Build 8177 Name Generator

JBobb

This caught my eye in the patch notes:

The name generator tables for all races (including custom) are now configurable in racialtypes.2da.

How does this work? How do we create new custom tables? Assuming we can how are they supposed to be configured?

symmetric

I haven't looked at it yet. But I'm assuming the engine still uses ltr files for name generation.

You edit them with this tool. The standard ones are in templates.bif

JBobb

I can't seem to get the tool to run in win10. It starts up and shuts down right away.

symmetric

It's a command line tool. You'll need to start up the console, navigate to the folder it is in and execute it from there with the ltr file as argument.
nwnltr -p myFile.ltr
A simple double click does not work unfortunately. That would just execute the program without any file or anything, i.e. it closes again right away without doing anything.

Sherincall

1. WIN+R to bring up a the run dialog
   
2. Type "cmd" and press ENTER to start the command line
   
3. Type "cd c:\path\to\ltrtool" to enter that directory
   
4. Type "nwnltr" to get the list of commands
   

Check the nwvault page for few more command examples.

JBobb

OK, I'm looking at this and makes zero sense. when I did a print out of the dwarfm.ltr its just 5 rows of zero's with a blips' worth of 1's through this loooooong list of 3-letter row headers. I have no clue what I'm supposed to wo with this or how to make a custom name list. A little help anyone?

Sherincall

What you are seeing are the probability tables for the sequences. Probably not interesting to you right now. If you look at the vault page, you'll see an example:

echo kernogg hank cunvirnzald thesturrank thrakmadorn kalda ureth krelte kormach sagtebaz genost thogam krudolketh cradost robovaz brornis drerl cromgorn | nwnltr --build --generate=10 test.ltr

The | separates two commands. Output of the first one is input to the second one.
The first command is:
echo kernogg hank cunvirnzald thesturrank thrakmadorn kalda ureth krelte kormach sagtebaz genost thogam krudolketh cradost robovaz brornis drerl cromgorn
and it just outputs these orc sounding names.
The second command:
nwnltr --build --generate=10 test.ltr
builds a generator using those names, saves the generator (probability tables) to "test.ltr" file, and then prints 10 names using the new generator. You can try editing these sample names and see what comes out.

You can also save your names to a names.txt file (separate either by space or newline), and then feed it to the generator using the < sign, like this:
nwnltr --build --generate=10 test.ltr < names.txt

JBobb

Nevermind I worked it out. I think I'll wait for a more user friendly tool, having to create lists of names manually is a PITA!

Sherincall

That is how the name generator in NWN works. The game does not have a list of elf names or anything, it has a probability table it uses to generate an Elven name. Those tables look like what you've seen. They were hand edited by Bioware, too.

You need to have something to build those tables. Either give it a sample set of names to "teach" it, or manually edit the probabilities.

As for user friendliness, I understand typing commands is not fun, but even if there was a user interface, you'd still need to write out all the names to a file.

dTd

Well, here's hoping some prefab name lists get uploaded to the vault. For what it's worth, I use the generic name generation for commoners with a x3_name_gen script, works fabulously IMHO

JBobb

Sherincall said:

That is how the name generator in NWN works. The game does not have a list of elf names or anything, it has a probability table it uses to generate an Elven name. Those tables look like what you've seen. They were hand edited by Bioware, too.

You need to have something to build those tables. Either give it a sample set of names to "teach" it, or manually edit the probabilities.

As for user friendliness, I understand typing commands is not fun, but even if there was a user interface, you'd still need to write out all the names to a file.

Yeah I get all that, with some kind of interface though I could copy an existing list I have and paste it in, but command lines do not have this luxury. I can appreciate that people took the time during game development to do this, but my time is limited so I have to decide where on my PW I am creating.

Great to see I can use a text file though, I hadn't considered that!

JBobb

I rambled, nevermind. Works great converting text files!