Jump to content


Photo

Making proper installation package


  • Please log in to reply
22 replies to this topic

#21 -jcompton-

-jcompton-
  • Guest

Posted 31 July 2002 - 05:43 AM

If I have about 100-200 files to APPEND (.d, .bcs and so on), how would I list all of them in .tp2 manually? It will probably take a few days of typing.


You get good with cut and paste.

And, yes, as Elhoe has already proposed, the best way of using WeiDU for small modules is to do everything on your computer automatically using TLK Editor-IDU, Mass Convertor and NI, and then automatically convert all .dlg to .d


Gah! Absolutely not!

You do not get the benefits of using WeiDU for dialogue through this method. Any changes you made to an existing state with, say, EXTEND_BOTTOM would be lost in the shuffle, you'd have to break it out completely manually and ruin the point. Then you'd have to erase everything out of the .d that exists in standard SOA and make everything that remained an APPEND line... and once again, you're basically doing the work twice, and you're thinking that it's too much work, and there's a reason for that.

As I tried to explain to Elhoe, you guys are both thinking about using WeiDU for old-style (.tlk/override or IAP) distribution, and that is a waste of its abilities and a waste of your time.

Frequently I replace animations in my modules with custom animations, how is it possible to change the corresponding .ids files with commands of WeiDU?

You can perform REPLACE_TEXTUALLY on an IDS file, same as on a 2DA.

Here's how it works for a 2DA: In this case, we're replacing Kelsey's entry in PDIALOG because we didn't really remember we'd be doing a Kelsey-TOB, so we need to fix that:

COPY_EXISTING ~pdialog.2da~ ~override/pdialog.2da~
REPLACE_TEXTUALLY ~J#Kelsey J#KlsyP J#KlsyJ J#KlsyD IDIOTP IDIOTP *** ***~
~J#Kelsey J#KlsyP J#KlsyJ J#KlsyD J#Kls25P J#Kls25J J#Kls25D J#Klsy25~


(COPY_EXISTING is how you get WeiDU to do .tp2 patching on a file that you know is already in the game.)

So you'd COPY_EXISTING ~blah.ids~ ~override/blah.ids~
REPLACE_TEXTUALLY ~line that's in the core IDS~ ~line you want it to be~

And what's about .are modifications, if they include new actors, triggers described by new strings? I didn't find out how new .are files do appear in .tp2?


1. Look at Weimer's Ritual.

2. Ask Cuv on the RtW board.

Eventually, I've found in Tashia's .tp2 a long list of custom strings to install. Why its has been done instead of adding them to the corresponding dialogues?


You're probably thinking of the way he patches strings into his CRE, and then into the .bcs that corrects Tashia's CRE strings if they ever get corrupted. By using REPLACE in a .tp2, you can get the actual strref into a .bcs, which is very very useful.

And what's going after making .tp2? How does renaimng WeiDU.exe connect to .tp2?


You can run a .tp2 in one of two different ways:

You can do

weidu mymod.tp2 --out override --tlkout dialog.tlk
(plus any other options you may need to invoke)

OR, you can rename WeiDU to setup-xxxx.exe. When you do that, WeiDU will automatically look for a .tp2 called either "xxxx.tp2" or "setup-xxxx.tp2", run it, and will automatically assume --out override and --tlkout dialog.tlk.

#22 japheth

japheth

    Codewalker

  • Member
  • 317 posts

Posted 31 July 2002 - 05:55 AM

I'll just clarify what jc said about the .are questions.

If you need to add new actors, triggers, strings, etc into a .are file, the easiest way to do it is this:

First add them using IETME to the existing area you want to edit but remember to keep an old copy of the .are file as well.

Next, load up the new .are file in NI and note the offset that your new triggers/actors etc are at.

Then I would load up the new .are file in a hex editor and take a look at the bytes that you are going to have to write.

Finally in the .tp2 file, you issue this statement.

COPY_EXISTING ~example.are~ ~override/example.are~
INSERT_BYTES 0x48h 16
WRITE_BYTE 0x48h 0x8a
etc, etc.

So what you are basically doing is adding in the number of bytes you need to make your changes at the appropriate offset (you'll know how many by looking at the .are file in the hex editor and you'll know what offset by looking at the .are file in NI) and then writing the appropriate byte-wise information (you'll also know this from the hex editor.)

If all that sounds complicated, don't worry, it is.
Check out BG1Tutu.

#23 Vlad

Vlad
  • Member
  • 577 posts

Posted 31 July 2002 - 06:30 AM

No it doesn't sound complicated. Thank you. I think I have no more questions for a while. We are going to modify the whole scenario of SoA-ToB. There will be a new original plot, new quests and so on. So you can imagine that number of modified files, which recently have already been done. For now my override includes about 450 new and modified files. JC, you told before that the way of installation depends on the form of a module. You are absolutely right. I really like your Kelsey and Weis' Sola, moreover Domi has already written an extensive banter between our NPCs and them, but unfortunately the party in our module won't have place nor for Kelsey, neither for Sola, nor for any other BioWare NPCs. The best party for doing all quests will be: Protagonist, Yoshimo, Kachiko, Sime, Coran (or Kivan), Jaheira (or Imoen later). Xan will be an option in the next chapter. Otherwise, the main quests, and even a whole plot without these NPCs won't be available. In this case, I came to conclusion to distribute our game as it is (like the first version of Ascension, and my Travelers in Time).
All the best to you. :D