See the new page.
Sigh... I didn't mean to get so heavily involved in this project. I just saw some people make some progress and I saw potential for more progress, so I made further progress to show how things are done. I wished to help those who were contributing, but in the process I ended up becoming a major contributor (partly because there weren't others that joined in to the extent that I probably thought and certainly hoped there would be).
Anyway, here it is: The Patchin' Batch, a resource created by somebody who turned out to be a leader in supplying tools and information for seeing female nudity in World of WarCraft.
The author of the Patchin' Batch makes the following requests:
If things aren't working, the Patchin' Batch's developer would like to help out! Please work with this person so the issue can be resolved and so others can use the product easier. Also, please read the FAQs.
At certain times in the development of the Patchin' Batch, it became known that there were some problems but there were no reports on any of the problems to know what they were. If things are not working at a certain point in the Patchin' Batch's process, sending an E-Mail that just says "It doesn't work" won't help the developer find out what's wrong in order to be able to fix it. Please provide some what simple details you can. Also, if the error is that the Patchin' Batch file is not completing, the following can help out a huge amount in determining the issue:
To contact the developer of the Patchin' Batch, seek one of the Patcin' Batch mirrors and search for contact information. Currently the most often used way to get ahold of the Patcin' Batch offer, other than posting publicly (which may or may not work), has been to send a PM ("Private Message") through the Allakhazam forum system. Other options may be provided later (in addition to, or perhaps instead of, any contact option(s) already mentioned).
There isn't an answer to this which, to me, is a very clear answer. Rather than try to name an official successor to the Allakhazam thread, and possibly get it completely wrong, I'll just point to the resources I have found so that others can find resources and perhaps the WoW nudity community will find a clear new home.
Note that at least one site of a leader had its new URL went down, and some files shared through RapidShare.de's system have become unavailable from their original download links. I'm hoping someday to find time to save an archive of some of the various resources. If there is something specific being looked for, feel free to ask about it
It seems many players would like to make their weapon or armor look like a different cool weapon or armor, perhaps after seeing WoW Pets video.
No, I cannot assist with this, as this isn't actually a very easy task. Swapping models can also be simple in some cases, which is why many people have concluded that all such transformations are easy. To turn a human male into a human female is easy: We rename the HumanFemale.m2 file as HumanMale.m2 so when the game looks at the HumanMale.m2 file then the game loads the HumanFemale.m2 file. However, the files used by most items are not as descriptive as the files used by character models. A really fancy looking dagger might use the same 3-D model as the simple skinning knife but look fancy due to using fancier textures and/or magical effects like if lightning or fire emanates from the weapon. Furthermore, there are only a few character models: 2 for each race (one for male and one for female) and 9 races (as of this writing: 4 Horde, 4 Alliance, and Goblin). Each race/gender combination has one model that it might be using. However, there are many more item models. A female robe, for example, might be Robe_Horde_A_02Light_Chest_TL_F.m2, but that doesn't give any clue as to whether it is the Robes of Arcana or not. Similarly, if an item had the word "Dagger" in it, that doesn't communicate whether this is a stubby little curved pocket knife or a fairly large dagger that's easily mistakable for a short sword. Even if you use model viewing software, finding the item can be difficult if it doesn't have the familiar texture and special magic effects you're used to seeing. If by chance you spent a lot of time experimenting and did figure out which model one weapon used, to swap the models effectively you'd also need to find out which model the other weapon used. And, finally, keep in mind that even if you swap the models, the textures and/or magical effects might not be swapped at the same time.
What I've done to help with textures is notice that some female-specific textures have _F in their filenames. However, weapons don't tend to have any gender-specific graphics like a shirt may. So, finding which square graphic is wrapped around the model through the use of "skinning code" may also be something that requires looking through a lot of data.
There is also the problem of rules: Blizzard has stated that there is no gameplay difference between genders, so therefore there is little cause for concern about swapping one gender's model with the other gender's model of the same race. However, there are differences between items. If there is even a small, unnoticable 2% advantage of any sort (even if there are more noticible disadvantages) and Blizzard's computers detect this, then that would be widely viewed as sufficient grounds to be suspending and/or banning an account.
Realizing that my knowledge would be considered by some to be a certain level of expertese, though, I'll give this quick overview (to help those who are adventurous to have some clue how to proceed) on how to make some creature (pet, player, enemy, critter) look like a different creature. Though as of this writing I haven't done it other than what's included in the Patchin' Batch, I imagine the process is the same. Note that this is simply a question people wonder, and the Patchin' Batch does not currently supply an easy way to do this. Use MPQ2k or NewWinMPQ.Zip (most will probably prefer the latter) or MyWarCraftStudio to extract the *.m2 file of the model you want to use. Then rename that file to the name of the creature you want to replace. Place the renamed file in the appropriate location in the Data\ directory so that WoW will look for the *.m2 file.
