Worldforging is easy- Especially for us Sphere users. I'll spare
the technicalities and get right down to it-

You need:

Worldforge, 
The TUS to UOX Converter, 
The "items.zip" (on my site) 
and obviously, your worldfile.
InsideUO (optional, but recommended)

A suggestion from the start- make backups of your worldfile, and
the three primary files modified in this operation- (these reside
your UO main directory)

They are:

staidx0.mul
statics0.mul
map0.mul

The last one (map0.mul) wont be used/modified UNLESS you decide 
to start using worldforge to alter the actual geography. I 
recommend getting used to the statics operations first.
(In this case we are just converting all those nifty town/dungeon
decorations to static items, technically merging them with the
already present statics files)

Ok. First thing to do ( I recommend this, but its not nessecary)
is decide a few things about what you want and dont want as static.
Read the enclosed help files provided with worldforge AND 
Itemconvert.

The operation involves FIRST converting your worldfile's SELECTED
items into a UOX friendly format. The converter will leave behind
everything else left over. How is this determined? The converter
uses a file called "items.txt" to tell it which items to pull out
of the worldfile- its setup using the id# of the art (as seen 
in insideuo, item number 1 in the artwork list is 0000) listed
in ORDER. Each item must be on its own line, no spaces, and must
alos have a [EOF] tag at the end of it. The converter allows you
to specify the file using any name you wish, I chose the default
just to keep things easy.

The file I included on my site items.txt is a listing of
practically everything in UO's artwork. A couple items I left
out purposely were doors, building signs, and the gold metal
boxes commonly found in most merchant shops. If I missed anything
else I'd be surprised, as I hand indexed these myself. You can thank
me later, as this indexing only took 2 evenings and way too many
cigarettes. :)

When you fire up the converter, its going to ask you for the full
path and filenames of:

Your "tus" worldfile (sphere works perfectly with it as the formats
are the same)

The name of the UOX file you wish to convert the items TO, (I suggest
naming it items.wsc, but anything.wsc is fine but you'll have
to rename it to items.wsc anyways) This file neednt exist
as it will be created.

The name of the NEW tus worldfile, which will be your new, trimmed
down version after these items are removed. You want to keep this
file and treat it as you would your paycheck- it will become your
sphereworld.scp after this whole operation with the converter and
worldforge is done with. Without it, your npc's and everything else
that you didnt choose to convert will be LOST.

And Finally, the name and path of the "item list" (in this case, I 
used my "items.txt" as mentioned above.

Did you remember to use the full path and name? Good. Do it, and let
the converter go. It'll take awhile (a 18 meg worldfile took my
system a couple hours) Whatever you do, do not stop the process.
Have a beer or watch a movie, or both.

Well, the converter did its work, you now have a items.wsc, (the uox
format that worldforge will convert to the statics files) a very much
smaller "new sphereworld.scp" (whatever you named it to) and your old
worldfile. Set your old worldfile aside (back it up!) as the worldforge
operation will not require it.

On to Worldforging Operation!

In case worldforge starts in "simple" mode, check the selection over to
"normal".

Worldforge will want:

The locations of your "original" staidx0.mul, statics0.mul and 
map0.mul files- these should be on your hard drive somewhere. People
claim to have done it off the cd but it is SLOW. What I did was create
two seperate directories, one for the original OSI files, and another for
the new "modified" mul files. Put/copy those 3 files into a directory.
When you type the full path and filename of these files in, and
worldforge finds them, the box will turn green. Its also going
to ask for the uox "items.wsc" full path and filename. It's box will
also turn green when the information is correct.

Ok, all your filenames/paths are in. Good. Theres a button up top/right
that says "GetStaticIndex" - select that. It will take a few seconds
and will tell you when its done.

Next, select "type 255 method" and select "Freeze" (Thats what we are
doing, "freezing items" into the statics files.) This is the lengthy 
portion of the operation. Rent another movie... :) The reason we
use the "type 255" method is because we chose which items to remove
from our worldfile to begin with in the itemconvert operation-
I also have a FULL "autoselect.txt" which can also be used for the
"autoselect" METHOD. I've done both. The advantage to the auto-method
is the indexing file has "descriptions" for each item in there- easier
to quickly determine which items you want to work with. I decided it
was easier to just let itemconvert do all the work since I already
determined on a item-by item basis which things were being pulled and
set to "type 255".

Ok, when you are done, you'll have some NEW modified staidx0.mul,
statics0.mul and map0.mul files, your originals. 
Note the size difference. Dont move them just yet though!

The last step is to create the "patch" file that players will need
to download and apply in order to see the new items/map.

I suggest rebooting, and fire up worldforge again- notice it 
remembered where you have everything. (If you didnt jump the 
gun and move stuff!) Select WF/DIF and IF you didnt mess with the
geography (edit the map files) you can deselect the map0.mul box.
(We didnt in this case) Leaving it selected merely takes longer 
because worldforge will still check to see if there are any 
differences- hey, we burned a 12 pack already, so lets save as much
time as we can eh? If for some reason the path statements are red,
refill them in (I had mine forget a couple times seemingly on its
own) If all is "green" once again select "Generate dif", specify a
patchfilename (whatever.wf2) and let it go.

The "whatever.wf2" file is what players must download. They will
also have to download worldforge, fill in the paths, and "apply 
dif". -its that simple.

For the server end, to USE these new files, they must reside in
the directory that you have specified in your sphere.ini, 
(mul files) and ALSO in the  directory you run your client from
(if you also run a client on that machine) Any client you log
in with will either have to have the statics files copied to it,
or download and apply the "dif" patch using worldforge.

Some notes:

Itemconcvert:
I decorated with everything, but some items like edible/growing
plants, some crates/treasure chests, trash barrels, ect you may
wish to leave out of the "items.txt". I have practically everything
except the few items I mentioned earlier in there, so I warn you,
use my file at your own risk- I glued everything down :)

Modifying the file is easy- grab insideUO and sit down for a hour-
it goes fast once you get the hang of it and the results are superb.
I trimmed a 20 meg worldfile down to 3 meg. The user download
was only a meg and a half, since these files zip nicely if you
compress the snot out of them. Nice huh?

Worldforge:
I suggest again using the 255 method- the "autoselect" method seemed
to take alot longer and I suspect (gut feeling) there might be a 
periodic error (I had a chesspiece or two "forgotten") I didnt test
my worldfile much after that, but it ran fine. Im just paranoid :)

Any questions can be directed to me at: fctavern@hotmail.com

Enjoy! -Thadius, FCT
 
 