This post will explain the very basics of using the program called Dr. Tester, which can view and extract pretty much all visual files in Diablo II, be it item images, monster animations, ui buttons, characters etc. It was made by SVR over at the Phrozen Keep (which I am not affiliated with in any way, despite my name).
The program is included as an attachment at the very bottom of this post. It's in a .zip archive, so you'll need a program like WinRAR to extract it.
1. What is it used for?
Originally it was developed for Diablo II mod makers, but for us, it serves the purpose of providing us with whatever in-game images we need from Diablo II for our wiki articles.
2. What it looks like
File: Select which MPQ you wish to open.
D2char.mpq: Contains Amazon, Barbarian, Necromancer, Paladin and Sorceress animations
d2data.mpq: Contains monsters, missiles, items, objects, terrain and ui files.
d2exp.mpq: Same as above, but expansion content. Also contains Druid and Assassin animations
patchd2.mpq: Contains newer versions of files in the others that have been updated through patches.
Depending on what you want to do, you will utilize different functions and thus files.
3. Extracting item images
Item files can be in data, exp or the patch file. Most are contained in D2 data however.
3.1 Finding the item
First open, the select mpq archive. Then, enter "dataglobalitemsinv" in the search field. This will take you to the beginning of the inventory images of items (just entering items takes you to the flippyfile of the item, which is how the item appears when lying on the ground).
Now it's a matter of searching. If you know how to look through the .txt files of the game, you can do that to easier find items. They are sorted by their code, so Ancient Armor, which has the code "aar" will be found under dataglobalitemsinvaar.dc6 (dc6 is the filetype used by Diablo II). Exceptional and Elite versions of a Normal item have the same inventory image file.
If you do not know how to look in the .txt files, then just scrolling down works too, though it takes a long time if you're looking for more than one file.
3.2 Coloring the item
After you've located the item, you must apply the correct color if you wish to extract a set item or unique item. How an item is colored depends on the base item. In Dr. Tester, there are several different palettes to choose from when coloring an item. If you click the Index button in the lower right corner you will see the following list of palettes. We are only interested in three of these:
dataglobalitemsPalettegrey2.dat
dataglobalitemsPalettegreybrown.dat
dataglobalitemsPaletteinvgreybrown.dat
All items in the game are recolored using these three palettes (with the possible exception of recolored magic/rare items, but that's of little interest in this guide anways). To find out which one is used by what unique/set item, you must look in the weapons.txt and armor.txt files.
Example: Tyrael's Might is a unique Sacred Armor. In the game, it appears blue. Ti find out what palette is used, open up armor.txt and locate the row for Sacred Armor. The scoll to the far right and locate the column InvTrans. The number in this column will always be either 0, 2, 5 or 8. 0 means that the item is never recoloured no matter what, 2 means it used grey2.dat, 5 that it uses greybrown.dat and 8 that is uses invgreybrown.dat. In the case of our Sacred Armor, the number in this column is 8, meaning Tyrael's Might is recolored using the invgreybrown.dat palette.
Next, to find out which color to actually use, open up UniqueItems.txt, and locate the row for Tyrael's Might, then the column invtransform. In this cell there will be a four letter code that tells the game what color to use. The list of colors is available in Colors.txt, or you can view the list under here:
1. White - whit
2. Light Grey - lgry
3. Dark Grey - dgry
4. Black - blac
5. Light Blue - lblu
6. Dark Blue - dblu
7. Crystal Blue - cblu
8. Light Red - lred
9. Dark Red - dred
10. Crystal Red - cred
11. Light Green - lgrn
12. Dark Green - dgrn
13. Crystal Green - cgrn
14. Light Yellow - lyel
15. Dark yellow - dyel
16. Light Gold - lgld
17. Dark Gold - dgld
18. Light Purple - lpur
19. Dark Purple - dpur
20. Orange - oran
21. Bright White - bwht
The number is what you use to get Dr. Tester to display the correct color. For Tyrael's Might, we see that the file says dblue, which refers to Dark Blue, nr. 6. Thus, we enter 6 in the little box in the lower right corner of Dr. Tester. And we're done!
