BG:EE - Modding made easier

Excalibur_2102

Dear modders,

Overhaul have said that one of the selling points of BGEE is that modding is easier. Ive heard some modders say that it is actually easier, but noones really ever said why. So my question to you modders is, what does BGEE do that makes modding easier for you guys?

As someone who knows little about modding, it would be interesting to know.

Avenger_teambg

1. a few tobex and/or gemrb features have been implemented, some things became possible or just much easier among these: custom character animations, new itemtypes and other small effect improvements.
2. all sound resources are .ogg which is a better format than .acm or .wavc

Edwin

@Avenger_teambg

Speaking of TOBEX, do you know which version is currently recomended?

I am currently using build 0.25.10.29 and it starts complaining about a posion resist mod.

TobEx: Throne of Bhaal Extender build 0.25.10.29 (Fri 04 Jan 2013 10:34:40)
DETOUR_CEffectPoisonResistMod::DETOUR_ApplyEffect(): invalid effect.nParam2 (78)

Any insight?

Cuv

Also all the animations have been externalized... so we can have pretty much any animations we want to use. Whether from IWD, IWD2 and converted PST animations. Also any that have been previously converted to an IE format from other games. To be clear... we are talking about simply plugging in animations without having to worry about any mod compatibility.

Avenger_teambg

@Edwin nah, i don't know much about tobex, you gotta ask @Ascension64

@cuv that's what i meant with custom character animations.

Ascension64

@Edwin: I think that's still an issue. I haven't had any time to work on anything since November. There was some issue with something at Copper Coronet triggering the issue, unless you have further detials.

Edwin

@Ascension64 The error message in my case begins immediately in the first dungeon.

April

@Ascension64 Also using your saving throw fix in 0.25.10.29 makes successful saves still play the saved fail animation, e.g. swirling orb above head for chaos and such. When I turned that option off it started to work properly again. This is with Spell Revisions installed if that is of relevance.

Ascension64

Thanks, will add onto list of stuff to do.

Edwin

@Ascension64 my install does the saving throw thing too and I don't have spell revisions installed.

DraconisPrime

Cuv said:

Also all the animations have been externalized... so we can have pretty much any animations we want to use. Whether from IWD, IWD2 and converted PST animations. Also any that have been previously converted to an IE format from other games. To be clear... we are talking about simply plugging in animations without having to worry about any mod compatibility.

How would one go about plugging in an animation? Specifically, I have Icewind Dale II installed on my computer right now, and BG:EE, and I want to import the animations for the neo-orog priest of Bane named Hiepherus (his animation is "0xe8d9 neo-orog shaman" according to DLTCEP) and put them into BG:EE so I can use EE Keeper to change my character's appearance and animations to that of Hiepherus. Uncertain how to "extract" an animation from the IWD2 data, I downloaded the animations from Spellhold Studios (http://www.shsforums.net/files/file/861-ia-content-002-iwdii-and-unused-bgii-animations/) but still don't know how to put them into BG:EE. I heard mention of an EXTANIM.2da, but I haven't been able to find it in my BG:EE folder (though I did find something titled "25CreAni.bif" in the "data" folder). Any advice?

In any case, thanks for breathing new life into an awesome, classic game, and for your continuing support. You guys rock!

viader

@DraconisPrime Put bams in override and add:

In EXTANIM.2da - number slot in decimal
"number_slot" 0 0 0 0 0 0 47 0 0 NONE NONE NONE 8 3 "name_animation" NONE 0 0 NONE

Example:
58912 0 0 0 0 0 0 47 0 0 NONE NONE NONE 8 3 MBEG NONE 0 0 NONE

In EXTSPEED.2da - number slot in decimal
"number_slot" "movement_rate"

Example:
58912 5

In ANIMATE.ids - number slot in hex
"number_slot" "blabla..."

Example:
0xE620 my_anim


Informations from ScottBrooks about EXTANIM.2da:

EXTANIM.2da
0 1 2 3 4 ... 19

0 - NUMBER SLOT - decimal
1 - ARMOR_MAX_CODE = [0,1,2,3,4] max armor level. 4 = plate. It's basically set to 4 for all the characters except for the monk who has it set to 1
2 - CAN_LIE_DOWN = [0, 1] Do we have frames where we are on the ground? Death animation checks this.
3 - DETECTED_BY_INFRAVISION = [0,1] Are we detected by infravision
4 - DOUBLE_BLIT = [0,1] Should probably always be set to 0, but the DEMB animation has this set to true.
5 - EQUIP_HELMET = [0,1] Can they equip a helmet
6 - SPLIT_BAMS = [0,1] Are the bams split
7 - COLOR_BLOOD = [0-255] color palette lookup. Seems like 47 is pretty common
8 - COLOR_CHUNKS = [0-255] used in EFFECT_EXPLODINGDEATH(8), seems to be either 0 or 255
9 - FALSE_COLOR = [0,1] Tell it to use the character colors
10 - HEIGHT_CODE = string - "WQM", "WQL", "WQS", etc. The prefix to the weapon animations. Will be set to "NONE" for most monsters.
11 - HEIGHT_CODE_HELMET = string - same as above, but for the helmet animation
12 - HEIGHT_CODE_SHIELD = string - see above
13 - SND_FREQ = [0-255] Sound frequency. Lots of animations are set in under 10, then a few are quite high(150+, MGCP, MGCL, MDOG, etc)
14 - PERSONAL_SPACE = [0-255] most are 3, dragons are 13
15 - RESREF = string - animation resref. MDOG, ARAB, etc.
16 - RESREF_PAPERDOLL = "CHMB", etc
17 - RESREF_ARMORBASE = single char, 'T' thief, 'W' wizard. This is the 4th character in CHM?
18 - RESREF_ARMORSPECIFIC = single char, see above. Use when their armor code is equal to ARMOR_MAX_CODE
19 - RESREF_SHADOW = "CSHD", etc.

Please @Cuv correct me if I'm wrong and tell us about series

DraconisPrime

@viadar Thanks, but I have a stupid question... where are EXTANIM.2da and EXTSPEED.2da located? I can't find them in C>Program Files (x86)>Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, nor can I find them in documents>Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition.

Erg

@DraconisPrime

They are inside a bif file. You may use a modding tool (e.g. NearInfinity, WeiDU, etc.) to read and/or modify them. The modified copy goes inside the override folder.

Cuv

please be careful with it. There are modding plans in the works to standardize the slot assignments as in Infinity Animations for everyone to use them and not have to worry about editing any of that stuff. So all modders or anyone has to do is drop the animations you want into the game. Will take some time though, @Miloch and I are working on that as a side project, not officially.

Nifft

@Cuv - something to look forward to, then. Thank you!

prophet1

Cuv said:

please be careful with it. There are modding plans in the works to standardize the slot assignments as in Infinity Animations for everyone to use them and not have to worry about editing any of that stuff. So all modders or anyone has to do is drop the animations you want into the game. Will take some time though, @Miloch and I are working on that as a side project, not officially.

@Cuv Is ths "standardizing" process still a work in progress? If you can please throw a link at me to an instruction on how to "properly" add new animations in BGEE, it would be great - I'm looking at adding new animations in a mod and naturally I'd like it to be as compatible as possible.