Old School paper dolls are now broken...
GarrusN7
Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 155
The paper dolls from original BG2 no longer work properly. When the paper doll files are put into the override, in the game, they now create a green box in the paper doll window. Please BEAMDOG fix the compatibility of the paper dolls ASAP. Or add alternative choice of the paper dolls to the game. Please guys!
Edit: Ignore the post. The file format for paper dolls was just changed. That's all
Edit: Ignore the post. The file format for paper dolls was just changed. That's all
Post edited by GarrusN7 on
0
Comments
There are other threads in the past saying that that is what happens, since something like the 2.0 release.
I personally would like to add back a few classic BG2 paper dolls, but ran into the green box background problem. I tried various methods to try getting around it, but the best I accomplished was to change the green background to a different color background. It's a transparency issue and I couldn't figure out how to get it to transparent.
I've got it transparent, but I still have a borked image.
Also recoloring skin/hair/major/minor isn't working.
Edit-broke it worse, but got recoloring, sort of.
I am pretty sure the borkage present here is caused by the image wanting to be cut into two parts, a top and a bottom. The original is stored as a 128x160, and it's transparent for ~20 pixels from the top of the image to the character's head. In the bottom "duplicate" in the borked image, that's at roughly 100 pixels gauging from the base image in GIMP. 160/2=80+20=100. So I think that can be corrected for by doing as the BAM files do, cut it in half.
My method so far:
Export the PLT as PNG with Near Infinity.
Export the PNG as 32-bit BMP with GIMP.
Was looking at tweaking the palettes with BAMWorkshop II, I suspect I'm going to have to figure this part out.
Import BMP into a BAM with Near Infinity, choosing to compress the frame.
I think the reason I'm not getting skin/hair/major/minor recoloring in the picture is because the PNG I exported from NI already had it added (I had randomize colors on).
That has resulted in an even worse image, a character composed of snow. But it was recolorable snow.
If I can figure out the palette issue to get it colored properly, I can cut the image into two files, then arrange them to line up with each other. And then arrange it some more so it gets weapons, armor, shields, and helmets.
That the gist of it?
"developers have just checked it. The EE uses regular BAMs for paperdolls, not the old PLTs. You'll have to convert them. PLT>PNG with the NearInfinity, then split it in half (it's a two-part BAM), then make those PNGs into BAMs.
Check if those PLTs in the pack by @lunar have transparency set up correctly.
That lime green is the internal color that gets filtered out for transparency in BAMs, just like a green screen for a movie."
This seems to be the method
This is what I mean by a character composed of "snow". If I attempt to recolor hair/skin/major/minor, SOME of the pixels of the character change color as I move through the palettes.
This was an export to PNG straight out of my own BG2:SOA files with NI, then copied the file and cut both in half with GIMP. Did the BAM with NI. Nothing changed aside from default settings.
Trying again, this time switching the palettes to the BG2EE palette for this file (CEFC3INV).
No snow, but still not really recolorable (as evidenced by the hot pink palette choices). You can barely make out the pinkness in the edges of the armor.
However, if there's is one you like in particular... then the following should help.
1) You'll need NearInfinity/ Java runtime, BAM Workshop 2, GIMP
2) Create override folder and put your old .plt file in there. In NI.. find the old style doll and change the colour to a look you're happy with.
3) Export your old .plt file as a png, also export an existing working paperdoll for reference (as png (all frames) and as bam (original).
4) Open your old paperdoll png in GIMP... convert it to a 24bit bmp, cut it in half (following example of existing paperdoll).
5) Open BAM editor 2..Open the existing working paperdoll example bam and save the palette. Close everything. Open a blank BAM editor, add a blank frame, load the bg2 palette you saved earlier, import frames - add you two 24bit bmps… legs and body.
6) Using the existing paperdoll as a reference, make sure your transparency colour is exactly the same (151 blue, 151 yellow), and shadow. Recolour any pixels as required. Save, put in override folder and rename to the name of the existing paperdoll you're overriding.
7) Open up your BAM in Near Infinity... click edit bam... give the body 2 frames and the legs 2 frames. Play around with the x and y axis (can test in game to get it right).
8) Open BAM in BAM editor 2 again and adjust for things like... colour editing, to make major, minor colours more prominent. You'll also likely have to adjust the hand, arms positions to fit the weapons etc.
9) Keep testing, with NI, BAM editor, GIMP...until everything aligns perfectly and happy with all colours.
Look back and reflect on life
@GarrusN7 Your dreams have been answered. If you prefer the old to the new, that's all well and fine and people will give you their time and efforts to help you out, but saying the new ones are garbage is... well, let's just say, it belongs in the "unpopular opinions thread".
Or, sorry if I sound stupid (because I am), what is this BAM editior???
BAM editor I meant BAM workshop II
@GarrusN7 I've tested the paperdolls from kjeron, they look great, some just need a slight realignment in NearInfinity so that the helments and weapons align exactly. Is that what you're talking about, or are you saying you want the animations/avatar to sync with the paperdoll/inventory?
And my computer pops strange error while starting BAM workshop II I guess the old-school dolls just don't like me.
I solved it for the two paperdolls I care about by aligning to helmet, and then editing with GIMP so that I took out a good bit of the misalignment by shortening the right (left) wrist by a couple pixels.
Problem was that caused some sort of palette shift, the entire palette shifted over by 1 every time I saved. I guess GIMP doesn't recognize the transparency in the first palette space. Every way I tried to correct it didn't seem to work, and by the time I had the pixels right, the palette had been shifted 3 times, and so the character looked very washed out from the shifting to the left (darker to lighter), Finally I threw out all my work last night and started over.
Managed to do it with just one edit and while the character is somewhat lighter from 1 palette shift, I can live with it.
Thank you for this.
Re-aligning them for original BG2 weapons/helmets is not something for GIMP. All it requires is adjusting the "Center x/y" coordinates, which is far easier accomplished with NI.
Select the BAM, Click "Edit BAM"(bottom right button), adjust the "Center X" and "Center Y" for both frames by the same amount, then save and move into override, and check in-game.
Or I can try to rebuild them for BG2 weapon/helmet placement later tonight if you'd prefer.
Yes, there was realigning of the image with "center x/y" as well (especially since while I was at it, I cropped the images from 128x80s with autocropping to ~65x60).
Here's what the original was that you fixed:
And here's what I finally worked out:
You can tell I shortened the right wrist.
Also, it's hard to tell without zooming in, but I made the torso wider by about 1 pixel for 3-4 pixels on the character's left side where the brighter strap from the main buckle on the chest wraps around. I felt, and still do feel, the torso is too skinny.
But I'm willing to live with it, given how much work it took (~5 hours last night before throwing out all my work in frustration over the palette shifting, ~3 hours this morning when I started over).
I wish the devs made some comment about this...
I'm clearly failing to see the problem here.
Thanks!
BG2 vs BG2:EE: