I understand that you've put a lot of work in this mod, and it's kind of your precious little baby. And I think that as a standalone mod, or as an optional component of a bigger mod, it's a welcome element!
However, you need to be objective here, and consider "Is it really a good idea to have this be a mandatory element in a bigger mod?"
(See, I've already used an earlier version of Pecca's mod, and I know how much of an improvement it is, so I'm more than willing to somehow bypass this problem. However, had I not used the mod before, I may very well have decided: 'Wait, in order to use this UI, I gotta mess with lua files and what not? Screw that, uninstall this UI package. I'll go find another!'.)
Perhaps for general purposes the Multi-Portrait mod might have been more user friendly to integrate? It allows similar function without requiring an additional lua file.
I created the Portrait Picker specifically to be included in Pecca's mod, consulting with him step-by-step throughout the process, and only made it into a standalone mod AFTER asking his permission. The original intention was not to release it on its own.
I'm not that precious that I think it's perfect or will work for everyone - and I fully understand its limitations. Pecca and I have both done a lot of testing on it to come up with a solution that works.
Pecca created the WEIDU to automatically generate the M_BG.lua file as I don't understand WEIDU at all (indeed, my first solution was a manual process). Yes, there are reasons why the WEIDU might not work, BUT, if it had worked then you would not be making this complaint because there would be no problem for you.
So it is clear that something has gone wrong somewhere. It's a bug, just like there can be with any mod, and we will try to fix that - but we need to be given the opportunity to do so.
To my knowledge, every single person that has encountered an issue AND reported it, has been able to overcome that issue.
You may not need the functionality this element provides but others do and others like it. I've had some very positive feedback from people regarding it.
Yes, it is becoming repetitive, as I really don't know what more I can offer in the way of help or assistance.
I'm not going to say anymore on this issue now, but the offer of help is still open to you.
@Thels: I decided to include the portrait picker by default, because I consider the game's default way of selecting custom portraits after 2.0 patch to be very annoying and a step back. I really liked Mr2150's solution and I think the portrait arrangement is now more convenient than ever. And not just the custom portraits but default as well. Because of this, the component is integrated into the default installation. Now, if there is a bug with updating the M_BG.lua, we will fix it. It should take less then a minute in WEiDU installer to update the custom portrait list (and that's just update, as it is initially installed with the core component). When making the mod I took it under consideration and decided the amout of time and effort the player must additionally spend to update his custom portraits is well worth the benefit he gets from the portrait picker solution. Now, I understand from tone of your messages that you are somewhat angry about it and I'm sorry if it's not working for you, especially if there is some bug preventing nice and easy updating (that I need to hunt down). But as I don't find a minute in a WeiDU installer a hindrance or major annoyance (especially to people who downloaded and used the WEiDU installer to install the mod) the component stays by default.
Btw. I watch BillyYank's Multi-portrait mod closely and I like his solution too, so it's possible I will include it as an option in the future, but not anytime soon. It's not on the list of things for the next update.
@Pecca: The continuous forth and back between Mr2150 and myself may make it sound like that. Mr2150 seems overly protective of his creation. (Which I can totally understand. If I spent a lot of time creating something, I wouldn't be too happy when told it should be removed. However, this can sometimes make people blind to proper reasoning.)
I am not angry about it's inclusion. I merely tried to bring across that this element is holding the entire mod back. I firmly believe that there are people that try this mod, realize they can't have their custom portraits working (without figuring out how to update the .lua file), and then decide to get rid of the entire mod altogether, because it's "obviously broken", and that would be a shame.
I admit I don't know how things work under the hood, but I still highly recommend an option somewhere (be it in Weidu or in the game itself), that would add all custom portraits somewhere at the bottom of the list. If such an option existed, this solution would be perfect, and BillyYank's mod proves it's possible. I like the layout of Mr2150's portrait picker over the screenshots I can see in BillyYank's thread (nothing personal to BillyYank!), so if it was somehow able to show all the custom portraits without specifically requiring a .lua update, it would be perfect.
I'm going to leave it at that. You've clearly considered your options. I've provided you with food for thought, and it's entirely up to you on what you do with that. I'll keep using your mod either way.
