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[iOS, Modding] .pstoverride files?

CrevsDaakCrevsDaak Member Posts: 7,155
If you go to the planescape.com site, and scroll down, you can see that there are a bunch of things to download, the manual, Even More Irish Annah and Easter-Egg Morte. OK, that's what everyone would expect, but if you look closer on the NPC appearance changes, it says "to install in iOS click here" and links you to a .pstoverride file (a zip file with a different extension, nothing weird here). Basically, this means that iOS versions of the game are much more moddable than any other of the EEs. I just hope they port this over to BG:EE and company when they release their next patch.

Right now, this is pure speculation because I yet have to see it work, but it's certainly very good for they few that would like to distribute non-WeiDU mods without new strings for iOS IE games.
taclaneAstroBryGuyCorianderJuliusBorisovdeltagoStefanOlolien_Luke_StummvonBordwehrtbone1

Comments

  • AstroBryGuyAstroBryGuy Member Posts: 3,437
    Maybe one can even upload a replacement dialog.tlk in .override file? That would allow WeiDU mods to be installed (assuming you have a desktop version to install the mods to first).
    CrevsDaakJuliusBorisovtaclanetbone1
  • argent77argent77 Member Posts: 3,431
    It should work if the game uses the same mechanism as for the DLC feature.
    CrevsDaakJuliusBorisovtaclanetbone1
  • AstroBryGuyAstroBryGuy Member Posts: 3,437
    argent77 said:

    It should work if the game uses the same mechanism as for the DLC feature.

    Looks like the .pstoverride file is a zip file with files for the override folder (e.g. bam files, wave files, etc..).

    @JuliusBorisov - any word on what you can do with the .pstoverride files? Can you load a dialog.tlk?
    tbone1
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  • CrevsDaakCrevsDaak Member Posts: 7,155

    It's completely useless without the ability to change the .tlk file. What's the point? We could do a couple .2da mods, that's it? That's not even worth the effort.

    Well, it's super easy to distribute. Previously iOS modding was restricted to manually copying files. But otherwise yeah, you have a point there (although, anyway it's pretty good, since you could just play with mods that don't add new strings).
    StummvonBordwehrtbone1
  • AstroBryGuyAstroBryGuy Member Posts: 3,437
    edited March 2017

    It's completely useless without the ability to change the .tlk file. What's the point? We could do a couple .2da mods, that's it? That's not even worth the effort.

    The .pstoverride mod I opened was just the Easter Egg Morte bonus download. No changes to the dialog.tlk. So, its not certain that .pstoverride doesn't support including a dialog.tlk file.

    *crosses fingers*
    Post edited by AstroBryGuy on
  • AncientCowboyAncientCowboy Member Posts: 199
    Perhaps they've developed an alternative to dialog.tlk for non-UI strings. The 2.x EE UI has a LUA table (named uiStrings, oddly enough :smile: ) that has all the UI labels/prompts/tool tips. Easily modded and can be changed dynamically. A similar mechanism could be developed for dialog/journal/whatever strings. We can always hope...
    CrevsDaaklolien
  • _Luke__Luke_ Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 1,535
    @mlnevese Please, can you move this discussion in the section PST:EE Mods?
    In so doing, people can use this thread to discuss modding on tablets ( since it seems to be a real possibility now.....)
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    Thread moved
    JuliusBorisov
  • winterheartwinterheart Member Posts: 18
    edited April 2017
    It seems this mechanism available for BGEE and BG2EE too. At least I see in Torment executable mentions about ".bg1override", ".bg2override" and ".pstoverride" extensions. Not looked yet BGEE and BG2EE executables, though.
    CrevsDaaktaclane
  • taclanetaclane Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 364
    edited April 2017

    It seems this mechanism available for BGEE and BG2EE too. At least I see in Torment executable mentions about ".bg1override", ".bg2override" and ".pstoverride" extensions. Not looked yet BGEE and BG2EE executables, though.

    Yup!

    However, there are a few important considerations for the iOS mod scene...

    1. It is very cumbersome to access to dialog.tlk. Any mods that might work on iOS are pretty much restricted to stuff you can just drop in the override directory unless you have a PC version of PST:EE to work with.
    2. iOS has a case-sensitive filesystem. It is entirely possible to have BANTTIMG.2DA and banttimg.2da in your override directory at the same time. You need to be careful to deconflict filenames when experimenting.
    3. Aside from PST:EE, there is presently no easy way to uninstall mods on iOS. PST:EE has iTunes File Sharing enabled, so third-party tools can manually remove files from the override directory. The other games do not have any such access. Without having to reinstall BG, BG2, or IWD, your only other option might be to package an "uninstall mod" which would overwrite files is in the override dir with originals (keeping in mind #2 above).

