After downloading the new patch my SoD game won't open. When I close down the Beamdog client and reopen it the game says "Preload Complete" and wont do anything else, I've tried uninstalling and re-installing the entire game and it goes right back to the same thing. I'm not running any mods. Wasn't sure where to post this, so I posted here since it only started with the recent update.
@Shade91 Try disabling your antivirus. The Beamdog client will say "Preload Complete" if the game has finished downloading, but there is no .exe file. This can happen if your Antivirus quarantines the game executable.
nevermind, actually found out the cause. It's that crazy thing where spells do max damage to you if you're fatigued. How the heck is this still in the game?
Because it's a game mechanic.
Is this a thing in pnp? Otherwise it makes no sense and is bug-tier. Especially when resting sometimes still does not reset the fatigue counter properly.
Unfortunately the nearest-neighbor scaling filter applies to creature sprites and casting animations, not to the background art sprites. Is there a possibility that this feature will be expanded to all game sprites? I'm sorry, I cannot play BG1 & BG2 with blurred backgrounds. Really appreciate all your hard work.
@SirBatince I have no idea if it's in PnP but those are the reasons to make you rest (actually negative luck debuff). As for the fatigue not resetting after resting, that actually happens when you rest before the haste effect expires because the fatigue effect is a delayed effect that happens at the the same time the haste expires.
So has this been submitted to Apple for the Mac App store as yet? Still sitting on 1.3 and none of the 3 subsequent updates (2.0, 2.1 & 2.2) have even ben submitted as far as has been communicated (i.e. not at all!!)
When will this be submitted for pushing to the store?
@Pteran: if you zoom a pixel image with a specific number of pixels larger than the original size, it has somehow to be enlarged, and the needed pixels to "fill in" have to be calculated somehow. If you scale to double size, each second Pixel to display has to be calculated. There are different methods to do this, with advantages and disadvantages. So far (till 1.3) the EE games have used Nearest Neighbour Scaling, that is actually just repeating the color of the pixel left/top to the pixel that needs to be filled in. This means that if you double the zoom rate, you just get a result that looks "blocky", as each Pixel of the original is repeated to the right, to the bottom and to the bottom-right, making it look like one large Pixel (2x2 actual pixels of the same color appear as one large). The advantage is this looks "crispy" (but blocky). With 2.0, the method was changed to something more "sophisticated", linear scaling. Here, instead of repeating exactly the same color of one neighbour, the pixel that needs to fill in is calculated by considering the colors of the pixels left and right / above and below, calculating an intermediate. The resulting pixel is not exactly the same as any of the original pixels, therefor there is not a 2x2 block of exactly the same color that appears as a "block", but the result is more smooth. But of course there is not more "detail" added (which would result in a real improvment), it's actually just blurred what's really there in the original. Now with 2.2, we have the option to choose somewhat between the new standard linear scaling, or the old neighbour scaling some of us favour.
I know this might be a silly question, but I'm curious: Isn't there a feasible way of actually improving the quality of the sprites? With the super advanced technology available nowadays for picture editing, there must be some program out there capable of doing it, right? I mean, you take the low resolution original and process it with some super advanced algorithm which generates a higher resolution version by interpolating the original lines and colour fillings in a way that is both crispy and smooth. Then you incorporate those highly advanced interpolated sprites into the game, rather than creating low quality interpolations at run time. Does it make sense?
By the way, thank you for the patch. Keep up the good work
Th9s is going off topic, but have a look at the section xBR and there xbrz for "super advanced algorithms" as you call it here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_scaling ... that's what can be done, but only with fixed scale factors, nothing in between, so it would have to be pre-rendered, as you propose, like at 4x scale and then be scaled to your actual game zoom factor live again just as it is done now, but now with a improved sprite resolution to start live scaling, giving a better overall result. Adding some decent grain noise to the upscaled sprites would additionally help to fool the eye for more detail. Problem may be that we are not talking single sprites but many that add up to an animation and they have to fit each other. If the scaler actually interpret things instead of strictly calculate, there may be glitches that don't matter for a single sprite, but they do in animation. Also, do this is a lot of work for all animations.
@Alonso This has been brought up before. As far as I know, the original art assets were lost, meaning that modernizing the sprites would require the monumental task of recreating every single frame of each one.
@LaucianNailor there are no plans to submit patches to the Mac App store review until the iOS patches are going through the same process.
I specifically asked in another thread whether the ball-park estimate would be weeks, months, 6 months, or 15+ months (like the BG2EE 1.2 patch) and was informed they are specifically making no estimate to avoid disappointing if they don't hit it. So they do not yet have the confidence to predict delivering within a 15 month time window - I read that as "don't hold your breath".
On the bright side, they do appear intent on delivering to the Mac App store in due course, and we will get the full benefit of all the current issues being worked out, so should jump straight to a much nicer release.