The original developer got out of the habit of including all the files in one archive when updating the batch files regularly. The MPQ files themselves are not distributed because of Copyright concerns. Also there are filesize concerns:The developer has seen (during development) an MPQ file created by this process that was hundreds and hundreds of megabytes. Larger archives also stopped being made due to limitations of web site hosts used to distribute the project. It is recommended to back things up to DLTools\ when asked towards the end of the process, as that will reduce (actually it should reduce to the point of elimination) the need to be re-downloading anything that gets backed up to DLTools\.
My request for additional mirrors has, as of the time of this writing, gone without much response at all. Those responses that did try to be helpful didn't turn out to point to a fruitful resource. If a site would allow the content and provide some space, different distribution packages might be easy to create and have downloadable. Until such response occurs, if it does, people will just have to make do with the solution that's been made so far. Feel free to contribute.
The Patchin' Batch can now modify files, but it's recommended that you don't. Simply look at all the Patch*.MPQ files and choose a Patch-?.MPQ filename that doesn't exist. When asked for the filename of an MPQ file, entering the name of a non-existing file instead of an existing file is all you need to do to make sure the original MPQ files arne't changed.
Removing the patch is as simple as removing whichever Patch-?.MPQ files were created by this process (and in old versions, also removing all directories underneath DATA\ other than DATA\Interface\Cinematics). You'll also need to restore any data files that have been modified, but the recommended way to avoid that issue is to simply not use any of the existing files to write to so that they are never modified in the first place.
If the program is interrupted (with Control-C, or if the DOS window is closed), or if WGet grabs an unexpected file, the program may also leave more files in DATA\. On a fresh installation of WoW, before any modifications are made, the DATA\ directory should have one subdirectory, Interface, which itself should have one subdirectory, Cinematics. The only files in DATA\ are four .html files (connection-help, Credits, eula, and tos), two .url files (AccountBilling and TechSupport), eleven non-patch .MPQ files (base, dbc, fonts, interface, misc, model, sound, speech, terrain, texture, and wmo), and some number of patch*.MPQ files (perhaps patch.MPQ and either patch-1.MPQ or patch-2.MPQ). There aren't any files ending with .Zip, .Exe, .DLL, .BLP, .TGA, nor ending Arj files (ending with .ARJ or A followed by a low two-digit number).
If, when you are no longer running the Patchin' Batch, you see any additional files in the DATA\ directory (and not a subdirectory underneath DATA\) other than GoGet.Bat and/or GoInst.BTM then that likely wasn't intended by the Patchin' Batch so if they were created by the Patchin' Batch then there is likely no reason not to delete them. (I've seen the Patchin' Batch leave these extra files around a lot, but then again, in the process of creating newer versions of the file, I also quit the program while it was running a lot, which is not the recommended action for end users. Therefore, I'm hoping end users, who typically won't be aborting the program instead of letting the program end itself, won't typically be having any extra files.)
Testing has found some *.EXE files may remain in DATA\. These are probably left from GoGet.Bat rather than GoInst.BTM. If so, the way to fix this would be to modify GoGet.Bat. It could be said, though, that ideally (even if this is unrealistic) all Command.Com/CMD.Exe-like command prompts used would be command lines from a JP Software product so GoGet.Bat would be doing little other than running GoInst.BTM. Debugging the comparitively simple GoGet.Bat any further is a rather low priority since its just a convenience tool and wasn't ever meant to be widely appreciated as GoInst.BTM's contents were. (In other words, don't expect the original Patchin' Batch's developer to apply a fix for this anytime soon. Delete the extra files yourself after GoGet.Bat fully exits if you don't want it.) In fact, if any further work on GoGet is done, it may take the form of making a GoGet.Exe which would just do what GoGet currently does. That is: detect the operating system, download and unzip the appropriate JP Software product based on the operating system, ensure WGet is in the right space, and have GoInst.BTM. An Exe could also try to locate WoW through the Windows registry and could ask the user if another spot should be found, so it wouldn't matter so much were GoGet.Exe is run from and people wouldn't have to worry about manually placing other files in the right spot.
