I just downloaded some .dds files (never seen that extension before in the EQ directory) that have spell effect-y names.

Did I miss something?

Part of LDON probably?

I didn't notice if these were the first *.dds files ever but I saw them downloaded too and looked into it a little. dds stands for direct draw surface. They are more spell effects and they look pretty cool. You can view them with the texture tool in the directx software development kit. Since the DirectX SDK is a 218 meg download from Microsoft, you may not want to go that route. There's probably a smaller program capable of reading the files, but I personally haven't bothered to look for one.

I didn't see many spell effects since I usually keep spell effects turned off, but I recommend turning them on everyonce in a while. The black fog in Miragul's is very cool looking. When cast it looks like a cloud of black fog surrounds the person and you can see a beating heart in the middle. Only one I can recall offhand since that one is very memorable.

When I got my new computer I turned full spell effects on... first time in a long time. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the additions, especially the Winged Death-type spell effect :)