New versions of NearInfinity available

argent77

Near Infinity (or short: NI) is an open source cross-platform browser and editor for resources of Infinity Engine games.

Download latest release

Download latest development snapshots

Near Infinity Wiki

Summary of new features:

• Supports the following Infinity Engine games, including expansions:
  • Baldur's Gate
  • Baldur's Gate II
  • Icewind Dale
  • Icewind Dale II
  • Planescape: Torment
  • Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
  • Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear
  • Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
  • Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
  • Planescape Torment: Enhanced Edition
• Supports the following fan-made conversions and compilations:
  • BGTutu and EasyTutu
  • Baldur's Gate Trilogy (BGT)
  • Enhanced Edition Trilogy (EET)
  • Icewind Dale II: Enhanced Edition
• Supports case-sensitive filesystems (as found on Linux and derivates) without the requirement of tolowered game installations.
• DLC support (which is currently used for the "Siege of Dragonspear" expansion provided by GOG and Stream)
• Native ACM and WAVC sound support (no acm2wav or acmtool required anymore)
• Native Ogg Vorbis sound support
• Native MVE movie playback support (the movie format used in the original BG1/BG2 and IWD games)
• A creature animation browser, featuring:
  • Extensive customization of colors and equipment
  • Selection of animation sequence and orientation
  • Various animation-related options and properties
  • Export of animation sequences to APNG files
• An area viewer (found in the view tab of each ARE resource entry), featuring:
  • Day and night maps
  • Simulation of different daylight lighting conditions
  • Overlay support (for displaying water, lava, etc.)
  • Visualization of various map structures (actors, regions, doors, animations, ...)
  • Map zooming (fixed zoom levels and auto-zoom)
• A great number of resource check options (found under the menu Tools->Check)
• Various conversion routines (found under the menu Tools->Convert):
• a powerful BAM Converter
• Image to BMP (supports transparency; required for images displayed in BG(2):EE's item descriptions)
• Image to MOS
• Image to PVRZ
• Image to TIS
• Syntax highlighting support and selectable color schemes for BCS scripts, INI, GLSL, LUA, MENU and SQL resources, as well as the Dialog.tlk and WeiDU.log files.
• Advanced search (found under the menu Search)
• and many more...

These are work in progress releases, so you may still find a bug or two, especially in the new features. You might want to browse this thread for more information or visit the download page once in a while to see if updated versions are available.

Near Infinity releases are provided as platform-specific installers for Windows and macOS which already include the required Java Runtime package. Alternatively, download the NearInfinity.jar file directly. On Linux system you can also download and install a flatpak version of Near Infinity from the FlatHub platform.

Note: The NearInfinity.jar file requires Java 8 or later to run. You can either download the original version from Oracle or the open source version.

Feel free to test it, especially the new features, and post your comments, bug reports or suggestions either here, on GitHub Discussions or on Spellhold Studios Forums.

Blucher

Awesome. NI has always been my favorite. Thank you.

Cdawg

You are a legend sir. Thank you.

Aigleborgne

Great, modding would be almost impossible without this excellent tool Thank you for the work!

Balquo

@argent77 I tried exporting as PNG ar5100.tis but I got "Error while exporting AR5100.TIS"

argent77

Balquo said:

@argent77 I tried exporting as PNG ar5100.tis but I got "Error while exporting AR5100.TIS"

This is most likely a memory issue. The export feature requires a lot of free memory for big maps. Unfortunately, I have only little control over the actual PNG conversion process.

You could try out the tool "Hide NI DOS" which starts NearInfinity with enhanced memory parameters. You can find it somewhere in this post.

Alternatively, you could start NearInfinity directly via command line. The syntax looks like this:

javaw.exe -Xms512m -Xmx1024m -XX:PermSize=128m -XX:MaxPermSize=128m -XX:NewSize=128m -XX:MaxNewSize=128m -jar "NearInfinity.jar"

If javaw.exe isn't in your path, then you have to figure out where you have installed Java on your system. In the case of "C:\Program Files\Java\jre7", you'll have to enter:

"C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin\javaw.exe" -Xms512m -Xmx1024m -XX:PermSize=128m -XX:MaxPermSize=128m -XX:NewSize=128m -XX:MaxNewSize=128m -jar "NearInfinity.jar"

It basically does the same as Hide NI DOS.

CamDawg

@argent77, remind me, what does NI key on for determining if an install is BGEE or BGIIEE?

