Baldur's Gate Trilogy v1.21

Let's wait for Kilivitz's update and then we'll decide together.

Does Kilivitz play classic baldur's gate? I think to have seen some of his posts on Beamdog forums and wondering if he moved to EE or not.

And what about you Skellytz? Considering the fact that you are still developing BGT (thank you), I take you haven't moved either. Why is that so?

I should have stopped procrastinating sooner.

I am now cooking a new version of the TutuGUI patch with the following changes:

- Fix for the 1024x768 resolution bug found by the guy on G3 and mentioned here earlier

- A component that restores BG2 fonts in case your language is not compatible with the restored BG1 fonts

- A component that installs the larger dialogue/gamelog font from the TotSC CD (it uses the fixed polish-friendly version of the file)

It should be up later today or tomorrow.

Start screens might take longer, but the plan is to restore the original BG1 start screens (a la Tutu) and provide alternatives to keep LadeJarl's screens and use Salk's new graphics.

Does Kilivitz play classic baldur's gate? I think to have seen some of his posts on Beamdog forums and wondering if he moved to EE or not.

I have played the EEs a lot but in the last couple of years I've been gravitating back to the originals.

Edited by Kilivitz, 16 July 2020 - 04:28 PM.

And here it is: https://drive.google...iew?usp=sharing

A centered dialogue box with a dynamic width would be awesome, but would either require changing Widescreen code or, like you said, overwriting the MOS and CHU files on top of it (restricting the player's resolution options like iconomov's mod). Moreover, Widescreen tends to push most other elements towards the left anyways; these would also have to be adjusted to complete the new look. A lot of busy work which will most likely get in the way of Widescreen allowing for custom resolutions. Worth it?

 

I'm guessing no, not worth it.

 

To be completely honest, I don't believe there's any ideal solution regarding widescreen for the original games. Sure, with some effort, one can get the main gameplay window to look perfect. But then, every time you open a different menu, the sidebars clump back up and you're left with the black borders that widescreen res is supposed to avoid in the first place. Considering how much time one spends in these other menus while playing, well, it kinda defeats the purpose when you think about it. There's also the fact that the fog of war was implemented with a 640x480 resolution in mind.

 

I know I may be in the minority here, but I think the ideal way to play these games is to just stick to one of the original, supported resolutions, widescreen be damned. To anyone who thinks black bars are a dealbreaker, well, I suppose there are the EEs for that. Also - these people are the reason The Simpsons got mangled by Disney+. But I digress.

 

To sum it up - I think your proposed solution of narrowing the text without making further changes to be good enough.

So even with BGT do you play 800x600? Or 640x480?

Also, what did make you go back to original ?

Edited by Arthas, 17 July 2020 - 12:52 AM.

So even with BGT do you play 800x600? Or 640x480?

Well, in BGT-weidu, you can do anything above 642x482... in widescreen mod. The GUI will extend itself well, and without the kinds of problems the BG1 has. Now, the GUI mods can change the files that have been processed Widescreen mod, as they are done the same way in a given resolution.

So even with BGT do you play 800x600? Or 640x480?

When playing BG2 or BGT I like to stick with 800x600 because I feel it's the optimal resolution for playing these games (though 1024x768 doesn't look too bad on a 21' monitor). However, nowadays I usually play on the couch or in bed using a small 11' laptop, so 640x480 is ideal.

Also, what did make you go back to original ?

Nowadays I find more fun in playing the originals with their flaws and quirks, which I can solve with frugal modding, than having to put up with Beamdog's clumsy (to put it gently) handling of the games.

The Polish font is a different set and won't work well for Western European languages. Here's the fixed English TotSC font (with bigger line height):

 normal-totsc-en-fixed.bam   20.75K   152 downloads

I suggest making TutuGUI v2.1 with everyone's patches. If you don't have much time or inclination, I can help with packaging (I'll throw in the widescreen fixes). That way you can focus on finishing the start screens.

Two more engine-related issues that I'd like to discuss. These were initially supposed to be Infinity Sounds components. Should they be integrated into BGT core or remain tweaks?

