How to code custom portraits for multiplayer?

Noloir

Just recently seen a few custom portraits in multiplayer that had nothing to do with the actual game. How can custom portraits be coded for all players in multiplayer to via without the pesky [?] avatar?

Yamcha

a shot in the blue:
each participant must edit the save game to change the portrait to the one you want to see

Blucher

(I do not know either to be honest, but...)
I would imagine starting off with everyone having a copy of the custom portrait(s) in their /portraits/ directory.

thelovebat

Simply put, everyone who is using a custom portrait needs to send their portrait to everyone playing in the same multiplayer game and then have the other players put it in their Portraits folder where they keep their own custom portraits at. Also should be with the same filename as the person using it.

So ITT if you ever want to play multiplayer and plan on using a custom portrait, you'll want to find a group online somewhere to set up a game so you can at the very least send them your custom character portrait so no one gets the ? mark symbol. I highly recommend using using some form of voice chat anyway for playing multiplayer sessions so the ? thing isn't something I've had much of an issue with except when tinkering around with my premade characters.

Noloir

thelovebat said:

Simply put, everyone who is using a custom portrait needs to send their portrait to everyone playing in the same multiplayer game and then have the other players put it in their Portraits folder where they keep their own custom portraits at. Also should be with the same filename as the person using it.

So ITT if you ever want to play multiplayer and plan on using a custom portrait, you'll want to find a group online somewhere to set up a game so you can at the very least send them your custom character portrait so no one gets the ? mark symbol. I highly recommend using using some form of voice chat anyway for playing multiplayer sessions so the ? thing isn't something I've had much of an issue with except when tinkering around with my premade characters.

Makes sense but some players have managed to get potraits of Irenicus or Baeloth for instance and make tgem visible to all players in a given multiplayer session. Any idea how this is done?

Troodon80

As @thelovebat said, any use of a custom portrait in multiplayer requires that you send everyone in your group a copy of the image. This can either be a completely new and custom portrait for your character, or a portrait that overrides a default portrait, e.g. NJONM.BMP. If someone else in the group is getting a question mark as a portrait, then they will need the image in order for it to appear on their end. If you have a custom portrait and others in the group are saying it's not appearing for them, just send them the image. If someone else in the group is using a custom portrait and you cannot see it, then request that they send you the image. After that, place it into your portraits folder located in Documents/[Game Name]/

Noloir

Troodon80 said:

As @thelovebat said, any use of a custom portrait in multiplayer requires that you send everyone in your group a copy of the image. This can either be a completely new and custom portrait for your character, or a portrait that overrides a default portrait, e.g. NJONM.BMP. If someone else in the group is getting a question mark as a portrait, then they will need the image in order for it to appear on their end. If you have a custom portrait and others in the group are saying it's not appearing for them, just send them the image. If someone else in the group is using a custom portrait and you cannot see it, then request that they send you the image. After that, place it into your portraits folder located in Documents/[Game Name]/

There have been instances in multiplayer where players custom portraits are visible to my device when I have no image file of their potrait downloaded. That's what I'm getting at. For instance, the Dorn graphic of a Blackguard standing amidst a field of undead was used by a player for a portrait when there is no available portrait of that image around.

thelovebat

Noloir said:

Troodon80 said:

As @thelovebat said, any use of a custom portrait in multiplayer requires that you send everyone in your group a copy of the image. This can either be a completely new and custom portrait for your character, or a portrait that overrides a default portrait, e.g. NJONM.BMP. If someone else in the group is getting a question mark as a portrait, then they will need the image in order for it to appear on their end. If you have a custom portrait and others in the group are saying it's not appearing for them, just send them the image. If someone else in the group is using a custom portrait and you cannot see it, then request that they send you the image. After that, place it into your portraits folder located in Documents/[Game Name]/

There have been instances in multiplayer where players custom portraits are visible to my device when I have no image file of their potrait downloaded. That's what I'm getting at. For instance, the Dorn graphic of a Blackguard standing amidst a field of undead was used by a player for a portrait when there is no available portrait of that image around.

Any of the stock portraits you can select at character creation don't need to be shared with anyone, as your installation by default should already have access to all those portraits. It's when you click on the Custom button at the bottom of the portrait screen that people you're playing with will need a copy of the portrait. And honestly it's not that hard to send a portrait image to someone via email or using a file hosting service like Dropbox, Mediafire, etc. These portraits of Baeloth, Dorn, etc. are already selectable by default at character creation so portraits of the in-game NPCs you have the option to use don't need to be shared.

Now if what you're talking about is something like fanart of Dorn that someone is using as a custom portrait instead of the default one in the game, well I can't help you there cus I haven't encountered that before where someone's custom portrait displays without me having that image in my portrait folder. Generally just setup a game beforehand, ask everyone if they're using a custom portrait, and if they are then have everyone provide a copy of their portrait for the others in the party. 210x330 BMP's are less than half a megabyte in size so they're easy to share. That will solve any potential issues you should have by setting up games in advance and communicating with the others to figure these things out, it sounds like though that you said 'my device' so does that mean you were playing on a different computer with the same save file?