Unless 1.3 is hugely broken for you (works pretty well for me) I think we are defaulting into the better timeline Not having even a hint of a release windows to plan our runs around is a little painful, but nothing we are not used to by now!
@Alonso This has been brought up before. As far as I know, the original art assets were lost, meaning that modernizing the sprites would require the monumental task of recreating every single frame of each one.
It was an odd decision to package the new game that way, considering how important mods are to the community that makes up the BG gamers, and how closely Beamdog has always worked with modders on this game. But credit where it's due, they fixed it after the fact pretty quick.
I don't know what you did with this patch, but it made the new interface a pleasure to use, whereas the last UI update made it almost worse than Skyrim's vanilla UI. The comparing of items is amazing. Major props for making the black border scrolling thing optional, and giving the option of using different type of sprite smoothing/interpolation. The UI update had such good ideas (e.g. the new map, with walkable paths shown etc), but their execution were not great. Now their execution is great and such a breeze to use!
Major hats off for making BGEE fun to play again. Lots of people give you crap for a lot of thing in BGEE, sometimes deserved, other times not so much, but this one has nothing but praise from me.
Edit: And I just found when you click on an item, it highlights who can use it, and puts people in yellow if it's an improvement. I don't know if it was this update that did it or not, but I just love it.
@skini82 Unfortunately, there isn't. We can just hope that one day they will release a patch for DVD version as well, but I doubt it.
That's not good...
I know they are continuing to look at this. I am not sure what the hold up is, maybe trying to get one or two more patches out so they can package all up into a big patch set to post as an .iso maybe?
why an iso? why anything complicated? it's the same damn files. any modder can create a patch, and those jokers can't WHY?!?!?
Comments
When will this be submitted for pushing to the store?
if you zoom a pixel image with a specific number of pixels larger than the original size, it has somehow to be enlarged, and the needed pixels to "fill in" have to be calculated somehow. If you scale to double size, each second Pixel to display has to be calculated. There are different methods to do this, with advantages and disadvantages.
So far (till 1.3) the EE games have used Nearest Neighbour Scaling, that is actually just repeating the color of the pixel left/top to the pixel that needs to be filled in. This means that if you double the zoom rate, you just get a result that looks "blocky", as each Pixel of the original is repeated to the right, to the bottom and to the bottom-right, making it look like one large Pixel (2x2 actual pixels of the same color appear as one large). The advantage is this looks "crispy" (but blocky).
With 2.0, the method was changed to something more "sophisticated", linear scaling. Here, instead of repeating exactly the same color of one neighbour, the pixel that needs to fill in is calculated by considering the colors of the pixels left and right / above and below, calculating an intermediate. The resulting pixel is not exactly the same as any of the original pixels, therefor there is not a 2x2 block of exactly the same color that appears as a "block", but the result is more smooth. But of course there is not more "detail" added (which would result in a real improvment), it's actually just blurred what's really there in the original.
Now with 2.2, we have the option to choose somewhat between the new standard linear scaling, or the old neighbour scaling some of us favour.
By the way, thank you for the patch. Keep up the good work
Edit: Tried to explain it a bit better.
Problem may be that we are not talking single sprites but many that add up to an animation and they have to fit each other. If the scaler actually interpret things instead of strictly calculate, there may be glitches that don't matter for a single sprite, but they do in animation. Also, do this is a lot of work for all animations.
I specifically asked in another thread whether the ball-park estimate would be weeks, months, 6 months, or 15+ months (like the BG2EE 1.2 patch) and was informed they are specifically making no estimate to avoid disappointing if they don't hit it. So they do not yet have the confidence to predict delivering within a 15 month time window - I read that as "don't hold your breath".
On the bright side, they do appear intent on delivering to the Mac App store in due course, and we will get the full benefit of all the current issues being worked out, so should jump straight to a much nicer release.
Unless 1.3 is hugely broken for you (works pretty well for me) I think we are defaulting into the better timeline
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/50441/modmerge-merge-your-steam-gog-zip-based-dlc-into-something-weidu-nearinfinity-dltcep-can-use/p1
I don't know what you did with this patch, but it made the new interface a pleasure to use, whereas the last UI update made it almost worse than Skyrim's vanilla UI. The comparing of items is amazing. Major props for making the black border scrolling thing optional, and giving the option of using different type of sprite smoothing/interpolation. The UI update had such good ideas (e.g. the new map, with walkable paths shown etc), but their execution were not great. Now their execution is great and such a breeze to use!
Major hats off for making BGEE fun to play again. Lots of people give you crap for a lot of thing in BGEE, sometimes deserved, other times not so much, but this one has nothing but praise from me.
Edit: And I just found when you click on an item, it highlights who can use it, and puts people in yellow if it's an improvement. I don't know if it was this update that did it or not, but I just love it.