In games where I already met Vhailor before installing this and with the override he properly gets the avatar next to textbox. In new games he doesn't. There's just the torment symbol instead. Haven't found any other NPC having this problem.
For whatever reason starting a new game with his override .cre files deleted shows his avatar. O_o
Vhailor is a bit odd. There are like 4 creatures of him, some that don't move because he's frozen or something when you first meet him. I'll look into this..
Is there a way to manually edit saves to show the portraits for characters you've already met without the mod?
Technically it's possible, but I don't believe there is any tool publicly out there that lets us set the required field in bulk. WeiDU MIGHT be able to do this, but if it can it's far above my current knowledge. Can it even decompress a save?
If you really want to manually edit a creature to display a portrait, you can use Near Infinity. This edit, however, can only add a portrait to ONE creature instance at a time. It's quite impossible to manually go over every creature instance and update the value, but you can add portraits to a few creature instances if you want. Here's the general steps you would have to take:
1.) Open Near Infinity and set the game to Planescape. 2.) Open and decompress the BALDUR.SAV of the save game you wish to edit. 3.) View/Edit the .ARE the creature is in. 4.) View/Edit the Actor you wish to add the portrait to. 5.) Switch to the Edit tab, double click the CRE entry at the bottom of the list. 6.) Set the Small portrait field to the correct .BMP file.
Is there a way to manually edit saves to show the portraits for characters you've already met without the mod?
Technically it's possible, but I don't believe there is any tool publicly out there that lets us set the required field in bulk. WeiDU MIGHT be able to do this, but if it can it's far above my current knowledge. Can it even decompress a save?
If you really want to manually edit a creature to display a portrait, you can use Near Infinity. This edit, however, can only add a portrait to ONE creature instance at a time. It's quite impossible to manually go over every creature instance and update the value, but you can add portraits to a few creature instances if you want. Here's the general steps you would have to take:
1.) Open Near Infinity and set the game to Planescape. 2.) Open and decompress the BALDUR.SAV of the save game you wish to edit. 3.) View/Edit the .ARE the creature is in. 4.) View/Edit the Actor you wish to add the portrait to. 5.) Switch to the Edit tab, double click the CRE entry at the bottom of the list. 6.) Set the Small portrait field to the correct .BMP file.
That would break the portraits in this mod because what this mod changes and what you are seeing is the small portrait in conversations. If you revert that to the small portraits that you are used to seeing in the save game snapshots, then you would see the horribly stretched portraits in conversations. So it's a choice, the journal portraits or the small portraits.
It may be possible to do something in ui.menu, but I haven't been able to figure it out so far.
That would break the portraits in this mod because what this mod changes and what you are seeing is the small portrait in conversations. If you revert that to the small portraits that you are used to seeing in the save game snapshots, then you would see the horribly stretched portraits in conversations. So it's a choice, the journal portraits or the small portraits.
It may be possible to do something in ui.menu, but I haven't been able to figure it out so far.
Sorry, I was a bit unclear. What I meant by that step, is that you replace the "Small portrait" with the bestiary BMP (which is one of the things your mod does). I merely looked at what your override CRE had set, and changed the value in the SAV to match this value. This does seem to work for me; I've done it several times, and every NPC I've changed has had a correct portrait. Here's an example of an already-existing creature I edited to have a portrait:
Is there a way to manually edit saves to show the portraits for characters you've already met without the mod?
Technically it's possible, but I don't believe there is any tool publicly out there that lets us set the required field in bulk. WeiDU MIGHT be able to do this, but if it can it's far above my current knowledge. Can it even decompress a save?
If you really want to manually edit a creature to display a portrait, you can use Near Infinity. This edit, however, can only add a portrait to ONE creature instance at a time. It's quite impossible to manually go over every creature instance and update the value, but you can add portraits to a few creature instances if you want. Here's the general steps you would have to take:
1.) Open Near Infinity and set the game to Planescape. 2.) Open and decompress the BALDUR.SAV of the save game you wish to edit. 3.) View/Edit the .ARE the creature is in. 4.) View/Edit the Actor you wish to add the portrait to. 5.) Switch to the Edit tab, double click the CRE entry at the bottom of the list. 6.) Set the Small portrait field to the correct .BMP file.