Noloir

thelovebat said:

Noloir said:

Troodon80 said:

As @thelovebat said, any use of a custom portrait in multiplayer requires that you send everyone in your group a copy of the image. This can either be a completely new and custom portrait for your character, or a portrait that overrides a default portrait, e.g. NJONM.BMP. If someone else in the group is getting a question mark as a portrait, then they will need the image in order for it to appear on their end. If you have a custom portrait and others in the group are saying it's not appearing for them, just send them the image. If someone else in the group is using a custom portrait and you cannot see it, then request that they send you the image. After that, place it into your portraits folder located in Documents/[Game Name]/

There have been instances in multiplayer where players custom portraits are visible to my device when I have no image file of their potrait downloaded. That's what I'm getting at. For instance, the Dorn graphic of a Blackguard standing amidst a field of undead was used by a player for a portrait when there is no available portrait of that image around.

Any of the stock portraits you can select at character creation don't need to be shared with anyone, as your installation by default should already have access to all those portraits. It's when you click on the Custom button at the bottom of the portrait screen that people you're playing with will need a copy of the portrait. And honestly it's not that hard to send a portrait image to someone via email or using a file hosting service like Dropbox, Mediafire, etc. These portraits of Baeloth, Dorn, etc. are already selectable by default at character creation so portraits of the in-game NPCs you have the option to use don't need to be shared.

Now if what you're talking about is something like fanart of Dorn that someone is using as a custom portrait instead of the default one in the game, well I can't help you there cus I haven't encountered that before where someone's custom portrait displays without me having that image in my portrait folder. Generally just setup a game beforehand, ask everyone if they're using a custom portrait, and if they are then have everyone provide a copy of their portrait for the others in the party. 210x330 BMP's are less than half a megabyte in size so they're easy to share. That will solve any potential issues you should have by setting up games in advance and communicating with the others to figure these things out, it sounds like though that you said 'my device' so does that mean you were playing on a different computer with the same save file?

A player just yesterday used the portrait image of Ellisime and her character Avatar in multiplayer and it appeared. I mean something of that nature.

thelovebat

Noloir said:

thelovebat said:

Noloir said:

Troodon80 said:

As @thelovebat said, any use of a custom portrait in multiplayer requires that you send everyone in your group a copy of the image. This can either be a completely new and custom portrait for your character, or a portrait that overrides a default portrait, e.g. NJONM.BMP. If someone else in the group is getting a question mark as a portrait, then they will need the image in order for it to appear on their end. If you have a custom portrait and others in the group are saying it's not appearing for them, just send them the image. If someone else in the group is using a custom portrait and you cannot see it, then request that they send you the image. After that, place it into your portraits folder located in Documents/[Game Name]/

There have been instances in multiplayer where players custom portraits are visible to my device when I have no image file of their potrait downloaded. That's what I'm getting at. For instance, the Dorn graphic of a Blackguard standing amidst a field of undead was used by a player for a portrait when there is no available portrait of that image around.

Any of the stock portraits you can select at character creation don't need to be shared with anyone, as your installation by default should already have access to all those portraits. It's when you click on the Custom button at the bottom of the portrait screen that people you're playing with will need a copy of the portrait. And honestly it's not that hard to send a portrait image to someone via email or using a file hosting service like Dropbox, Mediafire, etc. These portraits of Baeloth, Dorn, etc. are already selectable by default at character creation so portraits of the in-game NPCs you have the option to use don't need to be shared.

Now if what you're talking about is something like fanart of Dorn that someone is using as a custom portrait instead of the default one in the game, well I can't help you there cus I haven't encountered that before where someone's custom portrait displays without me having that image in my portrait folder. Generally just setup a game beforehand, ask everyone if they're using a custom portrait, and if they are then have everyone provide a copy of their portrait for the others in the party. 210x330 BMP's are less than half a megabyte in size so they're easy to share. That will solve any potential issues you should have by setting up games in advance and communicating with the others to figure these things out, it sounds like though that you said 'my device' so does that mean you were playing on a different computer with the same save file?

A player just yesterday used the portrait image of Ellisime and her character Avatar in multiplayer and it appeared. I mean something of that nature.

Are you playing multiplayer games with random people (like a public game), or setting a game up with some people beforehand (password protected game)? Either way I wouldn't know about a picture appearing that you didn't have saved in your portraits folder, maybe taking a screenshot or posting about it in the troubleshooting forum would help.