1. Creature rare selection sounds
In BG1, creatures have four rare selection slots which, if present, typically play tongue-in-cheek lines after the player (right)-clicks the given creature nine consecutive times. The BG2 engine treats these soundset offsets differently making them effectively unavailable. The only way to restore the sounds is to move them to the common selection slots, which also removes the nine-click trigger condition.

This won't break the immersion much, as you still have to develop a habit of right-clicking every creature a few times (these sounds aren't accessible otherwise). Besides, in vanilla BG1 many creatures already have breaking-the-fourth-wall sounds set as common selection sounds (apparently someone forgot about the rare selection slot or it wasn't available at the time).

2. Joinable NPC rare sounds
In BG1, joinable NPCs have four rare selection slots which often play breaking-the-fourth-wall lines once the player has selected the given character nine consecutive times. The BG2 engine treats these soundset offsets as regular command action slots, which in BGT, leads to the rare lines being played much more often than intended. On the other hand, BG2 introduces two—only two, unfortunately—rare command slots which play only after the given character has been issued orders nine consecutive times.

This component does its best to distribute the original four rare lines between the remaining common selection slots and the two rare command ones. Careful thought has been given as to which sounds would be more annoying when frequently played from the selection pool.

Here is an example. In BG1, Edwin has the following rare selection sounds:

a) "I do not understand this 'mouse magic' that makes me do your bidding!"
b) "Elminster this, Elminster that. Give ME two thousand years and a pointy hat and I'll kick his arse!"
c) "Please don't disturb me while I plot to overthrow you!"
d) "They continue under the delusion that I care at all."

As you can see, a) and b) would be rather annoying when played every fourth and fifth time you select Edwin, whereas c) and d) would be more bearable. Therefore, a) and b) are moved to the two rare command slots, which will be seldom played, especially if the player keeps the default command sound frequency setting.

I suggest making TutuGUI v2.1 with everyone's patches. If you don't have much time or inclination, I can help with packaging (I'll throw in the widescreen fixes). That way you can focus on finishing the start screens.

It would certainly be much better to just update the base mod already. I'll get on it and give you a shout out if any help's needed (which is definitely going to happen!).

As for the sound component, I vote for making them part of BGT core. Your approach to reinstating these sounds seems very sensible and also the best way of avoiding cutting BG1 content.

skellytz,

about the restored rare sounds, I'm personally unsure about whether they should be integrated into BGT core but I am pretty positive that it should either be both the Creature and Joinable NPC  or none.

Hi,

I found small issue with Alora script, which causes a crash during testing of my mod by console.

More details are available here: https://www.gibberli...baldestroyself/

I think I fixed the problem but please make a review of my changes uploaded to github: https://github.com/S...T-WeiDU/pull/19

Thanks

Here's a request: Change the mods name to be just "BGT", so there won't be the unnessasary confusion about the fact that this is infact the actual original BGT, just updated to be what it is, the laters "official" version. The readme can then give credits etc that are not always nessasary in each case, for what ever those were.

I think I fixed the problem but please make a review of my changes.

Thank you

Any eta?

Resuming work after Christmas.
 

Hello, skellytz.

I hope you are doing fine and that we may have you back on working towards a new version of BGT. After a long pause I was really looking forward to play it again but I was hoping to do it by testing a new version.

Cheers!

I'm working on it, thanks for checking.

Nice to see you again, skellytz.

I hope you have been fine through this long period of pandemic and that we can return talking about BGT here soon.

Cheers! 

Hey skellytz,

Long time no talk! I hope you are doing well

Do you think you could pilfer the BG1 map from BG:EE for BGT? It looks quite a bit better than the rehashed BG2 map that BGT originally used.

Also, way back in 2019 you reported a number of sound-related issues over Gibberlings Three, which I don't think have been addressed anywhere so far. Perhaps it might be worth including them in BGT (or Infinity Sounds, if it's a better fit)?

Do you think you could pilfer the BG1 map from BG:EE for BGT? It looks quite a bit better than the rehashed BG2 map that BGT originally used.

I was going to replace it with dex909's map (with some small changes).

Edited by skellytz, 01 April 2021 - 12:46 PM.