I realize in hindsight that I could have phrased my question a little less ambiguously. What I meant was, I'm using the mod now, but I'm using it on a save where I already started playing the game for a little while before installing the mod, so the dialogue portraits of the characters I've already met show up as generic Torment symbols. I want to update my save to fix the portraits of characters I've already met, like Fell, so their dialogue portraits look like themselves, as if I had started the game with the mod installed. I then want to play the rest of the game with the mod enabled, and I want the mod not to be broken and to function properly. Would the method described do that?
@smeagolheart: Here is a version of your mod that also works natively in Mac OSX and linux. I did not have the time yet to extensively test the linux version, but I did test the OSX version a lot and it works like a charm. Please consider incorporating these additions in your future versions. (I will be happy to test them, for each version, if you need help in that.)
Bad news: as I had to include the latest weidu OSX/linux binaries in the zip file, it is bigger now.
I don't believe you can have it both ways with the portraits.
I believe it works like this: once you go to an area and the creatures are spawned in game, then creature spawns and is added to your save game's data. This is why if you install the mod on an existing game, creatures in areas you've previously been won't have portraits.
I realize in hindsight that I could have phrased my question a little less ambiguously. What I meant was, I'm using the mod now, but I'm using it on a save where I already started playing the game for a little while before installing the mod, so the dialogue portraits of the characters I've already met show up as generic Torment symbols. I want to update my save to fix the portraits of characters I've already met, like Fell, so their dialogue portraits look like themselves, as if I had started the game with the mod installed. I then want to play the rest of the game with the mod enabled, and I want the mod not to be broken and to function properly. Would the method described do that?
As I say, there is no way that I know of that you can have it both ways. Fell will either have her journal portrait (the big sized portrait) or the small portrait which will show up all stretched and pixelated during conversations. Wouldn't you say it's a small inconvenience to see this on the save screen? You actually see the conversations all the time in game, you don't see the save game screen all the time.
Maybe there's a solution to this minor problem could be found in customizing the ui.menu screen for the save game so that screen can point to another set of portraits and not the creature's small portrait that is used in conversations.
I don't believe you can have it both ways with the portraits.
I believe it works like this: once you go to an area and the creatures are spawned in game, then creature spawns and is added to your save game's data. This is why if you install the mod on an existing game, creatures in areas you've previously been won't have portraits.
I realize in hindsight that I could have phrased my question a little less ambiguously. What I meant was, I'm using the mod now, but I'm using it on a save where I already started playing the game for a little while before installing the mod, so the dialogue portraits of the characters I've already met show up as generic Torment symbols. I want to update my save to fix the portraits of characters I've already met, like Fell, so their dialogue portraits look like themselves, as if I had started the game with the mod installed. I then want to play the rest of the game with the mod enabled, and I want the mod not to be broken and to function properly. Would the method described do that?
As I say, there is no way that I know of that you can have it both ways. Fell will either have her journal portrait (the big sized portrait) or the small portrait which will show up all stretched and pixelated during conversations. Wouldn't you say it's a small inconvenience to see this on the save screen? You actually see the conversations all the time in game, you don't see the save game screen all the time.
Maybe there's a solution to this minor problem could be found in customizing the ui.menu screen for the save game so that screen can point to another set of portraits and not the creature's small portrait that is used in conversations.
If I can choose between one or the other, I'd want the big portraits; I don't care about the save screen. But I'm not getting any conversation portrait from him at the moment, just the Torment symbol. So if there was a way to retroactively edit my save data to give Fell and the people I've already met before installing this mod their big conversation portraits without having to restart the game over again, I would readily take it.
If I can choose between one or the other, I'd want the big portraits; I don't care about the save screen. But I'm not getting any conversation portrait from him at the moment, just the Torment symbol. So if there was a way to retroactively edit my save data to give Fell and the people I've already met before installing this mod their big conversation portraits without having to restart the game over again, I would readily take it.
The method I laid out earlier can edit one instance of a creature. To clarify, you could edit a Dabus on the map right after the mortuary; but every other Dabus would still have no portrait. At the moment, there is nothing you can do to update a whole savegame; I am working on this, though.
If I can choose between one or the other, I'd want the big portraits; I don't care about the save screen. But I'm not getting any conversation portrait from him at the moment, just the Torment symbol. So if there was a way to retroactively edit my save data to give Fell and the people I've already met before installing this mod their big conversation portraits without having to restart the game over again, I would readily take it.