On a separate note, the quickloot option: - The hand should obviously receive a tooltip, to explain what it's for. - Is it possible to use the Advanced option, without constantly having to pull the list of options open? - If it possible to move where the items appear when using the Expert option?
Overall still love this mod, and not sure if I could ever play without it. It was already awesome, but the new button UI at the very bottom of the screen looks very slick, and the Chapter stories also look awesome!
The hand will have a tooltip, yeah, I missed that. The advanced option works as intended - that's the main difference in principle between the two options. You can see how many items are on the ground but they don't block the view until you choose to expand the list. With the expert option you can choose in how many rows you want the items on ground to appear, so you can choose which area of the screen they block (2 rows by 30 items, 6 rows by 10 items, 10 rows by 6 items etc...). Items always start to appear in the top left of the screen, since it is the place with the least chance of interfering with the gameplay while keeping the option to choose the number of rows. Making the expert option draggable across the screen would be too problematic for too little benefit.
Okay, something I forgot is that while having the advanced quickloot option, pressing "E" button will expand the list (and pressing it again will collapse it).
Uploaded a new version that fixes the installation with M_BG.lua being blank. All custom portraits are now properly registered in the portrait picker list. It happened because I accidentally left the file in the mod's content folder, which interfered with the installation. Thanks to Mr2150 for quickly solving the issue.
Hi Pecca, I just wanted to say that I really like your mod. I have a few suggestions but they are just personal preferences on my part.
I would like to be able to choose the portrait size for the characters on the right hand panel. If you could choose small, medium, and large that would be great. I feel like they are too small when the UI is not scaled and they seem almost too big when the UI is scaled. Personally I play on a big screen TV and prefer to use your GUI unscaled. I up the font size by one click and everything is almost perfect other than the character portraits looking a bit small.
The other thing I would love to see is a version of this GUI for BG2EE. I know you have expressed interest in making a new custom version but personally, I would like to use the same GUI with the same character portraits and the same resolution, spells, aspect ratio the entire trilogy. That would make it feel like one big game instead of multiple games with multiple expansions.
I have mentioned this before in other threads but it would be great if each character had the custom portrait options that CHARNAME has. That way you could select the custom button on Imoen and change her portrait to whatever you want without needing to use EE keeper or another mod. You could use her BGEE portrait in BG2EE by simply clicking a button in game instead of using an external save editor.
Anyway, thanks again for your work on this. I will be using it and any version you decide to work on for BG2EE for the foreseeable future.
BTW your custom BG2EE pics that you displayed do look very nice. I am certainly looking forward to your next release. I do think the dark look from the SOD GUI that you are currently using would look good in any of the BG games though. Having an option to use it in BG2EE would be a great option that would allow for a more consistent trilogy run in my opinion.
Uploaded a new version that fixes the installation with M_BG.lua being blank. All custom portraits are now properly registered in the portrait picker list. It happened because I accidentally left the file in the mod's content folder, which interfered with the installation. Thanks to Mr2150 for quickly solving the issue.
I have a question: Should i need to install Portrait Picker mod to use this UI? Because i see installation process of Portrait Picker and is not very User Friendly.
@Pecca included the portrait picker since v2.0 of this mod.
It installs automatically as part of the overall process via WEIDU and the bug that was accidentally introduced in the latest version has been fixed so the process should work automatically.
Please make sure to read the OP to follow @Pecca 's instructions.
Uploaded a new version that fixes the installation with M_BG.lua being blank. All custom portraits are now properly registered in the portrait picker list. It happened because I accidentally left the file in the mod's content folder, which interfered with the installation. Thanks to Mr2150 for quickly solving the issue.
The new version is named the same? 2.13?
The newest version with the fix is 2.13. The version with the bug was 2.12. (See the changelog in the OP)
When you have either the "Remove Party Member" panel or the CLUAConsole panel open, and a dialog appears, the "Remove Party Member" panel or the CLUAConsole panel is pushed to the back, with the regular interface overlapping it. It's rather awkward.
Yup.... J, the Esc key, clicking the campaign symbol in the bottom left, clicking the journal symbol on the left-hand sidebar, and right-clicking a portrait will all close the large journal.
