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IWD:EE Portrait Megapack [by VaZqeZ]

vazqezvazqez Member Posts: 8
edited January 2015 in General Modding
Greetings to all current and future players of this great game! :)

I recently finished my project "Wasteland 2 Portrait Megapack v1.0" and I plan to do the same for this game.
https://forums.inxile-entertainment.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=10400

I started with the compilation and editing "Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition Portrait Megapack v1.0".

Plan
a) All characters body will be completely visible from the knee to up (small characters body will be completely visible).
b) Characters face direction to be specified in advance (front) or slightly to the side.
c) Correction to all images - brightness/contrast/intensity/sharpness/color palette etc. for unification.
d) All images will be available in two versions: Large (L) 420x660px and Medium (M) 169x266px.

Portraits will be divided into the following groups (at least three images from each group).
(For example A1 is one group, A2 is onother and so on..)

Male
A1 - A2 - A3 - A4 - A5 - A6 - A7 - A8 - A9 - A10 - A11
B1 - B2 - B4 - B6 - B7 - B9 - B11
C1 - C2 - C4 - C5 - C6 - C7 - C8 - C9 - C11
D1 - D4 - D6 - D7 - D11
E1 - E4 - E7 - E11
F1 - F4 - F7 - F11
G1 - G4 - G7 - G11

Female
A1 - A2 - A3 - A4 - A5 - A6 - A7 - A8 - A9 - A10 - A11
B1 - B2 - B4 - B6 - B7 - B9 - B11
C1 - C2 - C4 - C5 - C6 - C7 - C8 - C9 - C11
D1 - D4 - D6 - D7 - D11
E1 - E4 - E7 - E11
F1 - F4 - F7 - F11
G1 - G4 - G7 - G11

LEGEND
A : Human
B : Elf
C : Half-Elf
D : Gnome
E : Halfling
F : Dwarf
G : Half-Orc

1 : Fighter
2 : Ranger
3 : Paladin
4 : Cleric
5 : Druid
6 : Mage
7 : Thief
8 : Bard
9 : Sorcerer
10 : Monk
11 : Barbarian

It will generally be a roughly +/- 210 big pictures and 210 small pictures.
I expect that the character of the men will be slightly more than women.
I create for IWD:EE Portrait Megapack a page like this: http://vazworks.sitey.me/

Estimated completion time I dare not guess but it will not be long ;)

If you have any comments, questions or ideas, I'll be happy for feedback.
Post edited by vazqez on

Comments

  • vazqezvazqez Member Posts: 8
    edited January 2015
    Okay, I need some serious help!

    I need to know the answers to these three questions..

    1) Why is written here "http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/36241/heres-how-to-use-custom-portraits-in-iwdee/p1" that i need 2 pictures to create custom portrait: 420x660 with "L" and 169x266 with "M".
    But the game uses instead, three images: 420x660 with "L", 210x330 with "G" and 54x84 with "S".
    What, then, of these two options should I use??

    2) When editing the new pictures that I want to use I came across a question. What do I put the set values for "dpi"??

    3) I do not want to place my pictures to the "portraits" folder. Instead, I want to edit "PORTRAIT.BIF" in the "data" folder.
    I have downloaded program WinBiff v1.2.2 and extraction "portrait.bif" was successful but create a new BIF file in the program does not work. I'm doing something wrong? For creating a new BIF file should i use another program? And if so what program??

    Without the answers to these three questions will not move further.. :(

    Therefore, thank you in advance for any advice!
    Post edited by vazqez on
  • wubblewubble Member Posts: 3,156
    The small portrait is never used so you don't need it, I think you only actually need the large now that the EE scales the pictures but i'm not sure. You'll be safe with The large and medium pictures.
    Can't help with the the rest of it i'm afraid but good luck. :smiley:
  • vazqezvazqez Member Posts: 8
    Thanks for help wubble :) ..but why the game uses three images? It has to have a certain sense.

