Character Sprites/Models

Nakara

Made this kind of post almost two years ago, so trying again. Was jinking around with the EE Keeper in BG:EE/SoD, and saw that I could change a character's appearance to stuff like half-dragons, bugbears, goblin captains, and so on. But trying this in BG2:EE, the character's model/avatar turns invisible. How do I fix this? PLEASE someone respond with a fix. Do I need a file, or mod, or fix or something to use IWD/IWD2 models in BG2:EE? I want this. Thanks.

sarevok57

yes, if you want to play any of the IWD sprites or models, you will need to import their .bam files into your override folder ( I had to do this with my IWD mod I made) and not only that, but then you need to edit a couple .2da files as well so then the game can recognize them as well

Nakara

So the importing part is easy (I guess?). But how do I go about having BG2:EE recognize IWD .bams? Some program or something? Really appreciate the help thus far dear.

sarevok57

I use Near Infinity game editor to edit the .2da files you will need to edit so then the game recognizes your .bam files

Nakara

Ok so, using Near Infinity editor, exactly what am I doing with the program? Taking .2das from IWD/IWD2 and modifying them somehow? And then what?

sarevok57

hokay, so there is going to be some steps to this, so lets just use the "undead orc shaman" as an example

so first you need to grab the .bam files from IWD2 ( which you can use near infinity to export them into the IWD 2 override)

so that would consist of grabbing all the bams of MOR7A1-MOR7WKE

then once you have all those .bams put them into your bg2 override folder

once you have your IWD2 .bams in your bg2 override folder you need to open up near infinity and start editing some 2DA files

so on the left you will see a folder labelled "2DA" open it up, and you are going to see a lot of sub folders, the ones you are interested in are "EXTANIM.2DA" and "EXTSPEED.2DA"

first open up "EXTANIN.2DA" and you will see a list of numbers and a list going across the top

the first thing you need to do is find out what the "animation number" is, ( which seems to always be a 5 digit number, you can find this by going to a creature file and looking up in it's creature animation box and it will tell you the 5 digit number of that creature)

so in the above example, undead orc shaman is 57979 so that would be the first number you would put on a new line,

and then notice how the rest of the creatures on those lines basically have the same properties ( like 0s, 1s, none, 47 etc)

well I would copy paste an above line to match your new line, except you will also notice the only real difference is that some of the above lines you will have some letters in capitals with a number, this is where you have to place the .bam reference number in so for example, if I want to make the line for the undead orc shaman, it would look like this:

57979 0 1 1 0 none 0 47 0 0 MOR7 none none 8 3 MOR7 none 0 0 none

the 57979 representing the animation number, the MOR7 representing the .bam number ( and all the other numbers are for the things up top like; does infravision affect this creature and so on) if you want to get fancy you can mess with those but I would be very careful with that

but in the end, make sure your horizontal lines match up with the vertical lines, or else it might not work

so, after you get that all figured out, then its time for the EXTSPEED.2DA file ( luckily this one is easy)

so open that up and you will see you only need 2 values, the animation reference number and the speed the animation plays at ( which is what I assume the single digit number is for)

so here ( again using the undead orc shaman) you would put in 57979 and then follow it up by an 8 ( I use 8 for all the animations I bring over, because im not 100% what the single value is for, but 8 seems to work quite well)

and again make sure your horizontal row matches your vertical row in 2da file to prevent discrepancies

hopefully this helps, it sounds confusing in the beginning, but once you know what you are doing its relatively easy to get going

Contemplative_Hamster

@Nakara , if you suceed, please post your work here so that others may benefit and learn from it.

kjeron

From a relevant thread:

To summarize, fully defined INI files for all available BG/BG2/IWD/IWD2 creature animations are already present in v2.x patched BGEE and BG2EE. All you have to do is to install associated BAM and WAV resources (and sometimes BMPs for altered palettes). 2DA files are not needed anymore (although the game doesn't break if you install them anyway).

You just need to find/export the BAM(animation) and WAV(sound) files in IWD2 and add them to your BG1/2EE override folder.

sarevok57

ah, that's interesting to know, I know that IWD doesn't have all the IWD2 sprites, so I had to manually bring all the bams over and adjust some .2da files since IWD is only 1.4

Nakara

Giving this a try for the first time, so it's a challenge for me. Still trying to wrestle with this.

Nakara

15 years. 15 years since I craved the day I could play as a beautiful half-dragoness in Baldur's Gate1/2, and I finally have it. I finally bloody have it. I swear I could kiss you both.
So what I did was download Near Infinity, per sarevok57's instructions, and mass exported every file type to both BG1:EE/BG2:EE overrides, per kjeron's orders. And without a fuss, it worked. Now I can play with my odd-and-quirky band of angry misfits. I swear, you both have no idea how stupidly happy you've made me. From the absolute bottom of my heart, thank you, oh my gods, thank you~<3

smeagolheart

Nakara said:

15 years. 15 years since I craved the day I could play as a beautiful half-dragoness in Baldur's Gate1/2, and I finally have it. I finally bloody have it. I swear I could kiss you both.
So what I did was download Near Infinity, per sarevok57's instructions, and mass exported every file type to both BG1:EE/BG2:EE overrides, per kjeron's orders. And without a fuss, it worked. Now I can play with my odd-and-quirky band of angry misfits. I swear, you both have no idea how stupidly happy you've made me. From the absolute bottom of my heart, thank you, oh my gods, thank you~<3</p>

screenshot?

Contemplative_Hamster

Pic or it din't happen. ☺

Nakara

My group of pissed-off misfits. Now mind you, when I did the mass exporting in Near Infinity, the *ONLY* files you need to export are .bam and .wav. Exporting anything else runs the extreme risk of breaking your game.

Contemplative_Hamster

Will these respond to changes in weapon and armor, or are they static, like Mkhiin in SOD whose goblin sprite does not change weapons ?

Nakara

Exactly. Weapons, armor, jewelry, and other stats will still take effect, just that nothing will change on the avatars themselves. That orog with the flail for example. Even when not wielding a weapon in inventory, his avatar will still retain the flail and shield, even if you were to put a two-handed sword in his hands.

Contemplative_Hamster

That makes me a sad panda.

Nakara

You have to remember. These avatar designs were created using technology 15 years old. Even with all the advanced stuff available for modding today, it'd take a full design rewrite to change an avatar's appearance based on weapons and armor. Much sadness, I know.