Balquo

Was a memory issue indeed. Got it sorted. Thank you!

argent77

@CamDawg

BGEE checks for "movies/bgenter.wbm". BG2EE checks for "movies/pocketzz.wbm". Both paths are relative to the path containing the chitin.key.

Abel

This is a great update to an already great tool! Thanks to you, good sir!

Pecca

This is awesome. Thank you!

CoM_Solaufein

Awesome. One of the best tools.

MonoCanalla

@argent77

This is amazing. Thank you for making something like this. I play in iPad and I used this program with an iMac. I succeeded in modificating an item. However, the instructions in the website you provide don't explain much. Is there a more deep manual? For example, I saw that I can place a new criature in an area.

Firstable, is there a list where I can see which area has each description code in the program, so I can know what I am doing? Also, how to identify the coordinates X and Y.

Second, i can only add (and modify) existing creatures. So if I want to make a NPC mod, I can't create one from scratch. How could I do that? How could I also create items?

I added to override the items made for subracing (the drow bands, the aasimar helmet, the svirnefli ring) and I managed to place them in a store, to buy them. Buy when I went to such story in the game, it wasn't there. As they are created, modded items, I am sure that was the problem. Same thing again, how to create new content or use someone else's content and place it in the game.

And finally, how can I edit save games like I can do in EE Keeper. Or at least edit for example and item and move it to my Charname in EE Keeper, since there I can only add current items, not those new ones I added trough override.


Much questions, I know. Is just great if I could make my own mods here. Thanks!!

CrevsDaak

MonoCanalla said:

I added to override the items made for subracing (the drow bands, the aasimar helmet, the svirnefli ring) and I managed to place them in a store, to buy them. Buy when I went to such story in the game, it wasn't there.

If you already have interacted with the store, they won't show, as the store's info is in your save (don't mess with it) and not in the game's file that can be overriden.

MonoCanalla said:

And finally, how can I edit save games like I can do in EE Keeper. Or at least edit for example and item and move it to my Charname in EE Keeper, since there I can only add current items, not those new ones I added trough override.

Adding items with NI is very complicated, but it can be done. If you are browsing the EE, a Save directory should appear, just edit the .GAM, double click on *HRBASE (your PC) that will be at the right-top of the screen to edit the CHR on the .GAM, go to the Edit tab and scroll down, double-click the last line to bring the window to edit the CRE file.

MonoCanalla said:

Firstable, is there a list where I can see which area has each description code in the program, so I can know what I am doing? Also, how to identify the coordinates X and Y.

For the Area-code's values I recommend this site for BG2 and this one for BG1. To get the coordinates, press the key 'X' in the game, if you are plating iPad you won't be able to do so, but with the latest build of NI, you can see areas in the editor, which is pretty handy.

MonoCanalla said:

Second, i can only add (and modify) existing creatures. So if I want to make a NPC mod, I can't create one from scratch. How could I do that? How could I also create items?

I recommend using WeiDU for adding an NPC as you need the whole DLG (dialog) file, and it's just too complicated with only NI. I would recommend taking a look at an NPC mod and see how they are done.

argent77

@MonoCanalla

As CrevsDaak already hinted at, NI is first and foremost a browsing and editing tool. It is rather difficult to create new content with it, and oftentimes you can't use your new content on different game installations without making additional adjustments everytime. WeiDU is much better suited for that.

To answer your first questions, we don't have a readme for NI unfortunately, but there are a couple of tutorials and guides which also deal with NearInfinity. Good starting points would be the tutorial sections of the SHS and Gibberling3 forums.

It also helps tremendously to get a feel of the different resource formats, files and structures supported by BG(2)EE. IESDP provides lots of information in that regard.

MonoCanalla

Thank you two. So this program is like a good extension of EE Keeper, to fix things that doesn't do what is supposed, or to customize more your game. However, it looks like a good tool to rewrite dialogues. But I guess not in original new content anyway.

Just two more questions. Can I find Black Pits there? Like to add items to the vendors.
And, I saw somewhere the rules for the classes. I can change por example, the minimum Str to be a fighter. Is there a way to create new kits?

wolpak

@argent77‌

Am I supposed to be able to view all the recently changed files?

Like, GUIREC.chu refers to GUILS10.BAM, but that is blank for me. Also, all the PVRZ files say Unsupported File format. Everything else seems to work. I am using 7.51 Java.

argent77

MonoCanalla said:

Can I find Black Pits there? Like to add items to the vendors.

Black Pits uses the prefix "BP" for most of its resources (e.g. BPBAELOT.CRE for Baeloth or BPBREN01.STO for Brendak's store), so it should be easy to find the store you're looking for.