The method I laid out earlier can edit one instance of a creature. To clarify, you could edit a Dabus on the map right after the mortuary; but every other Dabus would still have no portrait. At the moment, there is nothing you can do to update a whole savegame; I am working on this, though.
This is something that has been in the infinity engine since the beginning, 20 years ago, in how it handles save games. There have likely been several previous attempts at updating creature instances stored in save files.
Alright, so I followed Bubb's method, and I managed to update one of the NPCs' small portrait values from none to the proper image with no apparent ill effects. I'll have to do this for every NPC I previously encountered until a batch savegame updater comes out, but at least there is a way. Now if only I had a way to extract all the BAM portrait files, so I can look at them to find which BAM filename goes with which NPC.
Doesn't show NPC portraits it just shows the symbol of torment in their place. My companions show fine. Help!
As I was questioning about earlier, the portraits of NPCs of areas you've already visited before installing the mod will show up as the Torment symbol. You have to manually edit each NPC entry in the save data file individually as Bubb described to make those NPCs' portraits show up in the game. Only save editing or restarting the game with the mod installed will fix those portraits.
all this troubleshooting-looking talk creates a false first impression that something's broken or bugged. i just want to point out to any newly arrived superficial reader - it's not (the mod works flawlessly)
Come one, come all; take a look at Bubb's fantastical wares. Aha, I have something here that I think you will like! You see, this magical construct has a very special power; it assigns people NEW faces, the ones they were always destined to have.
Ah, seriously though, I've made a program that will update a save to include these portraits. It requires the Java 8 Runtime in order to run; once you have that, just unpack the zip and double-click the .jar
I've tried to make this tool as intuitive and robust as possible, so it SHOULDN'T explode in your face. The tool copies the save you are updating, just like EEKeeper, so your saves are under no risk of being damaged.
You should follow these steps to install: 1.) Download and install Journal Portrait Conversations by smeagolheart. 2.) Download and start the Portrait Updater.jar 3.) The first prompt wants you to point it at the chitin.key of the game. This is in the game's base folder. 4.) The second prompt wants you to point it at the .SAV file. This is in the directory of the save.
If all goes to plan, you should get a success message. The original save is left intact; the updated save has had "(Updated)" appended to it's name. If you get an error, don't worry; the program has cleaned up after itself. If you want help with the error, feel free to ask.
Great work Bubb! I can totally see the portraits of Harlots and other NPCs on the street that I couldn't before. Please know your efforts have not gone unappreciated.
@Bubb mind if I add this to the OP? It updates existing saves? Any other info you want to give for the readme besides what you've written above?
It would be great if you could update the OP!
Unfortunately, I have found an instance where the updater assigns the wrong portrait, (Nenny gets a Thug's portrait ). Technical information for those who are interested, (or want to help):
When creating the program, I opted to match the actors by their CRE file. It just so happens, (for some reason...), half the saved CREs have had their first letter field replaced with an *. This only occurs in Planescape savegames, the Baldur's Gate savegames work fine. If two CREs share the same exact name, and the only difference between them is their first character, precise matching fails. I see now that the bestiary entrees are defined in the BGEE.LUA, maybe I'll find a way to use this to make the matching more accurate. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears!
EDIT: After some testing, I've come to the conclusion that the game replaces the first letter of the CRE once the player has loaded the area for a few seconds. This is very weird behavior, and well.. I don't think I can improve upon my current method. The only way to fix this minor bug would be to completely rewrite how I detect which portrait goes where. I might do this, if I have some spare time.
You might make a README note that is something along these lines:
This updater has been known to add incorrect portraits to a small number of npcs. Nenny is the only npc that we know of so far; if you find another instance of an incorrect portrait, messaging @Bubb with the details would be a great help.
I could install both mods just fine. Without knowing the actual error message we can only guess what could be the cause. Please attach the .DEBUG file of the mod.
@smeagolheart It looks like your mod includes a buggy WeiDU executable. The initial version of WeiDU beta 240.01 (available until April 20th) didn't contain code to deal with the auto-update mechanism (as seen in the screenshot above).
