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Modding Android BG:EE

jubeijubei Member Posts: 14
in General Modding
has anyone managed a WeiDU mod on the android platform? am looking to port my mod to the upcomming android BG2:EE so using BG:EE as a test case.
At the moment cant change the content of the .obb files which contain the chitin.key and dialog.tlk due to android restrictions, will the files live in override ok ? Admit never tried overiding them :)
Or has anyone come up with a workround ?

Comments

  • WispWisp Member Posts: 1,102
    edited June 2014
    If you can't touch chitin.key and dialog.tlk you are not going to get far (and WeiDU definitely can't work like that). WeiDU mods won't work from the override. You can try doing what the iOS guys (seem to) do and copy files from a modded game on your uncrippled OS onto your phone/whatever. But you won't get dialog.tlk et al. that way, so it will still be very limited.
  • jubeijubei Member Posts: 14
    edited June 2014
    yea working on getin beamdog to allow chitin.key and dialog.tlk overides from the sd card folder where saved games are stored, if they dont am working on a workround

    WeiDU will work fine if the chitin.key and dialog.tlk issue is solved, a simple script to copy the android content "flat" to a working folder, ( with the lang files copied flat to ), apply the WeiDU patch ( fortunatly there is a linux version of WeiDU ) then copy resultant chitin.key and dialog.tlk and overrride to sdcard ; should be trivial
    After all thats what i can do manually already.

    Was just really in hope someone had already done it to sve me the work
  • DeeDee Member Posts: 10,447
    @Wisp‌ what files would need to be accessed in order for WeiDU to work? Just chitin.key and dialog.tlk?
  • jubeijubei Member Posts: 14
    yep and everything in a flat structure, that means decompressing the 2 .obb's to a working dir, then moving the contents of the relevent lang dir to the same working dir
    Nearinfinity is happy with that so WeiDU will be good to, maybe a few tweaks but thats all i expext, have to recompile WeiDU for arm tho which will take a while, but messing with android in a big way at the mo so might do it fairly soon
    All depends on chitin.key and dialog.tlk tho, if i have to make em accessable , will take LONG since my java is still crap, and its one hell of a job.
    i have high hopes tho the beamdog guys seem like really nice ( and cool ) people, fingers crossed they will implement chitin.key and dialog.tlk overrides for BG2:EE Android which is what im really interested in
  • WispWisp Member Posts: 1,102
    edited June 2014
    @Dee‌

    Well, that really depends on what you mean by "work".

    WeiDU needs access to the TLKs in order to read and write text. WeiDU needs access to chitin.key and the biff archives in order to read original game files (which is necessary in order to compile dialogue and scripts, in addition to all the obvious stuff). WeiDU needs access to all the overrides that are in use. Further needs expand from there, depending on the mod.

    Additionally, WeiDU, as it exists today, makes some very fundamental, very mobile-incompatible assumptions about what permissions it has and where it is running from (such as full rwx permissions to the root game directory, which I guess would be inside the mobile app). I don't even want to begin estimating how much work would be required to port WeiDU to an environment where it can't run hog-wild, admin-style (or even if it's possible without breaking everything).
  • jubeijubei Member Posts: 14
    Well if using a working dir WeiDU will have access to all the biff archives etc and chitin.key, it performs the mod on the working dir then we just copy the override dir back into the game, that just leaves chitin.key and dialog.talk which as has been said is the bugger.
    permissions--- not a worry run it as root ( assuming device is rooted with super su or euivelent ) trust me if it works on linux will work on android which IS linux, even without root will be possible if i write a Apk for the job and walk the official google path
  • xxTheGoDxxxxTheGoDxx Member Posts: 10
    You don't even need root since /android/obb/ is not a protected path on Android devices.
  • KerthalKerthal Member Posts: 68
    Hi @Dee,

    Any idea if those changes (chitin.key and dialog.tlk beeing available on Android) will be implemented in the near future? I will get a tablet next week and I'm thinking about buying Baldur's Gate for that device. However if I can't get my favourite mods to work, I will hold this until it's resolved.

    Thanks.
  • DeeDee Member Posts: 10,447
    It's not on our current timeline, but it's something we're still looking at. The Android environment doesn't lend itself to meddling as well as we might like.
  • KerthalKerthal Member Posts: 68
    Ok thanks. I'll continue to check the forums from time to time and hope you'll be able to find a way to "fix" this :)
  • ZALRAINZALRAIN Member Posts: 3
    Any new updates??
  • BaelersetuBaelersetu Member Posts: 1
    Does anyone have an update on this one? I've been hit with the "Luck isn't so lucky!" bug on Coran, all weapon proficiency slots are wiped with no good save to go back to. Just looking for a way to get at the save file and update his proficiency slots. Trying EE:Keeper as well, running into same problem of not being able to open the dialog.tlk file. Any help would be appreciated!
  • LetholLethol Member Posts: 6
    edited May 2015
    Hello! The Obb files are zip files, you only have to rename the extensions and then extract the files to make dialog.tlk and CHITIN.KEY avaible. If it's possible to make Weidu to run on Android with or without Busybox it shouldn't be any problems to do this, or if you run the program on a pc with Linux. After you have modified the files. You may have to use a hex editor to get it to work:

    (I have not wrote this, it's from http://www.alphagamers.net/threads/how-to-edit-obb-file.15538/page-2)
    "# i use GOF2 for example
    # rename gof2.obb > gof2.zip
    # extract the needed file that u want to edit, in this case i extract "BIN > ships.bin"
    # edit the file (ships.bin) with hex editor
    # drag the modified "ships.bin" into the gof2.zip (original folder/file location), using "store" compression type
    # after the file inside gof2.zip updated, just fill '00' byte at the end of the zip file until the bytes size is same like original .obb
    # rename back the modified gof2.zip > gof2.obb
    # done, works perfectly in game".


    I did copy the extracted files to my PC, and I placed dialog.tlk in a "lang", "en-Us" folder.
    I managed to start "bg2_tweaks-v16.exe" and it began modifing the files, but then I recieved a error message that it was a Unix error. I am new to this, I think that somebody who read this would know what to do.

    You mave have to use the hexeditor on the modified obb file afterwards to make it work...
    I hope someone can do anything with this!
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