    Ok, I'm a little progress as regards the question three. Create/Edit BIF file was successful.
    But after the final storing the information on the altered BIF file to "chitin.key" and launch game..
    ..it crash with OpenGL error :(
  • MusignyMusigny Member Posts: 1,027
    I think your point #3 goes against the usage.
    Modders prefer to alter a copy of a resource and they let the original file unmodified.
    As regards the portraits it would be a bit sad to reinstall your module each time Beamdog publishes a patch (which will repair/overwrite all original files).
    I think that pasting your portraits in a dedicated folder once for all sounds better.
    Moreover, I mean no offense but some of us may prefer to keep a selection of your portraits without installing the whole set.

    One more comment, I like to have a small portrait which just captures the face of the character. This is the historical "small format" S of the original games.
  • vazqezvazqez Member Posts: 8
    But how do I get my pictures when creating new characters appear in the game without using the "CUSTOM" button?
    I also thought that I would give here the characters one by one, let everyone download one that he likes.
    Anyway, I want to create the Megapack definitely!

    But it all comes back to points 1 and 2... :(
  • the_spyderthe_spyder Member Posts: 5,018
    It might be worth it to move this thread to the Modding forum. You might get more feedback from there. Once the pack is done, THEN publish it's existence here. Just a thought.
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,758
    Hi there!

    According to @AlexT, the small portraits (the ones ending with the S suffix) are not used in IWD:EE. So for your megapack you should make Large - 420x660 and Medium - 169x266 portraits.

    In terms of editing the new pictures I can't help a lot.

    The main thing, however, is that you, @vazqez , should pay your biggest attention to the copyrights. If you want to use certain images in your magapack, you should get the appropriate rights.

    You can't use portraits if you haven't got a permission from the rightholder. Moreover, you can't post on this forum any portrait pack with portraits on which you haven't got a permission to use them.

    For example, the only way I could create http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/31048/asian-portraits-for-bg-the-romance-of-the-three-kingdoms-pack#latest was that I contacted the owner of the http://kongming.net/ site to get the permission to use the portraits.
  • vazqezvazqez Member Posts: 8
    edited January 2015
    Thank you so much for your advice @bengoshi!

    As regards the small portraits:
    You wrote "the small portraits (the ones ending with the S suffix) are not used in IWD:EE".
    But in the file "PORTRAIT.BIF" are images with extension S suffix (54x84px) are the only, with small character portrait displayed in the game on the sides.
    Also, I do not fit that game, use 54x84 for small image and you advice 169x266 instead the second picture in game is 210x330? It seems to me also that the resolution of 169x266 for small image is too large, when the game just use 54x84...

    image
    Post edited by vazqez on
  • wubblewubble Member Posts: 3,156
    vazqez said:

    Thank you so much for your advice @bengoshi!

    As regards the small portraits:
    You wrote "the small portraits (the ones ending with the S suffix) are not used in IWD:EE".
    But in the file "PORTRAIT.BIF" are images with extension S suffix (54x84px) are the only, with small character portrait displayed in the game on the sides.
    Also, I do not fit that game, use 54x84 for small image and you advice 169x266 instead the second picture in game is 210x330? It seems to me also that the resolution of 169x266 for small image is too large, when the game just use 54x84...

    image

    As far as I remember the game should scale the image down.
  • vazqezvazqez Member Posts: 8
    @wubble said: "As far as I remember the game should scale the image down."

    But it is better if the game does not have to scale image because it leads to distortion and especially mainly sharpness suffers most. Which bothers me and it would be better 1:1.
  • vazqezvazqez Member Posts: 8
    So.. I want to finally summarize two questions without which my work not begins.

    1) How can to appear in the game my pictures without using the "CUSTOM" button?

    2) Should I apply for a small picture resolution 169x266 or 54x84?
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,964
    if you can change the bif and save it and put it in the override folder, it might work without using the dreaded custom button.

    try it
  • vazqezvazqez Member Posts: 8
    edited January 2015
    @smeagolheart said: "if you can change the bif and save it and put it in the override folder, it might work without using the dreaded custom button."

    Unfortunately does not work :(
    I tried to put into the "Override" folder my "BIF" file and also the pictures themselves, but also without effect..
    The same I tried to folder "Portraits" in my game documents and the same..

    I know that it is to create portraits and rename them as well as the few original and it will work, but this procedure is NOT suited for my purposes.

    It seems that without intervention, to file "chitin.key" it will not work?
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