    As long as the mod is fairly basic, there is an okay chance that it will work in the iOS sandbox.

    Edit: An old method to slip in a custom dialog.tlk still appears to work.
    Post edited by taclane on
    CrevsDaakJuliusBorisov
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    CrevsDaak_Luke_
  • taclanetaclane Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 364
    edited April 2017

    Still don't understand why they don't just turn the /lang folder into a symlink pointing to the real .tlk file, and have that be somewhere user-accessible.

    Likely related to sandbox rules; I don't think it is possible for user-side and app-side to link like that.

    I feel like it is some form of grave heresy to even suggest this, but it would really convenient if the game could pick up a modified dialog.tlk file from the override directory. You'll still need a PC/Mac to pre-stage most mods before transferring them over, but at least you would have some way for the app to find everything.
    CrevsDaak
  • argent77argent77 Member Posts: 3,431
    There is a very hacky and somewhat restricted method to add new strings to the game without modifying the dialog.tlk. It's called "Talk Override" and is included in saved games as DEFAULT.TOH. It can be used to override existing or add new strings to the game.

    As for the downsides, tokens (such as <CHARNAME> or <PRO_HESHE>) are not supported and you can't associate sound files with them. The game might also behave strange or might even crash if you add too many strings. I have tested this method some time ago with mixed success.
    taclaneCrevsDaakJuliusBorisov
  • taclanetaclane Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 364
    @argent77
    This convoluted bit of hackery still seems to work with PST:EE. As a quick test, I successfully overrode my english dialog.tlk with a german translation.

    iOS PST may not be entirely limited after all, but you still need a bit of a "lab environment" on your desktop to install/stage mods and then prep everything for transfer.

    It wouldn't take too much to automate things with a script to pack a custom .pstoverride and lang.zip, but it is still going to be an ugly process...
    CrevsDaakproccoargent77JuliusBorisov
  • winterheartwinterheart Member Posts: 18
    edited April 2017
    taclane said:

    @argent77
    This convoluted bit of hackery still seems to work with PST:EE. As a quick test, I successfully overrode my english dialog.tlk with a german translation.


    As translator of PST:EE to Russian, I tried zip approach for Android & Desktop versions. I have follow structure:

    - lang - ru_RU - dialog.tlk - override - graphics... - override - includes.LUA

    It's work if you place zipped file to INSTALL:/override or HOME:/override (or just HOME:/, not quite sure). But it's seems that during initialization game don't see dialog.tlk in INSTALL:/lang/ru_RU and then excludes it from available languages, but after accessing to zip it will appear. So, if you translating PST:EE to complete new language, you have to manually set your language after every game restart. But, if you need only override already existing INSTALL:/lang/de_DE/dialog.tlk, it will fine, just place your dialog.tlk to same folder structure (FILE.ZIP:lang/de_DE/dialog.tlk).
    CrevsDaak
  • argent77argent77 Member Posts: 3,431
    I think to register new languages in the options menu you have to add them to BGEE.LUA. Look for the construct
    languages = { {'en_US', 0, 0, 'English'}, {'de_DE', 0, 0, 'Deutsch'}, {'fr_FR', 0, 0, 'Français'}, {'ko_KR', 0, 0, 'Korean'}, {'pl_PL', 0, 0, 'Polski'} }
    CrevsDaak
  • winterheartwinterheart Member Posts: 18
    argent77 said:

    I think to register new languages in the options menu you have to add them to BGEE.LUA. Look for the construct
    languages = { {'en_US', 0, 0, 'English'}, {'de_DE', 0, 0, 'Deutsch'}, {'fr_FR', 0, 0, 'Français'}, {'ko_KR', 0, 0, 'Korean'}, {'pl_PL', 0, 0, 'Polski'} }

    Yes, forgot to mention, I have includes.LUA in override:

    Infinity_DoFile("util") Infinity_DoFile("BGEE") # Adding new language to languages table table.insert(languages, {'ru_RU', 0, 0, 'Russian'})
    CrevsDaak
  • _Luke__Luke_ Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 1,535
    edited June 2017
    @subtledoctor, @taclane
    https://9to5mac.com/2017/06/04/files-app-for-ios-leaked/

    Looks promising, we shall see very soon......

    So, after watching Apple's WWDC keynote presentation, it is clear that Apple's mobile OS is beginning to look a lot like its desktop..... Nonetheless, we still don't have a real finder........
    Post edited by _Luke_ on
    CrevsDaakAstroBryGuy
  • The user and all related content has been deleted.
    tbone1
  • _Luke__Luke_ Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 1,535
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