3.3 Saving the item
When you save the file, select save as, and that's about it. Don't bother with changing the filename, it will save images to folders, and renaming in the program will only change the name of the folder, not the actual image.
4. Extracting monster animations
Regular monsters are found in d2data.mpq, expansion monsters in d2exp.mpq. Quite simple.
4.1 Finding the monster
Just like with items, enter "dataglobalmonster" into the field. This will take you to the monster categories.
Now monsters are a lot harder to locate than items. Scrolling through them will literally take forever, so unless you know the monster token (or code) it will take time. Monster codes are located in monstats.txt. It begins with 10 (which are those trapped soulds in Act 4) and ends with ZZ (Zealots from Act 3).
Locating the monster code is done through opening monstats.txt. In the column code, there will be two-digit combinations for all monster. This is the code you enter in Dr. Tester to display the monster. Once again, open the .txt file with MS Excel or similar spreadsheet program.
4.2 Confiruging the monster
After finding the monster, you can run different animations for it. After selecting a monster file, click the "Run F" button. This will cycle through the frames for that animation. Most monsters have attack, get hit, running, idle and death animations, as well as a few others. Select the appropriate one (by scrolling down in the list and selecting the appropriate .COF file).
Next, we need to color it. This time, select Shift instead of Index in the lower right, and look for the same token the monster you've selected has (meaning if you want to recolor a Zealot, you'll want to look for "dataglobalmonstersZZCOFpalshift.dat.
After that, select the colors. First monster types, such as Fallen, correspond to the number three. Carvers are 4, Devilkin 5, Dark Ones 6 and Warped Ones 7. It always goes in order so it's quite simple.
Some monsters won't let you configure their colors. This most often applies to monster who have cloud-like effects like Wraiths, Pain Worms, Gloams etc.
4.3 Saving the monster.
This is basically the same: select save as, keep transparent checked, but make sure you check "Full size frames", otherwise the image may stutter when viewed.
5. Final words
If there's something unclear, post it and I'll update the guide.
PlugY for Diablo II allows you to reset skills and stats, transfer items between characters in singleplayer, obtain all ladder runewords and do all Uberquests while offline. It is the only way to do all of the above. Please use it.
Supporting big shoulderpads and flashy armor since 2004.
I updated the post to explain how to find stuff in the txt files. I also included the .txt files necessary for using Dr Tester fully for these particular tasks.
PlugY for Diablo II allows you to reset skills and stats, transfer items between characters in singleplayer, obtain all ladder runewords and do all Uberquests while offline. It is the only way to do all of the above. Please use it.
Supporting big shoulderpads and flashy armor since 2004.
PlugY for Diablo II allows you to reset skills and stats, transfer items between characters in singleplayer, obtain all ladder runewords and do all Uberquests while offline. It is the only way to do all of the above. Please use it.
Supporting big shoulderpads and flashy armor since 2004.
As pointed out by onderduiker the version of Dr Tester attached to this post was an older version which did not include the save options listed in this guide. I do not know how i could have made that error when I originally uploaded it, but it has now been fixed.
PlugY for Diablo II allows you to reset skills and stats, transfer items between characters in singleplayer, obtain all ladder runewords and do all Uberquests while offline. It is the only way to do all of the above. Please use it.
Supporting big shoulderpads and flashy armor since 2004.
The program is included as an attachment at the very bottom of this post. It's in a .zip archive, so you'll need a program like WinRAR to extract it.
1. What is it used for?
Originally it was developed for Diablo II mod makers, but for us, it serves the purpose of providing us with whatever in-game images we need from Diablo II for our wiki articles.
2. What it looks like
File: Select which MPQ you wish to open.
- D2char.mpq: Contains Amazon, Barbarian, Necromancer, Paladin and Sorceress animations
- d2data.mpq: Contains monsters, missiles, items, objects, terrain and ui files.
- d2exp.mpq: Same as above, but expansion content. Also contains Druid and Assassin animations
- patchd2.mpq: Contains newer versions of files in the others that have been updated through patches.
Depending on what you want to do, you will utilize different functions and thus files.3. Extracting item images
Item files can be in data, exp or the patch file. Most are contained in D2 data however.
