No Fog mod

romkansk

So, this was bugging me for quite a while now:

I wan't to play Baldur's Gate EE with fully visible map. And I'm not talking about unexplored areas, I mean dark fog that hides NPSs and enemies.
I understand that this will give an unfair advantage and game is not designed to played like this - but so what?

At this point I'm pretty sure there's no ready-to-use solution. I did a thorough search and only found dead threads with general advice on how to explore area, increase character visual range or use mage spells to temporarily gain insight on some distant area. I looks like at some point there was a mod for what I want http://www.shsforums.net/topic/43845-universal-clear-fog-of-war/ but thread is long dead and links don't work anymore.

I tried to figure it out by myself, but so far I was only able to make Cheat Engine script to mark every square the map as visible. This removes the fog, but effect is purely cosmetic - NPSs and enemies disappear as soon as they leave character visual range so no luck there...

I seem to remember that at some point Candle Keep map was fully visible but this is no longer the case.. and I strongly suspect that this was map property and I don't think that mod that replaces every map in the game would be a good solution.

Speaking of mods, I didn't really look too close in modding tools like Near Infinity, but it seems like wast majority of mods rely on resource modification and it seems like what I need lies somewhere in game mechanics.

As it is I'm pretty much stuck. I don't know where to look further.. BIG World doesn't seem to have what I want either so any advice on how to deal with this is very welcome. Some links on modding or where to start are too (I know of http://gibberlings3.net/iesd).

Regards.

mf2112

This will do it.

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/54217/using-reveal-details-button-to-perform-cluaconsole-functions#latest

romkansk

mf2112 said:

This will do it.

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/54217/using-reveal-details-button-to-perform-cluaconsole-functions#latest

Have you actually read my post?
Unless I terribly misunderstood something - all you suggesting is to use C:ExploreArea() command, which only explores the map, fog that hides NSPs remain totally unaffected.

Also, if it would be that simple I for sure would've found the answer already.

argent77

I don't think it's possible to do what you have in mind. It may break (or at the very least put a high load on) the game since all exposed creatures start executing their creature scripts. It might also prematurely trigger some scripted events or cause other unwanted side effects.

The only way I can think of to remove the fog of war of an entire map is by using dozens of invisible helper creatures scattered over the map with the "Clear fog of war" effect applied. However, the current version of the game engine is buggy in this regard and allows only up to 8 creatures using this effect (including party members which are using this effect implicitly).

romkansk

@argent77
What about Candle Keep map being fully visible? Did I imagine it? If it didn't - it means there's way to do it in game. Other then that I can't really thing of anything either. Event if I find a way to push character visible range beyond intended limits, line of sight would still be a problem...

put a high load on) the game

I don't really think it would be a problem considering modern high end gaming PCs capabilities.

It might also prematurely trigger some scripted events

Do this scrips get triggered by mage spell? I don't think so.. at least most of them don't, but this might require some testing to confirm.

argent77

You were talking about removing the fog of war to expose all creatures on the map. If you merely want to remove the black areas on the map you can easily do it via cheat command "C:ExploreArea()", script action "Explore()" or maybe even by spell effect. Permanently exposing all creatures on the map is much more difficult. I have outlined one possible way do do it which may or may not work and might also cause some unwanted side effects.

romkansk

@argent77 Yes, I perfectly understood what you meant. Sorry if I wasn't more clear. I indeed talk about exposing all creatures on the map.
I don't really like the way you proposed, especially if there's a limit of 8 creatures with "Clear fog of war" effect...

So yeah, I'll wait if anyone else have other suggestions, meanwhile trying to think of something myself...

Ardanis

Not doable. When I asked the programming department about lifting this limitation, the answer was something along "too risky, let's leave it alone" lines.

romkansk

@Ardanis

too risky

But that what mods are for! For the ultimate game breaking experience!

Seriously though, their reply is quite sad.

Ulb

Well, I think you could kind of achieve that effect by just adding an "increase visual range" effect to your main character and set it to a really high value. Haven't tested it though and it would probably still cause all the issues Argent77 mentioned above.

*edit* on a second thought; that might actually mess up the attack range of ranged weapons and other stuff.. so better don't do that either.

romkansk

@Ulb That was pretty much the first thing I tried. There's a pretty low limit to the Visual Range value you can set using EE Keeper. Event when it's maxed it's not that far. Also line of sight is really bugging me. I mean if there's something between you and monster, even if you're technically close - you won't see it.

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romkansk

@subtledoctor Sounds pretty cool. Now.. if only you were to extend this effect over the whole map...
Just kidding, good luck with this ability!

edit:
Although.. you sure you know how this effect is implemented? I mean if it's invisible entity with "clear fog of war" effect - it won't see through walls.

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romkansk

Can anyone offer any advice on inner workings of showing\hiding NPC mechanics? Like where should I look in Near Infinity? Maybe if I knew I could try out more stuff with Cheat Engine..
Is there a way to ask devs? (they're probably too busy for that..) or maybe there's a chat room full of helpful modders who know how this stuff works?

I'm pretty sure there's no in-memory representation of the map with visible\hidden values. Or rather there is, but this is just for visual effects.
I know that NPS objects still exits even if not rendered - I've seen monsters move though patches of fog only to appear on other side.
I'm pretty sure there's no cached value for each NPC which tells if it's visible or not.

So.. I'm out of ideas for now

romkansk

@argent77
>I don't think it's possible
@Ardanis
>Not doable.
@subtledoctor
> don't think this is possible

Thank you all for your kind words of support, I think I kinda did what I want with Cheat Engine using 3 separate scripts:
1) Disable cosmetic fog effect
2) Set view distance of controlled characters to max (which I thinks shows the whole map)
3) Disable vision obstruction condition
which effectively makes all map fully visible.

Would be very grateful for helping me test it. Here's link to a post with the table http://forum.cheatengine.org/viewtopic.php?p=5685384#5685384

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romkansk

BTW @subtledoctor I'm pretty sure Farsight idea won't work. Not only it relies on opcode which includes showing big map effect, it also complies visual obstruction rules, just as characters do.