to render their appropriate material.

I've tested adding all artifacts via console to both low level and high level characters and experienced no issues with their appearance.

Please setup a fresh copy of the game without mods using the recommended DaggerfallGameFiles with no changes and the artifacts should display fine.

If you still experience issue using DaggerfallGameFiles, please provide a Daggerfall Unity save so I can verify. The save attached is from classic Daggerfall. BTW, I don't support introducing changes via DOS gamedata. The proper way to modify textures in DFU can be found here.

[MrFlibble]

BTW, I don't support introducing changes via DOS gamedata.

Excuse me, but your DaggerfallGameFiles pack already includes the older version of my paperdoll & inventory fix (I'm attaching the archive here so you can verify my claim by comparing the file sizes & date stamps of the respective TEXTURE.??? files). Back then I fixed the appearance of many artifacts, including the Ebony Blade, Ebony Mail, The Mace of Molag Bal, Chrysamere and Wabbajack by replacing the 112-127 index colours (remappabale metal) with a different shade of gray that does not palswap, which is why they looked "normal" to you.

But if you use the default Bethesda files, e.g. when a user has a Steam or GOG version, or the original CD installation, you'll get this (these shots are from a brand new character that I created in DFU and added all artifacts via the console):





Please compare to what these same items look like in vanilla without any edits to TEXTURE.432/433:




I'm nearly 100% certain that artifacts shouldn't palswap. Also here's an article specifically about the Ebony Blade (which has the additional error of wrongly switching the left and right hand versions) which also mentions that artifact palswaps distort their sprites and should be fixed:
http://slushpool.dfworkshop.net/ebonyblade.html

[Interkarma]

But if you use the default Bethesda files, e.g. when a user has a Steam or GOG version, or the original CD installation, you'll get this (these shots are from a brand new character that I created in DFU and added all artifacts via the console):

This is good information, thank you. I can also see artifact images sourced from Steam data look fine in DFImaging2, which does not perform any palette swaps based on material. That backs up your position and it's all I needed to understand the issue you were trying to raise.

Edit: Have adjusted this now. Artifact weapons and armour will no longer perform palette swaps from 0.15.2.

[MrFlibble]

Edit: Have adjusted this now. Artifact weapons and armour will no longer perform palette swaps from 0.15.2.

Excellent, thanks!

On a somewhat related note though, I cannot but notice that DaggerfallGameFiles includes a bunch of community fixes apart from my patch, but contains no documentation whatsoever on what exactly is fixed, as all the respective readme files have been omitted. Even disregarding the question of giving credit to all the contributors involved (I for one am okay with not being credited, but I believe this is not a good practice generally), this simply denies the users any knowledge concerning a) that some files have been altered compared to their vanilla Bethesda counterparts and b) what exactly has been changed and why.

For example, not only did I not know that the DaggerfallGameFiles package (which I've always used with DFU) contained my fix until I started playing and then looked at the TEXTURE.??? files (after all, someone might have created a similar paperdoll fix independently from my work), but I still do not know if it includes the CompUSA quests, because the only way to find it out is to dig out the original CompUSA patch and compare the QBN/QRC file names in arena2 to see if they're present or not (not something overly difficult but still more effort than just looking in a readme file). In short, it would be super neat if the package included both the original readmes from community patches and a global readme explaining which fixes have been added and again, why (not all users might be aware of the scale of errors in the original Daggerfall).

[Interkarma]

DaggerfallGameFiles includes the official patches and some community patches. I don't claim it as my own, I provide it to save others the work of patching themselves, and as a common baseline for support process. It's also helpful for non-Windows users who don't have the convenience of DaggerfallSetup or Steam to start from.

Looking through Daggerfall files on UESP, and the best of my recollection from 2016, DaggerfallGameFiles contains the following patches:

• Official patch 1.07.213.
• CompUSA Special Edition quests.
• FixedQuests by Donald Tipton.
• DFQFIX by PLRDLF.
• POLITIC.PAK fix for Wrothgarian Mountains by Uniblab (no longer required as this is handled in code now).
• Clothes and Armor Fix by MrFibble (I honestly didn't recall this one, I'm sorry).
• Wayrest Dark Elves by Andy Polis and DelphiSnake (not necessary, but very nice).
• FACTFIX by PLRDLF (not 100% sure on this one, faction data continues to be patched in recent times). DFU does not use DOS faction data and this file could be removed.

Quest patches were applied before decompiling quests and hundreds of additional fixes have since been made by DFU community. DFU doesn't use QBN/QRC files at all, these can be removed from DaggerfallGameFiles. At this stage, the quests in DFU are patched far beyond what DOS has available.

Deepfighter applied their BIOG fixes directly into DFU. The DOS BIOG files aren't used anymore and could be removed.

For my part, I try to support the Steam release as much as possible. It's honestly good enough for Windows DFU after Beth included the .213 patch. In a perfect world, Daggerfall on Steam would also install for Linux and Mac. I'd make that the recommended starting point if that was the case.

[Lywzc]

Then I wonder if it is possible to provide a more slim DaggerfallGameFiles that only includes necessary files, excluding those handled by DFU only.

[MrFlibble]

Then I wonder if it is possible to provide a more slim DaggerfallGameFiles that only includes necessary files, excluding those handled by DFU only.

The BIOG and quest files are comparatively tiny and have good compression rates, so removing them would not make a significant difference in overall file size though.

[Lywzc]

Then I wonder if it is possible to provide a more slim DaggerfallGameFiles that only includes necessary files, excluding those handled by DFU only.

The BIOG and quest files are comparatively tiny and have good compression rates, so removing them would not make a significant difference in overall file size though.

I know that. I guess I am just having obsessions.

[MrFlibble]

obsessions.

What do you think about date/time stamps on the files?

The ones in DaggerfallGameFiles are (if the files are unmodified from Bethesda) from 18 Jan 2010, which is obviously not authentic.

The freeware Bethesda version has date stamps from 5 Sep 1996, which I guess comes from the original CD. However, if you look at the Betony demo and the Internet single dungeon demo, the date stamps (for the same files) are earlier, in some cases dating back to 1995 or even before (IIRC). Which I suppose is theoretically more accurate than the final CD release version.