Also, clicking 'Chapter' will toggle between the large and small journals, but your default journal is still based on the UI Settings option chosen. For example, if you are walking a long way across the map, but still want to read your journal (something you can't do when viewing the large journal), you can toggle to the small journal temporarily and back again when you get to your destination.
I ran into a small downside of the new dialogue window. If you're going through a dialogue that you've already seen over and over again, and you spam the continue button, sometimes the dialogue window grows so much that a reply option appears where the continue button used to be.
I'm not sure what would be a proper way of solving this, without relocation the continue button off to the side, which I don't think is aesthetically pleasing...
Hello, friend. Just discovered your mod and I think its wonderful. Many thanks for working on it. I use a BWS Tactical instalation, and installed your mod on top of it. It works great. I am all but a newbie, and sometimes I have many troubles making things work. Saying that, I thought to relate a couple of bugs I encountered, just as a feedback. Altough, maybe these problems are related to other mods than yours, in that case, plz forgive me. 1 - I use a mod that let me choose a Kit for my NPCs when I found them. When I click on the description of a kit that is very lengh, the scroll arrows are disabled and the text dont fit the place of the text, like shown on the pic.
2 - On Char creation, when i go pick a portrait, there´s one called BHODIL1. If I select it, the game crashes. The portrait is not avalable on the Vanila interface on char creation. Theres a file called BHODIL1.bmp on the portraits folder on my documents. If I delete it, there´s still the option to choose this portrait, though its a blank. If I select it, the games crashes too.
Sorry for my bad english, and dont think for a moment that its a complaint. Its just a feedback . Another thing, the multi portrait mod would make a nice addition to this already incredible mod, in my opinion.
Thanks for the feedback. The first thing is a bug that will be fixed. The second thing probably has to do with how the file is named. @Mr2150 might help you with that as I'm not at my pc to test it and don't remember it from the top of my head.
HI @Leokosta - I tried to replicate the issue by naming a file BHODIL1 and it seems fine for me. Can you zip the portrait file and attach it here and I will investigate further for you.
Thanks for the feedback. The first thing is a bug that will be fixed. The second thing probably has to do with how the file is named. @Mr2150 might help you with that as I'm not at my pc to test it and don't remember it from the top of my head.
HI @Leokosta - I tried to replicate the issue by naming a file BHODIL1 and it seems fine for me. Can you zip the portrait file and attach it here and I will investigate further for you.
Thank you for the reply, both of you. Discovered another portrait that crashes the game when selected. Its the same, if I delete them from the portraits folder, it shows blank on selection screen, and if clicked, the games crashes. I am uploading both of them. Thanks again.
Edit: Tried to copy the portraits and rename to a random name, like AAAL.bmp , and they dont show on the selection screen.
I tried installing both portraits and they work fine for me on a clean install of Dragonspear UI++ .
I am looking also at the other issue you encountered as I think it may be multi-mod compatibility ... Can you confirm the version of the Divine Remix that you are using?
OK - I checked by installing v8 of Divine Remix and installing the Cleric components and I get a game crash as soon as I click on NEW GAME.
I tried installing the mod on Dragonspear UI++ and also a completely unmodded version of the game.
EDIT: OK, there is a component of Divine Remix which has known issues apparently. It works fine if you don't install that component. Now moving on to track down the scrollbar issue.
I tried installing both portraits and they work fine for me on a clean install of Dragonspear UI++ .
I am looking also at the other issue you encountered as I think it may be multi-mod compatibility ... Can you confirm the version of the Divine Remix that you are using?
I am using Divine Remix 8 Beta. Its the version that BWS auto pics. Guess the portraits issue is related to my instalation. I have a Vanilla instal, aswell a "Recomended instal" without Dragospear UI ++ installed, and on thouse, this portrait is not avalable on selection.
Edit: Installed Dragonspear UI ++ on my vanilla folder, and now I can see my AAAL portrait, and it works. But when I click on BHODIL1, the same crash
OK - I checked by installing v8 of Divine Remix and installing the Cleric components and I get a game crash as soon as I click on NEW GAME.
