[WeiDU Help]

Zendog7

Hi all.

I posted the other day about near infinity and am happy to say that I am now confident I can get it to do what I want it to do in terms of item modification/creation.

I've hit a bit of a wall however when it comes to WeiDU. I've been reading everything on the internet about it and the only answers I can find seem to be conflicting.

I'd like to be able to edit/create item names and descriptions without messing with the dialog.tlk file, and from what I've read WeiDU is the best way to go about doing this.

However. I cannot, for the life of me, create a .tp2 file in which to put the necessary text. I can create a notepad file (.txt), input the text, then 'brute force' it into a .tp2 file, but then said file cannot be opened as 'windows doesn't know what software to open it with'.

So that's the first question, what is a .tp2 file and how do I make one?

Second question regards WeiDU setup/locations. I've read that all I need to do to turn an edited item into a mod, is to have the necessary files in a folder (.ITM, .tp2) along with a renamed copy of weiDU.exe, and then run WeiDU.exe.
I've also read that i need to backup various files, put them in different places, relate them back to the game directory.... - i literally don't know what any of this means, and am really hoping it is as straightforward as previously mentioned above.

I have attempted (with a brute-forced) .tp2 file, the method mentioned above to install my wannabe mod, and wherever I put the folder (bg:ee, 0786, etc etc) weiDU tells me to run it in the infinity engine game directory.

Sorry to clog the forums with these nubesque requests for assistance. I can usually figure most stuff like this out but different peoples methods that i read online are causing me to drown in information, and a concise approach would be a huge benefit!

Thanks in advance

Erg

Zendog7 said:

So that's the first question, what is a .tp2 file and how do I make one?

.tp2 files are just plain text files.

You can create a .txt file and change the extension to .tp2. You can also set any text editor as default for opening the .tp2 files. I recommend using advanced editors like Notepad++, because, among other things, it will help you in using the correct character encoding for in-game text (e.g. items descriptions, dialogues, etc.).

Zendog7 said:

I've also read that i need to backup various files, put them in different places, relate them back to the game directory.... - i literally don't know what any of this means, and am really hoping it is as straightforward as previously mentioned above.

WeiDU will automatically backup files for you. Just make sure that the very first line in your .tp2 file is something like this

BACKUP ~Your_mod_name/Backup~

where "Your_mod_name" is the name of the folder containing your mod. It is preferable to avoid spaces in the folder names, so you should use something like "My_Mod" or "MyMod", instead of "My Mod".

Zendog7 said:

wherever I put the folder (bg:ee, 0786, etc etc) weiDU tells me to run it in the infinity engine game directory.

The actual path may vary, but the infinity engine game directory is always the one containing the file chitin.key.

Edit: also make sure that WeiDU, renamed as setup-Your_mod_name.exe, goes in the infinity engine game directory, alongside the mod folder, and NOT inside the mod folder. The .tp2 file can go inside the game directory or inside the mod folder. I prefer the latter, because otherwise the game directory can become too cluttered.

Zendog7

Thanks a lot, that makes a lot of sense. Don't know why I was struggling with tp2 files, worked easily after I'd read this. Maybe trying to get my head round these things late at night after ludicrously busy days isn't the best - ah well, bank holiday tomorrow! Thanks again

AstroBryGuy

@Zendog7 - Have you looked at @Wisp's item mod template?

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/15010/short-introduction-to-weidu-and-simple-mod-template/p1

Zendog7

Hiya Astro, yeah I have, and it all makes sense!

I have actually run into another problem.
I have my .ITM .tp2 and English/english.tra files in my mod folder, with setup-mymod.exe outside of that folder but in the game directory (w/chitin.key).

I'm fairly sure they're all in the right place though please correct me if i'm wrong.

Problem is, when I run WeiDU it tells me some confusing things:

[ZBOW/english/english.tra] LEXER ERROR at line 1 column 0--1
Near Text: ï
Invalid character [ï]

[ZBOW/english/english.tra] ERROR at line 1 column 0--1
Near Text: ï
Parsing.Parse_error
ERROR: parsing [ZBOW/english/english.tra]: Parsing.Parse_error
ERROR: problem parsing TP file [ZBOW/ZBOW.TP2]: Parsing.Parse_error

FATAL ERROR: Parsing.Parse_error

From what I can tell this is referring to the beginning of both my tp2 and tra files, though I used templates and have searched for missing tildes but it all seems in order.

I felt like I was getting somewhere too, when I EEkeeper this bow into the game, it is ace!
Any assistance as always would be appreciated!

smeagolheart

zip up your tp2 and post it here so we can see it

Zendog7

Put my .tra file in there too, just incase. The item description is a bit lame, i know.. may well change it but it'll do for now.
Thanks

smeagolheart

well it's definitely something with your TRA. I pointed the tra statement to another one in another mod folder and it started to install fine.

But I don't see anything wrong with your TRA itself. I cut and paste over all the contents and it still wouldn't work...

argent77

@Zendog7 Your TRA file is encoded with the "UTF-8 with BOM" character set. The BOM (byte order mark) is a special code at the beginning of the file which is not supported by WeiDU. You can use a decent text editor (such as Notepad++) to convert it into UTF-8 (without BOM) or, if you want to make your mod compatible with the original games as well, into the ANSI format and use WeiDU's HANDLE_CHARSETS to take care of the right character encodings automatically.

Zendog7

You're both dudes, ty for your efforts.
I rewrote the .tra file in notepad (I indeed used notepad++ last time) and it worked fine, I think I have juts installed my first mod !
My only snag is that when I look up Firkraag in NI, in his inventory slot is ZBOW.ITM.ITM, so I do not hold much hope that he will successfully drop it.
Either way, I'm psyched that it has the correct description and everything.. thanks again

argent77

Remove the ".itm" from the resource in your ADD_CRE_ITEM action and that should work as well.

Zendog7

Just the ticket.

Thank you! \o/