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Modding

enneractenneract Member Posts: 187
edited April 2014 in Android (Archive)
Ok, so I've done a little preliminary investigation into modding, hopefully this might spur some interest.

Portraits can be injected at /Android/data/com.beamdog.baldursgateenhancededition/files/portraits.
Game assets are located in a pair of files at /Android/obb/com.beamdog.baldursgateenhancededition/ ; these can be extracted and modified with 7zip. The dialog.tlk is not identical to the current Windows release, but that is probably because the current Android version is 1.3.1226.

The game does not load anything other than portraits and probably soundsets, and maybe scripts (bs) from the .../data/... location ignoring any other directories (no override, etc). It also will not load scripts (bcs) or a dialog.tlk file from those locations.

The two obb files are interesting, though. The second one, beginning with 'patch' appears to be exactly what you might think it is - a zip of a partial directory structure we are very familiar with. Due to the way that android deals with this file, we don't get to do something as simple as add a new patch file with a newer version code; there can only be 2 obb files in this directory, and there seems to be some sort of error checking on both, so you can't simply inject changes into the patch zip.

Based on just a couple hours of fiddling here, I don't see any modding being possible unless we get override loading from .../data/..., both override directory and tlk's. If we can get that, though, the existing modding infrastructure should work just fine, and not even require a rooted device. If not, well, I'll try to disable the CRC on the patch file for my personal use, but I doubt distributing that would go over well, heh :D

Summoning @Dee‌ to see if some attention could be brought to bear on getting proper override support. (Even a 'no' would be great, tbh.)
Post edited by enneract on

Comments

  • DeeDee Member Posts: 10,447
    Tagging @enneract just in case you don't have your notifications set up.
  • enneractenneract Member Posts: 187
    edited April 2014
    Hrmmm! If it won't load .bs scripts, that explains why my test against override failed. Congruence bias, bad enneract. It is good to see official word, though.

    That being said, we are still in a situation where the iPad version is more moddable than Android, and that just cannot be endured! :) Even if that weren't the case, it seems like an oversight that we cant load script files, as this is one of the primary avenues for modding when string modification isn't on the table?

    Either way, I hope that this gets revisited. I know modding on secondary platform can hardly be the most supported behavior, but it sounds like all we need is .tlk override capability, and ideally /scripts/, and we are golden...

    *edit*
    Also, guys, really, using a SharedPreferences flag to enable DLC? 'On-Disk' DLC, really?
  • DeeDee Member Posts: 10,447
    The "scripts" folder will work too, I just confirmed that.
  • enneractenneract Member Posts: 187
    Yes indeed, it does!

    Ok, now all we need is a little bit of redirection for the strings file :D
  • AstafasAstafas Member Posts: 448
    @Dee, I can't find the saved games or the .ini-file. Is there an alternative location? I've connected my Nexus 7 to a Win8 stationary. I've gotten the portrait folder to work though...
  • ProteumusProteumus Member Posts: 1
    Is there a way to edit these files without rooting your android device? Would be very nice not to have to do that?
  • enneractenneract Member Posts: 187
    Proteumus said:

    Is there a way to edit these files without rooting your android device? Would be very nice not to have to do that?

    No root needed. /sdcard/Android/data/ is not system-protected
  • shakixshakix Member Posts: 1
    so currently most mods aren't supported? (due to the lack of .tlk)
  • enneractenneract Member Posts: 187
    More or less. Also WEIDU doesn't work at all, more or less.

    *some* mods that don't include any custom strings (basically any text in-game whatsoever) could be 'installed' by taking a clean PC installation, installing said mods on that, then copying over the relevant files (usually from the override directory) into the override directory on your android device.

    YMMV, if you don't know what you are doing it probably wont't work, and even if you do it probably won't work right, etc etc.

    No real point in figuring out how to do this properly until some method of injecting new strings is possible. Hopefully the EE team will remember (at least some of their) roots and make that possible, it should be a pretty trivial change...
  • DeeDee Member Posts: 10,447
    I've set aside some time in my otherwise busy schedule to think about how we could do it. No matter what, though, it's going to require a PC or Mac version of the game that you install the mod on first before transferring it over to Android.
  • enneractenneract Member Posts: 187
    Dee said:

    I've set aside some time in my otherwise busy schedule to think about how we could do it. No matter what, though, it's going to require a PC or Mac version of the game that you install the mod on first before transferring it over to Android.

    Cool :) There's a reason why people keep buying stuff, eh?
  • thejackle123thejackle123 Member Posts: 10
    Astafas said:

    @Dee, I can't find the saved games or the .ini-file. Is there an alternative location? I've connected my Nexus 7 to a Win8 stationary. I've gotten the portrait folder to work though...

    I've found that android sometimes hides some files/folders when searching from another computer try finding a file browser in android and see if you can find them then.
  • dukemagusdukemagus Member Posts: 5
    Dee said:

    I've set aside some time in my otherwise busy schedule to think about how we could do it. No matter what, though, it's going to require a PC or Mac version of the game that you install the mod on first before transferring it over to Android.

    great! I eagerly await your progress on the matter
  • badgercdbadgercd Member Posts: 6
    @dee Any joy yet on modding for android?
  • NetherielNetheriel Member Posts: 5
    So, if I had a PC version of BG EE, can I tranfer some mods like BG NPC Project in the Android version on my tablet?
  • enneractenneract Member Posts: 187
    No, at least not yet. The Android version cannot load any modified text (such as dialogs or item descriptions), and is a version ahead of the PC version currently.
  • badgercdbadgercd Member Posts: 6
    @beamdog Is the issue a commercial one or a technical one? If the former, why not consider unlocking the .tlk file only once all other dlc is purchased, or having the unlocked file as a payable dlc? If the latter, I really hope you guys are able to find a solution. As great as the game is, after a few playthroughs it needs to be modded to keep it interesting.
  • XarosXaros Member Posts: 5
    Hi all. I was in 7th heaven when I've installed BG EE on my Asus (android ) tablet and S4.
    I didn't play for this game over 12 years, but now it is like a second live :-)

    I have a huge problem, I've achieved 161k xp and it is not growing up anymore.

    PLEASE help me remove XP Cap on my Android devices ie Asus tablet or Samsung S4

    I need your help
  • billy3billy3 Member Posts: 5
    Any word on access to the dialog.tlk and mod-ability of the Android version of BGEE? Those are the only things keeping me from getting it.
  • jubeijubei Member Posts: 14
    Dee said:

    Android/data/com.beamdog.baldursgateenhancededition/files will support any of the following folders and files:

    - save
    - mpsave
    - bpsave
    - mpbpsave
    - portraits
    - characters
    - sounds
    - override
    - baldur.ini

    So any mod using override files will work just dandy there; if it requires a change to the tlk file I'm afraid you're out of luck, at least for the moment.

    Also, we're working out a problem with that directory being wiped during game updates. So before you update your game, be sure to back-up your saves and any other files from there that you want to keep.

    ok tried the override dir and no joy the game picking up .2da files

    should the game apk pick up 2da's from that location ??? ( am using a simple xp cap extension mod and a bug fix 2da )

    i am also working on a method of getting full modding access here http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/32764/bug-report-and-feature-reuest#latest

    bit REALLY dont want to , would prefer beamdog sorting the issue for the BG2 EE release, where the issue is critical
  • DeeDee Member Posts: 10,447
    The override folder should support 2da files just like it does on Windows and Mac.
  • enneractenneract Member Posts: 187
    can confirm, 2da works fine. The only thing that doesn't work is editing strings.
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