Noloir

thelovebat said:

Noloir said:

thelovebat said:

Noloir said:

Troodon80 said:

As @thelovebat said, any use of a custom portrait in multiplayer requires that you send everyone in your group a copy of the image. This can either be a completely new and custom portrait for your character, or a portrait that overrides a default portrait, e.g. NJONM.BMP. If someone else in the group is getting a question mark as a portrait, then they will need the image in order for it to appear on their end. If you have a custom portrait and others in the group are saying it's not appearing for them, just send them the image. If someone else in the group is using a custom portrait and you cannot see it, then request that they send you the image. After that, place it into your portraits folder located in Documents/[Game Name]/

There have been instances in multiplayer where players custom portraits are visible to my device when I have no image file of their potrait downloaded. That's what I'm getting at. For instance, the Dorn graphic of a Blackguard standing amidst a field of undead was used by a player for a portrait when there is no available portrait of that image around.

Any of the stock portraits you can select at character creation don't need to be shared with anyone, as your installation by default should already have access to all those portraits. It's when you click on the Custom button at the bottom of the portrait screen that people you're playing with will need a copy of the portrait. And honestly it's not that hard to send a portrait image to someone via email or using a file hosting service like Dropbox, Mediafire, etc. These portraits of Baeloth, Dorn, etc. are already selectable by default at character creation so portraits of the in-game NPCs you have the option to use don't need to be shared.

Now if what you're talking about is something like fanart of Dorn that someone is using as a custom portrait instead of the default one in the game, well I can't help you there cus I haven't encountered that before where someone's custom portrait displays without me having that image in my portrait folder. Generally just setup a game beforehand, ask everyone if they're using a custom portrait, and if they are then have everyone provide a copy of their portrait for the others in the party. 210x330 BMP's are less than half a megabyte in size so they're easy to share. That will solve any potential issues you should have by setting up games in advance and communicating with the others to figure these things out, it sounds like though that you said 'my device' so does that mean you were playing on a different computer with the same save file?

A player just yesterday used the portrait image of Ellisime and her character Avatar in multiplayer and it appeared. I mean something of that nature.

Are you playing multiplayer games with random people (like a public game), or setting a game up with some people beforehand (password protected game)? Either way I wouldn't know about a picture appearing that you didn't have saved in your portraits folder, maybe taking a screenshot or posting about it in the troubleshooting forum would help.

That's a good idea. Next time I will. In a public game random players had their own custom images of Devas, Ellesime, Irenicus, and other portraits. Can recall that one used the image of Dorn from the "Purchase Content" screen of him fully garbed in Black armour surrounded by undead for a custom portrait and it was visible on my screen despite not having a copy of the file.

Elys

The player may have edited his character (for example with EEKeeper) to use one of the native game resource as portrait. That's why you can see them.

Noloir_The_Elf

thelovebat said:

Noloir said:

Troodon80 said:

As @thelovebat said, any use of a custom portrait in multiplayer requires that you send everyone in your group a copy of the image. This can either be a completely new and custom portrait for your character, or a portrait that overrides a default portrait, e.g. NJONM.BMP. If someone else in the group is getting a question mark as a portrait, then they will need the image in order for it to appear on their end. If you have a custom portrait and others in the group are saying it's not appearing for them, just send them the image. If someone else in the group is using a custom portrait and you cannot see it, then request that they send you the image. After that, place it into your portraits folder located in Documents/[Game Name]/

There have been instances in multiplayer where players custom portraits are visible to my device when I have no image file of their potrait downloaded. That's what I'm getting at. For instance, the Dorn graphic of a Blackguard standing amidst a field of undead was used by a player for a portrait when there is no available portrait of that image around.

Any of the stock portraits you can select at character creation don't need to be shared with anyone, as your installation by default should already have access to all those portraits. It's when you click on the Custom button at the bottom of the portrait screen that people you're playing with will need a copy of the portrait. And honestly it's not that hard to send a portrait image to someone via email or using a file hosting service like Dropbox, Mediafire, etc. These portraits of Baeloth, Dorn, etc. are already selectable by default at character creation so portraits of the in-game NPCs you have the option to use don't need to be shared.

Now if what you're talking about is something like fanart of Dorn that someone is using as a custom portrait instead of the default one in the game, well I can't help you there cus I haven't encountered that before where someone's custom portrait displays without me having that image in my portrait folder. Generally just setup a game beforehand, ask everyone if they're using a custom portrait, and if they are then have everyone provide a copy of their portrait for the others in the party. 210x330 BMP's are less than half a megabyte in size so they're easy to share. That will solve any potential issues you should have by setting up games in advance and communicating with the others to figure these things out, it sounds like though that you said 'my device' so does that mean you were playing on a different computer with the same save file?

Funny. Took 2 years but I've figured it out. Deeply entrenched in BG is the file for the Blackguard and Wildmage store image. Using EEKeeper a player can set those images as portraits no differently than regular ones. In short, the image files I saw were coded within the game itself but requires EEkeeper to access and set.