I tried installing the mod on Dragonspear UI++ and also a completely unmodded version of the game. I can see this mod was last updated in 2015 so it suggests that the compatibility issue is causing the crashes for you. Maybe this 'Divine Remix' mod is not compatible with more recent versions (2.0+) of the game?
Man, thank you very much for your help. I will report the issue to Agb1, he is the one who´s working on BWS tool. Maybe the fixes, like Big World Fix Pack can be updated to look this issue. For now, the only problem I have is when I selec the portrait. I can choose the portraits with EE Keeper, so I´ll will continue to use my Tactical instalation for now . Again, many thanks for the fast help and reply.
Comments
I understand that you've put a lot of work in this mod, and it's kind of your precious little baby. And I think that as a standalone mod, or as an optional component of a bigger mod, it's a welcome element!
However, you need to be objective here, and consider "Is it really a good idea to have this be a mandatory element in a bigger mod?"
(See, I've already used an earlier version of Pecca's mod, and I know how much of an improvement it is, so I'm more than willing to somehow bypass this problem. However, had I not used the mod before, I may very well have decided: 'Wait, in order to use this UI, I gotta mess with lua files and what not? Screw that, uninstall this UI package. I'll go find another!'.)
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/57176/mod-multi-portrait-mod-new-bg-ii-version/p1
I created the Portrait Picker specifically to be included in Pecca's mod, consulting with him step-by-step throughout the process, and only made it into a standalone mod AFTER asking his permission. The original intention was not to release it on its own.
I'm not that precious that I think it's perfect or will work for everyone - and I fully understand its limitations. Pecca and I have both done a lot of testing on it to come up with a solution that works.
Pecca created the WEIDU to automatically generate the M_BG.lua file as I don't understand WEIDU at all (indeed, my first solution was a manual process). Yes, there are reasons why the WEIDU might not work, BUT, if it had worked then you would not be making this complaint because there would be no problem for you.
So it is clear that something has gone wrong somewhere. It's a bug, just like there can be with any mod, and we will try to fix that - but we need to be given the opportunity to do so.
To my knowledge, every single person that has encountered an issue AND reported it, has been able to overcome that issue.
You may not need the functionality this element provides but others do and others like it. I've had some very positive feedback from people regarding it.
Yes, it is becoming repetitive, as I really don't know what more I can offer in the way of help or assistance.
I'm not going to say anymore on this issue now, but the offer of help is still open to you.
Now, if there is a bug with updating the M_BG.lua, we will fix it. It should take less then a minute in WEiDU installer to update the custom portrait list (and that's just update, as it is initially installed with the core component). When making the mod I took it under consideration and decided the amout of time and effort the player must additionally spend to update his custom portraits is well worth the benefit he gets from the portrait picker solution.
Now, I understand from tone of your messages that you are somewhat angry about it and I'm sorry if it's not working for you, especially if there is some bug preventing nice and easy updating (that I need to hunt down). But as I don't find a minute in a WeiDU installer a hindrance or major annoyance (especially to people who downloaded and used the WEiDU installer to install the mod) the component stays by default.
Btw. I watch BillyYank's Multi-portrait mod closely and I like his solution too, so it's possible I will include it as an option in the future, but not anytime soon. It's not on the list of things for the next update.
I am not angry about it's inclusion. I merely tried to bring across that this element is holding the entire mod back. I firmly believe that there are people that try this mod, realize they can't have their custom portraits working (without figuring out how to update the .lua file), and then decide to get rid of the entire mod altogether, because it's "obviously broken", and that would be a shame.
I admit I don't know how things work under the hood, but I still highly recommend an option somewhere (be it in Weidu or in the game itself), that would add all custom portraits somewhere at the bottom of the list. If such an option existed, this solution would be perfect, and BillyYank's mod proves it's possible. I like the layout of Mr2150's portrait picker over the screenshots I can see in BillyYank's thread (nothing personal to BillyYank!), so if it was somehow able to show all the custom portraits without specifically requiring a .lua update, it would be perfect.
I'm going to leave it at that. You've clearly considered your options. I've provided you with food for thought, and it's entirely up to you on what you do with that. I'll keep using your mod either way.
On a separate note, the quickloot option:
- The hand should obviously receive a tooltip, to explain what it's for.