Comments
If you really want to manually edit a creature to display a portrait, you can use Near Infinity. This edit, however, can only add a portrait to ONE creature instance at a time. It's quite impossible to manually go over every creature instance and update the value, but you can add portraits to a few creature instances if you want. Here's the general steps you would have to take:
1.) Open Near Infinity and set the game to Planescape.
2.) Open and decompress the BALDUR.SAV of the save game you wish to edit.
3.) View/Edit the .ARE the creature is in.
4.) View/Edit the Actor you wish to add the portrait to.
5.) Switch to the Edit tab, double click the CRE entry at the bottom of the list.
6.) Set the Small portrait field to the correct .BMP file.
It may be possible to do something in ui.menu, but I haven't been able to figure it out so far.
Bad news: as I had to include the latest weidu OSX/linux binaries in the zip file, it is bigger now.
I believe it works like this: once you go to an area and the creatures are spawned in game, then creature spawns and is added to your save game's data. This is why if you install the mod on an existing game, creatures in areas you've previously been won't have portraits. As I say, there is no way that I know of that you can have it both ways. Fell will either have her journal portrait (the big sized portrait) or the small portrait which will show up all stretched and pixelated during conversations. Wouldn't you say it's a small inconvenience to see this on the save screen? You actually see the conversations all the time in game, you don't see the save game screen all the time.
Maybe there's a solution to this minor problem could be found in customizing the ui.menu screen for the save game so that screen can point to another set of portraits and not the creature's small portrait that is used in conversations.
I can give you the images if you want.
Ah, seriously though, I've made a program that will update a save to include these portraits. It requires the Java 8 Runtime in order to run; once you have that, just unpack the zip and double-click the .jar
I've tried to make this tool as intuitive and robust as possible, so it SHOULDN'T explode in your face. The tool copies the save you are updating, just like EEKeeper, so your saves are under no risk of being damaged.
You should follow these steps to install:
1.) Download and install Journal Portrait Conversations by smeagolheart.
2.) Download and start the Portrait Updater.jar
3.) The first prompt wants you to point it at the chitin.key of the game. This is in the game's base folder.
4.) The second prompt wants you to point it at the .SAV file. This is in the directory of the save.
If all goes to plan, you should get a success message. The original save is left intact; the updated save has had "(Updated)" appended to it's name. If you get an error, don't worry; the program has cleaned up after itself. If you want help with the error, feel free to ask.
Sure, what do you have? Feel free to post or PM
Unfortunately, I have found an instance where the updater assigns the wrong portrait, (Nenny gets a Thug's portrait
When creating the program, I opted to match the actors by their CRE file. It just so happens, (for some reason...), half the saved CREs have had their first letter field replaced with an *. This only occurs in Planescape savegames, the Baldur's Gate savegames work fine. If two CREs share the same exact name, and the only difference between them is their first character, precise matching fails. I see now that the bestiary entrees are defined in the BGEE.LUA, maybe I'll find a way to use this to make the matching more accurate. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears!
EDIT: After some testing, I've come to the conclusion that the game replaces the first letter of the CRE once the player has loaded the area for a few seconds. This is very weird behavior, and well.. I don't think I can improve upon my current method. The only way to fix this minor bug would be to completely rewrite how I detect which portrait goes where. I might do this, if I have some spare time.
You might make a README note that is something along these lines:
This updater has been known to add incorrect portraits to a small number of npcs. Nenny is the only npc that we know of so far; if you find another instance of an incorrect portrait, messaging @Bubb with the details would be a great help.
I guess it is the problem of the version of UI Menu or Weidu?
It said "it is a unstable version"
@wandererhaha what error did it give when you tried to install it? Did you try installing this mod before the other one, maybe it will work that way?
The Error message:
@argent77
I think it is the problem of the version of Weidu.
The probem was sloved by the method of ,argent77, thanks so much!
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/64525/banter-accelerator#latest
------------
It's the .DEBUG file if I use the old version weidu (from ==> Setup-JournalPortraitConversationsv052.zip)
(Actually .... It shows nothing.....)
----------------------------
[WeiDU v 24001 Log
D :\Program Files (x86)\GalaxyClient\Games\Planescape Torment - Enhanced Edition\Setup-JournalPortraitConversations.exe]
I did need to lowercase the filenames, and I made sure the .pstoverride file was a zip file with no compression. But it works!
I can send you the .pstoverride file if you want to make it available to other iOS users.