3.1 Finding the item
First open, the select mpq archive. Then, enter "dataglobalitemsinv" in the search field. This will take you to the beginning of the inventory images of items (just entering items takes you to the flippyfile of the item, which is how the item appears when lying on the ground).
Now it's a matter of searching. If you know how to look through the .txt files of the game, you can do that to easier find items. They are sorted by their code, so
If you do not know how to look in the .txt files, then just scrolling down works too, though it takes a long time if you're looking for more than one file.
3.2 Coloring the item
After you've located the item, you must apply the correct color if you wish to extract a set item or unique item. How an item is colored depends on the base item. In Dr. Tester, there are several different palettes to choose from when coloring an item. If you click the Index button in the lower right corner you will see the following list of palettes. We are only interested in three of these:
- dataglobalitemsPalettegrey2.dat
- dataglobalitemsPalettegreybrown.dat
- dataglobalitemsPaletteinvgreybrown.dat
All items in the game are recolored using these three palettes (with the possible exception of recolored magic/rare items, but that's of little interest in this guide anways). To find out which one is used by what unique/set item, you must look in the weapons.txt and armor.txt files.Example:
Next, to find out which color to actually use, open up UniqueItems.txt, and locate the row for Tyrael's Might, then the column invtransform. In this cell there will be a four letter code that tells the game what color to use. The list of colors is available in Colors.txt, or you can view the list under here:
1. White - whit
2. Light Grey - lgry
3. Dark Grey - dgry
4. Black - blac
5. Light Blue - lblu
6. Dark Blue - dblu
7. Crystal Blue - cblu
8. Light Red - lred
9. Dark Red - dred
10. Crystal Red - cred
11. Light Green - lgrn
12. Dark Green - dgrn
13. Crystal Green - cgrn
14. Light Yellow - lyel
15. Dark yellow - dyel
16. Light Gold - lgld
17. Dark Gold - dgld
18. Light Purple - lpur
19. Dark Purple - dpur
20. Orange - oran
21. Bright White - bwht
The number is what you use to get Dr. Tester to display the correct color. For Tyrael's Might, we see that the file says dblue, which refers to Dark Blue, nr. 6. Thus, we enter 6 in the little box in the lower right corner of Dr. Tester. And we're done!
3.3 Saving the item
When you save the file, select save as, and that's about it. Don't bother with changing the filename, it will save images to folders, and renaming in the program will only change the name of the folder, not the actual image.
4. Extracting monster animations
Regular monsters are found in d2data.mpq, expansion monsters in d2exp.mpq. Quite simple.
4.1 Finding the monster
Just like with items, enter "dataglobalmonster" into the field. This will take you to the monster categories.
Now monsters are a lot harder to locate than items. Scrolling through them will literally take forever, so unless you know the monster token (or code) it will take time. Monster codes are located in monstats.txt. It begins with 10 (which are those trapped soulds in Act 4) and ends with ZZ (Zealots from Act 3).
Locating the monster code is done through opening monstats.txt. In the column code, there will be two-digit combinations for all monster. This is the code you enter in Dr. Tester to display the monster. Once again, open the .txt file with MS Excel or similar spreadsheet program.
4.2 Confiruging the monster
After finding the monster, you can run different animations for it. After selecting a monster file, click the "Run F" button. This will cycle through the frames for that animation. Most monsters have attack, get hit, running, idle and death animations, as well as a few others. Select the appropriate one (by scrolling down in the list and selecting the appropriate .COF file).
Next, we need to color it. This time, select Shift instead of Index in the lower right, and look for the same token the monster you've selected has (meaning if you want to recolor a Zealot, you'll want to look for "dataglobalmonstersZZCOFpalshift.dat.
After that, select the colors. First monster types, such as Fallen, correspond to the number three. Carvers are 4, Devilkin 5, Dark Ones 6 and Warped Ones 7. It always goes in order so it's quite simple.
Some monsters won't let you configure their colors. This most often applies to monster who have cloud-like effects like Wraiths, Pain Worms, Gloams etc.
4.3 Saving the monster.
This is basically the same: select save as, keep transparent checked, but make sure you check "Full size frames", otherwise the image may stutter when viewed.
5. Final words
If there's something unclear, post it and I'll update the guide.