- Is it possible to use the Advanced option, without constantly having to pull the list of options open?
- If it possible to move where the items appear when using the Expert option?
Overall still love this mod, and not sure if I could ever play without it. It was already awesome, but the new button UI at the very bottom of the screen looks very slick, and the Chapter stories also look awesome!
The advanced option works as intended - that's the main difference in principle between the two options. You can see how many items are on the ground but they don't block the view until you choose to expand the list.
With the expert option you can choose in how many rows you want the items on ground to appear, so you can choose which area of the screen they block (2 rows by 30 items, 6 rows by 10 items, 10 rows by 6 items etc...). Items always start to appear in the top left of the screen, since it is the place with the least chance of interfering with the gameplay while keeping the option to choose the number of rows. Making the expert option draggable across the screen would be too problematic for too little benefit.
I would like to be able to choose the portrait size for the characters on the right hand panel. If you could choose small, medium, and large that would be great. I feel like they are too small when the UI is not scaled and they seem almost too big when the UI is scaled. Personally I play on a big screen TV and prefer to use your GUI unscaled. I up the font size by one click and everything is almost perfect other than the character portraits looking a bit small.
The other thing I would love to see is a version of this GUI for BG2EE. I know you have expressed interest in making a new custom version but personally, I would like to use the same GUI with the same character portraits and the same resolution, spells, aspect ratio the entire trilogy. That would make it feel like one big game instead of multiple games with multiple expansions.
I have mentioned this before in other threads but it would be great if each character had the custom portrait options that CHARNAME has. That way you could select the custom button on Imoen and change her portrait to whatever you want without needing to use EE keeper or another mod. You could use her BGEE portrait in BG2EE by simply clicking a button in game instead of using an external save editor.
Anyway, thanks again for your work on this. I will be using it and any version you decide to work on for BG2EE for the foreseeable future.
BTW your custom BG2EE pics that you displayed do look very nice. I am certainly looking forward to your next release. I do think the dark look from the SOD GUI that you are currently using would look good in any of the BG games though. Having an option to use it in BG2EE would be a great option that would allow for a more consistent trilogy run in my opinion.
It installs automatically as part of the overall process via WEIDU and the bug that was accidentally introduced in the latest version has been fixed so the process should work automatically.
Please make sure to read the OP to follow @Pecca 's instructions.
Also, clicking 'Chapter' will toggle between the large and small journals, but your default journal is still based on the UI Settings option chosen. For example, if you are walking a long way across the map, but still want to read your journal (something you can't do when viewing the large journal), you can toggle to the small journal temporarily and back again when you get to your destination.
I'm not sure what would be a proper way of solving this, without relocation the continue button off to the side, which I don't think is aesthetically pleasing...
Thank you for your awesome work so far.
1 - I use a mod that let me choose a Kit for my NPCs when I found them. When I click on the description of a kit that is very lengh, the scroll arrows are disabled and the text dont fit the place of the text, like shown on the pic.
2 - On Char creation, when i go pick a portrait, there´s one called BHODIL1. If I select it, the game crashes. The portrait is not avalable on the Vanila interface on char creation. Theres a file called BHODIL1.bmp on the portraits folder on my documents. If I delete it, there´s still the option to choose this portrait, though its a blank. If I select it, the games crashes too.
Sorry for my bad english, and dont think for a moment that its a complaint. Its just a feedback . Another thing, the multi portrait mod would make a nice addition to this already incredible mod, in my opinion.
All good to you and greetings from Brasil.
Edit: Tried to copy the portraits and rename to a random name, like AAAL.bmp , and they dont show on the selection screen.
I tried installing both portraits and they work fine for me on a clean install of Dragonspear UI++ .
I am looking also at the other issue you encountered as I think it may be multi-mod compatibility ... Can you confirm the version of the Divine Remix that you are using?
I tried installing the mod on Dragonspear UI++ and also a completely unmodded version of the game.
EDIT: OK, there is a component of Divine Remix which has known issues apparently. It works fine if you don't install that component. Now moving on to track down the scrollbar issue.
Edit: Installed Dragonspear UI ++ on my vanilla folder, and now I can see my AAAL portrait, and it works. But when I click on BHODIL1, the same crash