This copyright and disclaimer are mentioned in GoInst.BTM. See other web pages on this site for information about Blizzard's position on the patch. (Note that such material was likely written before WoW version 1.11 which did, other than the Cinematics names, remove the ability to have directories under DATA\ be noticably read like how things worked well in earlier versions of WoW.)
TOOGAM's Patchin' Batch was meant to be an easy to use way of patching World of WarCraft in a way that shows, through the exposure of the batch file's source code, how things are done. In reality, the batch file had some problems (including incompatibility with directories containing spaces in Windows XP, which was probably most users) and the batch file's downloading features led to the code becoming complicated enough that few would probably understand it easily. Still, it does its job of patching World of WarCraft, and recent modifications were made primarily because modifying the existing project seemed simpler than starting the project anew programming in a language that generates a standard Windows *.Exe file.
The predecessor to the Patchin' Batch, wownudf2.zip, was received as generally appreciated by those who sought to patch World of WarCraft in the way these patches do. The Patchin' Batch didn't work for many people for some time and so some people tried a couple of versions and gave up on the new version, relying on wownudf2.zip. However, with the Patchin' Batch now tested on Windows XP, support for running largely non-interactive through using an environmental variable as an input queue, and support for making an MPQ file as needed by version 1.11 of the World of WarCraft program, the Patchin' Batch is definitely recommended over an older version. Clearer instructions have also been posted on a web page.
The primary task that the Patchin' Batch is meant to do, which there is (currently) no (known) easier/better way to do this, is to make many specific articles of clothing of female World of WarCraft player characters transparent. This will allow a player to see whatever is beneath the clothing without needing to remove the article of clothing since removing the clothing may be unwise (in a dangerous location where armor is needed) or generally undoable (if the article of clothing is on another player's character who doesn't strip).
Unlike earlier versions, the June 26, 2006 and later releases of the Patchin' Batch can output to an MPQ file. This can work perfectly by outputting to a brand new MPQ file so that none of the original files by Blizzard are modified, although the capability also exists to modify an official file if that is the filename that the user gives to a prompt.
These are the steps that I take. More elaborate directions may be provided sometime for those who don't know how to perform these basic steps. I know more detail on how to put files in the right spots would be helpful for some, and maybe someday I'll add it. The DATA\ directory (a.k.a. "folder") mentioned is under the directory were WoW.Exe is installed, so if WoW is run by executing "C:\Program Files\World of WarCraft\WoW.exe" then the DATA\ directory mentioned would be "C:\Program Files\World of WarCraft\DATA\".
Optionally, put a "Helper" batch file (fullnude.bat, maketopl.bat) in DATA\
Perhaps figure out how the patch*.mpq code works in more detail. Patch.MPQ is used, and I believe if patch-x.mpq has some files and another ("testing") file is placed in all of patch-0.mpq, patch-1.mpq, patch-2.mpq, patch-w.mpq, patch-y.mpq, and patch-z.mpq, then the "testing" file will be loaded. I think that I've even seen a patch-2.mpq made by Blizzard's patching process at some point. (The other patch-#.mpq and patch-letter.mpq's other than patch-x.mpq are filenames I made up.) This would likely just require some further testing to understand more (mpq2k d patch-x.mpq somefile, then see if patch-1.mpq loads). I belive patch-3.mpq won't load if patch-2.mpq doesn't exist. With a few dummy files, it shouldn't be too tough to learn if, after patch-9.mpq, it becomes patch-10.mpq? (or maybe 0 and then the ascii char after 0 is what would be used?)
Update: The Exe mentions a patch.mpq and a patch-?.mpq, and the following filenames were all found to work (which the only other patch*.mpq file was patch.mpq): patch-2.mpq, patch-8.mpq, patch--.mpq. I believe that WoW might not have always been that flexible, but perhaps it is by now since there's now been a larger amount of incremental patches than there used to be. One hypothesis, not really tested, is that WoW may patch differently depending on what patches you use. Specifically, the idea says that installing from 1.0 and applying all of the minor patches may result in the patch*.mpq files being created and parsed differently than if installing from 1.0 and then upgrading straight to 1.5 and then upgrading further, and that could result in a different set of patch*.mpq files by the time the 1.10 patch is applied than if someone upgraded straight from 1.0 to 1.10. Technically this would work fine if patches were applied in the same sort of system (putting data in a patch*.mpq file), even if the details (which patch*.mpq file(s) are used) differ a bit.
There also used to be a wow-patch.MPQ which was deleted (apparently by Blizzard Downloader?) as documented in file:///H:/Games/WoW/Logs/Blizzard%20Updater%20Log.html