MonoCanalla said:

And, I saw somewhere the rules for the classes. I can change por example, the minimum Str to be a fighter. Is there a way to create new kits?

I can't help you there. You should open a separate topic for this.

wolpak said:

Like, GUIREC.chu refers to GUILS10.BAM, but that is blank for me.

Those files work fine on my installation. Have you installed any mods?

wolpak said:

Also, all the PVRZ files say Unsupported File format.

Can you upload one of those unreadable PVRZ files?

wolpak

Not that modify that file. I am not using a standard install, just a direct copy from my iPad. But, like I said, everything else works.

wolpak

@argent77‌

Here's the file.

argent77

@wolpak

Very interesting. The PVRZ file you have provided uses a new (and rather exotic) pixel format. I'll try to incorporate it into one of the next NI updates.

Can you browse through the rest of the PVRZ files and check whether all of them are using the same pixel format?

The Debug Console (activate via Tools->Show Debug Console, or Ctrl+D) can provide the required info. The only interesting bit of information in this case is shown in the first line of each error block. It should look something like this:

java.lang.Exception: Pixel format 'PVRTC_4BPP_RGBA' not supported

The A*.PVRZ and O*.PVRZ files are most likely all encoded with the same pixel format. The MOS*.PVRZ files however might use different pixel formats.

wolpak

I have added the zip file, a MOS*.PVRZ, a .BAM and a .MOS file that don't show either.

CrevsDaak

I am not sure for BG:EE, but fore BG2:EE, the signature used for the Black Pits' content is OHB (OverHaul Black Pits).

Also, iPad and desktop version might have differences, I don't think so but I am not sure and I cannot confirm that at 100% sure.

argent77 said:

MonoCanalla said:

And, I saw somewhere the rules for the classes. I can change por example, the minimum Str to be a fighter. Is there a way to create new kits?

I can't help you there. You should open a separate topic for this.

To create new kits use WeiDU, it's too difficult with NI, here you can find a guide for BG2:ToB, if you want to make a kit for the EE you should imitate a TP2 file from another mod, there are a bunch of kit mods working for the latest EE version, @dib made one that you could take a loo at.

To change the Min STR for fighter simply edit the ABCLASRQ.2DA file by changing the numbers, you can do this with NI.
Edit: I made a typo in a HTML code.

argent77

@wolpak Thanks for the log. From a first look I'd say that the GUILS10.BAM issue is linked to the unsupported PVRZ format, since BGEE's BAM files also refer to PVRZ files for graphics data. The same is true for a couple of BGEE's MOS files.

It looks like the iPad version of BGEE uses only one new pixel format for all of its PVRZ files. Implementing it shouldn't take too long (provided I can find some info about the new pixel format).

argent77

@wolpak

A new NearInfinity version has been released. It supports (among other things) the new PVRZ file format used in the iPad version of the games.

Click here to see a more comprehensive list of changes.

elminster

Wow this is great. Thanks! I've been using an older version for awhile and this is is very good

Erg

@argent77 many thanks for all your work on this. I don't know if you accept feature requests, but I'll try

It seems that NI is still missing, correct me if I'm wrong, the possibility to choose the language for dialog.tlk (in the Enhanced Edition this is always English). I would really like, if possible and not too much bothersome, a menu option to select the language.

Thanks in advance regardless of it is possible or not.

argent77

Erg said:

It seems that NI is still missing, correct me if I'm wrong, the possibility to choose the language for dialog.tlk (in the Enhanced Edition this is always English). I would really like, if possible and not too much bothersome, a menu option to select the language.

This feature has already been added a long time ago to our to-do list. Implementing it as originally planned is difficult however because it requires some internal restructuring which is very time-consuming. I'll see if I can add a temporary "hack" that adds multi-language support for BGEE, but I can't promise anything.

Currently NearInfinity uses the language defined in the Baldur.ini for the dialog.tlk (english by default). So as a temporary work-around, you can specify the desired language in the in-game options before working with NearInfinity.

AstroBryGuy

Syntax highlighting! SWEEEEET!



@argent77‌ - YOU ROCK!

CoM_Solaufein

Ain't dat purtty.

elminster

I love the multi-colouring

So I was trying to make a CRE file that happens to be a dragon disciple. Only when I looked under kits the only two new kits that are listed are blackguard and sun soul (all the old ones, like shapeshifters and stalkers, etc are there). Any help you could provide would be appreciated.